Chapter Text
It had been like any other day Ingo, Emmet and Elesa were taking a break from their journey. After getting their sixth badge and walking through the forest for a few hours the trio had decided to build camp and let the rest of their team out to take a breath of fresh air. At the exception of Lampent, Eelektrik and Blitzle who were kept in their pokeballs in case they encountered a wild pokemon.
The three were chasing each other after Elesa and Emmet had played a small prank on Ingo who in response ran after them. This was soon interrupted when Ingo tripped on something, making him fall down as his twin and friend slowed down and went back to check on him.
“Ingo! Are you ok?” Elesa asked as Emmet helped his brother get up.
“Yeah! Don’t worry Elesa, my cabin is perfectly fine! Although I did trip on something weird” Ingo said as he looked back to where he fell down and noticed a golden glint “Huh, what’s that?”
Ingo walked back and started to dig in the dirt until he was able to pull the object out. Said object turned out to be a strange looking music box, three colorful gems in it and golden decorations. Ingo cleaned the music box as Emmet and Elesa took a peek.
“That is a verrry weird music box” Emmet pointed out “I can’t even recognize the pokemon drawn on it”
“We could ask about it when we get to the next city” Elesa suggested as she glanced at the stones.
“Mh, maybe! It could also be a new pokemon! That would be fun to learn about!” Ingo said with a gleam in his eyes as Emmet nodded in excitement.
Elesa nudged Ingo “Hey, why don't you open it?”
“Huh?”
“There could be something inside of it!” Elesa explained “It could explain about the weird pokemon in it or just be some loot we could keep”
“Wouldn’t that be stealing Elesa?”
“I mean, it has probably been on the ground for a verrrry long time,” Emmet shrugged.
“Hm…” Ingo took a closer look at the music box until he gave in and sighed “Ok, let’s not derail any further and take a look into this strange cabin”
Once Ingo opened up the music box the trio was met by a blinding light and a gust of wind as it hit their faces. Before any of them could do something about it they were embedded by a white light, and that was what Ingo last remembered as everything went black.
Ingo woke up in surprise as he stood up and looked at his surroundings. He was still in the forest, wait… no, this was a completely different one. He was surrounded by giant mushrooms weird looking bug types flying over his head and the rest of the plant life looked way too different.
“I… think we’ve been quite derailed” Ingo said as he waited for an answer, but nothing came “Emmet? Elesa?” He called as he turned around to see that he was by himself “Was I the only one taken from my original station?” He hoped so, at least Emmet and Elesa would be able to ask for help from any adult.
Ingo took in a deep breath, safety checks first. Make sure he at least still had his bag and pokemon with him, see what he had in the bag and make sure if his pokemon were ok.
Ingo checked his belt first, only one pokeball, which meant that Lampent was still with him. He decided to take his partner out to make sure that no wild pokemon would try to attack them.
Lampent let out a shrill as she was called out of her pokeball. She looked around and noticed the lack of trainers and pokemon.
"Hello Lampent! It seems that we are the only passengers at this strange station!" Lampent cocked herself as if asking her trainer what he meant "After finding a strange looking music box we decided to open it. And next thing I know is that i've arrived at this strange station" Lampent nodded at her trainer's explanation "We are now making safety checks! Are all passengers in good condition?" Lampent answered with a happy shrill "Good, now let's see if we have any supplies!"
Ingo rummaged through his pack, he had a few berries to last for days if he was cautious, a bottle of water, potions, elixirs, a few pokeballs and some revives. He made sure to check his XTrans to see if he had any signal, none, not unexpected since he was in a forest.
He then noticed Lampent trying to hand him something. It was the music box. He must have dropped it after he lost consciousness.
"Thanks, Lumpent" he said as he grabbed it "We should keep it in case it can bring us back home. But first we will need to find shelter and a source for food and water in the meantime"
As he was about to leave the box in the bag he noticed something, the gems looked different, they had lost their color.
"Huh I would swear that the gems were a different color" Ingo said as he looked at the gems "We should look through this later, once we are at a safer station" he decided as he placed the box inside his bag "Let's depart immediately! ALL ABOARD!!!"
Hours had passed and both pokemon and trainer didn't find anything. A few bug type pokemon had tried to attack them, but were easily driven away by Lampent's shadow ball. It was… very strange, said bug pokemon didn't seem interested in just fighting, more with the intention of killing him. Very weird, very dangerous.
That wasn't everything, when Ingo had tried to catch one of them with a pokeball it hadn't worked. And he made sure it wasn't the pokeball itself or his imagination. Every bug type he had tried to catch just got more annoyed or confused by the hit of the ball. That wasn't good, that meant that these creatures weren't pokemon.
If the creatures weren't pokemon then what were they? Where was he? At the start he had guessed he simply was in a different region, maybe he was in Galar? He had heard about the magical forest that would take its strangers to the next gym city, if the luminous mushrooms were anything to go by.
At this point after traveling for hours without finding any human civilization and how the bug creatures weren't pokemon. Ingo was sure he hadn't just arrived at a different station but had taken a completely different train that followed even stranger tracks.
Night had arrived and Ingo wanted to make sure that Lampent was ok. He didnt want to overwork his partner because he just needed some help or light for the night.
"Are you feeling well Lampent? You can go back to your pokeball if you wish to take a break"
Lampent frowned and shook herself as if offended that Ingo suggested leaving himself alone at the ready to let any of these strange creatures attack him.
"Understood!" Ingo nodded "Then let's keep going!"
As they kept traveling both trainer's and pokemon's attention was taken by the sound of humming and an instrument being played. Ingo's eyes shined with hope as he ran after the owner's voice.
Thank dragons! He had finally found someone! He would ask them for help, find a way home and then make sure that Emmet and Elesa were safe! Just as he was about to reach the person they seemed to have stopped with the music.
"H-hello i-is someone there?" The voice of the person seemed to be shaking.
Did he scare them? He hadn't meant to! He just wanted to go back home and make sure that his pokemon and friends were ok!
"Y-yeah! My name is Ingo and I seem to be quite lost, if you could--"
"What's that!?" the stranger said in panic.
It seemed that inbetween the stranger's nervousness and Ingo pushing through the vegetation, the stranger couldn't hear his voice. Which was weird since Ingo had been told multiple times that his voice was too loud.
Once Ingo was finally able to reach the stranger he realized it wasn't human. Thanks to Lumpent's natural flame Ingo was able to get a better look at the creature. It was a… water type maybe? It looked like a weird frogadier but with clothing. It seemed saintient as it looked at him and Lampent in fear and was the only thing that could've talked before.
As Ingo was about to say something the frogadier looking creature started screaming and running in circles.
"Monsters! Monsters!! MONSTERS!!!" The creature screamed as it hit a tree and fell down.
"Are… you ok?" Ingo asked as the creature screamed again and stood up running away "Oh… ok"
Lampent on the other hand was more annoyed at the stranger calling her trainer a monster as she let out an angry shrill towards the now gone weird frogadier.
"We better find shelter soon" Ingo said with a sigh "It's already quite late and we both need to rest" Lampent nodded "Let's go onward to our next station! ALL ABOARD!"
Sprig and Polly were sitting in the cart waiting for Hop Pop to come back. Sprig still couldn't believe it! He was responsible! Just because yesterday there were a few more incidents than normal didn't make him irresponsible! But no, he had to make Polly who was still a small tadpole the one in charge.
"Wish there was a way to prove I'm not such a goof up" he thought out loud.
Suddenly his and Polly's attention was caught when they heard Wally screaming and turned around to watch the other frog come running into the town.
"MONSTERS! THERE ARE TWO MONSTERS IN THE WOODS!! I SEEN THEM!!!" I SEEN THEM!!!” The frog screamed as everyone in the village started to gather around him.
“Now, simmer down Wally. Just tell us what you saw” the mayor asked.
“Oh, it was horrifying,” Wally said as he grabbed a leaf with two small stones to act as eyes. “It had a huge head, hair like knives, eyes that shined in the dark, a weird, stubby bump right in the middle of its face and long spindly limbs!” He described as he placed a small stick to act as the bump and then a root to act as the body.
“Obscene!” One of the frogs pointed as the others gasped.
“That’s not all!” Wally said as everyone gasped “It also had a companion, it-it looked like a metallic lamp with a ghostly purple light!” He explained as he grabbed a lamp and smashed a purple berry in it to act as the flame.
“We better catch these beasts before they hurt somebody” the mayor ordered “Because for Mayor Toadstool, your safety comes first” he announced as two frogs pulled up a ‘MAYOR’ poster behind him.
“Well, it's the responsible thing to do” Wally said as the other frogs clapped and repeated the word responsible between them.
“Polly, I just had a great idea” Sprig said “I am going to catch that beast and save the town!”
“Stop right there! Hop Pop said that you had to stay in this cart” she suddenly flexed her muscles “You know you can't take me!”
Sprig grunted in frustration as he tried to think of a solution.
“Oh, oh, Polly, look” he then took out candy from his shirt “Candy!” Sprig blew out a raspberry and dropped it.
Polly stared at the candy for a few seconds.
“Bribe accepted!” she shouted as she leapt down from her bucket and started eating some of the candy.
“Let the monster hunt begin!” Sprig announced as he hopped out of the cart and jumped into the forest.
“Don't die!” Polly shouted from the cart as she went back to eating the candy.
Sprig ran along the forest as he popped out of a log and found a bug in his hair which he ate. Sprig kept looking around and jumping as he readied a slingshot. He looked down and gasped at the sight of a footprint.
“Seems like the beast roams these parts. Probably a good place for a tra-aaAAAAHHH!” Sprig screamed as he was caught in a rope trap and flew into the air, quickly falling back down and hanging upside down.
His attention is caught by the moving grass as the two beasts that Wally had described before came out, although they looked a little bit more disheveled than what he expected.
“Lampent! It seems as if a creature has fallen into our trap! But it isn't the passenger that has been bothering us all this time!” The other monster let out a shrill in response.
But Sprig wasn’t paying attention to what they were talking about; he just stared at the monsters as he gasped.
“Giant head! Knife hair! Spindly limbs! Face bump! And-and! Metal looking lamp! purple flames! THE BEEEEAASSTS!”
“Sorry for that passenger! This trap wasn’t meant for you! It was meant for another creature that has been bothering Lampent and I for a long time!” The beast… apologized? “Lampent will now pull you out of the trap!”
Just as the beast had said he suddenly felt the rope break. Sprig braced himself to fall down but instead of that he felt as if he was floating, Sprig looked around in surprise as he noticed the glow in the eyes from the metal beast. He was carefully placed down and Sprig quickly readied himself for battle.
“I have bad news for you, beasts! I taste terrible!” Sprig watched as the gray beast looked at him in confusion.
“Wh-what? I-I would never eat a passenger!” He sounded offended but it was a bit difficult to tell with his frown.
“You tried to eat Wally!” Sprig pointed accusingly.
“Wally? You mean the weird looking frogadier? We tried to ask for help but he just ran off screaming”
“That does sound like Wally,” Sprig admitted as he and the monsters heard a screech and several of the plant life falling down.
“It seems that our last passenger has decided to join us again!” The gray beast said as he grabbed the tip of his hat with one hand and pointed at the sound with his right one “Lampent! Shadow ball should be enough to drive it away!!”
Just as the gray creature had ordered Lampent threw a weird purple weird ball at the sound which made it screech and run off to a different direction. The gray creature sighed as it turned around and looked at Sprig.
“Sorry for that, there has been a creature bothering me and Lampent for quite a while” he explained “It seems that knocking it out just makes it try to come after us with more and more anger”
“You... you saved me! You're not a beast at all! You're a hero!” Sprig said “An ugly, ugly, ugly hero!”
“Leaving you behind would be such a horrible thing to do!” The gray creature said “I would be a terrible conductor for being the reason why a passenger got harmed!”
“Ha. You talk weird” Sprig smiled “You got a name, stranger?”
“I am Ingo!” He said as the end of his lips went upwards, maybe that was a smile? it was hard to tell “I’m a pokemon trainer and this is my partner Lampent!” Lampent let out a happy shrill as she waved her… hand???
“I'm Sprig Plantar! Put 'er there!” Sprig offered as they both shook hands, Ingo pulled his hand out and noticed the slime that now covered his hand.
“Oh… that’s weird…” soon enough his stomach grumbled.
“You hungry? Want me to grab something for you?”
“Oh no it’s fine I still have some berries with me!” Ingo said as he showed Sprig his bag. It did seem to have a section for berries aside from the other weird stuff inside of it.
“There are no bugs here” Sprig pointed out “What’s up with that? You don’t like ‘em?”
“I don’t really like those, plus! The bugs here are much smaller than back home!” He explained “The smallest that could fit in here would be one of my brother’s joltik!”
“I don’t know how big that is. Hey! I have an idea! We could go out and scavenge for food so you don’t run out of it!”
“That is a brilliant idea, Sprig!” Ingo said excitement in his voice while his face was still frowning, weird, but ok!
“Come on! Let’s go!” Sprig hopped away as Ingo and Lampent followed behind.
Hop Pop left the store, bag in hand as he walked outside humming to himself until his attention was caught by the people outside “Huh?”
Mayor Toadstool was there, a crowd carrying pitchforks and torches. Everyone booing screaming and shouting.
“Now, when I say ‘kill’, you say ‘it’” Toadstool announced “Kill!”
“It!”
“Kill”
“It!”
Hop Pop chuckled as he went back to the cart, setting the groceries to one side, sitting in the cart and grabbing the satchel.
“Another day, another mob” he took a look behind him before preparing to leave “Come on kids, time to- What the?!?”
Hop Pop quickly realized the lack of one of his grandkids and watched as Polly was surrounded by candy wrappings, she was in an out of it state until she suddenly saw her grandfather watching her and jolted up.
“I don't have a candy problem! You have a candy problem!” She accused.
“Polly, where's Sprig?”
“Uh... something-something monsters, something-something woods”
“Oh, if your boy went into the woods, he's as good as eaten” Wally said as he walked into their conversation “Those beasts will devour everything on their path”
“Not on my watch!” Hop Pop picked up Polly as he jumped and ran off into the forest “Hang in there boy! Hop Pop's a-comin'!”
“Yeah!” The villagers screamed as they ran behind the old frog.
“Harvest the toenails for medicinal purposes!” Wally shouted as he ran after everyone.
Once Sprig had gathered up enough food he dumped a bunch of it all in front of Ingo. Ingo picked up a pink branch-like food and ate it.
“This is very good! Thank you for the food Sprig!”
“Mm-hmm” Sprig hummed “So, first question: What the heck are you two, and where did you come from?!”
“I'm a human! And Lampent is a pokemon” Ingo pointed to his partner who happily waved her arm “She’s a fire-ghost type! We both have arrived from a different world”
“Woooow... do you know how you got here? Also, what’s a ‘fire-ghost type’”
“Me, my brother and Elesa were taking a break on our journey when we found this strange looking music box” Ingo explained as he took out said box “When I opened it next thing I knew I was here. But now to the pokemon part!” He sounded very excited to talk about it “They live everywhere in my world they are like the insects that you have here. In total there's 18 types which a pokemon can either have 1 or a combination of 2 just like Lampent! You can catch them with a pokeball which I have here!” He showed one to the frog “It helps carrying them! There are also those who specialize in pokemon training, like me! I could tell you more about it later if you want! Also what about you? What were you doing in the woods?”
“Proving that I'm responsible!”
“How?” Ingo looked confused.
“Uhhhhh…” Sprig finally realized how stupid his idea had been.
“There they are!” Both boys heard Wally’s voice scream as a group of frogs started approaching them.
“Here come our boys” Mayor Toadstool said as the frogs surrounded Ingo and Lampent
“What? Please don’t! Stay away from me!” Ingo screamed as the villagers grabbed him and tied him up.
“Frog does this monster have a loud voice!”
“My ears!!!”
“I don’t think i’ll be able to hear again!”
In the meantime Lampent tried to aid her trainer but was trapped by some of the villagers who had grabbed her with three ropes and were holding her and her arms down so she couldn’t move nor attack anyone.
“No! You guys got it all wrong!” Sprig tried to push away everyone as they finished tying them down to the ground.
“You caught the monster!” Hop Pop laughed as he walked up to Sprig, Polly mounting on top of his head “Sprig I'm impressed”
“You were just tricking me? I thought we were friends”
Sprig may have only met Ingo a few minutes ago but the look of hurt that the young trainer was giving him broke his heart. Which was a bit strange since Ingo’s face was always set on a frown, whether he meant it or not.
“N-no, no, no!” Sprig waved his arms “This wasn't my plan”
Everything was soon interrupted by a roar as a giant green praying mantis entered the scene, causing all the villagers to either scream or gasp as the mantis got closer and closer to them.
“Hurry! Everyone! Mantis formation!” The mayor ordered as the villagers all got into a tower formation.
Soon enough the mantis started to back away, leaving as it went deeper into the forest, where it came from originally. Everyone started celebrating and cheering as they claimed to be the ones with power and the cause as to why the mantis had left. Until an even bigger red praying mantis landed behind them, causing the people to turn around to get a look at it.
“Nope, that scared it off” Polly pointed out.
“Yeah, that makes more sense,” Hop Pop nodded.
The red praying mantis screeched and hit the tower, destroying it and causing every single villager to fall down. Once they got back up they all started running away screaming.
“It's gonna eat our guts!”
“NO!” Ingo screamed as he tried to free himself, he then noticed Sprig untying him and then Lampent.
“I'll distract that thing” Sprig explained “You do your uh… weird… pokemon trainer thing?”
Sprig hopped off and ran after the giant mantis, grabbing a rock and using his slingshot to hit its eye. Sprig laughed but quickly realized the danger he was in as the red mantis shrieked and prepared itself to thrust its arm at the young frog. Sprig screamed and braced himself for the impact, but it never came. As Sprig opened his eyes he noticed that the mantis’ claw was being held by a strange purple aura.
“Let’s make this easy Lampent!” Sprig heard Ingo scream as he hopped away from the mantis’ arm “We wouldn’t want to violate any safety procedures in a forest!”
Lampent shrieked as she let go of the red mantis claw causing it to hit the ground and get stuck on the dirt. Ingo moved his footing as he grabbed the brim of his hat and pointed with his right hand, a small blue shine coming from his eyes.
“Lampent use shadow ball!” He ordered as Lampent hit the mantis square in its chest causing it to stagger back “Good! Now repeat!!” Lampent hit the mantis again “Finish with confuse ray!” He then looked back at Sprig as the mantis tried to understand what was happening “Grab the rope!”
“Oh, right! On it. Here we go!” Sprig quickly grabbed it and started running around and jumping around the mantis “Round. Loop” he muttered as he finished up and tried but failed to tie up the monster.
Ingo noticed the other end of the rope grabbing it and also pulling from it as they both finished tying up the mantis causing it to shriek and get knocked out. Everyone quickly got out of their hiding spots and started celebrating.
“It's down!” Mayor Toadstool celebrated.
“We did it!” Sprig and Ingo said as Ingo hugged Lampent.
“Well, now that that's settled, what the heck are we gonna do with this thing?” Toadstool said as he and the villagers approached the boys and pokemon “Maybe we oughta run it out of town just to be safe. Let it be someone else's problem”
The villagers started to mob and shout as they got closer to Lumpent and Ingo. Lampent screeched at the approaching villagers trying to protect her trainer until Sprig hopped in the middle, blocking the villagers from them.
“Stop right there! He's not a monster” Sprig defended “He's just lost and needs our help. We should take care of him”
“Are you crazy?!” the mayor said looking confused.
“Yeah” Wally jumped in “What if it goes nutty tomorrow and starts eating people?”
“I can assure you that it would never happen! I do not eat passengers and Lampent is very well trained!”
“Don't worry yourselves silly” Hop Pop walked in “I'll keep an eye on 'em, the three of 'em.”
“Hmm” mayor Toadstool thought for a second and then shrugged "Have it your way, Hopediah Plantar, but I don't like it. All right boys pack it in”
All the villagers left grumbling and booing “This thing tastes real good with butter” one said as they pulled the mantis out.
“Looks like I'm back to causing trouble for the family again, huh?” Sprig held his arm and brushed it as he looked at Hop Pop, expecting a scolding.
“Trouble?” Hop Pop smiled at him “Sprig, standing up to that angry mob to help these creatures out was... Some of the bravest and most responsible stuff I've ever seen!”
“That was pretty cool, Sprig” Polly added “It was also really dumb!”
“Yes. Really, really dumb”
“You think I'm responsible?” Sprig gasped in amazement.
“Well, yeah, I mean, just this one time…” the older frog rubbed the back of his head.
“Yes! Woo hoo!” Sprig danced.
“Well, don't get carried away…”
“Big win!”
“Sorry for the interruption but I would like to find a way to get on the right tracks!” Ingo said “So if you could please just give me a map. Me and Lampent will leave and never come back to this station as the villagers originally wanted!”
“Oh, a map won't be enough” Hop Pop explained as he took one out “This here valley is surrounded by mountains that are impenetrable this time of year”
“It should clear up in a couple of months” Spig added.
“But until then, you try to cross those mountains--”
“You will die,” Polly interrupted.
“Oh…” Ingo deflated “Well we better start looking for some shelter, right Lampent?” his pokemon nodded.
“Well… you can stay in our basement if you want” Hop Pop offered.
“Yeah!” Sprig jumped “Come on! Come on! Come on!”
“Thank you very much!” Ingo said as his mouth quirked into something of a smile “I am very grateful! Now Lampent, you should be getting inside your pokeball. You've been of great help but I worry that your cabin has been working for too long!”
Lampent finally gave in as she went inside the pokeball, which caused everyone to gasp in surprise.
“I will explain myself on our way to your home!”
“You better!” Polly pointed accusingly.
After a very well given pokemon explanation everyone was able to finally reach the Plantar house as Hop Pop turned the lights on for the basement, Ingo holding a mattress on his arm.
“All righty. Kitchen's upstairs” Hop Pop explained as he reached for the stairs “Breakfast at sunrise, sharp”
“Thanks again for everything!” Ingo threw the mattress, placing it down on the floor.
“Hey! Gettin' comfy?” Ingo heard Sprig call out as some plushies were tossed on the ground “Brought some toys to keep you company. I'm too old for these” he said, grabbing one “O-oh, except for this one. Oh, and this one. Oops, this one too. Sorry. This one as well” Sprig ended up grabbing all of his plushies “I'm glad you're livin' with us, monster”
“Yeah, Me too, weird pink froakie boy” Ingo said chuckling.
“Okay” Sprig started climbing up as a plushie fell down “Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite” he took a peek back in “Seriously, they can drain a body in seconds”
Ingo shuddered a little bit, a problem that he hoped to solve quickly. Ingo sat down as he grabbed his bag and rummaged through it, taking out the music box and blowing on it to get rid of some of the dirt that it had kept still. He took a deep breath.
“Let’s hope this will take us home” he whispered as he opened it to no avail and sighed “Looks like we are going to be staying at this station for a quite some time Lampent” Ingo looked down at the pokeball and took it off the belt, setting it aside so Lampent could get some proper rest.