Pokemón : The Price of caution

this still sounds crazy, and Medicham's scanning isn't perfect. If it's a delusion that is strongly believed, his scan can be fooled. Do you have anything to back this up?"

Hope begins to build in Lee's heart. Birch might believe him. He takes his wallet and phone from his pocket and hands both over. "Here. See if these seem familiar in the least bit."

Birch opens the wallet and takes a look at Lee's driver's license, inspecting it carefully. "State of Ohio?" He asks, moving the card around to see the different holographic layers embedded in it.

"My home," Lee supplies. "One of fifty individual states that makes up the collective nation of the United States of America."

Birch nods absently and looks at the money and credit card inside the wallet. "Fifty states huh? Must be a governing nightmare," he quips. "I'm assuming Chase is the bank?" he asks, holding up Lee's credit card. "A bank, yes."

"Don't you mean the bank?" Birch asks with a raised brow.

Lee frowns. "A bank. Chase was the one to screw me over the least so I went with them. Though with how they've been wanting to nickel and dime me recently, I'm almost happy to be here just out of spite." Birch mouths 'nickel and dime?' and replaces the license and credit card before pulling out the small handful of dollar bills in the wallet. "Physical banknotes?" he asks, sounding incredulous. "Not every day you see these. These went out of style years ago. Inf fact, the bank doesn't even print new bills anymore. And what's a dollar?"

"Well, physical currency protects against the dangers of having an account hacked or a catastrophic failure and/or attack destroying someone's account." Lee shrugs.

Birch shakes his head. "With the number of Porygon that the bank employ, any attack on the bank, physical or electronic, is doomed to fail. Physical bills are just a liability now. Does 'Chase' not use Porygon or something?" He asks with some mirth as if the notion was ridiculous.

"There were no pokemon in my dimension, so they really can't."

Birch completely freezes, his eyes widening to an almost impossible degree. Medicham mirrors his trainer, staring at Lee with shocked eyes. Birch recovers and looks over to Medicham, who can only gulp and nod.

Lee tries not to squirm as both stare him down, saying nothing. 'I guess that is kind of a big bomb to drop outta nowhere.' Vulpix growls and slides down from Lee's shoulder, landing on the table and standing defensively in front of him, her tails flared and a growl in her throat.

"Vulpix, please, there's no need for that," Lee says gently, carefully picking up the vixen and settling her in his lap. Vulpix doesn't fight, but the growl in her throat remains.

Birch finally speaks up again. "I believe you."

Vulpix stops growling and Lee's head shoots up, elation filling him.

'No fucking way.'

The professor sighs and slumps in his seat, his face lost. He takes a moment to formulate any words. "No pokemon? I can't even... comprehend a world like that. I don't think anyone can. I have so many whys and hows I want to ask, but I don't think I'd understand. Not even the most deranged person could say "there was no pokemon in my alternate dimension" and honestly believe it, and no one sane would come up with such an unthinkable lie," Birch says, leaning back in his chair and holding a palm to his forehead. "Medicham backing you up and all the hard-to-fake bits and bobs you have make for a compelling argument too, so... Wait..."

He sits back up and stares at Lee and Vulpix. "If you are from a dimension with no pokemon, where did you get Vulpix? Or even know about pokemon? And how did you know about me for that matter?"

Lee mulls over his answer. "Can you pass me my phone?"

Birch slides the cracked phone over to Lee. "A phone huh? I guess that makes sense, though I thought it was some old pokegear or a pokedex."

"That's not inaccurate," Lee says, unlocking the phone and scrolling through his apps to his emulator. "As for how I know about pokemon, they don't truly exist back home, but were a popular media franchise that had everything from toys, games, movies, TV shows, you name it. Pokemon was a cultural phenomenon that started twenty years back and bridged the generation gap with ease. I guess I never quite outgrew pokemon..." He says quietly. "As for how I got Vulpix, I have a theory, but the exact how and why is still a mystery. Here, look at this." Lee shows the phone screen to Birch, who leans in with open interest. "This is one of the games I mentioned. I frequent it when on break at work and whatnot. I know you since you're briefly featured at the beginning to give the player the first pokemon and the mission to complete the pokedex. I just started a new game in the Hoenn region, and with some code finagling, got a random starter in the form of Vulpix here."

"Me in a video game, huh? I hope they were flattering at least," Birch quips as Lee clicks open the menu and opens the 'Pokemon' option, showing a solitary Vulpix in the lead slot. "This is from an older save state of the game. In the newest..."

Lee opens the save state menu and clicks on the newest one. Again, he opens the pokemon menu, showing Birch an empty menu. The game music gets stuck as the game freezes then crashes. The professor connects the dots instantly. "No. You think that..?"

"Something took Vulpix from the game and deposited her with me?" Lee finishes, closing his phone and storing it away. "I don't have any other explanation," he says, running a hand through Vulpix's soft tuft of breast fur, the vixen rewarding him with a coo of appreciation. "A pokeball with a Vulpix that somehow knows me appearing in my pocket the exact same time that this game with a Vulpix spontaneously corrupts itself seems suspect even after all the crazy shit that's happened to me today."

Birch nods along absently before leaning back. "Medicham? Can you get me some aspirin please?"

The pokemon, who has been silent the entire time, powers down his psychic power and slips out the door without a single sound.

"Sorry for the headache, professor."

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