A little investigation into the clock app revealed that a minute was 1/60th of an ‘hour’, which itself was 1/24th of a full day. A minute could be further subdivided into 60 ‘seconds’, which themselves could subdivided into something unlabeled. On top of the sheer bizarre concept of dividing time into concrete sections, Astra found the divisions themselves odd and unintuitive. Why those numbers? 24 into 60 into 60… why not tens, or hundreds? The hours even seemed to double back on themselves halfway through the day and night. Two sets of 12 hours??? What did AM or PM even mean!?

Nevertheless, a ‘stopwatch’ feature measured out the seconds and minutes and Astra felt she had a somewhat decent feel for the units by the fourteenth minute, which was when the city came into view.

The sight was as breathtaking as the last. Structures taller than the trees littered the landscape, perfectly square and sparkling in the midday sun. The trail she was on went directly into the city’s center, gathering offshoots and buildings as it went. Most prominent was the grand building in the center of town with its large ‘GYM’ sign. Astra grinned at the sight. Her first goal was within reach!

Immediately ahead on the trail were two brightly colored structures labeled ‘PokeCenter’ and ‘PokeMart’ with red and blue tops respectively; the former much bigger than the latter. Astra peered at them from afar. The professor had said something about Pokemon Centers, hadn’t he? Special ‘computers’ which could hold excess pokemon. That sounded important, and it wasn’t like the Gym was going to go anywhere. Astra started down the road, eager to investigate.

A flare of fear arose as she spotted another human walking towards her. Would she fight again? Would she be discovered? An undercurrent of tension ran through Astra as the person came close and their eyes met… The human’s eyes flickered over her outfit, eyebrow raised. They smiled, waved, and walked right past her; completely oblivious to the hammering of her heart.

Oh. Astra looked back as the human left. That was… anticlimactic. The human seemed to have a few pokeballs held on their waist, so they must have been a trainer. Why did they not challenge her? Did this ‘eye contact’ rule not apply near the city? Perhaps the human didn’t want to fight either, or Rick was mistaken about the rule. A few more non-encounters on the road made her discard theory two. At the most, they would give her an odd look or give out a passing greeting like ‘hey’, which she would return in kind. Astra found herself relaxing as a pattern formed.

The two brightly capped buildings came up quickly; a few groups of humans seemed to be lingering around the area, though none of them paid Astra any mind as she approached the Pokecenter. The entryway seemed to be blocked off by a pane of glass. Astra stepped up to it uneasily. There didn’t appear to be a handle, so how-

She nearly jumped out of her skin when the door slid open of it’s own accord with a soft ding, a blast of cool air accompanying it. Stalling a moment to calm herself, Astra passed through the now vacant barrier, giving a wondering glance to the crevice the door slid into as she passed. How did that work, how did it know to open, and other such questions flitted into and out of her thoughts. The interior itself distracted her from such ponderings.

The pokecenter was rich in bright colors, yellow and red predominant; the floor held a mosaic of a pokeball in the tiles, and various tables and soft looking stools were scattered around, grouped in corners. There appeared to be a shelf of books (Had she known that word before?) to the left, near some stairs that also appeared to move on their own. On the right was a line of odd machines, similar to what Professor Birch had spent some time on during her visit. Were these the special devices he spoke of? A few humans were inside, doing whatever it was they were here for.

The most prominent feature was the large desk in the back. A pink haired woman was sitting behind it, focused on the same rectangle that was present in all the other machines. One other girl was waiting anxiously nearby, eyes on the large machine behind the pinkette.

Well, Astra thought, time to find out what’s going on here. Steeling her nerves, she strode up to the counter. The brunette to the side didn’t pay her any attention, but the pink haired woman behind the desk looked up from her task at her approach, the faint tapping sound ceasing with it.

“Hello,” she began, smiling warmly, “and welcome to the Petalburg East Pokemon Center. We restore tired or injured pokemon to full health, free of charge. I am Nurse Joy, would you like to rest your pokemon?”

Astra blinked. Well, that was easy. She didn’t even have to do anything. “Do you explain that to everyone who comes here?”

“It’s standard policy,” Joy responded, her tone adopting a hint of wry exasperation.

“I see.” Well, Treecko did just go through a tough battle, and he was injured pretty severely. The Pokedex claimed he had healed a bit on his own, but not quite up to full strength. Maybe it was worth testing their proclaimed service. “My Treecko was just in a battle and he’s still hurt. Can you help him?”

“Of course!” She said, regular smile returning in full force. “Please place your pokeballs in this tray.” Reaching out of sight for a moment, she set down a plastic tray with six divots on the counter. Hesitantly, Astra set Treecko’s ball into a hole. Nurse joy took the plastic tray and turned to the large machine to Astra’s left and opened a drawer on the side, sliding the tray inside. Closing the drawer, she pressed a few buttons on the machine's interface and a short, artificial sounding musical ditty rang out. Sitting back down, she smiled at Astra.

“The process will take a short time; for this request perhaps around ten minutes. Please take a number; I will call for you when it is complete.” she said, indicating a small ticket vendor on the desk. “Feel free to use any available computer. Alternatively, a selection of books may be found to your left.”

“Thank you.” Astra said, pausing to take the- apparently 29th- slip of paper from the roll. Glancing to her right, she spotted the row of strange machines once again. Were these the ‘computers’? Curiosity perked, she headed over to investigate.

They were lined up on desks in booths, dividers between them for privacy; or so she assumed. One was occupied by a rather bored kid, but the rest were free. Taking the one furthest from the child, she climbed into the chair. In front of her was a thin square plastic box on a stand encasing a shiny, reflective black surface. On the desk itself was a rectangular board marked by glyphs on numerous smaller cubes and rectangles embedded within it, and an elliptoid divided in one half and two fourths, with the fourths split by a half-wheel.

To the left was a plain looking machine with a transparent half cylinder revealing an empty space inside; a divot similar to the tray Nurse Joy had used on the bottom. To the right was another odd device, it was a board with an empty space embedded into the surface which was the exact shape of her pokedex. A small slot was also next to it.

Astra would have been totally lost were it not for a helpful sign posted on the wall. To access the computer, she would have to place her pokedex inside of the right hand machine, and then her trainer card in the slot. Easy enough. Her pokedex slotted in with a click and the card slid in without incident.

Astra flinched as another small jingle played, the screen flickering to life on it’s own. In an instant, it brightened to a blinding white, an unfamiliar logo taking up the center. After a moment, it transformed into a serene picture of rolling hills and a cloudy blue sky. Unfamiliar apps were lined neatly on the upper left of the screen, a lonely Trash icon on the bottom right.

Astra pondered the screen. It seemed to be a much larger pokedex on first glance. In fact… yes, it seemed that all the apps that were on her pokedex were here as well. Was it taking what was on the pokedex and copying it here? There were a couple unfamiliar ones as well, ‘VulpixNet’ and ‘Pokexchange’ among them.

How did she…? Baffled, Astra examined the tools on front of the computer again. The glyph board was incomprehensible, but she recognized most of the symbols as being letters and numbers, though one seemed to be blank? Why was it so long? She poked a glyph with an arrow on it, but nothing on screen seemed to change.

Maybe it was the odd elliptoid which held the key. As soon as she touched it, she spotted movement; A small white arrow had appeared from within a cloud. Moving the elliptoid further caused it to mimic her movements. Progress! Moving the arrow over the Pokexchange app, she pondered how to go further.

They glyph board didn’t seem to have any immediate answers, but the elliptoid itself seemed to have some give on the divided areas. Perhaps it was a button as well? It was rather awkwardly shaped for her hands, so she lightly tapped the left section psychically. It gave a satisfying click, and the app icon was highlighted.

Not quite there yet, she mused. She pushed in the right half. A small menu popped up next to the arrow, listing various terms. Most of these she did not understand, but the top one, ‘open’, seemed to fit what she was searching for. Left to select, right to open a menu of action? Hm.

Hitting open created a new square of white, and another logo flashed by. It opened to feature a large section that imitated a forest labeled ‘Box 1’, and a large grey rectangle to the left labeled ‘Pkmn Data’. A square in the top middle of the grey bar was filled with an empty grid of squares colored in two shades of blue. Above the Box 1 label were two other buttons labelled ‘Party Pokemon’ and ‘Close Application’.

Astra examined the screen. Was this where her pokemon would go if she captured more than six? Since she hadn’t captured any pokemon, it was empty. Hm. Moving the arrow over the Party Pokemon box, she pressed the left button again. A smaller box opened next to the gray bar, displaying six squares on a blue background. Five of them were empty and stacked on the right above a cancel button. The sixth was in the middle left, and showed a miniature Treecko, displaying the same information the Pokedex had.

Right clicking on Treecko caused a new menu to appear, offering to deposit or exchange him. Astra hit deposit, causing the machine to the left to open the barrier restricting access to the hollow compartment within. A word box popped up, saying ‘Please insert your Pokeball’. Treecko was still being healed, so it seemed this was as far as she would get.

“29! Calling number 29!”

Astra blinked and checked her ticket. Time to go, then. It was just as well, this was starting to get a bit overwhelming. Closing the application, she took her trainer card and pokedex out of the slots, which caused a new box to appear, indicating that she would be ‘logged off’ if the items were not returned. Was that bad? The short countdown completed and… the icons disappeared, leaving only the background and another text box, which asked for a pokedex and trainer card to be inserted into the right device.

Well, it didn’t seem to be obviously wrong at least. Astra got off her chair, blinking. Scowling, she rubbed her eyes; she hadn’t noticed it during her experimentation, but the glare from the screen was awfully bright. Shaking her head, she returned to the desk, where Nurse Joy waited. The other girl seemed to have left.

“I was 29.” she said, producing said ticket.

Nurse Joy took her ticket with another smile, and placed the tray with her pokeball on it atop the counter. “Thank you for waiting. We’ve restored your Pokemon to full health. We hope to see you again!”

Astra narrowed her eyes as she retrieved her pokeball. “Wait, you want my pokemon to get injured? That’s kinda mean.”

The nurses smile gained an amused curl at Astra’s remark. “Still policy. You learn to take the bright side of it.”

“Bright side?”

She shrugged. “If you’re able to stand here and chat, that means you’re not at the morgue.”

“What’s a morgue?”

“Ah,” Nurse Joy scratched the back of her head, letting out an awkward laugh. “It’s… nothing you need to worry about. In any case, I hope you have a nice day!”

Her face scrunched at the obvious deflection. She debated pressing, but she had things to do. “Well, okay then. Have a nice day!“ she said, dropping the topic. A blast of warm wind hit Astra in the face as she returned outside. Not even ten seconds and she already missed the cool air.

Turning on her Pokedex, she double checked Treecko’s condition. The service worked as was promised; Treecko was now in perfect health, though she should probably stop for lunch soon. But not right now, there was still the Pokemart to check out. There wasn’t anybody hanging around the blue roofed building, which was only a short distance down the road. The same type of automatic door was present here as well, and slid open upon her approach.

The inside of this building was exceptionally different. Several bins and shelves of mysterious items lined the interior, and one wall even had multiple items behind transparent doors. Strangely, the place was completely deserted.

Walking a bit further inside, Astra blinked as a large counter came into view. A lone yellow haired girl sat behind it, head nestled in her arms and snoring peacefully. Um. Astra briefly scanned the store again. Was she… supposed to be sleeping? That didn’t seem right. Well, at least it gave her a chance to look around without arousing suspicion. Silently, Astra moved through the aisles, looking at what was available.

Most of it seemed to be different varieties of food. By and large the bags of pellets seemed to take up the majority of the section, with canned ‘wet food’ taking second place. Was this what she would have been fed, if she had been caught? She wondered what they tasted like.

Astra took a baffled glance between the variety of brands. Why did they have so many types of the exact same thing? Were they different somehow? It was probably safe to bet that the numbers next to them was the cost, but why was it so disparate between them? One bag was triple the cost of the next highest! Still, the cheapest bag ran for 100 and if she had 6 extra mouths to feed it would last at least a week with proper rationing.

So called specialty foods and treats had a row to themselves. Oddly warm ‘Fire Flakes’, jars of ‘Ghost Jelly’, there was even a bag of scrap metal shaped into bones hidden in a corner. A few of these also seemed to come with redundant choices. Astra shook her head; surely there was some sort of explanation for all of it. In any case, she still had a pack full of berries and fish so she didn’t need any of this yet.

The right wall of the store seemed to cater to grooming. Odd bottles, combs, leashes… Astra eyed a container of ‘shampoo’, but balked at the price tag. She frowned, feeling her own thick green strands. The unfamiliar pokemon’s hair on the bottle looked so nice… but no, it would eat up nearly all of her money. She put the shampoo back, inexplicably sad.

The back wall of the store was much more interesting. This is where, it seemed, the competitive trainers items were kept. Empty pokeballs took up a solid third of the wall. Further down, there were a selection of small items called ‘Stimulants’. Reading the label on an ‘X Attack’, apparently these were capsules that, when eaten by a pokemon, would boost some attribute of theirs for a short time. In this case, the pokemon would be physically stronger than usual for the duration of a batte. Useful, but Astra grimaced at the worryingly large ‘potential side effects’ list on the side. She didn’t ever want to know what ‘Excessive intestinal distress’ meant.

The rest of the wall was taken up by more utilitarian items, such as rope, water bottles, flash lights, sleeping bags, pokemon repellant, and even more bottles which supposedly acted as cures for various ailments and injuries. She inspected a ‘Potion’, which was a can that could spray some sort of healing liquid onto wounds.

Astra briefly marveled at the easy access these people had to such items. Poison cures and healing all in one little bottle. No more bandages with ground up moss you had to trek four hours to find or week long fevers from an infected cut or anything. She glared down at the little container in her hand resentfully. It was so unfair.

There appeared to be more advanced types of pokeballs and potions behind some glass doors, but apparently she needed more ‘badges’ to access them. Astra decided to purchase a pokeball, a potion and a large metallic water bottle. And with that she was out of money. Or, she would be after she paid.

The girl at the counter was still asleep. Astra glanced around the store again, but they were the only ones here. She sighed; it seemed that she would need to wake her up. Simple enough she supposed, a sharp ping would do just the-

The girl shrieked; snapping her eyes open and launching herself out of her chair. Her rapid ascent met an abrupt end as her head met the bottom of a shelf with a loud thump. “Mother fu-” The girl screamed, before tripping over the chair and collapsing behind the desk. A low groan was all the indication that she was still conscious.

Astra watched with a horrified awe. That wasn’t- but why- how did that happen!? All a ping was supposed to do was mentally tap them on the shoulder- they weren’t psychic. She felt like tearing her hair out, how did she forget that!? Setting her things down, she leaned down to peer through the glass and saw the girl sprawled on the floor, moaning with an arm over her face.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Bwuh?” the girl lifted her arm to stare at her, squinting through the harsh lighting. “Ugh. Sorry about that. I- I’m fine. Just, give me a minute.” She waved her other arm erratically before finally catching the edge of the counter. The blond pulled herself to her feet with a pained grunt, rubbing her head with her free hand.

Astra almost apologized, but held back at the last moment. She couldn’t take credit for a psychic attack, or else they would figure her out! It would be best to feign ignorance. “That looked painful.” she said, and at least she could be honest about this. “Do you need any help?”

The blond grimaced. “No, no, I’m good. I just… it felt like someone jabbed a needle in my head. I don’t...” She blinked, then stared at Astra suspiciously. “Was that you? Did you do something weird?”

“N- no. I was just coming over here but then you started screaming and fell over.”

She held the stare for a few moments more, then rolled her eyes and sighed. “Whatever you say, mummy girl. Least it wasn’t my boss.” The blond glanced at the counter and blinked at the items scattered on it. “Oh, right. Did you need me to ring these up?”

Momentarily hesitating at the unfamiliar terminology, Astra nodded in reply. WIth expertise born of working at a specialty shop for far, far too long, the cashier scanned all of her items in a matter of seconds. Putting all three in a plastic bag, she sat them back on the counter.

“That’ll be 550.” she said, extending a cord from the machine she sat in front of. She held it out to Astra, who looked at it with great confusion. What was she supposed to do with this? It looked kinda familiar but-

“Kid? You gonna pay or not?”

“Um.” Astra said, floundering. “How…?”

“Are you serious?” The blond sighed. “You put it in your pokedex.”

Oh! That’s where she had seen it, it mirrored the opening at the top. It popped into the slot with a satisfying click, and the payment went through immediately.

“Thank you for shopping at Pokemart, please come again soon,” the cashier droned out, handing the bag to her.

“Thank you.” Astra said. Still, the difference between here and with Rick was bothering her. “On the road I didn’t have to use that wire. Why is it different here?”

“I dunno,” She shrugged. “Some security crap, I think. Why are you wearing a bedsheet?” she shot back.

“Eh?” Astra looked down at her black robe. She felt ‘I’m secretly a pokemon in disguise.’ wouldn’t go down very well. Why did she need the robe? Think, think... “Um. I… don’t do well in sunlight?”

“Really?” The cashier suddenly leaned over the counter, staring at Astra’s face intently. After a moment, a faint spark of recognition lit up in her eyes. “Ah shit, do you have, what was it called, albinism?”

Astra didn’t know what that was. Was this a human affliction? “M-maybe?” she hazarded. It sounded like a convenient enough excuse.

The cashiers expression brightened. “Oh, that’s so cool! You have the pale skin and the red eyes and everything! The hair kinda throws it off a bit, but man! You’re like a- a-” she snapped her fingers a couple times before pointing at her in revelation, “A shiny person! Sucks about the sun thing though.” Rummaging around in a pocket, she pulled out a small device of her own. “Hey, can I take a picture with you on my phone?”

Astra vaguely felt like she should be offended, but this was drowned out by the confusion. ‘Shiny’ person? Was everyone back home an ‘albino’? They all had pale skin and red eyes after all. As for the picture, she didn’t see any special reason to decline. Just to be safe, she reinforced the mental pattern holding her illusion together.

The blond held a radiant smile at her assent. Reaching across the counter, she put on arm around Astra’s shoulder and held the phone away from them both. Astra shifted uncomfortably at the sudden contact. This was a bit too close… “Smile for the camera~” she said, holding up two fingers. An odd click later, and the deed was done. “Looks good!” she said, flipping the phone around.

Astra contemplated the image on the small screen. From this perspective she could see that her skin was indeed several shades paler than the humans; appearing almost snow white in comparison to her more pinkish hue. Apart from that, her disguise was working well; there wasn’t any extreme differences between them and there was no hint of distortion. The cashiers brilliant smile was sharply contrasted with her awkward, barely visible one. Astra agreed with the blond; it was a nice image.

That said, this situation was getting a little weird. It was time to leave. “Yeah. Anyway, I should be going.” Astra said as the girl fiddled with her phone. “Have a nice day!” she finished, heading toward the exit.

“Mm. Good luck out there, albino mummy girl!” She replied, waving as Astra left the store.

The trainer stepped back into the bright sunlight, three items richer and financially depleted. She sighed; It seemed that around every corner there was ten more new and confusing things. She was glad for it, but it was just a bit too much at once. Maybe it was time for that lunch break? Peering into the sky, she noted that the sun had indeed reached its peak. She’d been in that store for longer than she thought.

A sudden growl from her stomach settled the matter. Lunch first. And after that…

She stared down the winding road, where the Gym lay, waiting. With an anticipatory smirk, Astra hurried down the road.