As we're approaching the group of Wooper and Nidoran I notice most of the Wooper that are sitting on the grass and talking have smaller gills, meaning that they're female. My obscure anime and game knowledge coming into play for once, not that it helps much. I could have figured that out by myself with a bit of observation, like with how I can easily differentiate between male and female Mudkip.

Actually the same pattern of chilling on the grass applies with the female Nidoran also. I can see that only the purple coloured Nidoran are playing with the Wooper.

When we get close one of the Wooper turns to us and says something to the others around her that I cannot hear very clearly. Whatever she says causes the small group of Nidoran and Wooper surrounding her to turn their heads in our direction and look at us.

"Urgh, they're making me feel really uneasy." Silent Bro half-whispers, half-talks to me from the side.

"Just make sure not to vomit on me if you get too uneasy, okay?" I reply as I make some distance between us.

"Woop!"

I get startled and flinch away from a loud noise that sounds right into my ear. Turning around I see a bulky male Wooper. When I say Bulky I really mean it, at first glance he appears to be like a regular Wooper but when you take a closer look you can physically see the muscles and ligaments moving under his skin. Especially around the legs and tail. He just stands there as I give him a glancing over, a massive smile on his face that is characteristic to species all the while.

There is absolutely no way he snuck up on me during the short few moments it took me to look at my brother, but unless he knows teleportation I have no other way of explaining how he appeared next to me so fast.

"Woop! Hey you two are Mudkip right, right? I've never seen a Mudkip before but I know what you're supposed to look like. Blue body and orange cheeks! I've seen so many other pokemon and there is absolutely nothing else you can be! I'm right. Right?" What comes out is spoken so fast I have a hard time following him. His words are filled with so much energy that he reminds me of a certain pink pony from my old world.

"Uhm, Yes. We're Mudkip. Why do you…" Before I've even gotten my whole sentence through he speaks up again.

"Yes! I'm right! Of course I'm right, I'm always right!"

He immediately starts jumping around us in a circle, bouncing like a rubber ball off the ground. He's jumping so high up he could leap over two other Wooper his height standing one on top another. That combined with the fact that he has trouble landing stably and him faceplanting himself on the ground a couple of times makes it really hard for you to keep your composure. His lack of arms to correct himself when he falls makes it even funnier as he has to wiggle himself upright.

*Pfht..*

The sudden sound coming from Silent Bro causes me to peek at him. He's desperately trying to hold his laughter, and in turn his lunch, in. Luckily for him the Wooper stops bouncing around us shortly after.

"Woop! So, have you come to play?" He tilts his head to the side like a curious puppy as he asks the question.

"No, we're exhausted right now. We just wanted to talk." I reply.

"You can talk with my sisters then! They're nice. Woop."

That's all he says before he dashes off to the pond at breakneck speed. Oh, so he was the Wooper who pushed the Nidoran into the water a while ago…

Dear god. Please tell me that not all Wooper are as odd as that one. I don't think I'll be able to handle anything on that level for more than ten minutes.

"Having second thoughts?" My bro asks.

"Yep, I am."

We hear a voice calling to us from the group of pokemon. This one is coming from one of the female Nidoran.

"Hey! Over here."

Both me and Silent Bro glance at each other's eyes for a brief moment before making our way to the group. While I'm walking steadily Silent Bro has to stagger his way to them, he's eaten way more Magos than he lets on. I'm surprised he can even force himself to walk still.

*Plop*

The moment we arrive he lays himself down.

"Ugh. I'm beat…" " …Cool Bro…I Think I'm gonna nap for a bit…"

"Seriously? You decide to sleep Now?" I poke him a bit with my leg, he doesn't respond.

"Oy! Don't tell me you're asleep, you quitter. Oy!" I lay myself on top of him and bite with force into his head fin. The fins on our head serve as a 'third ear' that allows us to feel how the water currents are flowing while we're submerged, they're hella sensitive. Because of their sensitivity it's a whole lot more painful when they get injured as compared to other parts of our bodies.

"Aaargh, No No No. Get off of me!" The results are immediate. I take my distance away from him after waking him up.

"There you go. Now that you've… OY! How are you asleep!? It's been literally three seconds!"

One of the Wooper around me lightly whacks her head against me to stop me from continuing my efforts in waking my brother up after which she falls to the ground. She's laughing really hard. If she had arms I'm certain that she'd be clutching her stomach in her laughter. For now she's just rolling left and right on the grass like she's trying to put out an invisible fire that's burning on her.

"Heh Heh.." *inhale* "Come on now, let him rest. That's just rude"

Looking around I notice that the others around me, while not laughing, have greatly amused expressions on their faces.

"Fine." I go and sit next to Silent Bro.

"I hope our bigger brother didn't scare you too much, he tends to be quite overprotective of us."

The Wooper who stopped me says as she gets up and walks to sit next to the others

"And weird." Another calls out.

"Especially weird." She affirms.

"Yeah, I've noticed that you don't start your sentences with 'Woop'" I say as I look over to the sprinting Wooper in question "How is he still going? He must have been doing that for more than an hour already."

"Just an hour? He has been running from dawn till dusk without stopping for Weeks now. He just wakes up, eats, runs, eats and then runs some more!"

"We have no idea how he does it."

"He has superpowers!"

One of the Nidoran speaks up next.

"He's really powerful also, you should have seen him when he got into a fight with the boys. He beat them all in a one versus five battle. One Body Slam each and they were knocked out."

"Yeah, one of the caretakers said that she had no idea how he hadn't evolved yet. And that was months ago! He's only gotten stronger since then."

Ooh, So evolution does in fact happen like in the anime and games. That's one question scratched off of the list. Considering that this world is now more real I thought it perfectly reasonable that Pokemon could go through a transitory stage while they grow into their more adult forms. Like with people, we go from baby to toddler to kid to teen to adult with no clear line separating the stages. Wanting more information on the subject I make a confused face and ask.

"What's evolution?"

"""..."" Everyone falls into dead silence at my words. All the pokemon around turn in my direction to stare with an incredulous expression.

"What?" I ask with a deadpan expression.

"How can you not know what evolution is!?" One of the Wooper jumps directly in front of me until she's an inch away from my face.

"Yeah yeah! Have you been living under a rock this whole time? There's no other way you wouldn't know about evolution."

"I mean… Kind of? I've been living on a pond in the forest near here along with my siblings." I motion with my head towards silent bro. "The only thing I know is them and the pond along with an old man who took care of us."

"Wait, that's all?" The Wooper in front of me says "How old are you exactly?"

"I'm about…" I stop talking mid sentence, realizing that I'm about to say 'month' - a word I'm not supposed to know yet. I know due to my rock collection that I'm around six months old as of now. Six multiplied by four makes twenty-four.

"I'm about twenty weeks old I think? Somewhere between twenty and thirty I haven't really been counting If I'm honest." A blatant lie

"No way! That's way too young. You're not even supposed to be here yet, no wonder you don't know what evolution is."

"Not even supposed to be here yet. How old are you then?"

"I'm two years old!" She says as she straightens her back up in front of me, striking a small pose with a happy face. She continues saying "Everyone I've seen here is at the very least a year old, the oldest pokemon you'd find here not belonging to any of the staff is a Typhlosion called Rupho. He's about twenty years old but he's an exception since he should have left already."

One of the Nidoran chimes in "He really likes the atmosphere of the school and loves teaching the pokemon in battle class how to fight better. As she said he should have left the school by now for somewhere else. Either being released into the wild or finding an owner, but he refuses to do either and the staff don't have the heart to force him out."

"...Um, this is kind of an awkward question but how long is a year exactly?"

"Oh, yeah. A year is twelve months and a month is four weeks, a week is seven days. I'm called Wuwu by the way. Nice to meet you! I don't imagine you have a name if you've only so young?" She walks to sit back down on the grass next to me.

"Not really, no. I just get called Cool Bro by everyone, we call him 'Silent Bro' since he doesn't tend to talk much." I answer.

"That sounds about right, we called each other by our most prominent characteristic too before we got named by our trainers."

"I wanted to ask about that actually, it's why I came to your group in the first place. What's a trainer? I got told by whoever brought us here that we'll probably be picked up by a trainer tomorrow but I don't know what that even is."

"I'm glad you asked!" She answers with a massive smile on her. Something really hard to pull off on a Wooper considering that they have big smiles by default. "Trainers are super nice." She's practically beaming light as she talks "They're like a brother or a sister! They'll take care of you and be your friend and pet you all the time, you'll have a super great time with them."

She stops herself for a bit to take a breath "They'll probably make you battle other pokemon to get stronger but trust me when I say battling is nothing to worry about and that it's a great fun. It's all a friendly competition with others like you at the end of the day. If you get injured they'll heal you up in no time."

"Alternatively they can train you for something called a 'contest' where you try and make yourself look pretty and cool. Maybe if you get picked by one of the trainers who are passionate about contests you can go and live up to your nickname 'Cool Bro'."

"Actually!" She suddenly stands up energetically "Why don't you come with me, I'll walk you around the school and explain to you how everything works."

That came out of nowhere. Not that I mind it happening.

"If it won't bother you." I rise from my spot and do an energetic shake to remove excess dirt and dust, much like a dog shaking off water after swimming.

"Pfft, bother me. Come on, follow me. I'll show you how to beg for food from the kitchen lady."

"Take care of my bro, alright?"

"Of course." One of the Nidoran answers.

Catching up to Wuwu I start walking alongside her to her right.

"I have a question want to ask. It's about your running brother."

"Ask away then! I don't guarantee that I'll be able to answer though, there's a lot of weird stuff happening around him that none of us can explain. "

"This one should be a simple question. I've noticed that you don't start your sentences with 'Woop' and he does, why is that?"

"'Because it's his God-Given responsibility to say 'Woop' as often as possible and because it's fun to do it. '"

"..." … Okay? The deadpan expression I stare at her with must have gotten to her because she speaks up again shortly after.

"What? Those are his words, not mine. He's been that weird from day one! And that's not even remotely the weirdest thing about him. What about his super stamina? He can run all day while we'd drop dead exhausted if we ran like he does for ten minutes. Or what about him knowing stuff he has no right of knowing!?" She stops and turns to look at me.

"Did you know that he was aware of what a pokeball was before we even had a concept of it? He threw a fit when they tried to catch him in it. The teacher's Meganium had to cover him with sleep spore, confuse him and hold him down with her vines in order to catch him since he wouldn't stop thrashing around in his sleep. Even then they had to go through five pokeballs because he escaped the rest… Also did you know…" At this point I don't think she even knows I'm here anymore, she's just ranting about her brother leading me along to wherever we're going. She'd probably realize soon that she's using a lot of terms and stuff I'm not 'supposed' to know. Meganium. What's that? Haha.

Soon we arrive in front of a beautiful building. What's interesting is that the building appears to be made from a blackish-grey stone as opposed to more modern construction materials like bricks or concrete. There are a lot of arches, columns and interesting patterns. The general vibe this building gives me makes me think that it is ancient. It's similar in appearance to some buildings made during the Renaissance back in my old world. I really wonder if this is an old structure or something made recently. On one hand, it's made of stone and it looks hella old. On the other, the thing just appears to be way too pristine. You'd expect an old building to at least look 'weathered' from all the years, some cracks here and there maybe. I see nothing of the sorts here... Just another question added to the list I guess.

Wuwu speaks up "Here's the school's kitchen, cafeteria and feeding area. Anything related to food really. They feed us three times daily. You've already missed breakfast and lunch but you'll be here for dinner." She enters the opened front doors "Come on, the kitchen lady's name is Mia. She's nice and will probably give you a few scraps of food if you act cute for a bit."

Going through the doors I see a spacious empty area filled with tables and chairs. Cafeteria I guess…What deh fuck? I'm amazed by what I see the moment I look up.

There Is a Humongous Skeleton suspended on ropes up above the cafeteria. A Huge skeleton with what appear to be six wings and big lengthy legs and arms. A tail with dozens of spines that have big lengthy and most likely sharp protrusions on them. Not to mention the hundreds of teeth I can see attached to its massive jaw in rows resembling those of a shark. What the hell, is that a pokemon skeleton? I've seen large skeletons before. London's Natural History Museum has a blue whale skeleton suspended on the ceiling just like the one here, but this is just absurd.

"Oh, did Kibbles scare you?" Wuwu turns back and walks to me after she notices that I've stopped following her.

"Kibbles, really?"

"Yep! My trainer said that those are the remains of a pokemon that lived millions of years ago. We call him Kibbles."

"I see.." I look up at the skeleton again. It honestly looks like it belongs to a legendary pokemon but going by her words maybe not. That definitely doesn't belong to any pokemon I know that's for sure.

"Say how big do pokemon get?" I ask.

"Don't know. The largest pokemon I've seen is an elder Nidoqueen more than two times the height of a regular person. And I know she wasn't even remotely close to being the biggest pokemon there is."

"There she is! Forget about the skeleton. Come, watch and learn. Jump up here with me." She does a leap, hopping on top of the Kitchen counter.

"Alright."

You know, when she said 'Kitchen lady' I imagined some elderly woman that's 'as tall as she's wide' for lack of a more gentle term. Or at least something closely resembling that. I don't mean to be rude or anything but that's just my experience with kitchens. Everywhere I've gone, be it buffets or restaurants there's at least one such woman either serving out food, cooking or at the very least cleaning. I guess that's just the stereotypes I've built up in my head showing.

What I didn't expect was a supermodel to be attending the Kitchen, it's like she's a statue sculpted by the Greeks that's come alive. With absolute certainty I can say that I've never met a person that beautiful. She has long black hair and a perfect hourglass figure plus an apron. Too bad I'm no longer a human, Hah!

"Hellooo?" Wuwu hops up to her and starts speaking with a slightly gentler tone than she did to me.

"Waaagh?!" The woman immediately swipes her from the counter and hugs her in close. Her face is that of pure contentment as she's hugging Wuwu.

"There you are you little devil, come to beg for food again have you? I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up at all. It turns out you've had your time occupied by your friend here. Have you brought her here to take advantage of me also?" She glances at me as she's talking to Wuwu. Also I'm a male Mudkip not a female one thank you.

Deciding to make fun of Wuwu I walk up to the two of them and speak up with a slight smile on my face "That's some really high level stuff you've taught me here, love it. Thanks for the free food!" I perform a small mocking 'bow' with my head.

"Oh Shut up."

- o - o -

A While Later / Dinner Time

"So after that we left this place we're in right now and started walking around aimlessly, Wuwu told me about whatever came to her mind concerning the school." I finish recalling what happened to me over the past few hours to one of my siblings, raising my voice higher than normal so he can hear me over the cacophony of other sounds all the pokemon are making as they converse. The vibe of the place right now is really close to that of a packed bar.

"Damn bro, that's crazy. I wonder what our evolution is like." *munch* *munch* "You didn't say if she gave you any food though." Calm Bro's having a conversation with me. Honestly if it was up to me, because of his behaviour and way of speaking, I would have called him 'Weed Bro' or 'Hippie Bro'. He has every single possible mannerism your average Hippie from the 1960s would have.

"Nah, she didn't. Worried that I'd get 'fat' or something. Not that I needed any food after the Mago battle." I glance at Rocky Sis who's laid herself down on the stone floor, half unconscious "Is she alright? She's been like that since I left her off."

"Nooo Bro, Rocky's like…possessed or something. She said that this was the 'last time she's eating Mago berries in her life'. That's like… not alright Bro. That's not her. Something has gone terribly wrong." *munch* *munch* "Aren't you gonna finish that by the way Bro? This food isn't the greatest that we've ever had, but the variety is still nice and all, you know what I'm saying? Eating the same thing day after day makes it go bland really fast."

"I feel you brother." I focus my bowl full of whatever it has in it. Some meat that tastes like a mix between chicken and tuna somehow. The meat is cut into cubes and mixed with some berry mush and vegetables. Not very inspiring.

"ENRIQUE!"

A sudden very loud sound that startles everyone around me booms through the entire feeding area. I immediately move my gaze towards the origin of the sound and see a huge blonde haired man I could swear I'd seen before.

As he's surveying the area, I assume looking for a man named 'Enrique', I notice he's gripped a very familiar looking Wooper in the palm of his hand.

I nudge Calm Bro with my shoulder and motion towards the Wooper "There's that Wooper I told you about in the man's left hand. The one who keeps running all day."

"Ooh, I see him, I see him. He looks like he's kind of out of it though, doesn't he Cool Bro?"

"Yeah, you're right actually. If what Wuwu told me about him was true there's just no way he'd be that calm while being handled in such a manner."

"Enrique! There you are!" He marches forwards after spotting his target. He's wearing camo trousers and… and…

Aaaah! I know who that is! That's Lieutenant Surge, Kanto's Third Gym Leader! What in the world is he doing here in Hoenn? I attempt to spot the Raichu that should be accompanying him somewhere in the surrounding area but fail.

Surge stops his walk a meter away from a man I recognize as the person who gave us our food bowls. The fact that he's so close to him doesn't stop him from yelling like an angry drill sergeant.

"Enrique, What the fuck did I tell you!?"

"Um… you told me to… clean up the school campus…Sir?"

"No you cataclysmic dumbass! I told you to take that Swinub of yours and remove all, by all I mean ALL of the damned mushrooms on this school's property!" Screaming at the top of his lungs, Surge shoves Wuwu's brother in front of the poor staff member's face.

"This crazy Wooper has gone and gotten all high on hallucinogenic mushrooms again Enrique! Look at this thing! Look at its eyes, look at what you've done Enrique! It's pupils are so enlarged I can't even see the rest of its eyeballs. This Wooper doesn't look like he's interested in anything out of this mortal realm going by the way he's acting Enrique!" Midway through the man's ranting a Nurse Joy shows up and taps him lightly on the shoulder, her expression one of absolute neutrality. Surge wordlessly gives her the drugged up Wooper after which he continues shelling Enrique.

"What are you still doing here, huh? Get the hell out of this building Right Now! The Mushrooms are an invasive species Enrique. You're doing a grand service not only to me and the school but to all of Hoenn by combating this dangerous threat. And don't even let me see your ugly face until we begin closing down, or you'll really regret it!"

And off he goes. Enrique leaves the feeding area at mach 5 speed. Heh heh. That was pretty funny.

There's no other way to say it, this place is a big step up from the forest pond. Period. Everyone I've met so far has greeted me with warmth and friendliness. There's plenty of fun to be had and the worst of the worries I had earlier in the day have disappeared into thin air.

I absolutely Love it here.