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Pokémon Professor Birch's Last Day On Earth (TWWWOS #2)

Full Story

The Walrein

Vicinal Dragging for the Truth
Partners
  1. gulpin
  2. kricketot
  3. bulbasaur
References to torture and death.

Professor Birch’s Last Day On Earth


Professor Birch stood several yards away from the edge of a cliff on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, watching the sun set. The fading light painted the rocks brilliant shades of orange and red. A golden eagle circled in the air above, hoping for one last chance at a meal before the day passed. Birch considered taking a photo, but decided against it. Not everything needed to be documented. His memory of the moment would be enough.

“Greetings, Mr. Birch,” a voice rang out from behind the professor.

It was a name that no one within a thousand miles should’ve known. It was a voice that made Birch’s heart skip a beat, that made his blood run cold. He turned around, the motion almost involuntary in its rapidity. The sight before his eyes banished any hope that he'd simply misheard those words, imagined that voice. “Y-You. You finally found me.”

“Yes, Mr. Birch, I’ve found you. You didn’t make it easy for me, I’ll give you that. Scurrying this way and that, leaving behind two false leads for every real one, desperately throwing anyone you could get your hands on in my way… Would it surprise you to know, Mr. Birch, that at times I’ve even found myself applauding your more creative efforts? The three dittos at Ever Grande… the surprise Ultra Wormhole in Slateport... They’ve made this little game so much more enjoyable than it might’ve otherwise been.” The figure chuckled, and then began to advance. “But, alas, all good things must come to an end..”

Birch stepped backwards slowly, cognizant of the sheer cliff behind him. “Look, I- I didn’t come here just to run from you! I’ve been looking for something that could fix things-”

“And I didn’t come here just to pursue you, Mr. Birch. I just came to admire the view. What a strange coincidence that we both met here, then...”

“No, really!” Birch had taken off his backpack and was frantically digging through it. “Look, I’ve found some documents that-”

“That can bring back the dead? Erase a decade of suffering?” the figure snarled, teeth gleaming white. “No, Mr. Birch, nothing can be fixed. Nothing can be repaired. The only thing left is to punish the man responsible for the crisis, so that he might serve as a warning to other meddlers...”

Birch trembled, dropping the paper he had just fished out of his bag, and then anger rushed into his voice. “So what? That’s it? You’re just going to kill me now?” he asked, hands clenching into fists.

“Oh no no, Mr. Birch, you make it sound so simple, so quick! Just kill you! As if it would be like flipping a switch!” The figure shook their head, chuckling to themselves. “Ah, no, you see, you’re not the only one of us who’s been doing research. There are ways, you know, of paralyzing a man without taking away his ability to breathe or feel. And there are so, so many ways a man can be hurt before he dies. I’ve been planning this for years, Mr. Birch. Nothing about this is going to be quick.”

Sweat ran down the professor’s forehead. “I’m – I’m not afraid of you! I’ve escaped you before- I’ll do it again!”

“Ah, but this time, Mr. Birch- you don’t have a child to hide behind!” the zigzagoon standing before him hissed, and then charged at the professor, teeth bared.

Suddenly, Birch grinned triumphantly and stood up straight, staring down his aggressor. “Or so you think! Mecha-Brendan, activate!” he yelled. A sound like a rocket engine igniting echoed across the canyon, and a gleaming metallic figure rose up from the cliff behind him, soaring into the sky as white exhaust poured from a jetpack on their back.

“Wha- what is this!” the zigzagoon cried, leaping backwards as the figure landed in between him and Birch. It was a robot in the rough shape of a ten-year-old human child, with a white beanie hanging awkwardly off of one corner of its cubical head. The machine’s eyes flared with red light. “A WILD POKEMON HAS APPEARED! GO, MECHA MUDKIP!” it called, and threw down a red and white cube on the ground before it. In a flash of brilliant white light, a mechanical mudkip appeared, rivets visibly joining together the pale blue and grey plates of metal forming its body.

“Mecha-Brendan, order Mecha-Mudkip to use mecha-water-gun!” Birch ordered.

“MECHA MUDKIP, USE MECHA-WATER-GUN!” the robot announced. The zigzagoon simply stared, slack-jawed, as the robotic amphibian turned to face him, its hinged mouth swinging open with a click. A small robotic arm emerged from the robot’s maw, clutching a tiny plastic squirt gun. It pulled the trigger, sending a few drops of water to splatter against the zigzagoon’s face. “GOOD SHOT, MECHA-MUDKIP!”

“Enough!” the zigzagoon roared, and leaped at the smaller robot, body glowing red with the charge of a frustration attack. He slammed into mecha-mudkip’s side with full force, causing it fly back and roll across the ground, emitting sparks, before it finally came to a halt. Its limbs jerked wildly as smoke poured out of their joints, and then its movement ceased.

“MECHA-BRENDAN IS OUT OF USABLE MECHA-POKEMON! INITIATING WHITE-OUT.EXE...” The robotic child fell over with a loud crash, the red glow in its eyes fading away as Birch stared on in horror.

“N-no!” the professor cried. “He never even got a chance to complete his mecha-pokedex!”

“No more games,” the zigzagoon snarled, turning his attention back to the white-faced professor. “This ends now-”

“Hey, what’s going on here?” A new voice called out. Two heads turned to see an irritated-looking young woman with long brown hair gazing at the scene from some distance away.

Birch gasped. “Flesh-May! You’ve come to save me!” he cried, staring in astonishment.

“Please don’t call me that,” May said, walking up to the pair. “Have you really been spending all this time running away from small mammals again? Your wife hasn’t seen you in over a year, you know.”

“This zigzagoon is a monster! He’s the same vicious beast you saved me from all those years ago! If you hadn’t shown up, he’d have tortured me to death!”

“No, this man is the real monster here!” the zigzagoon protested. “He’s responsible for the death of half my species!”

May sighed. “Is that really true, Birch?”

Birch swallowed nervously. “Er, well… It’s like this… Many years ago, I happened to meet this zigzagoon while I was out on a population survey hike. I was looking at my trail map at the time, and he asked me what it was...”

“Yes, I was a fool back then. I didn’t know the danger such a thing posed,” the zigzagoon said, shaking his head sagely.

“Wait, you mean the trail map?” May asked, brow furrowing slightly.

“Yes. You see, after I told him what a map was, he started asking more and more questions, and well, I started to explain the basics of geography to him, one thing led to another, and er, I may have eventually let it slip that the world is, contrary to immediate appearances, round instead of flat. And then, after our little meeting, he started going around the forest, letting everyone know about the amazing fact he discovered...”

“So some of the forest Pokemon learned that the world is round. So what?”

The zigzagoon scoffed. “Is she one of your students? It seems you must have taught her poorly...”

“Er, well, she’s not exactly my student per se...” Birch mumbled. “But to answer your question, May, the problem is that zigzagoon’s evolved form, linoone, has a psychological compulsion to only run in straight lines. As soon as they began to believe that the ground they were running on was not a flat plane, but rather a large sphere, they became completely incapable of any kind of movement, since they thought that whichever way they ran, they’d always be running in a path that curved at least very slightly.”

May stared incredulously. “Seriously? I thought that thing about linoones was just a myth.”

Yes, seriously. As the knowledge started to spread, more and more of the evolved members of my species began to become totally paralyzed. Without the guidance and protection of our elders, our numbers began to dwindle as predators started to pick us off, one by one. We became afraid to fight back, lest we gain enough experience to evolve and become paralyzed as well.”

Professor Birch was gathering up the papers he’d dropped earlier. “But I have a plan to change all that! See, several years ago, I ran into a version of myself from another universe, where they’d developed a technology that employed infinity energy to travel between dimensions. Supposedly the technology had originally been developed to re-route a meteor headed towards their planet to us, but luckily, they managed another way to solve their problem. The other Birch had come to warn me about any similar uses of the dimension-shifting technology that might occur, but when I told him about the issue I had created with the linoones, he mentioned of hearing about a strange world called ‘Earth’ where people believed very strange things. One of those things was that their planet was actually a flat disc rather than a sphere. So, I traveled the dimensions in search of this Earth, and eventually was able to reach this land. I then tracked down the so-called ‘Flat Earth Society’ and acquired some of their literature, which I have here,” Birch said, gesturing at the documents he was holding. “I believe that if I can adapt this material to our world, I’ll be able to convince the linoone that the world is flat again, thus ending the crisis.”

The zigzagoon scoffed. “It’s hopeless. I’ve already tried everything I could think of to convince afflicted linoone that the world wasn’t round.”

“I think you underestimate quite how creative us humans can be when it comes to thinking up elaborate reality-denying conspiracies,” Birch said. “Have you tried telling them that if our planet was really a sphere, sailors would bring globes with them since that would be the best model, but since they bring flat maps that proves that a flat planet must be the best model? Or what about pointing out that it’s still possible to see the North star on the so-called ‘Southern hemisphere’ of the planet?”

“Hmmm…. I’ll grant that some of that might work in their world, but our world has a successful space program! How are we to explain away that?” the zigzagoon asked.

“Actually, Earth does have a successful space program!” Birch said.

“So let me guess, these flat-earth people claim it’s all a massive conspiracy to cover up the truth that the world isn’t round?” May asked.

“No, that’d be ridiculous. See, because they’ve never really been to space before, they don’t know the truth that the world is flat, so that’s why they keep showing it as round in all their faked media!”

“What.”

“Hmm… maybe I really have underestimated the humans of this world...” the zigzagoon muttered.

May crossed her arms. “Look, I don’t have much time left before the portal back to our world is going to close. And it sounds to me like you were just as responsible as Birch in causing the linoone-extinction disaster I somehow never heard about before. And he’s very obviously sorry about the whole thing and he’s literally traveled across universes to try to fix it. So I want you to forgive him, and then we can all go home.”

“You can’t just order to me forgive the man I’ve spent my entire life seeking revenge on!” the zigzagoon protested.

“Fine. Then we’ll leave without you. Come on, Birch,” she said, turning to leave.

“Er, okay,” he said, putting away the Flat-Earth society papers and following after her.

“No! My revenge will not be ignored! Die!” The zigzagoon charged at Birch once more.

May rolled her eyes, then stepped in front of the professor. The zigzagoon slammed into her leg, and May collapsed to the ground, moaning in exaggerated pain. “Oh no, you totally defeated me! You won the battle!”

“Ha! Now you’re next, Mr. Birch- wait! What’s happening to me!” the zigzagoon cried as a bright white light consumed his body. His form elongated and his claws grew out, and then the light faded away to reveal the form of a linoone. “What- no! NOOOOOOOO!” he called out, suddenly finding himself frozen in place, unable to take a single step for fear of traveling in a non-straight line. “All that experience I gained searching for Mr. Birch – the trail of corpses I left behind – how could I have been so blind? How could I have overlooked how close I was to evolving!? And how could you have known?”

"Simple. I scanned you with my Pokedex earlier." May got to her feet, glaring down at the pathetic creature. “Oh, and by the way, just in case you manage to convince yourself that this world is really flat, did you know that gravity actually causes a curvature in space-time, so even then you still wouldn’t be moving in straight lines? Just thought you might want to chew on that for a while.”

“That was really mean, May,” Birch said, although he looked rather relieved at having finally eluded the pursuit of the small furry creature.

“Eh, we can always come back for him later. Find some sort of ‘flat space-time society’ somewhere”, she said.

And as the two humans walked into the portal that would bring them back to their home dimension, Profesor Birch’s last day on the planet Earth finally came to an end.
 
Last edited:

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
After witnessing Team Rocket's attempt to capture Entei, a young trainer named Jade finds herself unwittingly tangled up in a plot involving rival factions vying for control of the team, with double agents on both sides and the looming threat of all-out war on the horizon. With the balance between human and legend on the line, the world’s last hope lies in the unlikely alliance between the two.

Gotta hand it to you, I think this might be the most off-the-wall, zany story I've read from you yet. XD Liked the double meaning in the title--I knew you well enough to know that it wouldn't be as simple as "Professor Birch dies in this one," and I wasn't disappointed.

It was a name that no one within a thousand miles should’ve known to associate with the sight of the man.
This sentence reads a bit clunky to me. I think even simply cutting it off after "known" would have gotten your meaning across just as well.

The sight before his eyes banished any hope that he simply misheard those words, imagined that voice.
*he'd simply misheard

A small robotic arm emerged from the robot’s maw, clutching a tiny plastic squirt gun. It pulled the trigger, sending a few drops of water to splatter against the zigzagoon’s face.
I don't even. XD

We became afraid to fight back, lest we gained enough experience to evolve and become paralyzed as well.
lest we *gain

The zigzagoon scoffed. “It’s hopeless. I’ve already tried everything I could think of to convince afflicted linoone that the world wasn’t round.”
Sketchy Youtube videos? Have you tried sketchy Youtube videos, Zigzagoon? =/

“That was really mean, May,” Birch said, although he looked rather relieved at having finally eluded the pursuit of the small furry creature.
It WAS. Dang. D:

Like I said, this is probably the wildest mash-up you've put together so far. Flat-earthers and pokémon... I'm in awe of the jump you made from "linoone supposedly run only in straight lines" to "if the earth is curved, they can't be running in 'straight lines,' for some definition of 'straight.'" And this ended up being really timely, too, with the release of the Galarian linoone-line forms.

This one did feel a little scattered to me, though. The digs at Professor Birch shielding himself with children and his weird Brendan robot are kind of their own thing, and while they're funny in their own right they didn't feel like they were really pulling in the same direction as the accidental linoone die-off stuff. I think maybe there was just so much stuff necessary to make this work (interdimensional travel, visiting literal Earth, Professor Birch's previous encounters with the zigzagoon, May, etc.) that explaining how all of it hung together kind of overwhelmed a story this short. The core of "Professor Birch has been chased by this angry zigzagoon for years" gets a little bit lost.

Of course, the fact that there's so much stuff going on means there's a lot to love, too! Probably my favorite bit was the zigzagoon tackling May and then evolving into a linoone, rendering him unable to continue chasing Birch. It's one of those neat twists that ties things together, the kind that require a lot of setup and then bring things the reader's learned together in a new way. Loved it, loved the zigzagoon's threatening monologue at the beginning, love the whole concept of linoone being paralyzed by the planet's curvature and the solution Birch's decided upon to address it. What a fun story! I'll be looking forward to next week's. :)
 

The Walrein

Vicinal Dragging for the Truth
Partners
  1. gulpin
  2. kricketot
  3. bulbasaur
Gotta hand it to you, I think this might be the most off-the-wall, zany story I've read from you yet. XD

Zanier than "Touch My Tail, Dude"? Anyways, you know I'm going to take this as a challenge to come up with something even weirder yet!

This sentence reads a bit clunky to me. I think even simply cutting it off after "known" would have gotten your meaning across just as well.

Hmm, agreed.

*he'd simply misheard

lest we *gain

Fixed, thanks.


It WAS. Dang. D:

Yeah, after I wrote this I felt sort of guilty and had the urge to pull a George Lucas-ian Han Shot Second-style retcon and have May reluctantly go back and capture the zigzagoon with a pokeball so he wouldn't just be lying there paralyzed, but in the end apathy won out and I didn't do anything.

Like I said, this is probably the wildest mash-up you've put together so far. Flat-earthers and pokémon... I'm in awe of the jump you made from "linoone supposedly run only in straight lines" to "if the earth is curved, they can't be running in 'straight lines,' for some definition of 'straight.'" And this ended up being really timely, too, with the release of the Galarian linoone-line forms.

This one did feel a little scattered to me, though. The digs at Professor Birch shielding himself with children and his weird Brendan robot are kind of their own thing, and while they're funny in their own right they didn't feel like they were really pulling in the same direction as the accidental linoone die-off stuff. I think maybe there was just so much stuff necessary to make this work (interdimensional travel, visiting literal Earth, Professor Birch's previous encounters with the zigzagoon, May, etc.) that explaining how all of it hung together kind of overwhelmed a story this short. The core of "Professor Birch has been chased by this angry zigzagoon for years" gets a little bit lost.

Of course, the fact that there's so much stuff going on means there's a lot to love, too! Probably my favorite bit was the zigzagoon tackling May and then evolving into a linoone, rendering him unable to continue chasing Birch. It's one of those neat twists that ties things together, the kind that require a lot of setup and then bring things the reader's learned together in a new way. Loved it, loved the zigzagoon's threatening monologue at the beginning, love the whole concept of linoone being paralyzed by the planet's curvature and the solution Birch's decided upon to address it. What a fun story! I'll be looking forward to next week's. :)

This one might have gotten a bit busy, true. I'm glad you liked it, though!
 

kintsugi

golden scars | pfp by sun
Location
the warmth of summer in the songs you write
Pronouns
she/her
Partners
  1. silvally-grass
  2. lapras
  3. golurk
  4. booper-kintsugi
  5. meloetta-kint-muse
  6. meloetta-kint-dancer
  7. murkrow
  8. yveltal
Hey! I read this like five months ago when it came out, loved it, and then for some reason never did anything to tell you how much I enjoyed it. Sorry about that.

brain: infinity war is the greatest crossover to ever exist
big brain: super smash brothers ultimate is the greatest crossover to ever exist
galaxy brain: this fic

“Mecha-Brendan, order Mecha-Mudkip to use mecha-water-gun!” Birch commanded.
I love this line btw but I think it would be like 0.2% funnier if it was "Birch ordered"

Like your pre-Sword and Shield Let's Play, so much of this fic is just so on point. I love it. I'm not a huge fan of comedic fanfic as a genre, but you make an absolute art out of it. In particular I like how you structured the absurdity -- first Birch gets approached by a killer Zigzagoon on a cliff spouting lines about a wild goose chase that could've come out of Fast and Furious, and then there's the Mecha-Brendan bit from above, and then the flat Earther reveal, and then it all tops out with May's scheme. I honestly didn't think you were going to find a way to end this satisfyingly, and I was completely wrong.

I... hmm. Don't have much else to say except to heap on more praise about how this was a fun read. The plot contrivances pretty much make the story a hundred percent better, and everything about how this fic fits together is just so clever. Crossover between flat earth and dumb Birch and linoone is just something that I don't think anyone's ever thought about but that works so well; it was truly a joy to read this again. Thanks for sharing.
 

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Location
The Yangverse
Pronouns
Any
Partners
  1. reshiram
Oh my god. This entire fic. Plot twists to end all plot twists. Every new one just made the whole thing even more goddamn hilarious. It was incredible.

There are so many tiny good moments here. ""Flesh May!" "Don't call me that"" for instance. And the gradual unfurling of the entire plot is a treat. And the digs at flat earthers, oh my god. Where can I get in on this Linoone Logic.

I did kind of wonder what a "golden eagle" was doing there up until the very ending twist. Mabye tweak that bit slightly? Could make the end twist harder to spot, I didn't spot it but it WAS confusing up until the end.

But this is a very cute short and sweet comedy oneshot. Good job!
 

The Walrein

Vicinal Dragging for the Truth
Partners
  1. gulpin
  2. kricketot
  3. bulbasaur
Hey! I read this like five months ago when it came out, loved it, and then for some reason never did anything to tell you how much I enjoyed it. Sorry about that.

No need to be sorry, I do that all the time, even with fics I really, really like.

brain: infinity war is the greatest crossover to ever exist
big brain: super smash brothers ultimate is the greatest crossover to ever exist
galaxy brain: this fic

Not sure this really counts as a 'crossover', but I'll take it!

I love this line btw but I think it would be like 0.2% funnier if it was "Birch ordered"

Agreed, and changed.

Like your pre-Sword and Shield Let's Play, so much of this fic is just so on point. I love it. I'm not a huge fan of comedic fanfic as a genre, but you make an absolute art out of it. In particular I like how you structured the absurdity -- first Birch gets approached by a killer Zigzagoon on a cliff spouting lines about a wild goose chase that could've come out of Fast and Furious, and then there's the Mecha-Brendan bit from above, and then the flat Earther reveal, and then it all tops out with May's scheme. I honestly didn't think you were going to find a way to end this satisfyingly, and I was completely wrong.

I... hmm. Don't have much else to say except to heap on more praise about how this was a fun read. The plot contrivances pretty much make the story a hundred percent better, and everything about how this fic fits together is just so clever. Crossover between flat earth and dumb Birch and linoone is just something that I don't think anyone's ever thought about but that works so well; it was truly a joy to read this again. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for reading and commenting, I'm glad you liked it!

Oh my god. This entire fic. Plot twists to end all plot twists. Every new one just made the whole thing even more goddamn hilarious. It was incredible.

There are so many tiny good moments here. ""Flesh May!" "Don't call me that"" for instance. And the gradual unfurling of the entire plot is a treat. And the digs at flat earthers, oh my god. Where can I get in on this Linoone Logic.

I honestly feel kind of bad about the flat-earther digs - too much of an easy target. But yeah, the 'Flesh May' line was my favorite in the piece.

I did kind of wonder what a "golden eagle" was doing there up until the very ending twist. Mabye tweak that bit slightly? Could make the end twist harder to spot, I didn't spot it but it WAS confusing up until the end.

Maybe, although I think I'd prefer to leave this in to add to the foreshadowing that this is Earth-Earth here (mostly it's just because I'm too lazy to change it).

But this is a very cute short and sweet comedy oneshot. Good job!

Thanks!
 

Spiteful Murkrow

Busy Writing Stories I Want to Read
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Partners
  1. nidoran-f
  2. druddigon
  3. swellow
  4. quilava-fobbie
  5. sneasel-kate
Heya, dropping in for one last quick-and-dirty review prior to the end of Week 2, though a piece of yours with content warnings? That’s a bit unexpected.
:Fearfullaugh:


Let’s see just what we’re getting into here:

Professor Birch stood several yards away from the edge of a cliff on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, watching the sun set. The fading light painted the rocks brilliant shades of orange and red. A golden eagle circled in the air above, hoping for one last chance at a meal before the day passed. Birch considered taking a photo, but decided against it. Not everything needed to be documented. His memory of the moment would be enough.

Oh, “last day on earth” meaning that he was from earth before he wound up in Johto? That’s certainly a novel take if that’s indeed what you’re going for there.

“Greetings, Mr. Birch,” a voice rang out from behind the professor.

It was a name that no one within a thousand miles should’ve known. It was a voice that made Birch’s heart skip a beat, that made his blood run cold. He turned around, the motion almost involuntary in its rapidity. The sight before his eyes banished any hope that he'd simply misheard those words, imagined that voice.

Y-You. You finally found me.”

Is this a jilted pupil, or…?

“Yes, Mr. Birch, I’ve found you. You didn’t make it easy for me, I’ll give you that. Scurrying this way and that, leaving behind two false leads for every real one, desperately throwing anyone you could get your hands on in my way… Would it surprise you to know, Mr. Birch, that at times I’ve even found myself applauding your more creative efforts? The three dittos at Ever Grande… the surprise Ultra Wormhole in Slateport... They’ve made this little game so much more enjoyable than it might’ve otherwise been.” The figure chuckled, and then began to advance. “But, alas, all good things must come to an end..”

… Birch, what on earth did you do before this story?
:grohno~1:


Though I kinda wonder if this figure’s dialogue is big and dense enough that you should strongly consider cutting it up into a couple pieces.

Birch stepped backwards slowly, cognizant of the sheer cliff behind him. “Look, I- I didn’t come here just to run from you! I’ve been looking for something that could fix things-

Birch, what did you do? .-.

“And I didn’t come here just to pursue you, Mr. Birch. I just came to admire the view. What a strange coincidence that we both met here, then...”

e02e5ffb5f980cd8262cf7f0ae00a4a9_press-x-to-doubt-memes-memesuper-la-noire-doubt-meme_419-238.jpg


“No, really!” Birch had taken off his backpack and was frantically digging through it. “Look, I’ve found some documents that-”

“That can bring back the dead? Erase a decade of suffering?” the figure snarled, teeth gleaming white. “No, Mr. Birch, nothing can be fixed. Nothing can be repaired. The only thing left is to punish the man responsible for the crisis, so that he might serve as a warning to other meddlers...”

… Did Birch accidentally drown Hoenn in this continuity or something? Since boy does this figure really have it out for him right now and Birch apparently has a body count of some sort.

Birch trembled, dropping the paper he had just fished out of his bag, and then anger rushed into his voice. “So what? That’s it? You’re just going to kill me now?” he asked, hands clenching into fists.

“Oh no no, Mr. Birch, you make it sound so simple, so quick! Just kill you! As if it would be like flipping a switch!” The figure shook their head, chuckling to themselves. “Ah, no, you see, you’re not the only one of us who’s been doing research. There are ways, you know, of paralyzing a man without taking away his ability to breathe or feel.

[ ]

And there are so, so many ways a man can be hurt before he dies. I’ve been planning this for years, Mr. Birch. Nothing about this is going to be quick.”

Would suggest breaking up the assailant’s paragraph of dialogue somewhere roughly around where indicated and drop in some description or something like that to interleave.

Sweat ran down the professor’s forehead. “I’m – I’m not afraid of you! I’ve escaped you before- I’ll do it again!”

Bruh, you’re cornered up against the Grand Canyon right now. Unless if you’re rocking a surprise Tropius right now, you’re not getting out of this one.

“Ah, but this time, Mr. Birch- you don’t have a child to hide behind!” the zigzagoon standing before him hissed, and then charged at the professor, teeth bared.

… Wait, all this time, Birch has been chased around heavens-knows-how-many-universes by that one Zigzagoon from the early part of Gen III?

I mean, I wasn’t expecting that, but that would be hilariously on-brand with some of your output.

Suddenly, Birch grinned triumphantly and stood up straight, staring down his aggressor. “Or so you think! Mecha-Brendan, activate!” he yelled. A sound like a rocket engine igniting echoed across the canyon, and a gleaming metallic figure rose up from the cliff behind him, soaring into the sky as white exhaust poured from a jetpack on their back.

Ah yes, now we’re getting into a @The Walrein fic. Or even moreso than a professor getting hounded across time and space by the world’s most determined Zigzagoon already is.
:loltias:


“Wha- what is this!” the zigzagoon cried, leaping backwards as the figure landed in between him and Birch.

It was a robot in the rough shape of a ten-year-old human child, with a white beanie hanging awkwardly off of one corner of its cubical head. The machine’s eyes flared with red light.

A WILD POKEMON HAS APPEARED! GO, MECHA MUDKIP!” it called, and threw down a red and white cube on the ground before it. In a flash of brilliant white light, a mechanical mudkip appeared, rivets visibly joining together the pale blue and grey plates of metal forming its body.

Would suggest breaking this paragraph up into a couple pieces.

“Mecha-Brendan, order Mecha-Mudkip to use mecha-water-gun!” Birch ordered.

“MECHA MUDKIP, USE MECHA-WATER-GUN!” the robot announced.

The zigzagoon simply stared, slack-jawed, as the robotic amphibian turned to face him, its hinged mouth swinging open with a click. A small robotic arm emerged from the robot’s maw, clutching a tiny plastic squirt gun. It pulled the trigger, sending a few drops of water to splatter against the zigzagoon’s face.

GOOD SHOT, MECHA-MUDKIP!”

inb4 Zigzagoon manages to take it apart with some stealing move like Snatch or something like that, though I must say that I didn’t expect things to go this direction when I started reading this story, even if I suppose I ought to have by now after reading a few of your pieces.

“Enough!” the zigzagoon roared, and leaped at the smaller robot, body glowing red with the charge of a frustration attack. He slammed into mecha-mudkip’s side with full force, causing it to fly back and roll across the ground, emitting sparks, before it finally came to a halt. Its limbs jerked wildly as smoke poured out of their joints, and then its movement ceased.

Birch: “... You know, I should’ve just had Mecha-Brendan fly me off to safety, huh?”
:uhhh:


“MECHA-BRENDAN IS OUT OF USABLE MECHA-POKEMON! INITIATING WHITE-OUT.EXE...”

The robotic child fell over with a loud crash, the red glow in its eyes fading away as Birch stared on in horror.

“N-no!” the professor cried. “He never even got a chance to complete his mecha-pokedex!”

Zigzagoon: “Stop adding ‘mecha-’ in front of everything!”
Birch: “But my mecha-hopes just went up in mecha-smoke…”
:ohnowen:


“No more games,” the zigzagoon snarled, turning his attention back to the white-faced professor. “This ends now-”

He’s going to lunge at Birch, miss and go sailing off the Grand Canyon, isn’t he?

“Hey, what’s going on here?” A new voice called out. Two heads turned to see an irritated-looking young woman with long brown hair gazing at the scene from some distance away.

Birch gasped. “Flesh-May! You’ve come to save me!” he cried, staring in astonishment.

May: “Flesh-May, really?”
:unimpressed:


“Please don’t call me that,” May said, walking up to the pair. “Have you really been spending all this time running away from small mammals again? Your wife hasn’t seen you in over a year, you know.”

May: “Seriously, would it kill you to just buy some Quick Balls?” >_>;

“This zigzagoon is a monster! He’s the same vicious beast you saved me from all those years ago! If you hadn’t shown up, he’d have tortured me to death!”

Kek, I knew it.

May: “
man-ray-facepalm.gif

Professor Birch, you can literally defeat him with a Quick Ball!

“No, this man is the real monster here!” the zigzagoon protested. “He’s responsible for the death of half my species!”

May sighed. “Is that really true, Birch?”

May: “How on earth do you even manage that if so?” .-.

Birch swallowed nervously. “Er, well… It’s like this… Many years ago, I happened to meet this zigzagoon while I was out on a population survey hike. I was looking at my trail map at the time, and he asked me what it was...”

“Yes, I was a fool back then. I didn’t know the danger such a thing posed,” the zigzagoon said, shaking his head sagely.

“Wait, you mean the trail map?” May asked, brow furrowing slightly.

Birch started some sort of genocidal Zigzagoon civil war, didn’t he?

“Yes. You see, after I told him what a map was, he started asking more and more questions, and well, I started to explain the basics of geography to him, one thing led to another, and er, I may have eventually let it slip that the world is, contrary to immediate appearances, round instead of flat,” Birch explained. “And then, after our little meeting, he started going around the forest, letting everyone know about the amazing fact he discovered...”

“So some of the forest Pokemon learned that the world is round. So what?”

Feeling good about that “genocidal civil war” prediction there.

The zigzagoon scoffed. “Is she one of your students? It seems you must have taught her poorly...”

“Er, well, she’s not exactly my student per se...” Birch mumbled. “But to answer your question, May, the problem is that zigzagoon’s evolved form, linoone, has a psychological compulsion to only run in straight lines. As soon as they began to believe that the ground they were running on was not a flat plane, but rather a large sphere, they became completely incapable of any kind of movement, since they thought that whichever way they ran, they’d always be running in a path that curved at least very slightly.”

May:
794.png

Birch: “Trust me, I said that at first too, and yet here I am getting chased around by this little bugger out for my blood.”
:uhhh:


May stared incredulously. “Seriously? I thought that thing about linoones was just a myth.”

Yes, seriously. As the knowledge started to spread, more and more of the evolved members of my species began to become totally paralyzed. Without the guidance and protection of our elders, our numbers began to dwindle as predators started to pick us off, one by one. We became afraid to fight back, lest we gain enough experience to evolve and become paralyzed as well.”

b4f.jpg


Just all move to Galar where your gimmick is being KISS knockoffs instead.

Professor Birch was gathering up the papers he’d dropped earlier. “But I have a plan to change all that! See, several years ago, I ran into a version of myself from another universe, where they’d developed a technology that employed infinity energy to travel between dimensions,” he explained. “Supposedly the technology had originally been developed to re-route a meteor headed towards their planet to us, but luckily, they managed another way to solve their problem. The other Birch had come to warn me about any similar uses of the dimension-shifting technology that might occur, but when I told him about the issue I had created with the linoones, he mentioned of hearing about a strange world called ‘Earth’ where people believed very strange things.

[ ]

One of those things was that their planet was actually a flat disc rather than a sphere. So, I traveled the dimensions in search of this Earth, and eventually was able to reach this land. I then tracked down the so-called ‘Flat Earth Society’ and acquired some of their literature, which I have here,” Birch said, gesturing at the documents he was holding. “I believe that if I can adapt this material to our world, I’ll be able to convince the linoone that the world is flat again, thus ending the crisis.”

Oh, so Birch is literally on earth right now. I knew that I wasn’t tripping about the ‘Grand Canyon’ bit.

That said, this paragraph is really dense. Enough so that you probably want to chop it up into a couple pieces and drop in some description as transition.

The zigzagoon scoffed. “It’s hopeless. I’ve already tried everything I could think of to convince afflicted linoone that the world wasn’t round.”

May: “Have you considered just head-butting trees really really hard until you have an ever so minor case of serious brain damage?”
:gardexhausted:

Zigzagoon: “Look, we need amnesia, not brain damage.

“I think you underestimate quite how creative us humans can be when it comes to thinking up elaborate reality-denying conspiracies,” Birch said. “Have you tried telling them that if our planet was really a sphere, sailors would bring globes with them since that would be the best model, but since they bring flat maps that proves that a flat planet must be the best model? Or what about pointing out that it’s still possible to see the North star on the so-called ‘Southern hemisphere’ of the planet?”

May: “... I can already tell my head’s going to hurt from this afterwards.” >.<
Birch: “Ah-ah-ah! Hear me out Flesh-May!”
May: “Stop calling me that!”
:seviAAAAAAAAAAA:


“Hmmm…. I’ll grant that some of that might work in their world, but our world has a successful space program! How are we to explain away that?” the zigzagoon asked.

“Actually, Earth does have a successful space program!” Birch said.

Zigzagoon: “But then doesn’t that imply that earth is also round-?”
Birch: “
dsmGaKWMeHXe9QuJtq_ys30PNfTGnMsRuHuo_MUzGCg.jpg

Remember, Earth being flat is covered up by a conspiracy…”

“So let me guess, these flat-earth people claim it’s all a massive conspiracy to cover up the truth that the world isn’t round?” May asked.

“No, that’d be ridiculous. See, because they’ve never really been to space before, they don’t know the truth that the world is flat, so that’s why they keep showing it as round in all their faked media!”

“What.”

May: “I’m… gonna need a drink after all of this.” >_>;

“Hmm… maybe I really have underestimated the humans of this world...” the zigzagoon muttered.

May crossed her arms. “Look, I don’t have much time left before the portal back to our world is going to close. And it sounds to me like you were just as responsible as Birch in causing the linoone-extinction disaster I somehow never heard about before. And he’s very obviously sorry about the whole thing and he’s literally traveled across universes to try to fix it. So I want you to forgive him, and then we can all go home.”

Zigzagoon:
bdd.jpg

May: “Kyogre’s Fins, don’t make me break out the Quick Balls here.” >_>;
Birch: “Considering how long we’ve been talking I’m pretty sure those wouldn’t-”
May: “Fine, Timer Balls. Whatever!” >.<

“You can’t just order to me forgive the man I’ve spent my entire life seeking revenge on!” the zigzagoon protested.

“Fine. Then we’ll leave without you. Come on, Birch,” she said, turning to leave.

“Er, okay,” he said, putting away the Flat-Earth society papers and following after her.

Birch: “... Wait, I could’ve just walked off from the Zigzagoon like that all this time?” ^^;
May: “... Yes…?
:gardexhausted:


“No! My revenge will not be ignored! Die!” The zigzagoon charged at Birch once more.

May rolled her eyes, then stepped in front of the professor. The zigzagoon slammed into her leg, and May collapsed to the ground, moaning in exaggerated pain. “Oh no, you totally defeated me! You won the battle!”
Zigzagoon: “Wait, I… did?
:bulbuhhh:


“Ha! Now you’re next, Mr. Birch- wait! What’s happening to me!” the zigzagoon cried as a bright white light consumed his body. His form elongated and his claws grew out, and then the light faded away to reveal the form of a linoone.

What- no! NOOOOOOOO!” he called out, suddenly finding himself frozen in place, unable to take a single step for fear of traveling in a non-straight line. “All that experience I gained searching for Mr. Birch – the trail of corpses I left behind – how could I have been so blind? How could I have overlooked how close I was to evolving!? And how could you have known?”

May: “Dude, your species evolves at Level 20. I’ve gotten Pokémon past that point by having them play peanut gallery to my latest Hoenn League challenge.” >_>;

"Simple. I scanned you with my Pokedex earlier." May got to her feet, glaring down at the pathetic creature. “Oh, and by the way, just in case you manage to convince yourself that this world is really flat, did you know that gravity actually causes a curvature in space-time, so even then you still wouldn’t be moving in straight lines? Just thought you might want to chew on that for a while.”

Linoone: “...” @.@
May: “Yeah, I think we’re done here. Come on, Birch.”

“That was really mean, May,” Birch said, although he looked rather relieved at having finally eluded the pursuit of the small furry creature.

“Eh, we can always come back for him later. Find some sort of ‘flat space-time society’ somewhere”, she said.

And as the two humans walked into the portal that would bring them back to their home dimension, Professor Birch’s last day on the planet Earth finally came to an end.

Linoone: “Wait, you can’t just leave me here-!”
May + Birch:
giphy.gif


Well, that was quite a ride there, @The Walrein . Like I get that you have a bit of a brand for absurdist humor in your writings, but you still managed to catch me off-guard at a few points, and made me chuckle to boot. I won’t harp too hard on this story since it’s cut from a very “crackfic” mold, but I do think that it had a bit of a small issue with “giant wall of text” paragraphs in a couple parts. Unless if Birch is meant to be very deliberately motor-mouthing those parts (which should be made a bit more explicit), it probably makes sense to break those paragraphs up into a few smaller and more digestible ones.

Though even with a few quibbles, I thought it was a nice “brain-off” piece, and it has some delightful humor in places. Looking forward to seeing a few of your other stories from a more recent vintage, since thus far, they’ve been pretty reliable at putting big, doofy smiles on my face as a reader. ^^
 
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