Chapter 1
Charity
Everything burned. That’s all Charity could think about. She was in agony as she woke up, tears streaming down her face as she looked at her surroundings, lying in a bed in a large white room.
“Hospitial,” Charity remembered the name as she stared at the pink creature sitting on the small chair next to her in bewilderment, unable to recognize it. She tried to remember anything as the creature looked at her, but aside from her name, nothing more came to mind.
“Oh, you woke up.” the creature spoke, sounding a bit uncomfortable, “I…”
A man came in, and Charity stared at him, hopeful for answers. She felt a wave of confusion as he spoke, his words sounding alien to her. He stopped, staring at her.
“I… I don’t understand!” Charity cried out, causing the man to start. He said something quietly to himself as he left the room, leaving Charity and the creature alone.
“He’ll be right back,” the pink creature tilted their head thoughtfully, “You can’t understand him and he can’t understand you. Yet you can understand me…”
“Do… do you have a name?” Charity tried to speak to them, hoping to distract herself. Her body ached, “Why am I here?”
“I don’t have a name, but you can call me Audino,” Audino responded curtly, “And you fell into a pack of Houndour and Houndoom. Scared them pretty badly, and got some nasty burns.”
“Oh.” Charity thought for a bit, “My name is Charity. Maybe we can come up with a name for you?”
“Have any in mind?”
Charity thought for a moment, “Audrey?”
Audino snorted, “Because of the Aud? Pass.”
Charity, forgetting her burns, tried to think of names. Not many came to mind as she mused. She felt a bit panicked, “I don’t remember any other ones.”
“That’s fine,” Audino pulled back the blanket and Charity stared at the raw, reddened skin, peeling away in spots, “They got you good.”
Charity gave a slight gasp as Audino’s paws shimmered with a gold and pink light, soothing the burns. She felt herself beginning to relax, the burning pain dulling as she closed her eyes. With that she nodded off once again.
Clark
One year ago
Clark stared at the black screen of the phone excitedly. Soon that would be his home and life. Helping trainers keep organized and on top of things, with the added bonus of being cared for.
“I’ll be able to see all sorts of Pokemon and learn all about them,” he mused excitedly, “I can’t wait!”
As he buzzed around, watching trainers choose phones and Rotoms, he wondered what sort of trainer would take him in.
–
It had been a week since the release and Clark was still waiting on someone to choose him. A lot of trainers, he noted, already had Rotoms.
“It’s good to see plenty of Rotoms getting love,” he pondered, “Though I want a chance to help!”
As the store closed and he was yet again let behind, he decided if he wasn’t going to be chosen, he could at least take some time to practice his phone working skills. No use in getting rusty. As he darted into his phone to power it on, he felt a wave of pride. Followed by confusion.
“Is that… a Porygon?” he stared at the screen as a small round pixelated feline with orbs serving as the mane appeared, “There’s no way… right?”
Whatever they were, they seemed frightened at the sudden activation of the phone, so he quickly sent a message to them, reassuring them he was just testing the phone.
“What’s your name and are you a Porygon?” Clark typed as they calmed down, “I’ve seen a few during my internet training days but most were… more birdlike.”
“Processing…” the stranger said, “Name: B3T4; Species: Porygon2.0-Beta.”
Clark had no idea what any of that meant, but he supposed it didn’t matter, “Why are you on my phone? I don’t mind, but Porygon tend to either run their own phones or help with online code, right?”
“Affirmative,” B3T4 agreed, “B3T4 is… different, does not wish to be a normal Porygon. Code is damaged due to incompatibility.”
“Well…” Clark thought for a moment. “I can help with that, I suppose. I’m waiting for a trainer and well… it’s part of my job to take care of this phone. We can make an app to hide you in for now and work from there, on fixing your incompatibility. Just let me do some research on the Safarizone, okay?”
Clark opened the browser and began to work on googling what to do. He may not have been trained to code, but he was willing to learn to help out. Besides, the Porygon was respectful, and hadn’t made a mess. He remembered the situation in his training with a PorygonZ darkly, the phone being unusable after that.
“As long as they’re respectful, things will be okay,” Clark thought.
–
And things went swimmingly. While phones were purchased, his phone went untouched. By day he watched and waited to see if anyone would choose it, by night, he took time to help B3T4 and chat with them.
Clark learned so much from B3T4, about the early days of the internet. He had run away from Silph Corporation due to backlash at his model and design. As research continued, B3T4 suggested DucklettDucklettGo as Clark’s default search engine. It had features to keep the research more private, which would be important once a trainer came into play.
“I’m sure it’ll happen any day now.” Clark mused as the Christmas rushes arrived, buying gifts for their kids, “Surely someone will want a new Rotom and phone model.”
But it didn’t happen. Clark soon found more months had passed and he went from the newest model to the discounted model. He heard the shopkeeper talking about returning him to the factory. As he began to mentally prepare himself for failure, someone showed up.
They were dressed so formally, they must have recently gotten out of work. He watched them, as they walked past the newer models to stare at him.
“Do you think you’d be able to help someone who knows nothing of this world,” they questioned.
Clark had never had someone ask him a direct question, and he wondered how someone wouldn’t know anything. He pondered the question, before nodding. They smiled as they grabbed his phone and went up to the checkout. Clark felt relief at that. He was finally going home.
The man spoke to Clark of a hurt child, one that couldn’t speak to him, one that needed a way to talk. He noted the Audino they had found with the child, one that was insistent on coming with, seemed capable of understanding her based on her reaction to what the girl had said.
Clark listened to every word without interrupting, taking notes as he listened. He noted the girl had not given her name, was burned by territorial Houndoom, and assessed she was probably scared and confused. When they arrived at the room, they found the child asleep. Gently, the man placed Clark down on the bedside, causing the Audino to shoot them a curious look.
“This Rotom agreed to try to help,” the man’s words cause a wave of pride in Clark, “He’s been very diligent.”
As he left, Clark decided to talk to B3T4 about making his real form similar to a plush to comfort the child. B3T4 assessed the idea before agreeing to it, telling him that making his physical form a plush should prevent people from noticing him as much. With his affirmation, Clark set to work.