PMP 28: Eterna city

Soon, the trio was out of the forest and at the outskirts of Eterna city. Mitsumi stopped to let Momi off of Rotom. Although she seemed a little shaken at first, she was better quickly.

“All right, Mitsumi,” said Momi, “To thank you for your help, I want you to have this.”

From a pocket in her bag, Momi took a blue, rectangular device. She handed it to Mitsumi, who looked at it curiously.

“What is this?” Mitsumi asked.

“It’s a Battle Recorder,” said Momi, “You can record battles with it to watch whenever you want. You can also use it to send e-mails, and to send battles to friends. A… friend… of mine gave a few to me, since his father makes them. But I don’t really need two, so I want you to have this one.”

Mitsumi had never heard of a Battle Recorder before, so she put it in her bag. Maybe it would prove useful in the future?

“I’ll see you around, Mitsumi,” said Momi, “Maybe one day we’ll meet again.”
Momi began to walk off in the direction of what Mitsumi assumed was the Eterna gym. Or the Pokémon Center. Probably the latter. Mitsumi and Rotom looked at each other.

“Okay,” said Mitsumi, “Let’s see where the Pokémon Center is.”

Mitsumi took the town map out of her bag and booted it up. The Pokémon center wasn’t far: in two blocks, turn right, down one block, turn left, and it looked like the first building on the left.

“Rotom,” said Mitsumi, “Go forward two blocks. Turn right when I tell you to, okay?”

“Rotom!” said Rotom. The plasma Pokémon began racing off down the street.

Although the Pokémon world had a distinct absence of cars, the roads in the major cities Mitsumi had visited were paved. Mitsumi assumed this was for bicycles rather than motor vehicles, but you never know.

As Rotom rolled along, they passed an odd blue building. It was tall and sinister, with a white dome on top and a yellow ring surrounding it, almost like a planet’s ring… Mitsumi wondered what it was, but only had time to wonder a moment.

“Okay… here! Turn right here!” said Mitsumi. Rotom turned a tight corner and kept on chugging. People who were walking were giving them strange looks, but Mitsumi shrugged them off. It took about thirty seconds to reach the next turn.

“Okay, turn left!” said Mitsumi, “We’re going to the second building on the left!”
Rotom turned and slowed to a stop in front of the second building on the left. It had a red roof, white walls and a big neon P above the door. Mitsumi dismounted Rotom and made to go inside. Rotom followed her curiously.

Once inside, Mitsumi approached the counter. A Chansey stood alone behind it. It was a pink Pokémon shaped sort of like an egg. Mitsumi took the three Pokéballs containing her Pokémon out of her bag and put them on the counter.

“Where’s the nurse?” she asked.

“Here,” said a voice. It was certainly not a voice expected of most nurses. A man who was about the same age as the other Pokémon Center nurses came from a door leading to the rest of the center. He had short pink hair and kind blue eyes. He sort of resembled the other nurses. Sort of.

“I’m Jonathan. Do you need me to heal your Pokémon?” he said.

“Y-yeah…” said Mitsumi. Jonathan took her Pokémon and put their Pokéballs on the healing machine. He then turned and looked curiously at Rotom.

“Hey… that one too?” he asked. Mitsumi nodded and took a Pokéball from her bag.

“Okay, Rotom,” she said, “I’ll have to keep you in this for now. But when we’re on the road, you don’t have to be inside it. Sound fair?”

“Rotom!” said Rotom. The Pokéball opened, and Rotom was sucked inside. Mitsumi handed it to Jonathan, who put it on the machine with the others.

“So, are there other…” began Mitsumi, “I mean, I didn’t think Pokémon Centers could be manned by guys…”

“There must be, somewhere,” laughed Jonathan, “This might be the only one in Sinnoh, though. Originally I was going to explore a far away place with my father, but he left on short-term notice and hasn’t been back yet, so I decided to take up caring for Pokémon with my mom. It’s really rewarding, and I don’t think a lot of guys realize that.”

“Oh,” said Mitsumi. Her Pokémon were finished healing, and Jonathan gave them back. She thanked him before heading over to the videophone. Not long after that, she had Professor Rowan on the line.

“Mitsumi!” he said, “I wasn’t expecting a call from you! What’s up?”

“Can Rotom…. Does it have… multiple forms?” asked Mitsumi. The professor looked a little taken aback.

“Of course not,” said Rowan, “Why would you ask such a silly question?”

“Well…” said Mitsumi. She let Rotom’s Pokéball open. It came out in its normal form and looked at the professor with interest.

“Rotom,” she said, “change forms.”

Rotom didn’t do anything at first. Then it noticed that a fan was standing in a corner of the room. Rotom changed into its fan-like form and went to float near the fan.
Professor Rowan was speechless.

“It has other forms, not just that one,” said Mitsumi, “So far it’s been a lawn mower and a fridge too, but something tells me there are more.”

“Mitsumi,” said Rowan, “May I borrow your Rotom? I will need to analyze it and compare it to the two Rotom we have here at the lab. I have never seen a Rotom capable of changing forms.”

“Um…” said Mitsumi. Rotom floated over to see what was going on.

“We’ll give it back as soon as we have discovered what is triggering the transformation,” said Rowan, “Don’t worry.”

“Well…” said Mitsumi, “Okay.”

“If you’ve never deposited a Pokémon before,” said the professor, “Simply put its Pokéball on the tray next to the phone, and it will be sucked into the tube above it and transported to me.”

“Right,” said Mitsumi, “Rotom, you’re going to spend some time with the professor. Be nice to him, okay?”

Rotom transformed into its lawn mower form and motioned for Mitsumi to hop in. Mitsumi knelt down so she could be at its level.

“I’ll see you again soon. I promise,” she told it. She then gave it a big hug before recalling it to its Pokéball. She put the red-and-white sphere on the tray as indicated by the professor, and Rotom was transported away.

“Thank you,” said Rowan, “We’ll get to the bottom of this quickly. Contact us often, since we have no way of keeping in touch with you from here.”

“I will. See you, Professor.”

Mitsumi then hung up. She tried not to be too sad about it. The way that the professor made it sound, this was probably a major discovery.

“Well, let’s see what there is to do in Eterna city,” said Mitsumi. She opened up the town map and zoomed in on Eterna city. There was a gym, of course, a mart, the name rater’s house, the underground man, and a statue from a long time ago. The statue caught her eye. Maybe it would be interesting?

“Let’s go see,” said Mitsumi. She walked out of the Pokémon Center en route to the statue.