Joey awoke on what appeared to be a beach.

“What the hell happened?” Joey moaned. He didn’t know where he was but judging by the fact that there was sand and the smell of sea water, he assumed that he and the other guys arrived at their destination, but where were those bastards and why didn’t he remember the trip getting here.

Joey shook off all the sand that covered a portion of his body and gazed in all directions for any signs of his bandmates. “Chris! Lance! Get your asses over here! This isn’t funny!”

When no one answered, Joey rolled his eyes and started searching. He went the whole beach along, looked under every rock to find the guys. He screamed their names and that they should come out. But there was no response.

Finally Joey gave up. He was wondering where he was. He has never seen this place, but there are hundreds of places in the whole world he had never seen before. Even if he was a superstar and even if he toured all over the world with the guys... But how could he come from his house in Orlando to this beach. This wasn’t the one in Florida that was sure.

Maybe the guys tricked him. They gave him soporific and Joey dreamed this black whole shit. That would explain everything. And then they brought him to this unknown beach part. These idiots…

“Justin? Josh?! I found out which game you are playing… Come out!” Joey waited 5 more minutes but again there was no answer.

Fine, these boys liked playing jokes on him but he wasn’t going to let it get in the way of him enjoying the feel of cool water washing away the hours of perspiration from his body. He removed his boots and cap and made his way to the calm water, spattering it on himself without getting drenched.

The cool water was just what he needed. After the stress with searching the guys and this weird nightmare. Joey moaned quietly, when he felt the cool water at his body. Yep, this was definitely a good idea!

It was there that he felt something brushing against his leg, startling Joey from his moment of relaxation. A rather large orange fish was swimming around him. But it had a weird form. It looked like a Siamese fighting fish with white fins and… a yellow mustache?

Anyways, as long as the fish didn’t do anything to Joey, it was fine that he was there.

“Oh, hey little fishy fishy.” The fish’s face emerged from the surface and discharged a stream of water into Joey’s eyes. Joey lost his balance because first the fish attacked him surprisingly and second, even if just a fish discharged a stream of water, this stream was pretty vigorous.

“Fuck! That’s worse than Chris’s super soaker gun. You’re gonna get it! It’s been three hours since I had anything to eat and I’m itching for some seafood. Would you like to become my fish sandwich or fish burger?”

He trotted in the direction of the pesky fish, trying to get a grasp of it but failing as its tail smacked him in the face and its scaly body slipped through his fingers. Argh, this was futile. Frustrated, he threw a nearby rock at it and gave up his efforts at catching his meal, but not before the fish began illuminating a strange glow and grew two… four… more than ten times its original size.

“Okay, I apologize, Mr. Fish. I’ll be leaving now to be on the lookout for my friends.” He sprinted as quickly as one could through the half meter high water to get back to shore, gazing back for a second to behold an enormous blue dragon making its way towards him. “Help! Someone! Shit!”

Before the dragon could swallow him whole, Joey heard a kid yelling, “Get out of the water, mister. I’ll help you.” Joey saw that the boy was accompanied by a redheaded girl, some other dude, and a large yellow, uh, rodent? Joey’s foot made it onto sand, prompting the kid to command his creature, “Pikachu, use your thunder shock at the Gyarados!”

“Piiikaaa-CHUUUUU!!!” a shining bolt of electricity emanated from the rodent’s body in the direction of the sea creature which was only magnified by the water conducting the electrical charge, scaring the dragon off into the depths of the ocean.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he approached the three strangers, “Uh, thanks kid. My ass owes you one.”

Now Joey took his time to look particularly at the three kids. The one, who’s Chinchilla helped him was about 1,65 meters tall and looked pretty young. Maybe the puberty took it’s time with the poor guy. He had a red cap and short black hair under it. He wore a black shirt with an open blue vest and a jeans completed the outfit with white shoes.

The second guy had darker skin and looked older. He was about 1,75 meters tall. He had brown hair and a yellow shirt with a green vest. He wore grey jeans and blue shoes.

And there was a third person, a girl. She had red hair and blue eyes and actually she had a beautiful smile… if she wasn’t 12 years old? She wore a yellow shirt and hot pants in jeans-blue.

“Hi, I’m Ash Ketchum, these are my pals Misty and Brock, and this little guy is my trusty companion, Pikachu.”

Joey took a few more breaths to relax from his shock with this dragon-fish thing.

 “Hey, I’m Joey. Nice to meet you. Can you tell me what this giant fish wanted from me? First it was red and had these creepy big eyes, then it attacked me and when I defended myself it grew and wanted to eat me! This is so creepy!”

”Ehmm… that was a Gyarados.” Brock said.

“Gyros? Oh I love gyros…”

“No” Ash said laughing. “A Gyarados. That’s a Pokémon.”

“A Poké-what?”

“You have never heard of Pokémon? Where did you grow up? On a lonely island?” Misty said.

“Ehmm… no I grew up in Brooklyn.”

“Is that in Jotho?”

Joey looked confused at Brock. “Why the hell should I live in a Yoyo?”

Ash started to laugh and Misty joined him pretty fast. Brock shook his head with a big smile on his face and sat down on the sand. “We should make a break and Joey can tell us, what happened to him.”

“Maybe he lost his memories…” Ash whispered into Brock's ear.

“I can hear you Cash and no I didn’t lose my memories. Everything is still in here.” Joey pointed at his head and laughed together with Ash.

“I like you” Ash said and Pikachu sat right next to Ash down.

“Actually I was worried I wouldn’t find anyone in these parts. Have any of you seen four guys around? They should be around here, unless they left me here alone and drove off somewhere. They’re all around my age, well, except Chris. He’s the old man of the group but you wouldn’t tell if you hung around him for more than a minute.”

“No I’m sorry” Misty replied. “We just came out of the forest and the first person we saw was you.”

“Oh ok… Speaking of age, how old are you fellas?”

“Uh, ten years old”, Ash replied.

“Ten? Shouldn’t you be in school or something? Where are your parents?”

“School? What’s that? Listen, Mister, I’m scouring the region to become the number one ranked Pokémon master and I’m not getting back home until I come home with the Indigo Pokémon League trophy. I only need few more badges to qualify for the upcoming tournament. Now, if you excuse me, we’re headed to Saffron City to get my Marsh Badge.”

 “Oh really? Can I come with? Maybe I’ll find my friends along the way or at least find a phone to find my way home.”

“Ash, we wanted to make a break, did you forget that? We are hungry and the Pokémon need a break. Look at Pikachu.”

“Yeah you are right. We make a little break and then we can all go together to Saffron City.”

Misty was apprehensive of letting this older stranger tag along with them. Sure, he had a benign smile, but they couldn’t trust anyone these days. What if he were a Pokémon poacher or a flunky from Team Rocket. “Ash, can we really trust this guy?”

“Don’t be uptight, Misty.  Keep this up and no guy will ever want to marry you.”

“What did you say?! I swear, when you pay me back for my bike that you destroyed, I’m heading back to join my sisters at the Cerulean gym.”

“Okay, lovebirds. Break it up you two. We better hurry with eating and get to the nearest city by sundown. This guy seems nice enough. He doesn’t appear to have anything but clothes on his back. We’ll just take him to the Pokémon station and be on our way”, Brock seemed to be the mediator of the bickering pair.

“You’re welcome to follow us, Joey. I know you’ll find someone you recognize there.”

“Lead the way, kiddo. I’m not familiar at all with this turf.” Joey and the others started to cook some stuff from the food Brock had in his bag pack. “So, can anyone tell me what the hell that creature was? One moment, it was a stupid fish and the next it morphed into some big-ass sea dragon. And how’d you teach your chinchilla to do that trick with the zapping? Dude, that was awesome.”

Ash turned around in confusion, “Huh, Chinchilla? Pikachu’s a mouse-type Pokémon. As for the Pokémon you were being chased by back there, I’ll look it up on my Pokédex.” He took out a little electronic booklet from his pocket, pressed a few buttons till it showed a picture of the menacing dragon and spoke in a monotonous prerecorded voice, “Gyarados, water-type, also known as the Atrocious Pokémon. It evolves from Magikarp and attacks with “Dragonbreath and Dragon Rage.”

“Does that answer your question, Joey?” Ash looked up to the taller man.

“Oh is that what that thing was. Yeah, that’s what I thought it was”, Joey fibbed. He didn’t want to pester the gang with any more questions after realizing how ridiculous he was sounding to them. He had strong inkling that he wasn’t in Florida anymore. The last thing he’d want was to be ditched by Ash’s group and lost in the middle of this strange place. 

“It seems like you really have no idea of Pokémon…” Misty said quietly.

“How should I? This was the first time I saw one.”

“But how could you live without seeing any Pokémon?” Brock asked friendly.

“Actually, when I tell you my story, you will think I’m crazy… it’s too distracting to understand.”

“Try to” Ash said with a big smile on his face.

“Ehmm, ok.” Joey told the guys all what happened. Some background stuff like the *NSYNC thing and that black whole thing.

“So... you fell into a black whole and now you are here?” Misty raised an eyebrow.

Joey sighed. He knew they wouldn’t believe him. He watched the Pikachu thing and the other Pokémon, while they were playing on the grass.

“I think you say the truth.” Ash said.

“WHAT?” Misty couldn’t believe what Ash just said. She made a real funny face, when she heard it.

“Sure. In this world nothing is impossible. I trust Joey and I’m sure he told the truth.”

“Thanks” Joey said smiling.

“But how do you want to come into your own universe?”

Joey sighed. “I have no idea.”

Before all four guys could think of a solution a thick mist of gas appeared and encased the guys. All had to cuff because of the gas and closed their eyes.

When the mist was away, they saw a man, a girl and a cat standing there with the Pikachu in their arms.

“Prepare for trouble/and make it double/to protect the world from devastation/to unite all people within our nation/to denounce the evil of truth and love/to extend our reach to the stars above..."

“JESSE”, a lady showing herself whom Joey thought could be hot if she didn’t have ridiculously long red hair.

“JAMES”, a young blue-haired man approached from the other side.

“Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light! Surrender now or prepare to fight”, the two aggressors finishing their bizarre speech.

“Meowth, that’s right! Now hand over your Pikachu”, the talking cat appeared alongside the two campy weirdoes. “Looks like the twerps have company.”

“Who are they? Some traveling circus act”, Joey asked Brock.

“That’s Team Rocket. They’re always up to no good.”

“You’re not getting your sticky hands anywhere near my Pikachu!”

“We already have it. And you won’t get it back.” Jessie laughed out loud, still holding the Pikachu in her arms.

“Hey Cash” Joey said. “Can’t you do that electric trick with this Pikachu again?”

Ash smiled brightly. “Sure. Pikachu, Thunder Shock Attack!”

“Piiiiiikaaaaachuuuuuuuu.”

The guys all got a shock by Pikachu and let it fall.

Out of nowhere, a round pink creature with pointed ears popped out of nowhere and began singing.

“Oh no, it’s a Jigglypuff! Let’s get outta here!,” yelled Meowth. The other members of Team Rocket also panicked at the sight of it. 

“Why are those guys freaking out? Is that another one of those Polka-mon? Is it dangerous?”

“Cover your ears, Joey. Don’t listen to its lullaby”, Misty warned.

Then Jigglypuff started to sing. Even if Misty warned them, all guys were about to sleep.

When they woke up it was already night. Joey opened his eyes and looked around him. When he saw the faces of the others, he had to laugh pretty loudly.

The others woke up too and looked confused at Joey. “Why are you laughing so loud?” Ash said still tired.

“You should see your faces!” Joey said grinning.

“Yours is colored too…”

“What?” Joey jumped up and tried to get the black color away from his face.

“We can do that later guys. We wanted to reach the next city, before its night and now it’s dark. We should go on. We aren’t safe in nature by night.”

All agreed. Quietly they went away, letting Team Rocket sleep, and walked along the beach to reach the next city.