In the Pokémon universe , Tim Goodman is a 21-year-old insurance adjuster who gave up his dream of being a Pokémon trainer following the death of his mother and becoming estranged from his father Harry Goodman. Tim is contacted by the police of Ryme City, a city where humans and Pokémon live together in harmony; catching and battling Pokémon is outlawed. He's informed that his father died in a car accident. Tim goes to Harry's apartment to sort things out and meets a deerstalker -clad Pikachu that can talk and be understood by him, though all others simply hear him say "Pika." Tim accidentally releases a mysterious purple gas, "R," from a vial he finds in Harry's office; they are then attacked by a party of Aipom {{efn|name=plural|As written in the "Name" section of the main Pokémon article, "'Pokémon' is identical in the singular and plural , as is each individual species name; it is grammatically correct t...