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Brutaka

Ignition

Posts: 8
Pronouns: Any

Thunderstruck May 13, 2020 8:50:21 GMT

Post by Brutaka on May 13, 2020 8:50:21 GMT

Warnings: Going to rate this as T just to be safe. There's mentions of death, but not really explored, and some fairly standard pokemon battle violence. Possible sad vibes at times. Possible very sad vibes at times. Very mild language.

Hello, everyone. My name is Brutaka, or Bru for short. This is a reworking of an unfinished fic I started almost 8 years ago. Will I finish it this time? Arceus only knows! That said, things are slightly different this go around, as I've decided to meld a few fic ideas together that I've had over the years. Basic summary: Boy named Shane is attacked and wakes up as a pachirisu and quickly meets a quirky shiny emolga named April. Shenanigans and a slowly blossoming relationship ensue.

Chapter 1

Rude Awakening

“Wake up, child.”

A voice sounded in my head, bouncing between the walls of my skull. I groaned and tried to move, but everything felt plain wrong. I wondered what had happened. Why was laying I on the ground? If I could just move my arms… I groaned again, and this time, I felt my body shudder, and then my arm twitched. Just a little more… I thought, and I tried to move once more. I managed to pull my right arm towards my chest, sliding it across the dirt, and pushed up against the ground. After a few moments of struggling, I did the same with my left. But then I found that stretching out my arms barely lifted my body off the ground. Now truly concerned, I forced my eyes open, and my heart skipped a beat. My arms were white. Not just a peachy complexion - that would have been normal - but white like paper. On top of that, they were stubby, and ended with what looked like paws. They certainly weren’t human hands.

My heart was going a mile a minute while my mind tried desperately to reconcile what my eyes were seeing to what I thought reality was. I needed to get a better look at myself, so I attempted to stand. A brief moment later, I did manage to get my feet under myself, but my head was so heavy. Why was it this heavy? I took a deep breath and jerked my head up and backwards, allowing the motion to carry me to a standing position. I wobbled briefly, and I almost fell forward again, but I remained upright. Something on my lower back was pulling me backwards and counteracting the weight of my head. Carefully, so as to not knock myself over after coming this far, I turned to see a massive appendage sprouting from my body. It was bigger than I was, extremely floofy, and was swirled in on itself. Three tufts of fur sprouted like spikes from the tip of it. I knew what it was. It was a tail, and not only that, a tail belonging to a pachirisu. Except it belonged to me. Which meant that I was the pachirisu. But why-

“Oh good, you’re up. I was getting worried there.”

The voice from before broke me from my thoughts. “Wh-who’s there?” I called out, looking around. I was in a forest, and was surrounded by absolutely massive trees and bushes. But there was no sign of anyone else, human, pokemon, or otherwise. As far as anyone could tell, I was alone.

“There’s no one here but you, Shane. I’m far, far away, so I’m speaking to you telepathically.”

That didn’t answer anything. I groaned in frustration, and I looked down at my new form. It still didn’t feel like it was me that I was looking at, but when I moved my arm, it was the pachirisu’s arm that moved. I could feel the soft fur that coated my body like a warm blanket, and how nice it felt in the small beams of sunlight filtering down from the canopy. And I could feel the large tail that I now had, and how it was practically begging me to sway it idly. I was a pachirisu, but why?

“Well, that one’s for you to answer. See, when I rescued you and pulled you into this world, your old body had been destroyed. So the world created a new one for you, based on the color of your soul. This pokemon must have been the one that fit the best.”

I paused to consider that. A common tree-dwelling rodent? What did that say about who I really was? After a few moments, the rest of what the voice had said registered and I looked up – still to no one – suddenly. “W-wait! Hold on, are you saying that I’m dead!?” Images began to stir in my brain, as if trying to tell me something, but they were too foggy.

“Well, no, you’re not dead now. But you were dead, yes. Or you were going to be before I pulled your soul away, thus saving you. Now you’re here.”

I wanted to deny it. After all, what had I ever done that would have been so dangerous that I would have died from it? I barely ever left my house. I frowned, suddenly pensive, as I found myself trying to remember what happened. What had I been doing? The memories began to come back, a mere trickle at first, then a flood in earnest. It was dark… A storm? Out of nowhere, it was so strange… There was a flash – lightning, I think – and then… And then nothing.

The voice was right. The events felt unnatural, and I couldn’t dismiss the eerie feeling of wrongness the previous night exuded in my mind, but I couldn’t actually deny what had happened.

“Do… do you always do this to people?” I asked the open air. “Pluck them from their last moments of life and transform them into pokemon? What for?”

“Mm, no. I’ve only done it a few times. For the particularly important ones.”

The idea was ludicrous. “Me? Important? Seems unlikely,” I commented. I had carefully constructed my whole life to be unimportant. There was safety in that. If the voice had any comment to this, it refrained from telling me.

I sighed and looked at my feet. Slowly, I lifted my right foot, and placed it forward. I did the same for my left. Walking was… awkward. There was a waddle to it, brought about by my incredibly stubby legs. I wondered if I was even considered to have legs. Gods above, this is strange. After making it a mere few inches, I sighed loudly again.

“What am I supposed to do, anyway? Is this just my life now? Just, ‘hey, yeah, you’re a pachirisu now, have fun with your new life as a house pet’? Can’t you just turn me back? If you’ve supposedly got enough power to pull souls across dimensions, then surely…” I threw my hands up. “Oh, what’s the point… You obviously did this to me on purpose, you’re not just going to put me back. And I guess, if I’m dead in the other world, then… Well… I have nothing to go back to in the first place.”

A pit began to form in my stomach. Everyone back home thinks that I’m gone. And I guess I was. Tears stung my eyes, and I drew my gaze up from the floor and to the trees above. I took a deep and shuddering breath, then exhaled. With a sniffle, I forced away all those feelings, and tried to think. Well. I guess nothing is going to happen if I just keep standing here talking to some voice in my head like I’m a crazy person. As I watched the leaves sway idly in the gentle breeze, my attention was brought to one branch whose leaves shook intensely for a moment before regaining its normal swaying.

I glared at the spot in the canopy and called out, “I-is someone there?” I waited for a few anxious moments before looking to the other trees for any other movement. Nothing. I involuntarily shivered. If there were wild pokemon out here, I had no way to defend myself. I never even had pokemon of my own, let alone did I have any idea as to how exactly they created their magical attacks. That wasn’t really something they covered on TV.

Just another reason to leave the forest, then. The ground beneath me was well worn, and was not covered in grass like everywhere else. This trail carried on through the winding grove in two directions, and lacking any knowledge of the area, I picked one at random and started to walk. Where could the path lead? Would I find a town? Would there be people there? Human people? If there were, what would I do? Could I still speak my native language? Part of me doubted it. Pokemon didn’t talk. And that’s what I was now. But that also begged the question: did that mean I could talk to other pokemon? That… could be interesting.

My thoughts began to fade, then, as I began to feel ill. The shadows of the trees felt… darker, and there was an unavoidable feeling of foreboding in the air. Dread washed over me. What was this feeling? I could feel my fur stand on end. There was something out there. I don’t know how I knew that, but I did. It was undeniable.

Moments lately, a black and gray blur jumped out of the shrubbery a few feet ahead of me and turned its fierce red eyes to glare at me. It growled with malice, and slobber dripped from its maw. It may have only been a poochyena, but I was just a tiny rodent now and this thing looked like it was out for blood. Still, I was a pokemon now, right? Maybe I could talk to it?

“U-uh, hello? I… don’t want to fight you! If this is your territory or something, I’m sorry, I was just passing through!” I offered cautiously.

If the poochyena could understand me, it certainly didn’t act like it. It crouched low to the ground, growling even louder. Staring into its blood-red eyes, I tried to find some kind of answer, some spark of cognition, but… it was as if no one was home. There was no pensiveness, no decision-making, not even any sign of desperation. It was just angry. And that was somehow even more terrifying. In a quick flurry of legs, the monster bolted straight at me. I shut my eyes and tensed up. Was this it? Was I really going to die? Again?

Instead of feeling the piercing pain of a vicious maw, I flinched as a loud *crack!* sounded in the air, followed by a keening whimper. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes to find the Poochyena slumped on the ground. Its forehead was smoking, and a small, soot-colored starburst pattern was burned onto its fur. Did I do that? It was definitely some kind of electricity that did this, and pachirisu were electric-types. Or at least, I was pretty sure they were. But I couldn’t have done that. Surely I’d have felt something right?

I looked up to the trees again, scanning the branches, until I saw her. Her? I asked myself. I don’t know how I knew that the pokemon was female, but I did. She stood on one of the branches, eyeing me curiously with her copper-colored eyes. She was another rodent, like I was, but a different specific pokemon. Her arms were connected to her sides down to her feet via gliding flaps. Her body was mostly white, but the underside of the flaps were a pale yellow, the same pale yellow that made up the large circle on each of her cheeks. The strange thing was the color of her ears, and the tops of her arms, and her tail. She was an emolga, and from what I remembered, they were supposed to be black there, but she was the same copper-coloring as her eyes. Her fur sparkled and glistened under the small spotlights of sunlight streaming through the canopy. There was something almost magical about it.

I realized then that I had been staring too long, and the emolga gave me a lop-sided smile. “Do you stare at everyone like this?”

I blinked as heat rushed to my face. “U-uh sorry, I didn’t mean to, I just uh…” I didn’t have a good answer.

She flashed a cheeky grin and hopped off the branch. She spread her flaps before landing to break her fall, causing her to touch the ground lightly. She looked me up and down a few times, then tilted her head. “You’re not feral… but you also have no gear, so you’re not any kind of explorer or anything like that… What are you doing out here?”

I didn’t know what to say. Do I tell her the truth? Would it even make any sense? It barely made sense to me, and I’m the one that it happened to. But I was never very good at lying anyway. “I… don’t really know. I woke up out here.”

She squinted at me. “You… ‘woke up’. Okay. I was under the impression that doing that wasn’t possible in a mystery dungeon without ending up like that,” she says, pausing to the gesture at the poochyena, “but sure, we’ll go with it for now. Speaking of, Pachirisu, were you just going to let that thing bite your head off?”

Clearly, she was the one who stopped the attack on him. She downed it was a single blow, too. “W-well, I can’t really fight. I don’t really know how. A-and you can just call me Shane.”

The emolga raised her brow in surprise. “Rrrrrrrreally?” She exhaled incredulously. “Okay, so firstly, you don’t know anything about fighting? Not even a little contact electricity? Children can do that.” Then she paused, as if to choose her words carefully. “And yet… you have a name. How?”

“D-do pokemon not have names?” I asked. I immediately regretted my word choice as what I just uttered played back in my mind. “I-I’m not from around here, you know?” I added hastily.

The girl scoffed. “Right, sure, um, by ‘not from around here’, do you mean another planet? Why do you sound like an alien pretending to be pokemon!?”

The problem was that she wasn’t that far off the mark. I had no idea what was happening or what I was saying. “I guess I’m just tired?” I offered with a shrug and awkward smile.

She stared at me incredulously. “Right. Okay, that’s it, you’re coming with me,” she said, and held out her hand.

“With you?” I asked, staring at her outstretched paw.

“Yes. We’re going to get you out of this forest before you go even more insane, and then I’m going to get Audino to look at your head, because you ain’t right up there,” she explained, and without waiting any longer for me to take her hand, she simply grabbed mine and started to pull me.

I didn’t bother to resist. She seemed like the kind of person that could fold me in half if she wanted to. And rather than put my other foot in my mouth, I opted to stay quiet.

After a few moments, she glanced back at me. “My name’s April, by the way.”

I frowned. “Wait, if having a name is so weird, then why do you have one?” None of this made any sense.

April rolled her eyes. “Names are only for special people. See how my fur is a different color than it’s supposed to be? I have an exotic coloring that’s so rarely seen that I’ve never met another emolga that looks like I do. And I’ve been to a lot of places. Pokemon with rare colorings get names. There are a few other reasons that a pokemon could have a name. Royalty, for one. Which begs the question, Shane… Just who are you, anyway?”

I thought about what to say for a few moments. Ultimately, I decided that keeping my past a secret would make it incredibly difficult to explain my ignorance, and making friends is what I should probably be doing right now, as bad as I was at doing so. “Well… I’m a human, actually. Or, rather, I was. Less so now,” I explained nervously.

April stopped in her tracks. Slowly, she turned to look at me. “Really?” she asked, displaying a mix of curiosity and doubt on her face.

I swallowed and nodded. “Yeah. One moment I was walking home in a storm, and the next moment, I was here. I still don’t really understand why, but there was this voice speaking to me when I woke up and…” I trailed off as April had donned a massive grin. “Wh-why are you so happy?”

Giddily, she gripped my shoulders. “Because this is it! You don’t understand, humans that become pokemon – they’re heroes! They save the day, they become famous, and everyone loves them! And-and I can be your partner! We’ll be famous together!” she shouted happily.

“Um, no thanks. I’m no hero, nor do I want to be. I already died once, apparently. I’m not keen to do it again,” I said dismissively. “Besides, I’m no help to anyone like this.”

April glared at me. It cut through me like a knife through butter. For whatever reason, seeing her upset felt really bad. She huffed. “Well, fine. I’ll just have to be your friend until you come around.” She grabbed my arm again and pulled me forward, eager to resume our walk.

Stumbling to keep up with her pace, I asked, “D-don’t I get a say in this!?”

“No,” she said simply. And that was that. Rather than continue the fight, I succumbed to my fate and let her drag me along. I felt as though I should be more resistant, and it was strange to admit it to myself, but… there was something about this emolga that was almost… comforting. I didn’t know what that meant, and I was somewhat scared of whatever answer I would find if I kept thinking about it, so instead, I focused on the scenery.

There was little comfort to be found among the trees, however, as the now familiar feeling of creeping dread began to set in. My heart rate began to climb, and my fur once again stood on edge. This time, however, the anticipation was crushing. “Um… April…?”

“Oh, trust me, I know,” she commented. She looked around at the trees and bushes, then back to me. “Whatever you do, don’t let them knock you out, okay?” Her tone was deadly serious and her cheeks began to crackle with electricity.

“D-do you expect me to fight!? I have no idea what I’m doing!” I complained emphatically. Just then, in answer to my yelling, our assailants jumped out of the bushes.

We were surrounded by roughly a dozen feral pokemon. There were several types that I could identify - two poochyena, three zigzagoon, two patrat, three pidgey, and a pidove, as well as one pokemon that I didn’t recognize. It was an orange and black quadruped of sorts with a large tail that dragged on the ground behind it.

The first to attack was one of the pidgeys. It cawed loudly and swooped down from the sky in an attempt to divebomb April. April, for her part, merely squinted with focus as electricity blossomed from her cheeks, poured down her arm, and into her paw. She raised her hand and pointed at the bird, and after a few seconds of tracing its flight, she let loose the power with a loud “crack!” The lightning arced from her fingertip and directly into the bird’s chest, blasting it backwards. The pidgey hit the ground with an audible thump.

“Wow,” I muttered, then admitted, “That was… really cool.” Maybe there was something to this whole pokemon thing.

April chuckled. “Thanks, I’ve been practicing,” she called out, before pointing at a patrat that had started charging at her. Another lightning bolt arced from her paw, and it struck the attacker square in the forehead. It was thrown backwards several feet, fur smoking, and rolled somewhat when it landed. It was unconscious.

My fur prickled suddenly, and I turned to see one of the zigzigoons about to take a bite of my tail. I spun around, which succeeded in saving me from getting bit, but it also made me lose my balance and fall on my rear. I locked up as the snarling creature slowly approached me. I still had no idea how to call up any lightning or anything, so I was completely defenseless.

Before it could rear up to try another bite, it was blasted into a nearby tree trunk by another bolt of lightning. “You can’t just sit there! Do something!” April called out.

I turned to look at her as she deftly dodged the bite of a poochyena. Then, she hopped forward and grasped its muzzle with both of her paws, and delivered a massive shock directly into its skull. The quadruped collapsed with barely a whimper.

“I can’t! H-how are you doing all that? What do I do!?” I asked, genuinely frustrated at myself.

“You have to look inside yourself! Find your power!” she explained. Seeing an opportunity, the pidove swooped and pegged April with a glowing beak. She cried out and was thrown back a few inches. Clutching her arm, she glared at the bird with murder in her eyes.

“April! Are you oka-” I began, before I was bullrushed by the orange and black creature. I rolled across the ground from the impact, and shuddered in the dirt for a moment before I tried to get back up. The attacker was slowly approaching, claws glowing.

There was another sharp “crack!” as the pidove was sent flying by more of April’s lightning. She turned to look at me, and, frustrated, charged up more lightning in her paws. But instead of pointing it at my attacker, she pointed it at… me? A moment later, there was another “crack!” as the bolt connected to my torso. Before I could even contemplate the apparent betrayal, I realized that the attack didn’t hurt. Instead, the lightning coursed through my body, charging me as though I were a battery. It felt… amazing. I felt powerful. My senses were suddenly much sharper, and I pulled myself to my feet to face the oncoming pokemon.

The lightning was still traveling around the fur in my body, so I knew if I made contact with the attacker, it should transfer that energy into its body. But my arms were too short, so instead, I did the only other thing I could think of: once the pokemon drew closer, I spun around, slamming my large tail into its head. There was a loud “crack” and crackle of lightning as it was zapped, then it fell to the ground in a smoking pile.

“H-hey! I did it!” I shouted triumphantly. A pidgey fell to the ground some distance away and, looking around, all the rest of the attackers had also been dealt with in the meantime.

April sighed and gave me a tired look. “You… sure did. We’re… going to have to work on that.” She gestured to something behind her, and I noticed that she was wearing a very small pack on her back that was tied around her neck. As she gestured, there was a small burst of light as a large blue berry materialized in her paws.

“Woah, what did you do…? Where’d that come from?” I asked, walking over to her.

She shrugged. “Fancy backpack, is all. It’s got some weird teleport gem stuff in it so I can call things to my hands without having to search for it. Which is good, because that would take too long to be practical. It cost a lot of money to buy, but…” She shrugged casually and then started to trace vertical lines in the berry with her claws. After cutting a piece off, she offered it to me. “Want some? It’ll make you feel better.”

I actually felt fine, surprisingly. April striking me with lightning somehow healed any bruises I may have gotten from being tackled. Still, I decided to take the piece anyway. I figured it would have been rude to deny her generosity, and I was curious besides. It may have just been an oran berry, which I had eaten before as a human, but I distantly remembered someone telling me once that raw berries had special, medicinal effects on pokemon. After looking it over briefly, I bit into one end of the slice. While the bland, somewhat dry taste was exactly as I remembered it, eating it now filled me with such a pleasant warmth that I quickly ate the rest of it.

Looking over at April, I saw her quickly scarfing the rest of the berry with almost unseemly zeal. After she was done, she took a deep breath as she rubbed her injured arm. Then, she smiled, and looked at me. “There, all better! We should get out of this forest before any other ferals get any bright ideas.”

I nodded in agreement and allowed her to take my hand once again.

Last Edit: May 13, 2020 16:18:15 GMT by Brutaka

girl-like-substance

the seal will bite you if you give him half a chance

Posts: 527
Pronouns: xe/xem

Thunderstruck May 13, 2020 22:21:18 GMT

Post by girl-like-substance on May 13, 2020 22:21:18 GMT

Welcome to the forums! It’s good to have you. This is an interesting one; you’ve got your vague body horror scene, a mysterious bold voice that fades out before it can deliver crucial information, a rude awakening in a forest, all the hallmarks of a PMD opening – but there are a few crucial differences. Like, what I really like about this is that Shane’s basically a minor NPC from the pokémon world – he’s just some guy, you know? Doesn’t know much about pokémon, not a trainer, sometimes watches matches on TV, but doesn’t really dabble any deeper than that. Literally right out of the gate, he's incredibly out of his depth, and that seems like a recipe for fun.

Especially because you’ve got April playing the world-weary adventurer to his wide-eyed kid. And I do mean playing, by the way. She swoops in to rescue him because it’s the right thing to do, sure, but like, she is very transparent about the fact that she’s sticking with him out of self-interest and the desire to smash her own name into history so violently that nobody will ever forget it. :V Which, honestly, I can respect. Though it does make me wonder, how common are humans-turned-pokémon in this setting? April swallows his story very quickly and easily. Though perhaps she just wants to believe it a lot, given how swift she is to see advantage in it for herself. She’s not quite the person she wants to come across as – nor perhaps even the one she thinks she is. It’ll be interesting to see how that develops.

Also of note is your take on mystery dungeons, which I’m always interested in because they vary so widely from writer to writer. The way they take hold of you if you pass out there and make you there own reminds me of like, falling asleep under apple trees and getting trapped in fairyland in old stories, you know? There’s something pleasingly folkloric about it. But tempered with a kind of everyday familiarity in the slangy way April talks about it – ‘ferals’, that kind of thing. It’s a nice touch that makes it real.

Anyway! As I said, it’s an intriguing start. I’ll have to check back later to see how it develops!

Last Edit: May 13, 2020 22:22:35 GMT by girl-like-substance

GHOST TOWN | GO HOME
& assorted one-shots

Brutaka

Ignition

Posts: 8
Pronouns: Any

Thunderstruck May 15, 2020 0:18:17 GMT

Post by Brutaka on May 15, 2020 0:18:17 GMT

@girl-like-substance: Thank's so much for taking the time to read what I had! Its always fun to see other people's thoughts on what's happening!

Anyway, onward!

Chapter 2

Salvage Springs

It took some time before any real progress through the forest was made. The paths twisted and turned and broke off in random directions, seemingly intersecting previously explored paths without actually doing so. April didn’t seem confused by this, but she also didn’t know the path by heart despite being obviously familiar with the area. I was thankful that the wild pokemon didn’t seem to show up en masse as before, instead only facing April one on one every now and then. April easily dealt with them as she had every other one so far.

The light peeking through the trees was slowly beginning to turn amber, and I was growing hungry. “Um, hey, April, are we…?”

“Lost?” she answered, completing my question. “No. We’re almost there. It’ll take a while to get used to, but all this going back and forth is how mystery dungeons work. It’s different each time you go through one.”

That didn’t make any sense. “What do you mean?” I asked. Did the trees uproot themselves and rearrange the forest each night?

“The path. It’s moving all the time. It’s moving now, we just can’t see it because we’re currently on top of it. That’s what makes these areas so dangerous. It’s not hard to get lost. And getting lost is the last thing you want to do here. Get knocked out or fall asleep in here, and you don’t have a rescue badge? You start to go crazy. You lose yourself. Eventually, you’re just another feral.” She sighed, but then turned to look at me with a smirk. “But that’s why I’m here.”

“Well, then… I’m glad that you are,” I said genuinely. Realizing that what I said was perhaps a bit too genuine, I added, “You know… So that I don’t go crazy.”

April giggled. “Sure,” she said simply.

If this place was so dangerous, I had to wonder why I was put here. Surely, if I was meant to do something important one day, regardless of whether or not I could, I’d have woken up somewhere not so threatening? Why would whoever did this leave me to die, practically? If not for April, I’d never be able to make it out of here.

“Unfortunately, I had no choice. Mystery dungeons are special in that they are where the dimensional walls are the weakest. I didn’t have the strength to put you anywhere else.”

I grimaced as the voice spoke into my head again. Are you just constantly reading my mind? I thought, careful not to voice my responses and give April even more cause to believe I was insane.

“I will be withdrawing soon. I like to stay in contact with those I save in case they need guidance, but it appears that you are doing well enough now that you’ve made a friend.”

I turned to look at April for a moment. I guess April was my friend. We had only known each other for a few hours now, but… I trusted her more than I cared to admit. I was lost in every sense of the word, and here she was, guiding me to safety. In every sense of the word.

“Look!” She called out. I turned my head to see where she was pointing, and ahead of us, the trees opened up and thinned in number. It was the end of the forest. She pulled me along, reminding me that she had been holding my hand that entire time. I struggled to keep up with her pace as I still had not figured out how to run like this, but soon, we cleared the trees and stepped into the full sunlight.

We were on the edge of a cliff. There were mountains all around us in the distance, but below the cliff in front of us was a small town clustered in the basin. Calling it a town was being generous though, it was really just a village. Even from here, I could tell that the buildings were all huts made of various materials colored with browns, reds, and oranges.

April saw me staring out at the town below. “That’s Salvage Springs. It’s where I live. It’s not much to look at, but…” She suddenly smiled proudly. “It is the only town that has me in it!”

I looked at her with a raised brow. She noticed me looking at her with incredulity and chuckled. With a coy smile, she turned quickly, brushing my nose with the tip of her tail, and she started walking along the cliff’s edge. Only now was I quickly realizing that April was entirely full of herself, but I couldn’t bring myself to be upset by it. After all, now that I’ve seen her fight… maybe she has a right to be. I followed after her, trying to not let her gain too much ground on me.

“Normally, I’d just fly down, but since you’re lacking in the flight category, I’ll take the long road,” she explained. The path she was walking sloped downwards, leading into the valley.

“Thanks…” I muttered. “Sorry to, uh, slow you down…?” I offered.

“Hey, don’t be sorry. I know that everyone can’t be as awesome as I am,” she says haughtily, placing a paw on her chest.

“Do you… talk about anything besides yourself?” I asked.

“Sometimes.” She shrugged. “But I’m my favorite topic, so you should probably get used to it.”

I sighed, wondering what I had gotten myself into. Then again, I didn’t choose any of this, so can I really be blamed? Then again, I could stop following her at any time and just go somewhere else. But I wasn’t going to.

Instead, I decided to look down at the town we were approaching. The buildings weren’t just rust-colored; rather, the buildings seemed to actually be made out of rusted scrap metal. I supposed that meant that the ‘Salvage’ part of ‘Salvage Springs’ was meant to be taken literally. As we made it to ground level, I noticed that the entrance to the town was an archway of sorts and was built out of painted wood and copper-colored bits of metal. It didn’t seem like it was constructed very well, but it was standing, which was impressive in a way.

“What is that?” I asked. “Why does the town have an archway of junk in front of it?”

“Hey, it’s not just junk!” April complained. “It’s… you know, stuff. It’s sort of a representation of the idea the town was founded on. It’s a trash-to-treasure kind of thing.”

“It looks like it’s about to fall over any minute,” I commented with a skeptical tone.

She chuckled. “Don’t breathe on it too hard.” Then she led me under the archway and into the town proper.

The already warm-colors of the buildings were accentuated further by the amber light of the sun beginning to set behind the mountains. Various pokemon appeared to be wrapping up their stands for the day, some that I could recognize, and some that I could not. A pair of bipedal lizards, one green and one purple, were looking over their wares and counting a small pile of gold coins behind a shack with a sign above them bearing their image. The words on the sign were written in strange runes and scratch marks, and after squinting at it, I found that I could actually read it somehow: ‘Kecleon Shop’. That… told me nothing, besides that the two lizards were probably the kecleon. Across the road from them was a quagsire standing in front of a particularly large building. Looking through the door, I saw dozens of shelves full to the brim with all sorts of things: produce, gadgets, scarves, and tons more. Looking at the sign at the base of the counter in front of the building, it read ‘Quagsire Storage’. The simple naming conventions seemed to be a theme here.

There were a few other stalls with an assortment of things, and the wonder of it all hit me suddenly. This was a town inhabited by pokemon and built entirely by pokemon. They didn’t just do that. Not where I came from, anyway. If the voice was to be believed, this was another world from mine, but still… This was amazing. I caught myself smiling, and my tail was swaying slightly.

“Impressed?” April asked, looking at me with a knowing grin.

“Kind of, yeah,” I said honestly. “I never imagined that pokemon could come together to do this kind of thing.”

April gives me a concerned glare. “Um, look, I know you said you used to be a, you know, but… When we’re in town and talking to people, you’ve got to stop that whole ‘talking about pokemon like you aren’t one’ thing. It’s gonna freak some people out.”

“S-sorry. I-I know that I am one now, but I guess I just still haven't fully... internalized that yet…” I sighed. “I’m sure I will eventually though. I just need time.”

“It’s okay. I just want to be careful with who knows your past and all. There’s people out there that would try to take advantage of you,” she warned, and started walking again.

I frowned, remembering an earlier conversation, and I scrambled to catch up with her. “B-but wait… Aren’t… you doing that? You wanted to be famous or whatever, right?”

April gave me a look and sighed. “Well, yeah, but if everybody tried to use you like that, it’d never work! You’re mine, okay?”

Heat gathered in my face. “Um.” I couldn’t think of a good response to that. Thankfully, I didn’t have to, because we arrived at our apparent destination: A round, pink-painted hut just off the main road. Unlike the other huts, this one had a door, which was closed. April quickly walked over to a rope beside the door and gave it a hard yank. Inside, there was a bell sound, followed by some shuffling noises. The door opened gently, revealing a comparatively tall pokemon – at least twice as tall as April or myself – that was pink and peach colored. Its ears were bell shaped, and it looked at us happily with bright blue eyes. I recognized it as an audino, as they were quite common where I used to live.

“April!” Audino said warmly. “Did you get hurt again?”

April waved it off. “Nah, I’m good this time, actually. I remembered to bring an oran berry today. Can we come in?”

Audino opened the door, ushering us into her small hut. Inside, there were a couple beds and a countertop cluttered with random berries and rolls of bandages. “Who’s the pachirisu? I don’t think I’ve seen him before.”

Once Audino closed the door behind them, April asked, “Audino, if I tell you something, can you keep it a secret?”

“Well, that depends on what it is-” she started, but April interrupted her.

“No! You have to keep it a secret! Promise!” April insists.

Hesitantly, Audino nods. “Okay, sure, I promise."

April sighs with relief and then points at me. “He’s a human. Or he was. Now he’s a pachirisu, but he was a human!”

Audino looked at me, then gave April a concerned look. “And… did he tell you that? Where did you find him anyway?”

“He was in the Foggy Wild. He says he woke up there. Nearly got bit in half by a poochyena before I saved him,” she says proudly. I wanted to protest, but it was true.

“He… woke up in the Foggy Wild…?” Audino eyed me suspiciously.

“I know! That’s what I said, but that’s what he says happened,” April explained.

Audino looked at me with obvious doubt. She reached up and grabbed on the tendrils dangling from her ears. “Mind if I do a quick examination, Pachirisu? I won’t touch you.”

I swallowed and nodded. No use fighting it when she’s already so wary. She stepped closer to me and the end of the tendril began to glow. She held it a few inches away from me, moving it up and down in front of my body. “Hm…” she muttered, then brought it up in front of my head. “Nothing’s wrong besides a little energy blockage. Let’s fix that up real quick…”

The glow switched from white to green and I felt something inside me stirring. “Wha…?” I muttered. My cheeks began to tingle like they were going numb. Then, there was a chaotic crackling noise, and I began to glow blue. It was then that I realized what was happening: my cheeks were sparking with electricity.

“Oh, so that’s why you were useless! Glad that’s all sorted out!” April said with relief.

April’s comments barely registered. All I could focus on was the power flowing through me. It was like a raging river that I was tapping into. Is this the power April said was inside me? I wanted to explore it further, do something with it, and my body begged me to, but… This wasn’t the place to be shooting lightning. I clenched, trying to push the power back down, and the glow faded. I sighed, heart still racing. “W-woah…” I muttered.

Audino seemed content, but then she looked over to April. “Well, he seems fine now, no signs of instability, but… How are you so sure he’s not just lying to you? You know how few humans-turned-pokemon there, right? And there have been plenty of charlatans in the past trying to pretend for profit…”

April frowned. “I-I know…” she muttered. She gave me a pleading look. “It’s just… he looks so… genuine. A-and back in the forest, he really looked completely helpless! Er, sorry.”

I shook my head. “As much as I hate to admit it, you’re not wrong.”

Audino considered this for a moment. “Well, how about tomorrow morning, you take him to the Elder and see what he has to say?”

The emolga lit up. “That’s a great idea! He’ll know the truth for sure!”

As their conversation drew to a close, I felt my stomach turn. “Ugh… Does anyone have any food? I just realized how starving I am…”

April chuckled. “Good! That means we can go to Spinda’s! I was getting hungry too. Let’s go!” She hurried over to me and grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the door. Gripped the edge of it, she flung it open and continued to pull me along. It was somewhat concerning, actually, because that door was massive compared to us, and it looked quite heavy. This emolga was nuts.

“Let me know what the Elder says!” Audino calls out before closing the door behind us.

After following April for a few feet, I asked, “So where are we going?”

“Spinda’s Café! They’ve got the best food. I’m a regular there,” she explains. It was hard for me to imagine what pokemon must eat for food, especially at what I assume would be a restaurant. After all, the only things besides berries that I’ve ever seen a pokemon eat was processed kibble that trainers buy for their partners because it was cheap. The pokemon here wouldn’t have that, I figured, so what did they have?

It was growing fairly dark now, as the orange light in the sky gave way to purple and cobalt. The Café was further down the road than Audino’s hut, and after passing some stalls and other buildings, I noticed that there were lights up ahead. Once in front of it, all I could do was stare wide-eyed.

Directly ahead of us was an area marked off with low fencing, fencing which was made of the same haphazard assortment of metal and discarded poles and wood as everything else, but it was crafted so masterfully that it looked intentional. Inside the fence were tables of various sizes, shapes, and heights to better fit whatever size of pokemon came to eat. The tables were also made of random materials, but they had some kind of finish on them to smooth out their surface. Even the floor was covered in hardwood with a similar treatment. The thing that really made everything shine though were the lights. Tall polls were erected at various places across the eatery and cords hung between them. At random intervals across the cords there were various golden crystals shining light vibrantly in the dim surroundings, making the whole place shine like a starry sky. Behind all this was a large, wide hut with a single counter in front of it, and a hole cut out of the wall of the hut directly behind that. On the right end of the hut was a pipe sticking out of the ceiling, and a lazy stream of smoke was floating out from it.

And to add to all of this, the smell was divine. Perhaps that, though, was influenced by how hungry I was. The smell was sweet, like fruit pastries. I looked to April then back to the café. This was… unbelievable. I had never even seen a human restaurant look this gorgeous. So how…

I turned back to April. “Th-this is the café!?” I asked.

“Yup! Cool, huh? And trust me, the food’s as good as the atmosphere,” she reassured me.

I had to keep myself from drooling. If there was any truth to that… I shook myself out of it. “Well, then, how much longer are we going to stand out here?”

April laughed. “That’s the spirit!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me through the tables, but this time, I was intensely eager to follow her.

Once we reached the counter, she hopped up on top of it. Unable to manage such a feat, I simply stayed on the floor. “Yo, Spinda!” April called out into the hut. “Got any food?”

There was a shuffling sound, and a dizzy-looking pokemon, presumably the spinda, teetered her way to the counter. She grasped the edge of it as if to steady herself then shook her head in disbelief. “April, you ask me that every day and the answer’s always the same.” She looked at April’s self-amused grin and sighed. “Nevermind. I’m guessing just the usual, then?”

“Yes! But two, please! I’ve brought a guest!” she exclaims, gestures to me with both her hands as if she were presenting me as an offering.

“Uh, hello?” I offered meekly.

Spinda peers over the counter at me and actually smiles. “A pachirisu! I’m afraid we haven’t met! I’m Spinda. First time here?” I nodded. “Good! We’ll use the fresh ingredients then,” she said, then followed it with a chuckle.

April tilted her head. “Do… do you not always?”

The spinda gives her a deadpan stare, then retreats into the hut. “Go take a seat, we’ll be out shortly with your food!” she called out from the back.

April shrugged, then hopped to the ground. Scanning around the café, she spots something and gestures for me to follow. “Look, my table is open!” she says, walking over to a fairly small table in actuality, but considering our diminutive stature, it was a perfect fit. Small platforms were worked into the ground to act as seats, and April quickly sat on one.

After a moment, I followed suit and sat next to her. “She seemed… tired of you,” I commented.

April waves it off. “She’s tired of everyone. That’s just how she is. Well, to anyone that isn’t a new customer, anyway.”

“Wouldn’t… wouldn’t being friendlier be better for business? I can’t imagine that’s a good way to keep customers…” At least, that kind of thing didn’t generally fly back where I was from. That said, there were several patrons of the café dotted across various tables.

She scoffed. “Listen, when you try this food, you’ll understand. Spinda could be the biggest jerk in the world and we’d all still eat here. And she’s not that bad, she just doesn’t like to pretend to be happy if she isn’t feeling it. I can respect that.”

“Uh-huh. Also, does she always… swerve around like she did, or…?” I wondered aloud.

April snickered. “All spinda are like that. They’re just… naturally dizzy.”

“That must suck…” I commented. I couldn’t even imagine being stuck like that… Maybe being a one foot tall rodent thing isn’t that bad.

April shrugged. “I’m sure they’re… used to it? Man, I dunno.” She aimlessly played with fingers for a bit, then, her ears twitched, and she turned around to see someone leaving the hut. Following her gaze, I watched as a tall green and peach colored, bipedal pokemon carrying a small platter approached us. He had large ears, a huge tuft of fur sprouting from his forehead, and a fierce look. He was a simisage, if I remembered correctly.

Once he reached us, he placed two plates in front of us, and said in a surprisingly distinguished sounding voice, “Two nanab salads, and a yellow gummi smoothie for each.” He finished by placing two bowls full of a thick, yellow substance on the table besides the plates. “Let us know if there is anything else you need,” he offered, then he withdrew from the table and returned to the hut.

What was placed in front of us was picturesque. The bed of the meal was served as small strips of leafy greens, and above that, were slices of some kind of pink berry, likely pecha. Sprinkled on top of that were nanab berries that were broken into their individual pieces. All of it appeared expertly seared and topped with a drizzle of some kind of pink sauce. Normally, the earthy taste of leafy greens and the sweeter taste of berries clashed in a way that I didn’t like, but now, something inside of me was telling me that this right here was the pinnacle of joy and exactly what I wanted from life.

The only problem was that I didn’t know how to eat it. The server didn’t give us utensils, and with paws like mine, I don’t think I’d even be able to use them. “Hey, April,” I started as I looked over to her.

April, for her part, was busy shoveling the food into her mouth with her bare hands. She froze, mouth and hands full, and offered me a simple “Wuh?”

I looked down at the plate in front of me, then over to her. I guess… making a mess was just part of it. I pulled the small plate closer to me and did the only thing I could think of: I took a bite out of the salad, face first. And it tasted even better than it looked. There was delightful play of the subtle bitterness of the nanab berries and the sweetness of the pecha berries, and the greens served to give the meal a delightful crunch. It was a flavor palette I knew that I wouldn’t entirely enjoy if I were still a human, but right now, I didn’t care. I wanted, no, needed this stuff in my mouth.

April finished her meal first, but I wasn’t too far behind. My face was covered in glaze afterward, so I took to wiping myself down with my paws and then licking them off. I briefly wondered if pachirisu could get hairballs, but my fur didn’t seem long enough for that. I pushed the now empty plate away and reached for the drink. It was in a simple wooden bowl filled to the brim with some kind of smoothie. It was briefly strange to me that a drink was in a bowl instead of a glass, but it occurred to me then that I would probably have difficulty holding it otherwise. Focusing on the drink itself again, the only thing notable about it was that it was intensely yellow. As I looked at the bowl, I caught April staring at me with a knowing, anticipatory grin. She was waiting for me to try it, even as she hovered her mouth over her own.

Slowly, I pulled my mouth close to the bowl. The scent of tropical fruits hung in the air. Then, I slurped some into my mouth. As it reached my tongue, I involuntarily shivered as every bit of fur on my body stood on end, and even my cheeks discharged a few crackling sparks. The taste was fantastic, sure, it was a blend of mildly sweet and tangy berry-like flavors which made for an incredibly refreshing drink, but it was the feeling that was the mind-boggling part. It made me feel alive, like when April struck me with her lightning. My whole body tingled with vibrant electrical energy. This wasn’t a drink – it was an experience.

“W-woah… Wh… what is this?” I struggled to ask.

April chuckled under her breath. “Yellow gummi smoothie. It’s made with, as you could guess, yellow gummies, and those are specifically made for the enjoyment of us lightning wielders. Except when Spinda makes them into a smoothie, it brings out everything great about them even more. The first time I had one of these things, I drank, like, seven more. But for the sake of being able to go to bed tonight, I’m gonna say you only get the one, okay?”

I nodded, and quickly went to down some more of this lightning in liquid form. Every few swigs I had to stop and calm the shivers that went through me, letting loose several harmless sparks of electricity in the process, before going back at it. By the end, I was giggling like an idiot. It wasn’t that the drink was truly intoxicating, rather, it just made me so giddy that I couldn’t help myself. If I was drunk, I was drunk on pure happiness.

April, who by the end of it was just barely starting spark with excess energy, simply looked at me with a content smile. “So, what’d you think?”

I shivered, but giggled. “H-eh… I-I’d don’t really understand why, b-but… this… this has been one of the most pleasant things I’ve ever felt. Really intense, but also… just… amazing…” I tried to explain. My tail swayed back and forth in earnest, but I didn’t bother to stop it. This was definitely a tail-wagging moment.

April sighed contentedly and slowly stood up. She walked over and offered an outstretched paw to me. I accepted it, and let her help me to my feet. “Come on, sparky, let’s go home. My home anyway.”

April could take me wherever she wanted; I surely wasn’t going to stop her. As we walked out, a thought occurred to my joy-addled brain. “H-hey, don’t we have to pay or something? Or you, I guess, I don’t have any money.”

She shrugged. “Spinda just takes it out of my bank account. She knows I’m good for it.”

I didn’t question it. We left the café and backtracked down the road we came from. I felt like I was walking on air, without a single care in the world. Slowly, however, the happiness began to drain away. I looked around, trying to figure out what was happening, and I noticed that April was squinting with annoyance. There was an anticipation in the air. Were we about to be attacked? In the middle of town?

“Stop hiding!” April called out suddenly. I looked around even harder, trying to see whatever it was that she did, and then a large shape stepped out from behind one of the huts. It was roughly twice our size. As he came into view, we saw him for what he was: an orange rodent with a long, wire-esque tail that ended with a lightning bolt pattern. It was a raichu, and he was leering at us.

“You always were too perceptive, April,” he said in a menacing tone. Then he nodded to me. “And who’s the chump?”

April glared at him. “It’s none of your business, Raichu.”

“Actually, it is, hon. You bring another boy around here and you expect me to not get jealous?” He opened his arms wide and gestured to himself, as if he were hurt by my presence.

April crossed her arms. “Yes, I do expect you to not care what I do. You have nothing to do with me anymore. I thought I made that clear.”

Raichu growled. “Well… what does he have that I don’t?” he complained, gesturing to me.

Did he think that April and I were…? “H-hey, listen, you got it all-“

“Shut it!” Raichu commanded, and I did. After that, I decided to leave the arguing between the two pokemon who could both easily punt me into next week.

“Don’t shout at him, Raichu.” April commanded. Her cheeks began to spark.

“What gives you the right to tell me what to do, huh?” he walked close to April and got in her face. “You know that ever since I evolved, I’m leagues stronger than you, right?”

“I don’t think we ever established that,” she responded, unphased.

Suddenly, Raichu grabbed April by the fur on her chest and lifted her in the air. April cried out in shock and struggled to break free, but she couldn’t. “Well, go ahead then! Show me!” Raichu demanded.

April growled, venom in her eyes and voice, then electricity blossomed from her cheeks and poured into Raichu. And he just took it, unmoving, and simply grinned malevolently. April coughed and her lightning cut out. She panted and struggled more, but Raichu held fast. “Pathetic,” he commented. Rather than shock her back with his own lightning, he simply raised her up into the air and slammed her into the hard ground below.

I winced, and something inside of me stirred. I shuddered as my cheeks began to glow blue. Raichu noticed this and chuckled. “What? You think you can take me on? Listen, pal, even I know that April is the second strongest one of us lightning wielders in town, behind me of course, what do you think you’re even attempting?”

His words were like fuel to my rage. I drew inward, searching for that river of power I felt back at Audino’s place after she unblocked my energy. There was a feeling of rushing force, deep down, and I latched onto that, allowing it to take me along with the current. Blue lightning flowed around me, charging the very air, and then, I compressed it down, focusing all that power into one little point on my hand, just as I had watched April do. In what felt like slow motion, I raised my paw at Raichu, and then a moment later, the air exploded. There was a monstrously loud *crack!* of lightning, and I was launched backward as the bolt left me. I rolled across the ground a few times before coming to a stop, and dust and rocks skipped across the path near me.

Panting, I tried to get up, but the world was spinning in front of me. After a few heavy breaths, I managed to stand back up and look back at Raichu. Dirt clouded the air, but I could see that beyond that, Raichu was splayed out on the ground. His fur was smoking lightly. I had done it. I had actually managed to summon up enough lightning to knock out Raichu. Even April had failed that.

I took a sharp breath as I remembered that April was still injured. I made my way over to her as quickly as I could. She was out cold, but she was still breathing. “H-hey, April? W-wake up, please…” I muttered anxiously as I shook her. I tried not to panic, but I didn’t know what to do. She still had her pack, so she could have an oran berry on her, but she’d need to be awake to eat it. But I couldn’t just do nothing! Suddenly, I remembered – Audino! She could help! But her hut was on the other side of town… It’d take me way too long to get there at my pitiful walking speed. But it was my only option.

I sighed, swallowed my fear, then I started walking as fast as I could. I was determined. I tried walking faster and faster and then something in my mind just… switched. I threw myself to the ground, landing on all fours, and kept running. It felt strange at first, but it was astonishingly more efficient. Running like this, I could almost feel the electricity in my body charging my muscles, making me go even faster.

I bolted down the center of town, sliding across the dirt when I needed to make a turn onto the road Audino was at, then raced up to her door. Standing up again, I pulled on the rope as I had watched April do. Following the bell chime on the inside, Audino gently opened the door again, and looked at me with surprise. “Ah, you’re the pachirisu from before, right? What’s… going on?” she asked, seeing the panic in my face.

“April was attacked… by Raichu. She’s out cold… Sh-she needs help!” I struggled to say between pants.

Audino was immediately alarmed by this. She gripped one of the tendrils that were draped across her chest. “Okay! Show me where she is!”

Without another word, I took off running – on all fours – once more, heading back to April. I was conscious enough, however, to slow my pace somewhat. Even though she was also running, Audino was unable to quite keep up with me otherwise. A couple minutes later, we reached the road leading to April’s house. She was still out cold on the road, but Raichu was beginning to stir. I immediately ran passed April to put myself between him and her. Audino ran over to April and started sending ways of pink glowing magic into the injured emolga.

Raichu struggled to get to his feet but he eventually did. My cheeks sparked with blue lightning. “Don’t try anything. I will do that again,” I threatened.

He looked over at me through his pain, and his gaze held pure disgust. “L-listen… I don’t know wh-what you are… but th-that – whatever you did – that wasn’t natural. I’m going to leave now, but don’t think this is over… April’s mine, you got that? I’m not… going to let some freak of nature have his way with her…” Then he shuffled off back behind whatever hut he had been hiding behind originally.

I shook my head and swallowed in an attempt to push my heart back down out of my throat. Turning around, I ran over to April, who was just beginning to wake up.

“Nngh… Shane… is that you?” she asked. “Wh-what happened to Raichu?”

“Y-yeah, it’s me. I beat him. I beat Raichu. He ran off,” I explained. I tried to keep my voice from wavering, but it was proving difficult.

“A-ah… you did?” she asked, then let out a couple weak chuckles. “Cool…” Then she fell limp again.

“A-April!” I called out as my heart skipped a beat.

Audino placed a hand on me. “She’s okay. She just needs to rest.” She then scooped the emolga into her arms. April had looked so strong earlier, but now she looked so frail…

“I’m going to take her back to my hut so I can keep an eye on her while she recovers. You can come if you like. The cot is big enough for the both of you,” Audino offered.

“Y-yes, please,” I responded, then followed Audino back to her house. Once there, Audino laid April down on one of the beds and pushed some more glowing pink energy into her. April didn’t wake up, but her breathing sounded regular. She seemed to just be sleeping now.

Focusing on the edge of the cot, I tried to think of how to get up there. It was taller than I was, and I hadn’t really tried jumping yet. So I just got on all fours, reared up, and pushed myself off the ground. I only managed to grab the edge of it, but I succeeded in scrambling myself over on top of it before I could slide off.

“You should probably get some sleep too. You’ll need your strength back if you plan on keeping up April, after all,” Audino said with a warm smile.

I nodded. She was right. I spent a few moments watching April before trying to lay down myself. I found many positions inherently uncomfortable, with my head or tail always being in the way. I needed some kind of pillow… Then I realized – half of my body was a pillow. I curled my tail around me and then laid on top of it. It was strangely comforting. Suddenly, my fatigue from the day hit me like a ton of bricks, and I quickly succumbed to night.

Last Edit: May 16, 2020 3:30:28 GMT by Brutaka

Brutaka

Ignition

Posts: 8
Pronouns: Any

Thunderstruck May 16, 2020 1:15:01 GMT

Post by Brutaka on May 16, 2020 1:15:01 GMT

Chapter 3

Shattered

Darkness.

Darkness and flashing streaks of crimson red.

Falling. Down, down, down, down… There was a flash. Lightning?

I jolted awake with a sharp intake of air. My heart was racing, and I struggled to catch my breath. What was that? I gripped my tail tightly for comfort. It must have just been a bad dream. I swallowed, and tried to regulate my breathing again. Once I had calmed down, I sat up, still clutching my tail in my arms, and looked around at my surroundings. I was still sitting on the cot I was the night before, still in Audino’s hut. Still a pokemon, still here. I wasn’t sure if that was comforting or not. Part of me almost expected to wake up back in my old bed, as my old self, and this all would have been a particularly vivid dream. But it wasn’t to be. This was reality.

I turned to look at the other side of the bed where April was. She was still sleeping soundly. I smiled softly. At least she looked like she was feeling better. Looking around, I noticed that Audino wasn’t here. I briefly contemplated whether I should try to get some more sleep, but with light already streaming through the windows, and my nightmare scaring me awake, I didn’t feel like sleeping anymore.

I hesitated, then released my tail from grip. I slowly made my way to the edge of the cot and hopped down. After a brief wobble, I made my way over to the door, attempting to walk as quietly as I could so as to not disturb April. I realized a problem once I arrived at the door, however: it was shut. Though… April had thrown it open last night, surely I could open it too?

There was a gap between the door and the wall that I could reach my paws into, so I tried to pull it open that way. It began to budge, but it was extremely heavy. How did April open this so easily!? I grumbled mentally, putting all my might into pulling the door open even just crack. Once my arm could grip the outside of the panel, it gave me a small opening, so I just forced my way through. It was a tight fit, but I soon popped out the other side with no more than a minor ache from the friction that was already fading. I turned to look at the gap I had squeezed through, which couldn’t be more than a few inches wide. Huh. That’s kinda neat. A benefit to being this small, I supposed.

It was early morning, and the sun had just begun to rise. The air was cool and slightly humid, but my fur kept me from feeling too cold. I didn’t immediately see Audino anywhere, but my ears twitched slightly, alerting me of some shuffling noises and water splashing sounds coming from nearby. Following my ears, I quickly made my way around the hut to the back. I stood back up once I rounded the corner, only then realizing that I had dropped to all fours while running. I had done it instinctually, which perhaps was a slightly uncomfortable revelation, but I couldn’t argue that it was just way easier to run that way. Perhaps I shouldn’t fight it. After all, I was a pachirisu now. And it didn’t bother me last night, when April was depending on me. Why should it bother me now? After taking a moment to be conflicted, I swallowed the feelings back down.

Behind the house was a small garden of various berry bushes being tended to by Audino. There were oran berries, pecha berries, cheri berries, aspear berries, and a few others I couldn’t name. Audino noticed me as I walked over to her and put down the watering pail she was using. “Ah, Pachirisu, you’re awake. Ah, but I suppose you go by a name, right? What was it that April called you? ‘Shane’?”

I nodded. “Yeah. But if that’s weird to you, you can just call me Pachirisu, I guess. April told me that pokemon don’t really have names normally, unless they’re special.” I should probably get used to being called that anyway, since most other pokemon won’t know that I was a human, and I won’t be able to explain why I’d have a name.

Audino mulled this over and nodded. After a few moments of silence, she asked, “What’s it like?”

“What?” I asked.

“You know, being a pokemon. I’ve always been who I am now, so I’m curious what it’s like to be a pachirisu from the perspective of someone who wasn’t one until now,” she explained, while grabbing her watering pail again to resume her watering.

“Does that mean… that you believe me, then?” I wondered. Just last night, she had doubted me quite heavily.

“Mm, maybe not entirely,” she started. “But… Last night, what you did… Regardless of who or what you are, you did the right thing, and helped out someone in need. I respect that,” she said genuinely. “So I’m going to trust you. Let’s say that I believe that you believe it, at least.”

I thought about this for a while and nodded. “Well… as you can probably imagine, it’s weird. Humans are taller, a lot taller, than I am now. Being this small has its challenges. Most pokemon also seem bigger than me, so it’s like walking through a world designed for somebody else, at times. Holding things is harder, since these paws aren’t exactly very dexterous. And running is also weird, since pachirisu run on all four paws, I guess, but humans are bipedal.” I paused to think a little further. “And last night, at the café, eating was also a bit of a learning experience. Humans use utensils, and try not to be very messy when they eat. Ideally, anyway. So last night, when I saw April eating her food practically face first, only to realize that I’d have to do the same because I couldn’t exactly hold a fork… I dunno. Maybe I’m just complaining.

“After all, being a pokemon has its upsides. There’s this wellspring of… energy, that’s just always there inside me now, and calling on it lets me shoot lightning at stuff. Humans can’t do that. They can’t do anything like that. I used to think that the trade-off was that humans were smarter, and had more ingenuity. But…” I looked around and gestured to the city. “Look at everything that you guys have accomplished! And that café, it was stunning! It was just as good as any classy restaurant in the human world.” I sat on the floor, looking at the dirt. “Maybe… maybe back home, if there weren’t humans everywhere getting in the way, then maybe the pokemon there could do this stuff too.” I sighed and pulled my tail around to hug it. “Also… holding my tail makes me feel better. And I don’t know why.”

Audino smiled softly. “Sounds like you remember a lot from your life as a human. Most of the other stories I’ve heard of this kind of thing happening, the human loses their memory.”

I tilted my head. “Really? Huh. Yeah, besides the actual night that it happened… I still remember everything. Even if it’d probably be better if I didn’t.” Against my will, I could feel my mood spiraling again, just as it had in the forest.

“Oh. Well, we don’t need to talk about that if you don’t want to. But… was your time before not great…?” Audino asks tenderly.

“N-no, it was. Well, not great, per say. But good enough. Loving family and all. And that’s… the problem. I miss them. And… if this is my life now, then I’ll never get to see them again…” My eyes began to water. “B-but even worse than that – they think I’m dead. I-I guess for them, I am. I can’t imagine how…” I swallowed. “H-how they must feel…” I shuddered and buried my face into the fluffy fur of my tail.

I heard Audino walk over to me and I felt her place a hand on the top of my head. After a moment, she gently stroked my fur. I shivered and tensed up briefly, but then I started to calm down. I quickly realized that Audino was essentially petting me, but… I couldn’t deny that it felt nice. I pulled my tail away from my face and looked up at her. After a moment, I looked away and muttered, “Thanks.”

She withdrew her hand and calmly walked back over to keep watering her plants. “So once you and April meet with the Elder, presuming he verifies your story, what do you plan on doing after that?”

I sniffled, looked down at the tail in my arms, then over to Audino and shrugged. “I… don’t know. Whatever April wants to do, I guess. I don’t know enough to know what I want yet,” I admitted.

“I suppose that’s fair enough. I hope you find a worthy goal someday,” Audino offers.

I nodded, then my ears twitched as I heard a slight squeaking noise – the door of Audino’s hut. Turning my head, I watched as April walked out of the hut, looked around, and then finally noticed me. She quickly walked over to meet with us. “Ah, there you are,” she started. “There was no one in there when I woke up, so I got confused.”

“Sorry, I should have stayed with you…” I admitted.

“Well, maybe, but…” She tilted her head at me and frowned. “Were you… crying? Is there something wrong?”

Heat rushed to my face, and I brushed the wetness off my face. “N-no. I’m fine,” I said dismissively. After taking a breath to regulate my speech, I asked, “We were just talking.”

“Uh-huh,” she muttered incredulously. “But… you obviously don’t want to tell me about it, so… I won’t press. For now. You should tell me later though. For now, why don’t we go see about talking with the Elder?”

I contemplated whether I should tell April at some point or another. On the one hand, she doesn’t seem like the kind of person that would be the most emotionally delicate, but on the other hand… there was something about her. I wanted to tell her everything, share every moment, and… What? What was I thinking? Wait, April asked a question… What was it?” Uh, yeah, sure,” I answered, clearly distracted. My face felt even warmer.

“Alright, well, stop sitting in the dirt, and let’s get going.” She looked over at Audino and waved. “And thanks for fixing me up like always, Audino!”

Audino smiled and nodded. “No problem, April. Couldn’t stand to see a friend hurt anyway.”

I stood up and walked over to April and she led the way. We walked back toward the center of town and down another path we hadn’t gone to the day before. As we walked, the surroundings grew greener and the air was more humid. There weren’t any huts out this way, and soon were walking down a path with only trees surrounding it.

After the long period of silence during the walk, April finally said, “Thanks, by the way. For last night.”

I nodded, unsure of what to say. Then, I simply said, “Sure thing.”

“How did you beat him, anyway? Raichu, I mean,” April asked. She seemed a lot mellower today than she had been.

“I dunno. Not really. I just looked inside, like you said. And when I summoned up all that power, and I saw what he did to you, and with him still taunting me… I put everything I had into that one bolt. And… it was enough.” The fight last night was replaying in my mind. “After I came back with Audino, Raichu actually woke up. Before he ran off, he said… the way I attacked ‘wasn’t natural’, and that I was a freak…”

“Don’t listen to him, okay?” April said earnestly. “He’s just mad that you beat him.”

“Sure…” I mumbled, not entirely convinced. “What’s the deal with him anyway? He was acting like you two dated or something.”

“That’s because we did,” April admitted. “But now he’s just an ex. And he’s mad that he can’t have me. Which I mean…” She smiled then for the first time today. “I am the best girl in town, so can I really blame him? What can I say? You get a glimpse of perfection once, and nothing else will ever look as good to you again.”

After everything that’s happened, her boasting was now almost endearing. Almost.

“How did you ever end up with someone like him anyway…? He’s awful.” I know that people make mistakes and all, but I didn’t see what his appeal was. Was he good-looking? That’s something I wouldn’t be able to determine.

April looked somewhat uncomfortable. “Um, I’d rather not really go into it further, if that’s okay. Let’s just say that who he is now wasn’t who he was when we met.”

Respectfully, I didn’t press further. If she wants to tell me one day, I’ll find out more then. Instead, I looked ahead, and noticed a small pond in the distance. “Hey, is that where the elder is?”

“Yup,” April answered. “He lives under the water.” We quickened our pace until we reached the water’s edge. It was a very scenic area – the trees draped over the pond, leaving only small beams of light to strike the water’s surface. Leaves floated idly on the water, and flowers were in clusters in various places along the shore. The water wasn’t very deep, and curiously, there didn’t seem to be anyone in it.

“Is he… not here?” I asked. When April said he lived under the water, I took that to mean he was some kind of water-type, presumably a fish of some kind, and if that were the case… Where could he have gone?

“He probably got scared off,” a voice from behind us spoke. Instantly, my fur stood on end. April and I spun around to see none other than Raichu, here to bother us again.

“The Elder would not be scared of you.” April protested. She glared at him, cheeks sparking. “What are you even doing here? I thought my friend blasted you into next week.”

Raichu scoffed. “He caught me off-guard. It won’t happen again,” he growled menacingly as his own cheeks began to spark.

“You are not to touch my guests,” a voice sounded in the air, seemingly from nowhere. Judging by the way April and Raichu looked around, we could all hear it. Unlike the voice I heard in the forest, this one sounded distinctly young, but also somehow learned. April grinned mischievously.

Raichu rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. I can take you on, too. Just stop hiding like a coward.”

“Coward?” the voice said indignantly. “We’ll see who the real coward is.”

I turned to see ripples forming in the center of the lake. Bubbles flowed to the surface, slowly at first, then rapidly, as if the pond were boiling. Then, the water turned pitch black. In fact, everything grew darker, as the light filtering through the trees dimmed as well.

Darkness.

My heart began to race. What was this feeling? It was dread on untold levels. My blood turned to ice, and my breathing became shallow.

Someone said something in a taunting tone. I couldn’t pay attention well enough to tell who it was or what they said. There was a loud ringing in my ears and a slowly growing pain in my chest.

Suddenly, without warning, the lake exploded, and darkness poured from it like a geyser. All too well, I could see that the shape of it was some kind of demonic dragon made of inky black, with glowing red eyes, and six tentacle-like strands that served as wings. The strands were tipped with glowing red spikes.

Darkness and flashing streaks of crimson red.

Streaks and static filled my vision. The monster unleashed an unholy screech that seemed to pierce reality. The world spun, and I staggered.

Falling. Down, down, down, down…

Soon everything was darkness.

I was running. It felt strange, and then I realized, I was running on two legs. I was a human.

There was a storm above me, and lightning coursed through the clouds. It seemed to come from nowhere. I had been visiting a friend’s house, and was walking the path between our two towns, trying to make it before it rained. But I had been too slow, and now I was drenched. Everything was drenched. There were no mountains with caves to shelter in, no buildings to find solace, only sparse trees which offered no cover.

So I ran. The air tingled in anticipation. Everything felt so wrong. Even with the clouds blocking out the sky, it was growing much, much darker than it should have been. In my haste, I stumbled.

On the ground, I felt the earth shake and twist. Thick black tar bubbled up from the ground, and from it rose a black draconic monster. It had piercing red eyes, a triangular head, and glowing red spikes on its wings. It opened its horrible maw, and from the swirling glow within, burst a beam of horrific light.

There was a flash.

It wasn’t lightning.

Then there was darkness. Only darkness.

I jolted awake with a sharp intake of air. Panting, I looked around, searching for the demon that was surely still there, but it was gone. Only a copper-furred emolga looking over me with concern, and some other pokemon I didn’t recognize that was floating next to her. It seemed to be some kind of blue-gray fairy or imp creature with a golden head. It also had two tails, each with a ruby inset in the center that matched the red gem on their forehead. It held its eyes shut, for some reason. April tried to say something, but I couldn’t hear her. The buzzing in my ears was too loud.

April looked to the other pokemon, clearly worried, and it responded. Come on, I thought. I just need to… calm down. I shut my eyes and focused on my breathing. My heart was still going incredibly fast, and there was a mild pain in my chest because of it. With slow and deliberate actions, I reached behind me, grabbed my tail, and clutched it like a lifesaver. Slowly, my heart and mind slowed, and my breathing returned to normal. The ringing in my ears began to fade, and the sounds of the world came back into focus.

“Arceus above, Uxie, you gave him a heart attack!” I heard April complain.

The other pokemon, Uxie, as April called him, said calmly, “Apologies. I did not think it would cause this dramatic of a reaction.”

Cautiously, I opened my eyes again and sat up. Still holding my tail, I looked at April, then to Uxie. “What… what happened?”

“You passed out!” April explained, her brow still tilted up with worry. “Uxie made an illusion of this big scary monster to scare off Raichu, and it worked, but I guess it worked a little too well… When I saw you go down… I was scared…”

Darkness and flashing streaks of crimson red.

I grimaced as my mind tried to replay the scene, but I quickly forced it back down. “Sorry to… scare you then,” I said softly.

Uxie smiled slightly. “I should be saying the same thing, Shane.”

April paused, then looked over at Uxie. “I didn’t tell you his name.”

He turned his head to her. “As with most things, I already knew it. I have been keeping a close eye on you two. So to speak.”

I frowned. “Why’s that?”

Uxie thought for a moment, possibly considering what he should say, then explained, “Well, humans-turned-pokemon are rare. And when they do show up, it is usually in a time when a hero is needed. Several world-ending cataclysms have been prevented throughout history by a pokemon who was once a human. And now, we have another human in our presence. You. However, I am unaware of any calamity brewing. Perhaps this is the first occurrence of this happening for no reason, but… that would strike me as quite unlikely.”

April and I thought about this for a moment. The voice I had heard back in the forest said that I was going to be important. I still didn’t believe it, but it would line up with what Uxie was telling us. April, meanwhile, blurted out, “So Shane was a human then! I knew he wasn’t lying to me!”

Uxie nodded. “I do not know why or how you came to be a pachirisu, Shane. But certainly, you are meant to do great things. I do not know what, yet, but perhaps one day, the world may depend on you. For all our sakes, I hope you will be ready.”

“G-geeze…” I muttered. “No pressure or anything…” I clutched my tail tightly. It wasn’t fair. I never asked for any of this. While I was now moderately grateful for being saved, or at least given a second chance at life, even as a pokemon, that didn’t mean I was ready to be a hero. I didn’t want that.

“Aw, don’t worry, Shane. We’ll be fine! Cuz, you know, I’ll be there to help you! I’m already great on my own, but the two of us together? We’ll be unbeatable!” April said triumphantly.

Was she… complimenting me? In her own way, she was. “Well… I still think that if the world depended on me, we’re all doomed, but if it comes to that… I guess I’ll try my hardest then,” I said, uncertain.

The Elder shrugged. “Well, in that case, was there anything else that you needed to ask me?”

April shook her head. “Nope! We just wanted you to verify that Shane used to be a human after all. Audino thought he could be lying.” She turned to me. “But I knew I was right to trust you!”

I nodded, but didn’t have anything to add. April, looking like she suddenly remembered something, said, “Oh, hey, I know what’ll cheer you up! Stuff!”

“What?” I asked, genuinely confused and partially concerned.

“You know, let’s go buy stuff! If you’re going to come with me on adventures and stuff, you’re going to need gear!”

That was awfully presumptuous of her. She was right, of course, I was planning on going with her, even on whatever adventures she plans, but she could have at least asked. Instead of complaining, I merely said, “Right…”

Finally, I stood up and let go of my tail. April turned to say goodbye to the Elder, but he was already gone. Neither of us even noticed he had vanished. April looked annoyed for a second, but then rolled her eyes and started walking back towards town. I quickly followed after her so as to not be left behind.

Once we were back in town, April led me back over to the stalls we passed by the day before. Our first stop was apparently the Kecleon Shop. The two lizards greeted us as we approached. “Hello!” the green one started. “Back for more wares, April?” The purple one then exclaimed, “Or maybe to finally buy a new technique!?”

She waved him off. “I like to teach myself cool things, thanks though.” Instead, she occupied herself with looking at what the green kecleon had behind the counter.

The purple one, not to be defeated, turned his eye towards me. “And what about you, little pachirisu? Would you be interested in my excellent techniques?”

I looked at what he was selling only to find numerous colored discs, each with little nameplates beside them. Skimming the names, I read ‘Double Team’, ‘Hyper Beam’, ‘Shadow Claw’, ‘Will-o-Wisp’, ‘Acrobatics’ and dozens more. They all had varying price points, but compared to the items that the green one was selling, these discs were monstrously expensive.

Distracted, April offered, “If you want one, I’ll buy one for you.”

That was nice of her, but I still had no idea what any of this was. Confused, I asked, “Sorry… what are these?” The purple kecleon gave me a dubious look. I apologized again, saying “I’m not from around here.”

He still eyed me carefully, then explained, “These are technique prints. Some people called them technical machines, but they have less to do with mechanics than they do magic. In these prints are stored various high-level skills that can be utilized in a fight or otherwise that would generally take too long to learn on your own. The names don’t really mean anything, I just needed something to call them.”

“So these… let me do fancy fighting moves, then?” I asked.

“Essentially. Not everyone can learn any technique. Looking at you, I’d say you could probably learn these techniques,” he says, pointing at several of the discs.

I looked at those ones he pointed at more closely. ‘Shock Wave’, ‘Cut’, the ‘Double Team’ I saw earlier, and ‘Iron Tail’. That didn’t leave much. That said, the notion of learning a new technique… It was like choosing a superpower. I couldn’t just say no.

“Um, April, what do you think?” I asked. “It sounds pretty cool.”

She turned to look at me and shrugged. “I dunno. Like I said, I’ll buy you one if you want. I prefer to learn my own skills, that way I’m not just copying something someone else could do, but since you’re so inexperienced at the whole fighting thing anyway, it may not be a bad idea.”

I looked back at the discs and reviewed my options. Shock Wave sounded like it had something to do with electricity. I could already do that. Cut sounded effective, if not a little boring. Plus… did I have claws? Would it give me claws? Would I want that? Maybe. Meanwhile, I had no idea what Double Team was supposed to imply. Lastly, Iron Tail… I guess that it would make my tail solid so I could… hit things with it? The idea didn’t appeal to me. Changing the composition of my tail didn’t sound like something I wanted to be doing, even temporarily. My tail was supposed to be fluffy. That was the point.

I thought briefly about not getting one at all, but then I worried that I was passing up a cool opportunity. So finally, I said, “Um… can I get the one that says ‘Cut’?”

“Of course!” The purple kecleon exclaimed happily. From the counter, he retrieves a gray-white disc and gently places it on the counter.

On the other end of the stall, April seems to have come to a decision. “I’ll take… two oran berries, a max elixir, and…” She glanced at me, then back to the counter. “One reviver seed, please.”

The green kecleon gathers the chosen items and sets them on the counter. After a bit of math, the kecleon says “Okay, that will be 9,120 poke, for everything.”

That sounded like such a massively large number to me, but April seemed unphased. She reached for her backpack, and using its teleport properties, caused nine white-gold coins, a regular gold coin, and two silver coins to appear in her hands. After placing them on the table, she began stowing the items in her bag with the same process. The two kecleon bowed and gathered the money. “Thank you so much for your business!” they said in unison.

After stowing all her items, she took the print and stowed it as well. “I know you’re probably excited to play with that, but it’s best we wait until we get home. Don’t need to be causing a mess in the marketplace,” she explained.

I nodded, somewhat disappointed, but understanding. “Are we heading back then, or…?”

“Of course not! We’ve got more to buy!” she exclaimed, then started walking further down the road.

We’re going to buy more? I wondered. Granted, I didn’t really know the value of 9,120 poke, it could be fairly normal, but it didn’t really seem like it. Was… Was April… rich? April stopped at some point, and I was broken from my musings. In front of us was a larger hut with no counter in front of it. Instead, above the entrance was a sign featuring a white and blue furry pokemon face and the words ‘Meowstic Apparel’ written on it. Apparel? I thought, confused. Looking around the shopping area confirmed what I thought I already knew: pokemon didn’t wear clothes. Some of them wore scarves and bows, perhaps, but… Wait.

April led me into the dimly lit hut, and soon we were surrounded by shelves and displays of scarves, bows, ribbons, glasses, bracelets, necklaces, and the gods only knew what else. “What are you thinking?” April says, turning to me. “See anything you like?”

Looking at all the options – and there were many – I decided to look for a scarf. That was probably the best suited for me. There were many kinds, in lots of different colors and patterns. My eyes lingered on one, a sky blue one with white stripes and a simple cloud pattern in the center. It seemed pretty neat.

My considerations are interrupted then by April. “Hey, tell me how you think this looks,” she asks. When I turned to see her, she had tied a simple red ribbon on her left ear and was patiently waiting for my answer.

Heat rushed to my face. Frankly, she was adorable. She was cute before, but this – I couldn’t do anything but stare for a few moments. The warm coloring of the ribbon brought out the copper coloring of her fur and accentuated the light pink hue that her white fur naturally held. I blinked a few times, finally remembering where I was. “Um, it looks great,” I offered.

She stared at me with a raised brow, then smiled. “Cool. I’ll get it then. You find anything?”

“Only this scarf,” I said, grabbing the blue one I was looking at earlier from the shelf. “I think it looks nice.”

April looked at it, then nodded. “I like it! Want to try it on?”

I shrugged, and attempted to tie it around my neck. Unfortunately, my arms were just far too short to reach well enough and tie it. April walked next to me and said, “Here, let me help.”

She took the scarf from me and helped tie it around my neck. I was acutely aware of how close we were together, and I could feel her small breaths against the back of my head. With one final tug, she finished, and straightened out the center triangular part on my front. A strange feeling came over me then. I felt... lighter? Was it the scarf? April took a step back, stared at me for a moment, then smiled. “I think it looks great on you!”

I nodded and smiled back, forgetting about the weird feeling. “Thanks.” I realized that, thankfully, she probably couldn’t see my blush through my fur.

She motioned for me to follow her, and together, we approached the counter. Behind it was a bored-looking blue and white pokemon with a natural scarf-like ring of blue fur around her neck. Presumably, she was the meowstic. She glanced at us and waited for us to say something.

“We’d like to buy this scarf and this bow,” April explains, gesturing to each in turn.

The meowstic stared for a little while longer than said, “That’ll be 4,800 poke.”

April reached for her bag again and called up five white-gold coins and placed them on the counter. “You can keep the change,” she said, then goes to walk out.

“Thank you for coming,” the meowstic said slowly while she gathered the coins. She didn’t seem that thankful. Or interested, for that matter.

I followed April out of the store and met up with her outside. The sun was high in the sky, and looking at April and her new ribbon… The light played off the inherent sparkles in her fur, and the ribbon glittered similarly. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Alright,” April starts. “There’s one last place we need to go to.” She turns to me and then raises her brow. “What’s got you so happy?”

I blink a few times and then shake my head. “N-nothing. Just, uh… I like this scarf. It’s nice. Thanks!” I said a little too quickly.

“Yeah, don’t mention it…” she responded, still eyeing me curiously. “Anyway, like I said, let’s go.”

April turned and continued farther down the street, and I dutifully followed her. We passed a few other huts, a rather creepy-looking one shaped like a mask, and another one with a sign showing a minun and plusle on it. Neither of these were the destination however. Ahead, April stopped at a small hut squeezed between a couple larger buildings. A murkrow was standing inside, apparently reading something on a paper.

“Hey Murkrow!” April said loudly in greeting as she hopped up onto the counter.

The bird was startled, and a few feathers flew across the hut as he scrambled to reorient himself. “A-ah, April! You’re… as lively as ever, I see. What can I help you with?”

“I have a new friend! He needs a rescue badge,” she explained simply.

The murkrow peered over the counter at me and I sheepishly waved to him. “A pachirisu, huh?” Murkrow gave April a dubious look, then shrugged. “Alright. Give me just a sec…” He hopped away from the counter and began rifling through boxes and paper and random discarded items. Then, moments later, he produced a small, winged badge in his beak, which he then set on the counter. “As per usual, we’ll need a deposit of 1000 poke for new core members,” he explained.

April nodded, produced a single white-gold coin from her bag, and gave it to the bird in exchange for the badge. Looking it over, she seemed pleased, then withdrew a second one from her pack, presumably hers. Each held a gemstone in the middle; mine was a plain peach color, while hers was a sparkling silver. She held the gemstones of each with her finger briefly then she brought the two together with a skidding *clack* noise. Now both badges were silver in the middle. She handed me one of them. “There, now we’re on a team! Plus, these things will save you if you get knocked out in a mystery dungeon. It’s pretty risky, since it can only teleport you and your badge out, meaning you lose all your stuff, but it’s better than going feral,” she explained.

I was briefly unsure of where to stow mine, as I lacked a bag like April did, but I soon found that there was a clip on the back, so I attached it to my scarf. “Anywhere else?” I asked.

April returned her badge to her pouch and shook her head. “Nope, that’s it. How about we go home and let you have that new technique?”

I agreed, and we began walking again. I frowned as we arrived in the same part of the village where we got attacked by Raichu the night before, but this time, there was no feeling of dread. At the end of the road was an interesting-looking house that wasn’t like any of the others we had passed. The base was a simple dome hut like most of the buildings, but sticking out of one side was a veritable tower. Being composed of sheets of metal and wood, it looked clunky, but also… adventurous? It was like a children’s backyard fort. It was remarkable that it was standing, but looking at the sheer amount of rope, possibly too much rope, tied around everything… maybe it wasn’t so unlikely. “This is my house!” April announced, even though that came as no surprise. April would have a house that was equal parts brave and redundant. She was an individual amongst a group, and so was her home.

She led me through a gate in the shoddy fence that surrounded her lot and then indoors. The inside was no more organized than the outside – items were littered everywhere despite the clearly spacious chest in the corner, various shiny objects were adhered to the walls, and a small pool of water bubbled gently in the corner. Off to the side was a single pole going up into the tower, and small ‘branches’ coming off the pole forming a staircase. Unfortunately, the rungs of this ladder were so spaced out that I’d never be able to make it up there. Presumably, April’s gliding made it possible for her. Underneath the stairs was a pile of golden hay that was only moderately tidy.

“So? What do you think?” April asked, grinning.

“It’s very… you,” I offered. Seeing the look she gave me, I added, “I-I mean, it’s great, I love it!” I chuckled nervously.

Her dubious look continued, then she rolled her eyes. “Anyway, you can sleep there for now,” she said, pointing at the hay. “My bed is up top, I just have that there for… when I just can’t make the effort to get up there. Happens sometimes.”

I frowned. I guess we all have our bad days. I watched her untie her bag from her back and set it on the floor, then retrieved the gray disc she had stowed earlier. Handing it to me, she said, “There you go. Let’s go outside and see what happens!”

I followed April out and around her house. In the back, there were various lumps of hay tied together with circles drawn on planks tied to their fronts. A couple of them were thoroughly blackened. “I train out here,” she explained.

“I see.” I looked down at the small, delicate disk in my paws and asked, “Okay, so how do you use the thing?”

She shrugged. “I’ve never used one. Maybe just… meditate on it?”

“O-kay…” I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and tried to mentally reach out to the object. I felt silly for a bit until it began to tingle. I felt something pass through my hands and into my body, into that core of power I held inside. The disc crumbled in my hands, and I opened my eyes in shock. “Wha…?”

“Did it work?” April asked, watching eagerly.

I thought for a moment, then withdrew inward, searching for where I felt that power go. After a bit of soul searching, I found it. Tentatively, I reached out for it, and – I took a sharp breath as my right paw became encased in white energy. The white light lengthened into a blade roughly a foot long.

“Awesome! Now, go hit the dummy!” April called out.

I nodded, then walked over to the target. I readied my paw, then in a single, rapid stroke, I swiped the blade through the haystack. Once through, the blade dissipated, and I watched the target, and the dummy, fall to pieces after having been cut clean through. I stared in amazement. “W-woah!” I exclaimed.

April laughed. “Way to go! That’s really cool! That was way worth all that money!”

I winced, and looked over at her. “Was it… really that expensive?”

She shrugged. “Yeah it was, but don’t worry. I don’t like to talk about it too much, cuz I don’t want it to go to my head more than it has already, but I’m kind of… loaded?” she says tentatively. “Like, I made all the money myself! It wasn’t given to me or anything. But… you know how people get with money…”

If it was anything like it was with humans, I did. “Okay. Well, I appreciate it, then, and I hope I don’t cost you too much money.”

April was about to respond when a drop of water hit her on the head. Confused, we looked upwards and saw that dark clouds had begun to roll in. It was clear skies all day, but now it was raining? “That’s odd,” April muttered. “Well… Guess we’ll go inside then.”

I followed April back indoors before the raining really began, and she shut the door behind me. “Well,” she started. “Now what?”

I shook my head. What do I know? I walked over and sat on the hay. “We could… talk?”

“Sure. What about? Ooh, I know! You should tell me about what being a human is like!”

“Wh-what?” I let out, suddenly becoming self-conscious.

“Tell me about your life before all this! I bet that’ll be interesting. For us, humans are this kind of… mythical creature we only hear about in stories. I want to know what they’re really like!”

“Well…” I didn’t really want to get into it, but April was staring at me with her huge, curious eyes and I just… “Okay.”

So I did. I told her what it was like to grow up in Accumula Town. I described what the buildings looked like, where I went to school, what I wore, and what I did at home. I told her about pokemon trainers, and how humans bonded with pokemon and went on journeys. She was particularly interested in that. While we talked, she retrieved two large apples from her storage chest and we ate. I told her about television, and the Internet. She didn’t have a reference point for those, but she seemed to understand the concept well enough.

The rain was loud against the metal roof of the house, but we didn’t let that bother us. We talked until it was truly dark, though the rain continued. I talked about how close human families are.

She asked me if I missed them.

I looked down at the ground and nodded. My heart snuck up into my throat, and I shuddered. I had been pushing back all these feelings these past two days. They almost came out in front of Audino this morning, but now… Now they threatened to break the dam I had carefully constructed.

April noticed that I was beginning to retreat into myself and wrapped a winged arm around me. “Hey. It’s okay, you know? It’s okay to-”

“N-no! It’s not okay!” I said forcefully, interrupting her. “Like, whatever, I’m a pachirisu now, who cares! I can deal with that. B-but if this is my life now, then I’ll never get to see my mom and dad again! A-and… and they think I’m dead! They…” Tears fell from my face like the rain outside. I tried to swallow, tried to stop crying long enough to keep talking, but it was hard. “What they must be going through right now… I… I’m their only kid. Imagine your child going missing, only to find them dead in the dirt outside of town! Th-they’d… They’d hold a funeral… my parents would barely be able to speak at it. Mom would be crying too much. Dad… he’d… try to be tough about it, but… when no one was around… he’d cry, too…” I shuddered. “And…” I couldn’t keep going. Something in me broke. And I cried for real. It was an ugly, undignified sobbing for a life that I had lost, and for my parents, who had lost their only child.

And for once, April stayed quiet. She stayed quiet and just kept holding me.

I don’t know how long I laid there crying in her arms, but at some point, we both fell asleep like that.

Surprisingly, the darkness and crimson didn’t come for me that night.

Brutaka

Ignition

Posts: 8
Pronouns: Any

Thunderstruck May 22, 2020 21:23:17 GMT

Post by Brutaka on May 22, 2020 21:23:17 GMT

Chapter 4

The Mud Caverns

My body felt heavy as I slowly came to in the morning. I groaned lightly, sat up, looked down at myself, and sighed. Despite my breakdown the night before, no more tears came. I turned to look to my right, and April was still there, splayed out on the hay, snoring lightly. I smiled, seeing her in such a silly state, but then my face grew warm as I realized that we had slept so close together. Shaking the feeling away, I stood up carefully so as to not disturb the sleeping emolga, and I walked outside.

The storm from the previous day had vanished, leaving behind only the smell of rain and wetlands and a thin layer of humidity. The sky was bright with the morning sun, with only small, wispy clouds dotting the atmosphere. I took a deep breath, then walked around to the backside of the house. Though now slightly damp, the training area was mostly unchanged from when it had been left yesterday. The dummy I had cut in half was still in pieces on the floor.

I walked over to another dummy and stared at it with purpose. If this was my life now, if I was going to be a pokemon, a pachirisu, and I was going to be adventuring with April, then… I couldn’t be helpless. April obviously cares about me to some degree – enough to try to comfort me when I was at my weakest. It wouldn’t be fair to her if she had to carry me through everything else, too.

I looked inward, then, to the pool of power that lived inside of me. Electricity crackled from my cheeks. I attempted to gather it together as I had when I attacked Raichu, but for whatever reason, it didn’t want to listen to me. Instead, I just tried to fire it at the dummy without focusing it into an arc like April did, but it still didn’t want to leave me. No matter how hard I concentrated, it didn’t want to move. How had I done it that night? Come to think of it, I had wielded quite a bit of lightning then. I had felt like a force of nature, but right now, I felt more like a lightbulb. Annoyed, I walked over to the dummy and touched it. This successfully transferred the lightning from my body, electrocuting it. At least I could shock stuff on contact then, but man, was it disappointing. Perhaps I should have taken that Shock Wave technique after all, but I didn’t dare ask April to spend any more money on me.

Thinking of the techniques, I remembered that I had something else I could do now. With a deep breath, I felt my way back to my core, and I watched my right paw glow white. The white energy extended into the blade I had yesterday. It moved fluidly, which was satisfying. I made quick slices in the air in front of me, trying to think of flourishes I could use that weren’t just basic slashes. I never had sword-training as a human – who used swords anymore? – but it couldn’t be too hard, right? Especially since this blade was essentially an extension of my paw. I probably looked pretty dumb twirling around with this thing, but it wasn’t like there was anyone around. April was still sleeping, after all. Having her watch, that would be pretty embarrassing.

As I practiced, my thoughts wandered. Why was I so concerned with what April thought? Why did my thoughts revolve around her so much? Granted, most of what I knew in this new world revolved around April. I lived in her house, and she bought the food I ate. She was the one who saved me in the forest, and she was the one who believed me when I said I was a human.

But that couldn’t have been it. Or at least, that wasn’t the only reason. I was constantly blushing when I was around her, for one reason or another. It wasn’t obvious at first, but yesterday, at the apparel store… She’s cute. There was no other way of looking at it. And she wasn’t just the ‘cute-animal-in-a-bow’ kind of cute, either. She was… attractive. That should have weirded me out, but… well, I was pachirisu now, right? What people find attractive was always more of an instinctual thing anyway, so… now that I was a pokemon, I guess that means… I sighed. What was I thinking? I may have been a pachirisu, but did I really need to think like one too? But what choice did I have? Just thinking about how the light danced across April’s sparkling fur…

Gods above, help me. I have a crush on an emolga.

I tried, largely in vain, to pull my thoughts away from April, and instead, I focused on the glowing blade in my hand. I was still frustrated that I couldn’t fire off my lightning, but if I was only going to be able to shock things on contact, then maybe I could at least do something with that. I drew inward once more, beckoning to my inner lightning, and my cheeks began to crackle once more. Unfortunately, the blade in my paw began to flicker, and I had to switch focus to keep it materialized. The electricity quickly faded. Could I not do both? I wondered.

I set my focus harder, concentrating on the blade while I also searched for the electricity again. Trying to pull up my lightning was increasingly difficult while the blade was out, for whatever reason. It almost felt like a crowded hallway – too much trying to go through too little a space. But I couldn’t just give up. In fact, the more I focused, the more it felt like it was beginning to work. Slowly, as if two boulders were slowly passing one another, progress was made until… Energy suddenly built up in my cheeks, and electricity coursed over my body. It even flowed over the blade that was still manifested in my paw. With a determined gaze, I ran over to the dummy and stabbed it. The blade sunk into it easily, and I felt the electricity follow it from me and into the target. The feeling of triumph swelled in my chest, but it was soon replaced with fatigue. The blade vanished, and my electricity faded. I panted, only now realizing how much effort I had expended. But… I did it. I used the cut thing and my electricity at the same time!

“Wow,” a voice said from some distance away. Startled, I turned to see April watching me. She smirked and said, “It takes a lot of dedicated practice to call on two differently-aspected energies at the same time, and here you are, doing just that as if you actually knew what you were doing!”

I didn’t have the composure to even consider whether or not that was some kind of veiled insult. Instead, I merely stammered out, “H-how long were you watching?”

April shrugged. “Long enough. Why are you out here, anyway?”

“Well…” I thought carefully about what to say. “You mentioned that I was going to be going on adventures with you. I didn’t… want to be useless.”

April tilted her head, but continued smiling. “Well, that’s good! I was worried I was going to have to drag you everywhere myself. People don’t ever like it when I do that…” She trails off, as if trying to figure out why.

I briefly considered whether she was being facetious or not. It was almost distressing that I couldn’t tell, but for whatever reason, her weird sense of sarcasm was actually growing on me. I blinked a few times, and mentioned dryly, “I can’t imagine why.” Then, after a moment, I asked, “So… what’s the plan for today?”

“Well, today, we should go on our first adventure! There’s a bulletin board in town, and we can take jobs from there. That’s what I’ve always done. No reason to stop now, right?” she explained. “Come!” she commands, and I quickly follow her as she leads me around the house and into town.

Once getting to the center, however, we noticed that a small crowd had gathered. Brow furrowed, April walked up to one of them – an orange, two tailed pokemon with a yellow ring around its neck – and asked, “Hey, Buizel, what’s going on?”

He turned to look at us, then nodded to one of the cliffs in the distance to the west of the village. “You know that rainstorm last night? It caused a mudslide. No one got hurt, s’far as we can tell, anyway, but it revealed a cave. The first few people that took a look at it said that it’s a mystery dungeon.”

April’s eyes lit up. “A new dungeon!? Has anyone cleared it yet?” she asked eagerly.

“Not yet,” he said, then smirked. “But knowing you, I wouldn’t be surprised to see you give it a shot.”

The emolga turned to me and gripped my shoulders. “This is it! A chance to show how good we can be!”

Ignoring how close this put our faces, I awkwardly answered, “G-great.”

Clearly disappointed by my lackluster response, she rolled her eyes and turned back to the buizel. “Well, we’re going to go now, because yes, I’m definitely going to be the first to clear that thing!”

The pokemon nodded. “Good luck!” he offered genuinely, then walked off into the crowd to find someone else to talk to.

“Okay, well, I’ve already got my pack, and you’ve got your scarf, so why don’t we just head out now?” April asked me as we started walking.

I shrugged. Wasn’t like I had anything else to be doing. “Sound’s good to me.”

The cavern was in the wall of the valley that surrounded the town, so thankfully, it was only a short distance through the fields before we got there. A few other pokemon waited at the entrance, apparently contemplating whether or not they should go in, but we ignored them and climbed up the rubble mound before the cavern. I hesitated at first, but as it turns out, climbing and short-hopping between different ledges came surprisingly easy to me. Now that I was fully resigned to this life, I figured that I should let my inner pokemon out more. Instead of seeing the differences between my current body and my old one as notable oddities, I tried to see how they could be advantages. My tail, for example, functioned excellently for balancing adjustments, and not just as a convenient and comforting stress toy.

It didn’t take long to reach the entrance, and soon we ventured into the dark, clammy depths. Though open to the outside now, the cave still held stagnant air filled with dirt, dust, and mud, as though it hadn’t seen sunlight in decades. Perhaps it hadn’t. It was also surprisingly dark. I could make out vague shapes in the black despite this, but only in grayscale, and mostly just outlines. I wondered if this is what it was like to have night vision and if that was what this actually was. For some reason, I pictured it more… green.

“Try to stay close to me. When it gets this dark, it’s easy to get lost, and as I said before, getting lost in a mystery dungeon is a big don’t,” April cautioned as she led the way down a particularly long tunnel. I had no interest in leaving her side either way. She continued, “At the very least, we shouldn’t see many ferals in here. There hasn’t been enough time yet. Which is good, because I don’t like the idea of fighting like this.”

I agreed. I could barely see the outline of my own paw in front of my face; I certainly didn’t like the idea of combat right now. I shuddered. Concerned, my brow furrowed. I wasn’t cold. Then, I felt it: there was a slowly mounting feeling of dread accumulating in the air. It was like the sixth sense I had felt before whenever we were about to be ambushed. April seemed to feel it too as she began to slow down in front of me, but no pokemon jumped out at us. The feeling faded just like it came, leaving the two of us paranoid.

“I-is something watching us?” I whispered to April.

“Not sure. Stay quiet,” she commanded.

I nodded, but she likely couldn’t have seen that. Instead, we continued walking. The caverns were set up like a labyrinth, and I had noticed that April had begun running her right hand across the right wall, and every turn she made was to the right as well. I thought this was rather odd, but then I remembered an ancient myth about a hero in a labyrinth in school, and how he did much the same. It’s not a very efficient way to navigate a maze, but it’ll get you out of one with no issue. I wondered if that still applied in mystery dungeons though, since they move around on their own, but April was clearly a pro, and if she was doing it, then… It must have some use.

Soon, the feeling of dread began to build again. My ears twitched as I heard faint… whispering? I couldn’t make out what it was saying, but it was some kind of ethereal voice, several of them, all muttering at once. April stopped in front of me, and I did the same as my blood ran cold. I waited with carefully monitored breaths for something to happen, but soon the whispering faded and the uncomfortable feelings with them.

Well, that was terrifying.

I heard April swallow, then keep walking. It seems like, despite her normal confidence, she was shaken as well. I followed dutifully after her as I imagined all sorts of horrible things that could be waiting for us. Even though April had explained that there likely wouldn’t be any ferals about, their absence was almost palpable. We truly felt alone in the cave, and the darkness was everywhere and truly crushing.

Darkness.

Stop! I thought to myself. Not now. Not again. I tried to focus on my breathing, but it was shallow. I tried to focus on my heartbeat, but it was going too fast. I tried to focus on April. It helped, but I could barely see her outline. She was submerged in the inky black. I felt light-headed and stumbled somewhat. “Nngh…” I groaned.

Perking up, April turned around. “Shane? Is something wrong – woah!” She noticed me falling, and she rushed back to steady me. “You okay?”

Her touch was warm against my fur, and her support was strong and solid. My nerves slowly calmed and I swallowed. “I… I think so…”

“Well… okay. Let’s keep going then,” she suggested, and pull me along, paw in paw.

Despite the comfort of contact, the dread of anticipation began to build again, each time stronger than the last. The multi-layered whispering returned, now louder than before. I still couldn’t hear what it was saying, but it felt like it was coming from directly behind me. A chill ran through me, and I looked back the way we came, but saw nothing. The whispering vanished immediately when I did that, however, sending yet another chill down my spine.

“I do not like this,” April muttered to herself as she gripped my paw tighter.

“Y-yeah…” I stammer out. “How much longer do you think it’ll be?”

“Not sure. Different mystery dungeons are different lengths. This one is fairly new though, so it’s possible that it’s shorter than average. It hasn’t had much time to expand yet,” she reasoned.

Mystery dungeons were weird, and they sounded weirder with every word April says about them. “Right…” I whispered back, consigned to simply accept the fact that mystery dungeons could apparently ‘grow’.

It was hard to keep track of time. Without being able to accurately see how much progress was being made, it felt both like an eternity, and maybe only thirty minutes. The unending darkness just kept going and going, until finally, we noticed something odd up ahead. There was a faint, very faint, violet-hued aura in the distance. Being the first notable thing we’ve seen in here yet, we rushed up ahead to find a small tunnel, perhaps only six inches tall, that the light was coming from.

“Well, we’ll have to crouch, but we should be able to make it through. If this is the end of the dungeon, it’s going to be tough for larger pokemon to explore it… But that just means we have to!” April said with renewed confidence.

My heart sank when she let go of my paw to crawl into the opening, but before I allowed the darkness to take hold of me again, I dropped down to all fours and crawled in after her. Crawling through small holes and the like must have been something I was made to do, as I wasn’t particularly uncomfortable doing so despite the tight corridor. I was thankful, because I truly didn’t need anything else to be anxious about.

Once through, we found ourselves in a large, spacious cavern lit dimly in purple light that emanated from pools located sporadically in the floor. As we walked further into the cave, we passed by the pools, but I couldn’t tell if they were some kind of glowing violet fluid or just raw, malevolent energy. I didn’t want any business with them either way.

Looking around and not finding an entrance, April declared, “This must be the end of the dungeon, but… Besides these holes filled with stuff, I don’t really see anything here. Then again… It could just be an empty cave.” She shrugged and turned to me. “Well, that’s disappointing.”

I was about to respond when the whispering began again. The dread was heavy now – it was pure terror made manifest and it hung in the air like fog. My ears drooped as I began to shiver. “April… Something’s here, there has to be!”

April’s cheeks began to crackle as she looked around the cave at nothing. “Who’s there!?” she demanded. “Stop hiding!”

The whispers picked up the word ‘hiding’ and started repeating it intermittently among other words I couldn’t make out. Whatever it or they were… it was listening. The voices then unified, and said, “Hiding…? We’re not hiding. We’re right here in front of you.” As with the whispering, the voice sounded like several people were speaking as one. Electricity blossomed from my cheeks as well as tensions began to rise.

“Where? There’s no one…” April started, then paused, and tilted her head. Tracing her line of sight, I noticed it to – a small rock with a jagged face carved into it was sitting in the middle of the room. It featured a prominent crack on the top of it. “Wait… is that you?”

“There is no need to demean us. Our conduit may be small, but our might is of many. Now we must discuss the matter of your trespass.”

“’Trespass!?’” April protested. “Listen, we just found a cave and went exploring. It’s not like you put up a sign or anything. If you don’t want us around, we’ll just leave. No harm done.”

“Ignorant, insufferable pest. You claim no harm was done, but you disturbed our peace with your presence. We have slept here since time immemorial, but you have ruined it ALL!” As the voices grew increasingly agitated, so too did the cavern begin to shake. Then, all at once, the purple light burst from the pools in the floor like geysers. The streams of violet curved inward towards the center of the cave, churning around the keystone in center. Small orbs of green light speckled the purple energy, giving the fluid a sickly tone. Once the pools had been exhausted, the mass of energy swirled around the rock, pulling it upwards into the air. Then, out of the green orbs, a jagged, monstrous face formed in the swirling mass, staring at us with crazed eyes. “WE are SPIRITOMB,” it shouted, shaking the walls. “AND we SENTENCE you to DEATH! Join US in the elegant CACOPHONY!”

Immediately, April and I threw ourselves out of the way as a column of ghostly energy erupted from the swirling mass and scorched the ground we had just been standing on. With a determined expression, April set her glare on the purple swirling monster, charged up lightning into her hand, and unleashed it in a single, loud *crack!* Unfortunately, the bolt passed right through the purple storm, seemingly doing no damage to it.

“IGNORANT fool!” it shouted, and the area around April’s feet grew dark. She noticed it just a second too late and a red aura came over her. She cried out and stumbled, but then with a growl of effort, electricity raced over her body and the red aura exploded away, freeing her. She panted, but she seemed okay.

Even still, now I was mad. Lightning raced around my body, charging my muscles. I burst into a four-legged sprint directly at the horror, and I launched myself into the air. Spinning, I brought my electrified tail down onto the keystone directly, batting it directly into the hard ground below. I fell to the floor beside it and ran off, not wanting to be near the cursed object. I watched as the mass of swirling energy went to retrieve the rock, lifting it back into the air. The cave rumbled again as the spiritomb shouted, “INSOLENCE!”

“The rock!” I shouted to April, “You have to hit the rock!” Before she could say anything, my vision went red and my body began to burn as if my fur had turned to acid. I screamed, trying to conjure up enough electricity to break out of the attack like April did, but I couldn’t. The room began to spin. I heard April shout something, but I couldn’t make it out. My vision began to blur. The pain was too much. It was all I could feel – it had replaced everything else. I collapsed to the floor, shaking. Then, something began to form, deep inside of me. There was a slowly building ball of energy, deep down. I tried to reach it, but it was so far…

A scream pierced my addled senses, followed by *thud!* It was attacking April now. Rage quickly replaced my pain, and the energy I reached for exploded out like a crashing river in a storm. The red aura around me dissipated, now replaced by a vibrant electric blue that surrounded me. I was fueled by nothing more than malice and burning anger against this thing. I bolted straight at it, and despite running faster than I ever had before, time seemed to slow then. I leaped into the air, and as I did so, I infused burning white energy into the three tufts of my tail, transforming them into large blades. I brought my tail down on the keystone, hard. It was launched across the room, hitting the floor with an audible and unsettling *crack!*, but the momentum caused it to ricochet, and so it hit the wall, then the roof, then finally the floor again, where it laid motionless. The violent swirl of energy shuddered and began to dissipate. What was left of the purple and green energy slinked slowly back to the now thoroughly cracked rock and scooped it up like it was an injured pet.

“The world… has changed quite a bit since we last saw sunlight, it seems…” it whispered weakly. A pool of black and red energy formed below it, and it sunk into the floor without a trace. The room was left quiet and with only my own blue glow for lighting. My anger began to fade, and with it, my power. I was left panting, and my heart raced from the adrenaline. I looked over then to see how April was doing, and… she looked fine, for the most part. She was clutching one of her arms, likely the one that she landed on when she was thrown against the wall, but she didn’t seem upset by that. Instead, she was looking at me. She seemed… afraid.

The blue glow around me dissipated entirely, leaving us in darkness. Desperate to have at least some light, I brought electricity to my cheeks again, and the small crackles illuminated the immediate area dimly. I got myself back up to two feet and cautiously walked over to my partner.

April took a step back.

A chill went through me as my heart sunk. “A-April? What’s… what’s wrong?” I asked desperately.

She shook her head slowly and swallowed. “You know… I never really wondered how you could beat someone like Raichu. He’s a jerk, but he’s strong. And apparently immune to electricity like I am. I thought the things he called you were just him being mean, but… if that was how you beat him…” She shook her head, still in disbelief. “Then… I can see why he said what he did.”

A-April, no… My throat grew tense, and I tried to think of what to say. “I… L-listen, I don’t…” Nothing was coming out right. “I… I’ll be honest, I don’t really know what I’m doing. It’s just… I get so mad, and then all this power, it just… comes out. It doesn’t even feel like I’m the one doing it… It just happens…”

April stared at me, her face unreadable. After a heavy, viscous silence, she asked, “You really don’t have any idea what you’re doing? You’re not just lying to me?”

“N-no! I’d never do that!” Tears stung at my eyes. “Please, d-don’t…” I begged. I couldn’t lose the one person who cared about me in this world. I wasn’t some monster! Though… at that moment, I certainly felt like one.

April thought about this for another long moment. Then, she nodded slowly and carefully. “Okay. I believe you.” She looked around and said, “We should probably get going. There’s nothing left here.”

I sighed with relief, then nodded. I followed her over to the small tunnel that was the entrance, but she stopped before going in. “Um, hey Shane, we may have a problem.”

I looked around her to see what it was, and the tunnel had completely collapsed in on itself. “Spiritomb, it was shaking the tunnel! It must have triggered a rock slide. How will we get out?”

April shook her head. “Well… the only way out now, I guess, is to use our badges, but… we’ll lose all our stuff…” She looked devastated.

I grimaced. I had just gotten this scarf, and the thought of April losing her bag of stuff, plus, that bow… It filled me with more despair than I cared to admit. I clenched my paws and told April, “Stand back.”

She tilted her head, but did as I said. The more I thought about sad April was going to be if we had to escape without our things… despair gave way to anger, anger at the spiritomb, anger at the cave, and then… there it was, the energy I had called on before. It wasn’t as strong, not nearly, but I hoped it would be enough. I took a few steps back, dropped to all fours, and then sprinted head-first at the blockage. I had built up quite a bit of speed, and my body was enveloped in a bright blue light, but I didn’t really think about what I was actually doing until it was a second too late.

The top of my head hit solid rock with incredible force, and I had only a moment to lament my own poor decision before my head exploded with pain and the darkness took me.

Then, I took a sharp breath as I immediately came to. The pain in my head was already fading rapidly. I grumbled and opened my eyes slowly. On the floor in front of me was a glowing seed, but already the glow was fading. I slowly got to my feet and I looked over at April, who was once again staring at me in disbelief.

“What… What was that!?” she demanded. “What did you think you were trying to accomplish!? First of all, you obviously did that whole energy thing on command, so you were lying to me! That was literally twenty seconds ago that you begged me to believe you, and here you are immediately exposing yourself! And then you use your apparent god-like power to knock yourself out by ramming your brain against a wall at the speed of a latios! You’re not only a liar, but you’re also an idiot. And you wasted my reviver seed,” she said with contempt.

I panicked. “N-no, it’s not like that! I…” I didn’t know what to say. It’s true that I tried to call up that power on command, but it didn’t really work anyway. “Th-that was the first time I tried to do it myself, but… it didn’t really work… I know that it happens when I get mad, or when… When you’re hurt or in danger, so I thought that, maybe by imagining how sad you’d be without your stuff, I could call up enough power to blow through the tunnel, but…” I shook my head, tears returning to my vision. “It didn’t really work. I just… couldn’t get mad enough, or scared enough, to get there…”

April looked at me, confused, and partially weirded out. “Wh-what? That doesn’t make any sense. Why… Why does me getting hurt matter that much to you? Like, I get that we were friends and all, but… wouldn’t any kind of fight response happen when you’re in danger?”

That was a good question. One I didn’t have an answer to. “I… I don’t know.”

She stared at me blankly. Then, with obvious annoyance in her eyes, she shakes her head. “Whatever. We need to get out of here. This stuff is just stuff. I can just buy more later,” she grumbles, then gestures to her bag, and her badge materializes in her hands. She sighed, then pressed the gem in the middle. I waited for something to happen, but instead, the gem glowed red briefly before growing inert again. “Wha…” she breathed, then walked over to me and reached out to my chest. She grabbed the badge that was still pinned to my scarf and pressed the gemstone on mine. It, too, glowed red for a moment, but nothing else happened.

“What does that mean?” I asked April as my anxiety began to raise again.

She looked down at the ground, then all around the cave. She sighed as her eyes began to water. She swallowed and looked at me. “It means… that we’re trapped.”