Chapter 1 & Summary
Torchic
Torchic Hugger
- Location
- Bavaria, Germany
- Pronouns
- he
Hello. Hey. It's me, Pokemon #255, and this is my third puny attempt of making this PMD story. It's also up on FF.net under the same name. Might as well post it here too, after creating this account. Hehe.
Summary: A Shinx with neither memories of himself, nor of what he was supposed to be, wakes up in a world quickly deteriorating into chaos. A force too great for anyone's understanding looms over it, all the while spacial anomalies spread across the land like a plague, and an increasing number of Pokémon are becoming affected by strange genetic mutations.
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Chapter 1:
"Hello? Hey, can you hear me?"
Sounds. Words.
These were the first things his body had picked up for an undefined amount of time. In his mind, he was floating through an empty void, since the beginning of time. Alive or dead, he was thinking, what could he have been right now? Alive and mostly well for the mysterious voice that had formed next to his unmoving body—it had noticed he was still breathing and kicking, which made it think he was initially dreaming—but he himself eventually thought he was dead, that this was his punishment of some sort. The surrounding blackness was enough evidence already, and the fact that he wasn't feeling himself breathing made it ever so prominent.
But yet, his body was indeed breathing, underneath the shade of an oak tree. An entity noticed his sleeping, unconscious body, surrounded by a ring of ashes from patches of grass. It looked as if the body had created those burn marks; he had made a trail, coming from seemingly nowhere.
"Oh my Arceus, what happened here?!"
The voice had made its way from the neatly built gravel path leading into the distance to next to the tree. It inspected the nearby area for any other anomalies, but couldn't find any. So, with a worried sigh, it spoke again.
"Hello? Hey, can you hear me?" It shook his perfectly healthy looking body with its one clawed leg. It found no cuts, no bruises, no burn marks, not anything resembling a fight or strain on him.
What on earth happened here?
The voice checked the tree for any damage: the bark, the leaves, and the Starly singing in them were unharmed. Then where did this body come from…?
"Hey, can you hear me?" It shook him again, asking the same question in hopes of getting an answer out of him this time.
His black furred legs were twitching, but only for a short time. So were his light blue front legs. Moving ever so slightly… was he waking up?
"Hello?" It asked again, now looking through her leather bag strapped on its neck. Rummaging through its items, it didn't find anything useful to help him wake up. But as it turned out, it hadn't needed an item in the first place—the black-blue body was now squirming and groaning.
"Hey," it gasped, "hey, come on, wake up!"
His body protested in getting back to consciousness, the void was trembling, cracks started to show up left and right, up and down, filling the seemingly endless blackness with a brilliant light. His senses started coming back one by one—first was hearing; he heard the voice speaking to him, the tree rustling in the fine breeze, the singing of birds, the whooshing of the grass around him.
Second was feeling. He felt his body laying on the ground, the wind howling all around his body, he felt more hairy for some reason. As if his whole body had grown fur overnight. He was freezing, shivering. The warmth of the sun shining onto him gave him a sense of comfort.
Third was seeing. This one was difficult for him at first. He attempted to open his eyes, but felt an immediate stinging coming from them, which resulted in him tearing up. They still were adjusted to the darkness that surrounded him. He could barely move his arm to wipe the tears from his eyes, he placed them on top instead of rubbing them. His body right now was in no condition of standing up. The voice called to him again and this time lightly tapped his chest.
"Hey, can you hear me? Please, wake up..." The voice turned out to be a female.
Only a low 'murrr' came out of his mouth. No amount of poking him would make him open his eyes, much less stand up. She tip-tapped around the blue lynx, unsure of what she should do.
Rummaging through her little bag, she looked at a map. "Ok, if that took… hmhm. I should arrive… ah!" She folded the sheet of paper and put it back. "Well. If you don't wanna walk, I'll have to carry you there."
She summoned two vines that carefully wrapped around the black-blue body, then put it onto her back. The tail was brushing the ground, as she noticed, but the furry body didn't seem to care that much. Maybe it didn't feel it. She kept him secured with them, as she had agreed to herself that she would make a little haste. Maybe there was something wrong with him, not visible to the naked eye?
Once more her attention turned to the scorched grass that was surrounding this body. It didn't feel like she was burning her back off, so that was out of the question. The fur was cold to the touch.
On her way, she kept thinking and theorizing about the strange find. How did he get there? When had he arrived underneath that tree? Why was he unconscious? Questions after questions that couldn't be answered shot through her head. What was the reason he was there? Was there even a reason?
Who was he? She had never seen him before. Not in her village, not in any other. "Are Shinx supposed to be in this part of the continent? Weren't they more southern…? What's that doing here, then?"
The body moved slightly with every step she took, yet still not a single response came out of it.
Meanwhile, the electric type was terrified. Scared for his life. He managed to open his eyes a tiny bit. They started tearing up from all the burning, so it made it even harder to resist closing them again. Who took him? Who was kidnapping him? Where was he?
What was he?
He felt… different. Like he was in a different body. In a different world. Yet, it felt all so strangely… familiar, as if all of this had happened once before. He felt like he could throw up.
His body registered that two rope-like things were holding him together with something… scaly? He tried to move, but found out the things pressing harder on him. What were those? These couldn't be ropes; they were too soft.
Finally, one of his arms managed to wipe the tears from his eyes. They also slowly accommodated to the sunlight, after blinking a couple times, so he could fully open them for the first time since forever. What greeted him was something he didn't expect to see.
Stones. A gravel path. He felt like he was floating, but at the same time tied around something moving. He attempted turning his head to the right, but couldn't. He could barely keep his eyes open. Why was he so weak? Why couldn't he move his own head?
"Let's see what she's gonna say about this..." The voice came from his left. Was she talking about him?
She moved abnormally fast, he thought, with him on her back. How would he be able to escape if he wasn't able to turn his own head to the side…? He felt hopeless, useless.
He noticed something peculiar while trying to find any muscle he could move. His arms… his hands… they...
As he was still looking down at the path, his 'hands' came into view. The lack thereof, to be more precise. What he expected to see was five fingers, not none. They looked like blue paws… with a yellow wristband that didn't exist. He… he had paws? He had paws. He blinked once, twice, thrice, to be absolutely, positively sure this wasn't his imagination. Yes, there was no mistaking it. He had paws.
Paws- I- wh- wh- ...fhh-
He still couldn't believe his own brain for seeing them. Did she give him something so that he would hallucinate and stay calm, while she could do unimaginable things to him? Did she do this to him? She-
She… she was green? She… had four legs.
No! No! I'm hallucinating! He had told that to himself a thousand times since his arms got replaced by furry legs. This is crazy! His mouth was silent. He couldn't scream. He couldn't shout. He couldn't cry for help. Why was all of this happening?
"Oh- wait. What?" She suddenly stopped, sounding surprised. "Did I take a wrong… no…"
Both of the things that were holding him let go, and he heard her going through a… leather backpack? Now was his chance— get as far away as possible from this psycho kidnapper.
To somehow escape, how would he do that, with his everything protesting to move? He couldn't.
"No… no, I'm on the right track, but why is there…?" She muttered again, and then grumbled. "I can't go through that with this… let alone walk around."
The annoyed green creature let out a sigh and picked up the Shinx with her vines. She made sure to be very careful with him. "Now would be a good time for you to wake up. Hey!"
He was slowly but surely coming back to his senses. Now that he could actually see what was going on, he saw a relieved, green, plant dinosaur looking creature smiling at him, as she was walking toward his belly side.
"Hey, you're finally awake." She spoke in a calm tone. "Can you tell me what happened to you? I found you unconscious underneath a tree just now. Are you alright?"
Her noises made sense to him. Either he could understand the growling and hissing this creature had made just now, or she spoke perfect English. Whether option it was, he was equally freaked out.
At least he could feel his legs. All four of them.
...Four. Four legs. Just as the creature before him.
"Hey, heyheyhey, calm down," she responded to the Shinx starting to hyperventilate, "I'm not gonna hurt you."
'What the fuck is going on?' The thought went through the Shinx's head like the blood flowing through his body. He managed to lift his head and was able to look around. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Not near his home, that was for certain. A lot, almost everything he saw was flora and fauna growing everywhere. The yellow and red flowers stretching into the horizon, with what looked like more alien creatures frolicking around them. Birds, weasels, mice, gigantic butterflies, that's what some of those looked like, but at the same time he knew that they weren't.
An alien planet. He'd woken up on a different planet.
No. This was a dream. It had to be.
No. This was real. It couldn't be just a dream.
His gaze landed on the leaf lizard, a mixture between horror and confusion.
"What are you…?" He managed to say.
"...Wha-?" That question threw her back. She wasn't expecting that, and was now as confused as him. "I'm... a Chikor-"
"What am I?!"
"H-hey, hey. Calm down…" She tried to get closer to the awoken Shinx, but he struggled backing up, as if she was some mutant trying to kill him.
"Stay away from me!" He was panicking, didn't know what was happening. Unbeknownst to him, his tail is tucked away under his body.
"Alright, alright..." She took a step back and spoke as calm and relaxed as she possibly could. "Now please. Calm down. Everything's gonna be alright."
"As if anything's alright!" Panic took on screaming. "What happened to me?!"
The Chikorita didn't know what to answer. "What- what do you mean? You look perfectly normal..."
"Normal?!" His voice cracked. "Does this look normal to you?!"
A blue paw entered his vision. It looked almost exactly like a cat's. He moved and turned it, unsheathed their claws from their respective slit and back. "What… what… wh-..." His mouth kept repeating the same word over and over again, with whimpers inbetween them.
He has clearly lost it… just what is wrong with him? He won't tell me what happened, but instead asks me that...
"What is happening… Why… what…
"how…?"
He was starting to lose it, slowly falling into unconsciousness again. It was too much. He couldn't take it anymore.
"Hey, hey hey hey. Stay with me!" Ignoring his previous request, she ran towards him and shook his body again. "Stay awake! Please!"
Blinked once, twice, with half open eyes he stared at a random speck in the distance. It was green, too, but he didn't care what exactly it was. His paw plummeted onto the ground with a quiet 'thud'.
"Am I, am I dead? Hello? What?" Babbling as if he was drunk. At least he didn't fall unconscious again.
"No, no, you're alive. You're alive." She was seriously worried about him, despite the unusual reaction from him.
He grumbled a couple unintelligible words. Slowly but surely, he came back to his senses yet again and his eyes moved to the green lizard lightly gasping just in front of him, as if she got scared from behind.
"You…" He spoke very slowly and drew a breath after every question. "What are you? What am I? What is all this…?" Vision moving back and forth from the landscape, the creature and his own body, and ending at a random speck on the grass.
"Are… are you alright now? I don't know what you want me to answer... You're a Shinx, I'm a Chikorita, and…" she seemed to think for a moment.
"A what? Shenx? Chikeeta? What- what even is that?" He got more confused by every passing second. Those names didn't exist. Those words didn't exist.
"Uhm," is he joking? No, his reaction and question were genuine. Too genuine... "you know, you and me. We are both Pokemon..." She laughed awkwardly. I'm sure he doesn't know what that is, either.
"What are you talking about? What is that?" He noticed how his hind legs felt out of place. They just… were weird to look at. They felt alien. They looked crooked, broken.
"Alright, um, ok." Knew it. Start it simple. "Just… just start with telling me your name. I'm Kori."
He started thinking really hard. His name, that was simple enough. Surely, he would remember his own name he had since the beginning of his life. How would he be able to forget his own name others called him as? It was such a trivial question. It certainly should've been the most one.
"I… I can't remember..." He said in a low whisper.
"You what?"
"I can't. Remember. My name…" he said this more to himself than to the Chikorita. "My name?"
Kori noticed that he was starting to panic again.
"Don't- don't worry. This happens sometimes." She lied. "Well, not sometimes, but, rarely. You know?"
"Uh, this has happened before?"
"Yyyeah. It has." Still lying, looking away from the Shinx for a short time. "Don't worry. It'll come back to you later, but, uh, I… I can explain some things to you if you want."
"That would be appreciated. For example what happened to me, and, you know... why I'm a fucking cat now."
...What? "Shinx. I can't really explain everything, but I'll try my best. You and I, we both are Pokemon. Every living creature you can see here," she pointed at the aliens jumping and running around them, "are Pokemon. We are creatures with elemental powers, like fire, or air. We call those 'types'. You see, I, for example," she pointed her own foot at her chest, "have the grass type. My species can also do something kind of unique." She summoned her two vines from her neck and flexed them around carelessly. "You may have not noticed it, but I used those to keep you secured." They retracted back into the pea looking things around her neck.
He cringed as the two appendages just seemingly sprouted out of nowhere, and even more so when they had retracted themselves again.
"You, on the other paw, have the electric type. Your species can summon and control electricity and sometimes even lightning. Don't worry about that, though. You won't discharge or anything. You're completely harmless to the touch. If that weren't the case, I would've had a big problem." She snickered.
"Also, you should have incredible eyesight. I'm speaking of 'seeing in pitch darkness' kind of incredible. When you ev- uh, 'grow older', you'll also be able to have some kind of x-ray vision. ...Don't ask how that's possible. It just is."
That was a lot of information for him to take in at once. Elemental powers? Types? Sprouting tentacles and controlling lightning? Built in x-ray vision? Did these creatures evolve just to give a middle finger to nature?
It took him a while of thoroughly inspecting her body—he noticed she had little pea sized growths around her neck, and that the 'vines' were coming out of those. Eventually, he managed to ask something he had meant to the moment she had retracted them again.
"Were- were those tentacles?!"
"What? No! No no no." She laughed and they reappeared. "Vines. Those are vines. Take a closer look if you want."
"Erm…" They were right in front of his face. It looked like they were made out of some kind of compressed plant matter. Grasshalms tied together by the thousands. He noticed they had miniature dents along them, perhaps to grab things a little easier. The fact that they looked similar to tendrils made them even more creepy.
"How does that even feel to you? When they come out."
"Oh, it's…" they slithered back into her. "It's not that weird. I barely feel it, even. Anyway…" she snapped back to reality, having remembered what she had wanted to ask the Shinx since she found him, "that's beside the point. What happened to you? I found you unconscious next to one of those trees here, and surrounding you was burned grass. Like, reduced to ashes burned."
She had what? Found me surrounded by burned grass? How in the hell did that happen? I can't remember anything… would she believe me?
"I…" He stuttered. He wasn't sure if he should even tell her this. What would she think? Would she even know what that was? The only way to find out is to just tell her outright. No need to overcomplicate it with 'uh's and 'umm's.
"I-I don't know. I don't know! I-I just don't know!" His face of horror was both visible and hearable. "I… I only know that I used to be a human." He braced for impact. Did she know what a human was?
"...You… what? A human? But… that's impossible."
"Impossible?" He repeated after her. So she knew? "What do you mean, 'impossible'?"
"By that I mean that humans are extinct. They used to roam the world several millennia ago, that much I know. But… you? A human? No."
Extinct? For several thousand years… They didn't seem to have left any major impact around here… though that might have been destroyed by nature a long time ago. Or those type creatures. He was one now. She was one, too.
He stared at her in disbelief yet again. He just couldn't understand what she had said right now. How in the world am I here right now? Have I been asleep for that long?
How long have I'd been asleep for, anyway? How long was I laying there? When did I arrive here? What happened before I woke up?
"You're quite the unique Pokemon, Shinx. You wake up here, without anything from your past, except that you were a human. That's… insane. Actually insane." She was laughing now. Not at him, but at herself for actually believing him. "I have to say, this has been the weirdest day of my life. By far. How in the world are you existing?"
Does that mean… she's actually believing me? Thank god… I was really scared of what would've happened if she didn't.
"So," she continued, "if you're actually a human. What was their life like? I was always interested as to what happened to them. Their extinction shouldn't have happened, you know? It's a big mystery, because they had all this amazing technology! Like, uh… they had this… like," she was gesturing with her legs, but he couldn't find out what she meant by them. She was sitting, touching her toe with her other leg, and then holding it onto what he assumed was her ear? "You know? They could do all kinds of stuff with that! Literally everything! They could speak to other humans over this tool, and- and other things! Have you had one of those?" She was sincerely hoping his answer would be yes.
"...No." I bluntly answered and shook his head. "I don't remember."
Her hopeful smile turned into a depressing frown. "You… you don't?"
He shook his head again. "I'm sorry."
"Oh. Well then… I…" She looked past him in what felt like an hour had passed, looking at the thing that made her stop in the first place. Oh no, I completely forgot! She gave him a quick glance. "This might sound strange, and I'm sure the answer's no, but do you know any moves?"
What's this now? "You're right. I don't. Just tell me what they are."
"So, you know how some of us mons can control fire and stuff? Well, they do that using what we call 'moves'. Of course, you can just use them whenever you want, but they're most important in defending yourself. Let me show you an example." She looked around and chose the tree right behind her. "See this tree? Don't blink now."
"Ok…?" She waved her giant leaf around and back, and after five or six rounds, the leaf fired many tiny razor sharp leaves at the poor tree. They penetrated the bark but got stuck in the wood. He wasn't sure if it was just him or the light, but he could've sworn they were glowing a barely visible light green. A gray alien bird that had been chirping in it flew away.
He stared at them in shock. How could she have launched them at such high velocity that they could get stuck in wood? That just seemed terrifying.
"That was 'razor leaf'. The name implies what it does. They are many, maaany more moves."
"Aaand… when do you have to defend yourself? Because everything looks peaceful around here…" The other creatures were minding their own business, and they seem to rather ignore the two than finding out what they were. Like they were scared of them.
"Yeah, I was getting to that. I'm just gonna assume you don't have anything. That's ok, too. You still have your claws. And your body, for tackling. So you're not completely useless."
"Gee, thanks. Hold on." He realized he was still laying down until now. With shaky legs, and a few unnecessary movements, he managed to stand up. His balance was much different, with those two extra legs behind him. For a second he thought he would fall on his face, but that disappeared as quick as it came. And…
A tail was hanging low enough that it was touching the ground. His tail. It was as pitch black furred as the rest of his lower body. The tip of it looked like a star. He managed to wag it back and forth a little, slightly cringing at the new limb he now had.
"Look at you go. Can you walk?"
"I, I can try." He was unsure on how to start: which one first? His first attempt involved putting his two front legs in front of him, but found himself with a stretched belly, so his hind legs shakily followed. All this resulted in him looking stupid.
Kori couldn't stop grinning at the sight of this odd fellow. "That... was not a bad attempt." In her mind, she couldn't stop laughing at this. "Let me show you… how to walk." I can't believe I said that. Oh Mew, so help this poor Shinx over there.
"You do this," her left front and right hind leg started moving and stopped right behind the other ones, "and then this." She followed up with the rest of them doing the same. "And you just keep doing that, until you need to stop."
This looked simple enough for him. He quickly got accustomed to the rhythm of normal walking speed. He was able to jog, too. At least he thought it was their form of jogging.
"Ok, now that you know the basics of life, I can tell you why I asked you about moves."
"Very funny."
"You see this forest there?" Her claw pointed behind him at the trees.
"...Yes. What's-"
It looked strange. Very strange. Out of this world.
Purple fizzles of light shot through the air between the forest and the continuing gravel path. Their path, length, and velocity was completely random. No two lightning bolts were the same. They mesmerized the Shinx with their unique movements. He couldn't look away. They were so… beautiful. Breathtaking! They swirled and danced around, creating various shapes and figures, drawing him nearer. Were they getting longer? Faster? He wasn't sure, but they didn't plan on stopping. Shiny radiant pink lights now. Blinding brightness.
The Shinx screamed as something grabbed him around the torso.
"Stop looking at it! Can't you hear me?!" Kori shouted at him, leaving him in shock and confusion again. He had sounded very similar to a squeaky toy.
A flock of Pidgey flew off of a nearby tree, into the distance.
For a moment, there was silence.
"Wh- what? What? What happened?"
"I saved you, that's what happened! Didn't you hear me?"
"Heard… what? You didn't say anything." They still appeared in his vision as he blinked. Very blurry.
"You-"
"What are those things...?" He backed up even more, he was almost touching the tree behind Kori.
Kori took a deep breath, preparing for what she had to explain to him. "Those things, this thing, it's called a mystery dungeon."
"Mystery… dungeon?" The Shinx repeated after her.
"Yes. They are… very dangerous places. If you somehow enter one of them, you don't notice it until it's too late. This one, however, has some kind of… let's say quirk to it. Those fizzles right there are normally not there for other dungeons, unless they have something special to them. What that is, we'll find out when we enter it. We… kinda have to."
All that he could manage to say was a quick "huh?".
"Sure, we could walk around it, but that would take at least two days. Maybe even more. You see, these dungeons, they are… how can I say it… uhm… they are defined as spatial anomalies. It would take a couple days to go around the forest, but if you go through it, and are quick, you can reach the other side before the sun sets. Bear with me now," she breathed in again, "they cramp up space and make it so you can get to another location faster than actually possible."
He made a sound that could be described as saying '?'.
"That's not all. Also-"
"Stop, stop right there for a second," he backed up and held a paw up for her to take a break from talking, "they are WHAT? They, as in this thing right behind me, can toy around with space? Like, actual spatial manipulation? What the fuck…?" This one was more of a whisper. "No, no. You're just making shit up now. No way on earth would this exist. Your species may have evolved to wield elemental powers, that's great and all, but this. This thing right here," he pointed with the same leg to the anomaly, "can bend space to its will. You cannot be serious about this. There is no way."
"Oh, it's real. You have a lot to learn about this world, then. This has been a thing for as long as I've been around. We have learned and accepted it."
"Well, if it can bend space to its will, what happens if it creates a black hole? What then?"
"It won't. It never will."
"How can you be so sure about that?"
"Because it doesn't do that out here, just when you enter it. Do you see anything strange when looking into the forest? Except for those fizzles."
He turned around, and saw… the path going forward without anything stopping it. It went a fair bit deep, but then cuts to black all of a sudden.
"Ok, fine. Well, how does it manipulate space, then? Can you tell me that?"
"They… do that so they can create mazes. A dungeon is kind of like a big maze with rooms and hallways. But the layout of those mazes changes every time someone new enters one. For example: you're in a room with two hallways to your left, and to your right. The right one leads you to the next area, the left one is a dead end. Skip forward to another one entering the same dungeon. Now you have a room with one hallway, and it's to your right. This time, the dead end is gone and the exit is over there.
"This makes it impossible to create maps for those dungeons. You'd just have to memorize where everything leads to and where it is every time you enter a new one. Most of the time they are straight forward, but sometimes… they can act like a real maze, and you can lose yourself in them."
"...Ok… I think I get it? But… I asked how, and not why. And why did you ask me about any moves I can use before that?"
"I was getting to that. The reason I asked you that is because you won't ever be alone in them."
Euh, that sounds so creepy. "You mean like, uh, ghosts?"
"No, not here. Most of the times they are populated with similar mons you see out here. Sentret and Furret, Starly, Butterfree, and whatnot."
"They, uh, ok?"
"And, if you ever see any feral mons in them, get prepared to fight. Because their only thoughts are to fight anyone stupid enough to enter their line of sight. So you'd have to be careful at every moment you're in there. Of course, if you are strong enough, you can just plow through no problem, but… neither you or me are."
"And why are they a thing again?"
"That's the problem," Kori answered, "they just kinda appeared some day. Out of nowhere. ...Now that I mention it… this one's not marked on my map. That's a little strange."
"Maybe they're old?" The Shinx theorized. "Or… they forgot to add this to the map?"
"I doubt that. Very much. I got this one a couple weeks ago. And if they don't have that on them… I'd have to report that as soon as possible. Anyway," she quickly added, "We should go."
"Huh? Wait, right now? I'm not ready..."
"Too bad. Come on. Also, we can check you up for any injuries when we arrive at Inisio. I doubt that everything's fine with you. Except your memory loss, of course. I don't know if they can help you with that."
"I feel perfectly fine…" he lied.
"Well, then we can go!"
"Hey, wait, no!"
She grabbed him yet again and went straight into the forest.
Summary: A Shinx with neither memories of himself, nor of what he was supposed to be, wakes up in a world quickly deteriorating into chaos. A force too great for anyone's understanding looms over it, all the while spacial anomalies spread across the land like a plague, and an increasing number of Pokémon are becoming affected by strange genetic mutations.
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Chapter 1:
"Hello? Hey, can you hear me?"
Sounds. Words.
These were the first things his body had picked up for an undefined amount of time. In his mind, he was floating through an empty void, since the beginning of time. Alive or dead, he was thinking, what could he have been right now? Alive and mostly well for the mysterious voice that had formed next to his unmoving body—it had noticed he was still breathing and kicking, which made it think he was initially dreaming—but he himself eventually thought he was dead, that this was his punishment of some sort. The surrounding blackness was enough evidence already, and the fact that he wasn't feeling himself breathing made it ever so prominent.
But yet, his body was indeed breathing, underneath the shade of an oak tree. An entity noticed his sleeping, unconscious body, surrounded by a ring of ashes from patches of grass. It looked as if the body had created those burn marks; he had made a trail, coming from seemingly nowhere.
"Oh my Arceus, what happened here?!"
The voice had made its way from the neatly built gravel path leading into the distance to next to the tree. It inspected the nearby area for any other anomalies, but couldn't find any. So, with a worried sigh, it spoke again.
"Hello? Hey, can you hear me?" It shook his perfectly healthy looking body with its one clawed leg. It found no cuts, no bruises, no burn marks, not anything resembling a fight or strain on him.
What on earth happened here?
The voice checked the tree for any damage: the bark, the leaves, and the Starly singing in them were unharmed. Then where did this body come from…?
"Hey, can you hear me?" It shook him again, asking the same question in hopes of getting an answer out of him this time.
His black furred legs were twitching, but only for a short time. So were his light blue front legs. Moving ever so slightly… was he waking up?
"Hello?" It asked again, now looking through her leather bag strapped on its neck. Rummaging through its items, it didn't find anything useful to help him wake up. But as it turned out, it hadn't needed an item in the first place—the black-blue body was now squirming and groaning.
"Hey," it gasped, "hey, come on, wake up!"
His body protested in getting back to consciousness, the void was trembling, cracks started to show up left and right, up and down, filling the seemingly endless blackness with a brilliant light. His senses started coming back one by one—first was hearing; he heard the voice speaking to him, the tree rustling in the fine breeze, the singing of birds, the whooshing of the grass around him.
Second was feeling. He felt his body laying on the ground, the wind howling all around his body, he felt more hairy for some reason. As if his whole body had grown fur overnight. He was freezing, shivering. The warmth of the sun shining onto him gave him a sense of comfort.
Third was seeing. This one was difficult for him at first. He attempted to open his eyes, but felt an immediate stinging coming from them, which resulted in him tearing up. They still were adjusted to the darkness that surrounded him. He could barely move his arm to wipe the tears from his eyes, he placed them on top instead of rubbing them. His body right now was in no condition of standing up. The voice called to him again and this time lightly tapped his chest.
"Hey, can you hear me? Please, wake up..." The voice turned out to be a female.
Only a low 'murrr' came out of his mouth. No amount of poking him would make him open his eyes, much less stand up. She tip-tapped around the blue lynx, unsure of what she should do.
Rummaging through her little bag, she looked at a map. "Ok, if that took… hmhm. I should arrive… ah!" She folded the sheet of paper and put it back. "Well. If you don't wanna walk, I'll have to carry you there."
She summoned two vines that carefully wrapped around the black-blue body, then put it onto her back. The tail was brushing the ground, as she noticed, but the furry body didn't seem to care that much. Maybe it didn't feel it. She kept him secured with them, as she had agreed to herself that she would make a little haste. Maybe there was something wrong with him, not visible to the naked eye?
Once more her attention turned to the scorched grass that was surrounding this body. It didn't feel like she was burning her back off, so that was out of the question. The fur was cold to the touch.
On her way, she kept thinking and theorizing about the strange find. How did he get there? When had he arrived underneath that tree? Why was he unconscious? Questions after questions that couldn't be answered shot through her head. What was the reason he was there? Was there even a reason?
Who was he? She had never seen him before. Not in her village, not in any other. "Are Shinx supposed to be in this part of the continent? Weren't they more southern…? What's that doing here, then?"
The body moved slightly with every step she took, yet still not a single response came out of it.
Meanwhile, the electric type was terrified. Scared for his life. He managed to open his eyes a tiny bit. They started tearing up from all the burning, so it made it even harder to resist closing them again. Who took him? Who was kidnapping him? Where was he?
What was he?
He felt… different. Like he was in a different body. In a different world. Yet, it felt all so strangely… familiar, as if all of this had happened once before. He felt like he could throw up.
His body registered that two rope-like things were holding him together with something… scaly? He tried to move, but found out the things pressing harder on him. What were those? These couldn't be ropes; they were too soft.
Finally, one of his arms managed to wipe the tears from his eyes. They also slowly accommodated to the sunlight, after blinking a couple times, so he could fully open them for the first time since forever. What greeted him was something he didn't expect to see.
Stones. A gravel path. He felt like he was floating, but at the same time tied around something moving. He attempted turning his head to the right, but couldn't. He could barely keep his eyes open. Why was he so weak? Why couldn't he move his own head?
"Let's see what she's gonna say about this..." The voice came from his left. Was she talking about him?
She moved abnormally fast, he thought, with him on her back. How would he be able to escape if he wasn't able to turn his own head to the side…? He felt hopeless, useless.
He noticed something peculiar while trying to find any muscle he could move. His arms… his hands… they...
As he was still looking down at the path, his 'hands' came into view. The lack thereof, to be more precise. What he expected to see was five fingers, not none. They looked like blue paws… with a yellow wristband that didn't exist. He… he had paws? He had paws. He blinked once, twice, thrice, to be absolutely, positively sure this wasn't his imagination. Yes, there was no mistaking it. He had paws.
Paws- I- wh- wh- ...fhh-
He still couldn't believe his own brain for seeing them. Did she give him something so that he would hallucinate and stay calm, while she could do unimaginable things to him? Did she do this to him? She-
She… she was green? She… had four legs.
No! No! I'm hallucinating! He had told that to himself a thousand times since his arms got replaced by furry legs. This is crazy! His mouth was silent. He couldn't scream. He couldn't shout. He couldn't cry for help. Why was all of this happening?
"Oh- wait. What?" She suddenly stopped, sounding surprised. "Did I take a wrong… no…"
Both of the things that were holding him let go, and he heard her going through a… leather backpack? Now was his chance— get as far away as possible from this psycho kidnapper.
To somehow escape, how would he do that, with his everything protesting to move? He couldn't.
"No… no, I'm on the right track, but why is there…?" She muttered again, and then grumbled. "I can't go through that with this… let alone walk around."
The annoyed green creature let out a sigh and picked up the Shinx with her vines. She made sure to be very careful with him. "Now would be a good time for you to wake up. Hey!"
He was slowly but surely coming back to his senses. Now that he could actually see what was going on, he saw a relieved, green, plant dinosaur looking creature smiling at him, as she was walking toward his belly side.
"Hey, you're finally awake." She spoke in a calm tone. "Can you tell me what happened to you? I found you unconscious underneath a tree just now. Are you alright?"
Her noises made sense to him. Either he could understand the growling and hissing this creature had made just now, or she spoke perfect English. Whether option it was, he was equally freaked out.
At least he could feel his legs. All four of them.
...Four. Four legs. Just as the creature before him.
"Hey, heyheyhey, calm down," she responded to the Shinx starting to hyperventilate, "I'm not gonna hurt you."
'What the fuck is going on?' The thought went through the Shinx's head like the blood flowing through his body. He managed to lift his head and was able to look around. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Not near his home, that was for certain. A lot, almost everything he saw was flora and fauna growing everywhere. The yellow and red flowers stretching into the horizon, with what looked like more alien creatures frolicking around them. Birds, weasels, mice, gigantic butterflies, that's what some of those looked like, but at the same time he knew that they weren't.
An alien planet. He'd woken up on a different planet.
No. This was a dream. It had to be.
No. This was real. It couldn't be just a dream.
His gaze landed on the leaf lizard, a mixture between horror and confusion.
"What are you…?" He managed to say.
"...Wha-?" That question threw her back. She wasn't expecting that, and was now as confused as him. "I'm... a Chikor-"
"What am I?!"
"H-hey, hey. Calm down…" She tried to get closer to the awoken Shinx, but he struggled backing up, as if she was some mutant trying to kill him.
"Stay away from me!" He was panicking, didn't know what was happening. Unbeknownst to him, his tail is tucked away under his body.
"Alright, alright..." She took a step back and spoke as calm and relaxed as she possibly could. "Now please. Calm down. Everything's gonna be alright."
"As if anything's alright!" Panic took on screaming. "What happened to me?!"
The Chikorita didn't know what to answer. "What- what do you mean? You look perfectly normal..."
"Normal?!" His voice cracked. "Does this look normal to you?!"
A blue paw entered his vision. It looked almost exactly like a cat's. He moved and turned it, unsheathed their claws from their respective slit and back. "What… what… wh-..." His mouth kept repeating the same word over and over again, with whimpers inbetween them.
He has clearly lost it… just what is wrong with him? He won't tell me what happened, but instead asks me that...
"What is happening… Why… what…
"how…?"
He was starting to lose it, slowly falling into unconsciousness again. It was too much. He couldn't take it anymore.
"Hey, hey hey hey. Stay with me!" Ignoring his previous request, she ran towards him and shook his body again. "Stay awake! Please!"
Blinked once, twice, with half open eyes he stared at a random speck in the distance. It was green, too, but he didn't care what exactly it was. His paw plummeted onto the ground with a quiet 'thud'.
"Am I, am I dead? Hello? What?" Babbling as if he was drunk. At least he didn't fall unconscious again.
"No, no, you're alive. You're alive." She was seriously worried about him, despite the unusual reaction from him.
He grumbled a couple unintelligible words. Slowly but surely, he came back to his senses yet again and his eyes moved to the green lizard lightly gasping just in front of him, as if she got scared from behind.
"You…" He spoke very slowly and drew a breath after every question. "What are you? What am I? What is all this…?" Vision moving back and forth from the landscape, the creature and his own body, and ending at a random speck on the grass.
"Are… are you alright now? I don't know what you want me to answer... You're a Shinx, I'm a Chikorita, and…" she seemed to think for a moment.
"A what? Shenx? Chikeeta? What- what even is that?" He got more confused by every passing second. Those names didn't exist. Those words didn't exist.
"Uhm," is he joking? No, his reaction and question were genuine. Too genuine... "you know, you and me. We are both Pokemon..." She laughed awkwardly. I'm sure he doesn't know what that is, either.
"What are you talking about? What is that?" He noticed how his hind legs felt out of place. They just… were weird to look at. They felt alien. They looked crooked, broken.
"Alright, um, ok." Knew it. Start it simple. "Just… just start with telling me your name. I'm Kori."
He started thinking really hard. His name, that was simple enough. Surely, he would remember his own name he had since the beginning of his life. How would he be able to forget his own name others called him as? It was such a trivial question. It certainly should've been the most one.
"I… I can't remember..." He said in a low whisper.
"You what?"
"I can't. Remember. My name…" he said this more to himself than to the Chikorita. "My name?"
Kori noticed that he was starting to panic again.
"Don't- don't worry. This happens sometimes." She lied. "Well, not sometimes, but, rarely. You know?"
"Uh, this has happened before?"
"Yyyeah. It has." Still lying, looking away from the Shinx for a short time. "Don't worry. It'll come back to you later, but, uh, I… I can explain some things to you if you want."
"That would be appreciated. For example what happened to me, and, you know... why I'm a fucking cat now."
...What? "Shinx. I can't really explain everything, but I'll try my best. You and I, we both are Pokemon. Every living creature you can see here," she pointed at the aliens jumping and running around them, "are Pokemon. We are creatures with elemental powers, like fire, or air. We call those 'types'. You see, I, for example," she pointed her own foot at her chest, "have the grass type. My species can also do something kind of unique." She summoned her two vines from her neck and flexed them around carelessly. "You may have not noticed it, but I used those to keep you secured." They retracted back into the pea looking things around her neck.
He cringed as the two appendages just seemingly sprouted out of nowhere, and even more so when they had retracted themselves again.
"You, on the other paw, have the electric type. Your species can summon and control electricity and sometimes even lightning. Don't worry about that, though. You won't discharge or anything. You're completely harmless to the touch. If that weren't the case, I would've had a big problem." She snickered.
"Also, you should have incredible eyesight. I'm speaking of 'seeing in pitch darkness' kind of incredible. When you ev- uh, 'grow older', you'll also be able to have some kind of x-ray vision. ...Don't ask how that's possible. It just is."
That was a lot of information for him to take in at once. Elemental powers? Types? Sprouting tentacles and controlling lightning? Built in x-ray vision? Did these creatures evolve just to give a middle finger to nature?
It took him a while of thoroughly inspecting her body—he noticed she had little pea sized growths around her neck, and that the 'vines' were coming out of those. Eventually, he managed to ask something he had meant to the moment she had retracted them again.
"Were- were those tentacles?!"
"What? No! No no no." She laughed and they reappeared. "Vines. Those are vines. Take a closer look if you want."
"Erm…" They were right in front of his face. It looked like they were made out of some kind of compressed plant matter. Grasshalms tied together by the thousands. He noticed they had miniature dents along them, perhaps to grab things a little easier. The fact that they looked similar to tendrils made them even more creepy.
"How does that even feel to you? When they come out."
"Oh, it's…" they slithered back into her. "It's not that weird. I barely feel it, even. Anyway…" she snapped back to reality, having remembered what she had wanted to ask the Shinx since she found him, "that's beside the point. What happened to you? I found you unconscious next to one of those trees here, and surrounding you was burned grass. Like, reduced to ashes burned."
She had what? Found me surrounded by burned grass? How in the hell did that happen? I can't remember anything… would she believe me?
"I…" He stuttered. He wasn't sure if he should even tell her this. What would she think? Would she even know what that was? The only way to find out is to just tell her outright. No need to overcomplicate it with 'uh's and 'umm's.
"I-I don't know. I don't know! I-I just don't know!" His face of horror was both visible and hearable. "I… I only know that I used to be a human." He braced for impact. Did she know what a human was?
"...You… what? A human? But… that's impossible."
"Impossible?" He repeated after her. So she knew? "What do you mean, 'impossible'?"
"By that I mean that humans are extinct. They used to roam the world several millennia ago, that much I know. But… you? A human? No."
Extinct? For several thousand years… They didn't seem to have left any major impact around here… though that might have been destroyed by nature a long time ago. Or those type creatures. He was one now. She was one, too.
He stared at her in disbelief yet again. He just couldn't understand what she had said right now. How in the world am I here right now? Have I been asleep for that long?
How long have I'd been asleep for, anyway? How long was I laying there? When did I arrive here? What happened before I woke up?
"You're quite the unique Pokemon, Shinx. You wake up here, without anything from your past, except that you were a human. That's… insane. Actually insane." She was laughing now. Not at him, but at herself for actually believing him. "I have to say, this has been the weirdest day of my life. By far. How in the world are you existing?"
Does that mean… she's actually believing me? Thank god… I was really scared of what would've happened if she didn't.
"So," she continued, "if you're actually a human. What was their life like? I was always interested as to what happened to them. Their extinction shouldn't have happened, you know? It's a big mystery, because they had all this amazing technology! Like, uh… they had this… like," she was gesturing with her legs, but he couldn't find out what she meant by them. She was sitting, touching her toe with her other leg, and then holding it onto what he assumed was her ear? "You know? They could do all kinds of stuff with that! Literally everything! They could speak to other humans over this tool, and- and other things! Have you had one of those?" She was sincerely hoping his answer would be yes.
"...No." I bluntly answered and shook his head. "I don't remember."
Her hopeful smile turned into a depressing frown. "You… you don't?"
He shook his head again. "I'm sorry."
"Oh. Well then… I…" She looked past him in what felt like an hour had passed, looking at the thing that made her stop in the first place. Oh no, I completely forgot! She gave him a quick glance. "This might sound strange, and I'm sure the answer's no, but do you know any moves?"
What's this now? "You're right. I don't. Just tell me what they are."
"So, you know how some of us mons can control fire and stuff? Well, they do that using what we call 'moves'. Of course, you can just use them whenever you want, but they're most important in defending yourself. Let me show you an example." She looked around and chose the tree right behind her. "See this tree? Don't blink now."
"Ok…?" She waved her giant leaf around and back, and after five or six rounds, the leaf fired many tiny razor sharp leaves at the poor tree. They penetrated the bark but got stuck in the wood. He wasn't sure if it was just him or the light, but he could've sworn they were glowing a barely visible light green. A gray alien bird that had been chirping in it flew away.
He stared at them in shock. How could she have launched them at such high velocity that they could get stuck in wood? That just seemed terrifying.
"That was 'razor leaf'. The name implies what it does. They are many, maaany more moves."
"Aaand… when do you have to defend yourself? Because everything looks peaceful around here…" The other creatures were minding their own business, and they seem to rather ignore the two than finding out what they were. Like they were scared of them.
"Yeah, I was getting to that. I'm just gonna assume you don't have anything. That's ok, too. You still have your claws. And your body, for tackling. So you're not completely useless."
"Gee, thanks. Hold on." He realized he was still laying down until now. With shaky legs, and a few unnecessary movements, he managed to stand up. His balance was much different, with those two extra legs behind him. For a second he thought he would fall on his face, but that disappeared as quick as it came. And…
A tail was hanging low enough that it was touching the ground. His tail. It was as pitch black furred as the rest of his lower body. The tip of it looked like a star. He managed to wag it back and forth a little, slightly cringing at the new limb he now had.
"Look at you go. Can you walk?"
"I, I can try." He was unsure on how to start: which one first? His first attempt involved putting his two front legs in front of him, but found himself with a stretched belly, so his hind legs shakily followed. All this resulted in him looking stupid.
Kori couldn't stop grinning at the sight of this odd fellow. "That... was not a bad attempt." In her mind, she couldn't stop laughing at this. "Let me show you… how to walk." I can't believe I said that. Oh Mew, so help this poor Shinx over there.
"You do this," her left front and right hind leg started moving and stopped right behind the other ones, "and then this." She followed up with the rest of them doing the same. "And you just keep doing that, until you need to stop."
This looked simple enough for him. He quickly got accustomed to the rhythm of normal walking speed. He was able to jog, too. At least he thought it was their form of jogging.
"Ok, now that you know the basics of life, I can tell you why I asked you about moves."
"Very funny."
"You see this forest there?" Her claw pointed behind him at the trees.
"...Yes. What's-"
It looked strange. Very strange. Out of this world.
Purple fizzles of light shot through the air between the forest and the continuing gravel path. Their path, length, and velocity was completely random. No two lightning bolts were the same. They mesmerized the Shinx with their unique movements. He couldn't look away. They were so… beautiful. Breathtaking! They swirled and danced around, creating various shapes and figures, drawing him nearer. Were they getting longer? Faster? He wasn't sure, but they didn't plan on stopping. Shiny radiant pink lights now. Blinding brightness.
The Shinx screamed as something grabbed him around the torso.
"Stop looking at it! Can't you hear me?!" Kori shouted at him, leaving him in shock and confusion again. He had sounded very similar to a squeaky toy.
A flock of Pidgey flew off of a nearby tree, into the distance.
For a moment, there was silence.
"Wh- what? What? What happened?"
"I saved you, that's what happened! Didn't you hear me?"
"Heard… what? You didn't say anything." They still appeared in his vision as he blinked. Very blurry.
"You-"
"What are those things...?" He backed up even more, he was almost touching the tree behind Kori.
Kori took a deep breath, preparing for what she had to explain to him. "Those things, this thing, it's called a mystery dungeon."
"Mystery… dungeon?" The Shinx repeated after her.
"Yes. They are… very dangerous places. If you somehow enter one of them, you don't notice it until it's too late. This one, however, has some kind of… let's say quirk to it. Those fizzles right there are normally not there for other dungeons, unless they have something special to them. What that is, we'll find out when we enter it. We… kinda have to."
All that he could manage to say was a quick "huh?".
"Sure, we could walk around it, but that would take at least two days. Maybe even more. You see, these dungeons, they are… how can I say it… uhm… they are defined as spatial anomalies. It would take a couple days to go around the forest, but if you go through it, and are quick, you can reach the other side before the sun sets. Bear with me now," she breathed in again, "they cramp up space and make it so you can get to another location faster than actually possible."
He made a sound that could be described as saying '?'.
"That's not all. Also-"
"Stop, stop right there for a second," he backed up and held a paw up for her to take a break from talking, "they are WHAT? They, as in this thing right behind me, can toy around with space? Like, actual spatial manipulation? What the fuck…?" This one was more of a whisper. "No, no. You're just making shit up now. No way on earth would this exist. Your species may have evolved to wield elemental powers, that's great and all, but this. This thing right here," he pointed with the same leg to the anomaly, "can bend space to its will. You cannot be serious about this. There is no way."
"Oh, it's real. You have a lot to learn about this world, then. This has been a thing for as long as I've been around. We have learned and accepted it."
"Well, if it can bend space to its will, what happens if it creates a black hole? What then?"
"It won't. It never will."
"How can you be so sure about that?"
"Because it doesn't do that out here, just when you enter it. Do you see anything strange when looking into the forest? Except for those fizzles."
He turned around, and saw… the path going forward without anything stopping it. It went a fair bit deep, but then cuts to black all of a sudden.
"Ok, fine. Well, how does it manipulate space, then? Can you tell me that?"
"They… do that so they can create mazes. A dungeon is kind of like a big maze with rooms and hallways. But the layout of those mazes changes every time someone new enters one. For example: you're in a room with two hallways to your left, and to your right. The right one leads you to the next area, the left one is a dead end. Skip forward to another one entering the same dungeon. Now you have a room with one hallway, and it's to your right. This time, the dead end is gone and the exit is over there.
"This makes it impossible to create maps for those dungeons. You'd just have to memorize where everything leads to and where it is every time you enter a new one. Most of the time they are straight forward, but sometimes… they can act like a real maze, and you can lose yourself in them."
"...Ok… I think I get it? But… I asked how, and not why. And why did you ask me about any moves I can use before that?"
"I was getting to that. The reason I asked you that is because you won't ever be alone in them."
Euh, that sounds so creepy. "You mean like, uh, ghosts?"
"No, not here. Most of the times they are populated with similar mons you see out here. Sentret and Furret, Starly, Butterfree, and whatnot."
"They, uh, ok?"
"And, if you ever see any feral mons in them, get prepared to fight. Because their only thoughts are to fight anyone stupid enough to enter their line of sight. So you'd have to be careful at every moment you're in there. Of course, if you are strong enough, you can just plow through no problem, but… neither you or me are."
"And why are they a thing again?"
"That's the problem," Kori answered, "they just kinda appeared some day. Out of nowhere. ...Now that I mention it… this one's not marked on my map. That's a little strange."
"Maybe they're old?" The Shinx theorized. "Or… they forgot to add this to the map?"
"I doubt that. Very much. I got this one a couple weeks ago. And if they don't have that on them… I'd have to report that as soon as possible. Anyway," she quickly added, "We should go."
"Huh? Wait, right now? I'm not ready..."
"Too bad. Come on. Also, we can check you up for any injuries when we arrive at Inisio. I doubt that everything's fine with you. Except your memory loss, of course. I don't know if they can help you with that."
"I feel perfectly fine…" he lied.
"Well, then we can go!"
"Hey, wait, no!"
She grabbed him yet again and went straight into the forest.
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