Hello everybody, I am a new writer to this. That means that all my writing and consistency of upload will all be pure bullcrap, yay!

(facepalms)

Anyways, I have been wanting to develop a story like this for some time, and I thought, while I have free time, I will try and write out some chapters for my first writing. Keep in mind, I am unable to be fully dedicated to this, as I have too much on my schedule, so do not expect me to upload frequently. Just saying that right now while I still live. I also realize that writer's block will be a problem for me, but I have already planned out most of the story, so it should not be a problem until near the end of the adventure.

First thing I will say is that I will try to upload as frequently as I possibly can, anywhere from every week to once a month. Very inconsistent, I know, but I also have an actual life to handle, so all writing I do is on my free time or when I am willing to pull silent all-nighters.

I will also warn you right now that I am not the best writer out there. I can make a good story when I want to, I have some great ideas for stories, and give some expression to characters in my writing, but I don't give extremely thorough detailing that will put you to sleep. So all you description nerds out there, leave while you still can.

…

Still here? Well then, without further ado, (minus a disclaimer) let us begin chapter one of "Second Chance."

DISCLAIMER: Pokémon is a product of Nintendo, this is not meant in any way for plagiarism, I don't own any of these trademarks, all fair use, yadda yadda yadda, there you go legal bois and nerds. Can I write now?

Look, I didn't think my life would ever turn out this way.

I didn't ask for a second chance. I apparently proved I deserved it when I didn't even sign up for the program. I also didn't ask to fight a horribly dressed gang, a practical deity, or fight mythological anthropomorphic animals. If you want to read what I went through, go ahead. No one is stopping you. Just know, I went through literal hell and back to make this story possible. So you're welcome.

The first thing I saw when I woke up was a growling Rottweiler, with a skull on its chest, bones lining its back and chest like a second rib cage, and horns coming out of its head, and I later realized it was a Houndoom. In complete fear, I struggled to get it off of me, or at least wiggle out of its hold and escape, but it felt as if every joint and bone in my body had been fused together. My chest felt strangely warm and wet as well, me only realizing later that what I felt was blood on my torso. The black dog perked up at a noise and ran, leaving me to die.

My consciousness kept fading in and out every few seconds, all the while a strange calm was taking me down farther into darkness. I fought against this strange sensation, not wanting to leave the world, but I was fighting a losing battle, the periods of darkness lasting longer and longer each time they came. The last thing I saw was a blue silhouette reach down for me as I closed my eyes one last time, my awareness fading with the dying light.

As my consciousness returned to me very slowly, I began hearing a muffled beeping to the left of me. I kept my eyes closed as I felt like something stomped over my body, ran me over with a freight train, and fried me until I was well done. In other words, I felt awful. Slowly but surely, for what seemed like hours, my senses slowly came back. I began to notice that I was laying down on a soft mattress. Wait, when did I even lay down? I was in the middle of the forest. I attempted to move my arm, only for it to feel like pure titanium, heavy and unmoveable. My mouth felt super glued shut when I tried to open it, and when I cracked my eyes open, I forced myself to immediately seal them shut, for the light in the room nearly blinded me as punishment for being knocked out for God knows how long.

I attempted to move my arm again, feeling as if the weight of the sky were on it, trying my best to get it on my chest for support. During this struggle, I must have hit some sort of tripwire, because I felt something long and thin touch my arm as a small alarm went off. For anyone else, the alarm was small. For me, the thing blared like a Klaxon. Wait,... what was a Klaxon?

Click. Someone else in the room hit a switch, turning off all the noise around me. Complete silence for a minute or two, then I heard the person's voice.

"Glad to see that you are finally awake, buddy," I heard with muffled hearing. It seemed that he dimmed the lights so I could open my eyes easier, which I eventually did, using what felt like the last of my remaining strength. Everything was blurry for a couple minutes, the machines a white blur with the wall, and a humanoid shape sitting near me, against the wall in what seemed to be a chair. When my vision finally focused, I could see the person, looking like a Pokémon trainer from the video games. The teenager, no more than 16, was holding a white on red baseball cap in his lap, a Pokéball-like style made up by the white, with a white visor. He had dark brown hair spiked out to the sides somewhat, in a way that seemed extremely familiar to me, yet I couldn't place a finger on where I had seen this hairstyle before. "You gave us all quite a scare, we thought you may never recover. I'm just glad that you are alive and well, Riolu," he said, staring at me with his dark blue eyes.

'Riolu? Riolu doesn't exist, I'm a hu-' That's when I decided to look at my hand on my chest… or rather, what was in place of my hand. Expecting to see a human hand on a human chest, I instead saw a blue and black paw with a silver-gray bump on the back of it, resting on a chest covered in fur. Black fur covered my upper chest, and cobalt blue fur on the bottom part.

'Okay, what the hell is going on? Am I going insane?' I tried to sit up so I could see if this was a full transformation or a mere prank, but the trainer was holding me down gently with his hand. "Don't try getting up little guy, Nurse Joy said that you shouldn't move around too much." Him, combined with my lack of any strength in general, left me no choice but to give in to staying bed-ridden. I was still freaking out, and began to hyperventilate. Apparently he took notice of this, because he was beginning to worry.

'Is there a mirror anywhere around here?' I silently prayed, hoping I was not going crazy whatsoever. I saw a mirror across the room, which was when I froze in pure shock and worry.

Instead of a human in the mirror, I saw a bipedal jackal-like animal with a mix of cobalt-blue and black fur, surrounding a golden-cream colored collar around the neck, with two tear-shaped appendages hanging on either side of it, just under the triangle-like ears, which sat at the top of its head. A pair of ruby eyes stared back at me, black fur surrounding the eyes to look like a bandit's mask. I truly couldn't believe it; I was transformed into a Riolu.

'Yep, it's official. I have gone completely insane,' I said in my head, still looking at what was now me in the faraway mirror. The trainer followed my gaze, only to smile and chuckle at the sight of the mirror and my shocked face.

"What, have you never seen your reflection before?" he said, which I involuntarily scoffed at, realizing what he was seeing. It was kinda funny, seeing a wild Riolu staring at the mirror in wonderment and curiosity. I was still in complete shock as to my sudden transformation, but at least my mind was a little farther away from my predicament.

"I see someone finally woke up." I immediately turned around to see where that voice had come from, only to see a nurse, probably in her mid to early twenties, with hot pink hair and wearing a pink nurse's outfit. Next to her was a pink and white-bellied Pokémon, looking kind of like a cross between a very fat bunny and a marshmellow, wearing almost the same type of uniform as the nurse. Somehow, my mind registered this pokémon as a Wigglytuff, which worried me if this thing got upset at all. I remember somewhere seeing that if this thing got mad, it would be… catastrophic. Leave it at that please.

"He sure is, just woke up five minutes ago, Nurse Joy," the boy said, addressing the nurse, now identified as Nurse Joy. She walked up to me and started to pet me on my head. While hesitant, for some reason I caught myself actually liking the unfamiliar, yet pleasurable touch of her hand, almost collapsing at the sudden enjoyment.

"How are you feeling, little one?" she asked, a bit of concern in her voice.

"Other than the fact that I feel like I have gone completely insane and I am a freaking Riolu, yes, I am okay," I replied, almost immediately remembering after that there was a thick language barrier between human and pokémon. I was right (unfortunately), as she only smiled down at me and replied with an indirect answer.

"You sure do sound better," she said to me. She then looked to the trainer, no longer holding me down, and regarded both of us. "Other than a few sore muscles and a couple minor bruises, Riolu seems to be at perfect health." She then regarded only the teenager as Wigglytuff left the room. "Also, your Fennekin is now fully healed and battle-ready."

Wigglytuff then appeared by her once again, this time carrying a ball in a tray. It was a real, honest-to-God pokéball. (A/N I'm not going to explain it thoroughly, you should all know what a pokéball looks like at this point) When I saw the pokéball, I immediately had an image of a little yellow and orange fox. The image was blurry, but I somehow knew that what I saw was the mentioned pokémon.

The boy thanked Nurse Joy, took the pokéball, made it smaller by merely touching the button, and attached it to his belt. "And as for you..." she regarded me, "once we get you in the stretcher and wheel you outside, you are free to go."

Soon as she finished her sentence, the Wigglytuff came in with a wheelchair, while Nurse Joy picked me up and set me down there. I did not offer resistance, as I saw no point, but it still felt awkward. A day ago (or what seemed like it), I was a 16 year old, and now, I was the height of a 3 year old. Soon as I was seated, I felt the chair moving, most likely heading for the exit.

Now was when I decided to focus on the more pressing concerns I had. How did I know so much about pokémon? Why was I transformed? Wouldn't my family worry about me? Who was my family? That is when I really started to worry. I started panicking when I tried to remember who I was. All I saw were flashes of my past. My school, people I assumed were my friends, a park filled with flowering trees, but only mere glimpses of it, like aged photos. The only thing that was truly clear to me was my first name: Cobalt. Other than that, my memory was completely, and very scarily, blank. Empty. I had almost no recollection of who I was, what kind of person I could have been (or was), in the past. Nothing.

"You okay Riolu?" the boy asked, seeing that I was in a distressed mood. I can't explain it, but when I looked at him, I could see his concerns radiating off of him like heat, in a shade of dark blue. I simply nodded, hiding my emotions to not worry him further, seeing the color change from that dark blue, to a near blinding white, then to a calming sky blue color. It was surprising how fast the colors changed, but I held back my surprise to not draw any concern from him. Something almost instantly clicked in my head, telling me that what I saw was his aura, a common thing that many Riolu and Lucario could see. I only assumed that Lucario would be my evolved form and kept pondering of my past.

"You are a very lucky pokémon, you know that?" the Wigglytuff asked after a few seconds.

"I am?" I was curious as to how I ended up in this place in the first place, and I soon found myself asking this question. When I asked though, I saw a flake of sadness appear in Wigglytuff, meaning that this might have been bad. Hooray to me, I was right.

"When he brought you here, you were in really bad shape. Multiple lacerations and bruises scattered across your whole body, a sprained ankle, and a mild concussion." Maybe that was why I had barely anything to remember. "You have been here for four days, all the while being unconscious." Her smile then returned. "But you recovered very quickly, much to our surprise. Not many can say that they can walk out of here soon as they wake up from your conditions."

All I could do in response was nod and look forward once again. I saw two glass doors opening as it let the morning breeze breach past. I was so relieved to feel this run across my… fur, I guess…. I always did hate being cooped up inside for too long, so I liked being free and outside once again.

Nurse Joy picked me up once again set me down on the floor, and petted me one more time. Why I actually enjoyed this, I couldn't tell you. Maybe it was my new instincts, and the fact that now I was a sort of animal/dog thing? Either way, I had to hold back an involuntary whine when she pulled her hand away.

"Thank you for coming, we hope to see you again," she told the trainer, and walked back inside with her Wigglytuff. I only looked at the pokéball, wanting to meet the Fennekin inside. It seemed that he read my mind, because as soon as he saw me staring, he followed my gaze and just smiled.

"You want to meet my partner, don't you, little guy?" he asked. I simply nodded in response, and he replied to that by smiling more and enlarging the ball in his hands.

"Alright then, come on out, Cassie!" he yelled before tossing the ball up in the air. The ball popped open, releasing blue energy that slowly took shape and soon turned into a pokémon that I only assumed was a Fennekin. It kinda looked like a fennec fox (i'm not going to question my references at this point since I can't remember most of them), with bright yellow fur covering most of its body. The inside of its ears had fire-colored fur popping out, almost the same length as its ears, and its tail the same color as its body, the end dipped in the same fire orange as its ears, almost like a paintbrush. The only other color that was evident and stood out the most was the snow-white fur covering its muzzle and the bottom half of its face, sticking out a bit on the ends.

It stared at me for a minute with its own fiery red eyes until I found myself an inch from the pokémon, and the surprise of it dashing at me made me fall back and land on my newfound tail (believe me, that hurt).

"Ooh, sorry. Are you okay?" the Fennekin asked. "Sorry if I scared you that bad." I accepted her apology and got up on one knee, still hurt from landing on my tailbone.

"Anyways, my name's Cassie, nice to meet you...um…." she started.

"Cobalt. My name's Cobalt," I responded back, and stuck out my paw, which she took with hers in a sort of pseudo-handshake.

"Glad to see you two are getting along well," the kid said. That's when it hit me. I didn't even know what this guy's name was, and he was the one who apparently saved me from certain death. I walked up to him and tapped his leg to get his attention. When he looked down, I said my name while pointing to myself, even though I knew he wouldn't understand my words, then pointed at him questioningly. He looked a little lost before a sudden realization washed over him.

"Oh that's right, I never introduced myself, sorry about that," he said, getting down on one knee to meet me at my eye level. "Name's Chris, pleasure to meet you Riolu." He extended his hand out for me, and I happily accepted it in a handshake. It was almost comical, seeing the size difference, and would have made great for a picture if this was in a picture book.

"How are you feeling Cobalt?" I turned to see Cassie a couple feet away, evidently asking about my injuries.

"I'm fine, despite not remembering much of my past," I responded back. When she heard this, all she could do was stare at me with surprise. "All I remember is my name, very little about who I was, and a lot of memory on pokémon for reasons that I may never be able to answer. Other than that, my memory is wiped clean."

"What?!" the fox yelled, possibly popping my left eardrum. "No memories of your family, you friends, nothing?!"

"Just adding salt to the wound," I replied, rubbing my ears from the sudden noise. I was really hating the fact that I now had increased hearing. "And yes, I have almost no memory left of friends, family, anything." Now I was considering whether or not to tell her if I was human or not. She seemed to answer this question pretty quickly for me.

"Can you at least remember who you were in the past?" she asked, hoping I would remember something that could help me. I decided that there was no harm in telling her, so I went ahead and told her that I used to be a human. She stared at me for an uncomfortable amount of time before she finally responded.

"Okay, I believe you!" she said, honestly surprising me. "Wait, you do? You don't think that I am lying to you?" I responded, hoping that she wasn't that impulsive and quick to trust me.

"Nope, I know that you aren't lying," she responded back. "You seem like a very honest pokémon, and considering that I can tell if someone is lying or not, I'm actually relieved it wasn't a lie." I only stared at her, somewhat skeptical of this, but her aura had stayed the same,honest and pure, and that told me she wasn't lying either. I just accepted it as is and set it aside for another day. That is when she got a look on her face that I had a feeling was her "I have an idea" face.

"I know, you can come with us!" she offered. I stared at her in mild shock at the sudden request. "We could hopefully help you get your memories back and maybe see why you were turned into a pokémon to begin with!"

"I-I… I don't know… a trainer…." I didn't know how to respond to this request. A trainer might actually do the opposite of help me recover my memories. I didn't even know what kind of trainer Chris was. On the other hand, I did like the idea of just exploring the outdoors, training, having almost nothing to stop you, all that stuff. Plus, I needed someone who knew their way around the area. It felt near impossible to make this decision.

"Hey, Riolu?" I looked to see Chris wanting to ask me something. "It's just… it looks like Cassie really wants you to come along. To be quite honest with you, I would be lying if I said I didn't want you along for the trip. So…." He pulled out another pokéball from his bag and held it offeringly towards me.

"What do you say, Riolu? You wanna join the team?"

Cut, print, that's a wrap on Chapter one on my new story. I already know there are people who will say that this is too similar to another fanfiction with the same plotline, but I read only the first chapter and I wanted to do the same kind of thing, to be honest with all of you. Just please don't call me out on this first chapter's similarity.

In any case, I hope you guys enjoyed. Send a PM if I should improve anything on this chapter, send some ideas on what you wanna see in this story, all that. I'm not gonna go full sellout on you, and hopefully, I will see you all next time.