Author's Note: I am making this because I want to and for no other reason. I've been playing too much Pokemon Crystal as of late and this idea became brewing in my mind. I made the main character an Eevee because I don't think it's fair that a boy can't be an Eevee in the games when it's more likely an Eevee will be a boy. Pokemon logic confuses me. But whatever. I obviously don't own Pokemon.

Into The Flames
Chapter One: Born Anew

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

-Anatole France

His body involuntarily shivered under the fierce wind attacking his frail form. A groan escaped his throat which burned with all the fires of the sun. There was no escaping the irrevocable pain his body was experiencing. He could feel the grass under his stomach, moist from the humid air, rub against him irritatingly as he strained his body to get up. His mouth formed a grimace as he blearily opened his eyes. His blurry vision cleared with every pain inducing blink he forced.

He was in front of a body of water. A river, he surmised, as he watched the liquid viciously come alive as it fought its way downstream. Above him the sky was painted a dull grey with heavy clouds promising rain. As he looked back at the ground, he noticed even the grass had a dull vibe to it.

The wind whipped against his body once more, reminding him of his need for shelter from the oncoming weather. He willed his body to cooperate with him as he tried to stand up, only resulting in his body tumbling to the ground. His eyes opened and he weakly glared at his weak limbs in his vision. It took him a few seconds of glaring down at his limbs before he realized the limbs he was staring at were covered in thick wet light brown fur. Fur?

He blinked feebly at the offending appendages. His vision must be worse than he thought if he was seeing fur on his body. As his vision cleared, however, he became aware of the fact that instead of hands adorned with fingers, his arms were connected to what appeared to be paws. Fur and paws. Something was wrong.

He faintly noticed a new addition of a drenched tail to his lower half as he attempted once more to stand. He managed to stay up for a few seconds before his limbs once more gave out on him. As his body hit the wet ground, his vision blackened as he drifted painfully back into unconsciousness.

When he regained consciousness for the second time, he could faintly hear mumblings of voices around him. He suppressed a groan as feeling came back to him. The pain was near unbearable but he was fearful of alerting the voices to his unrest. Carefully keeping his eyes closed, he woke up more and the voices became clearer. He could almost make out the entire conversation surrounding him.

"So he will be all right Fey?"

That was an obviously female voice, but not too high or squeaky. Just a young, calm sort of voice with added urgency due to her question.

"Yes, child. The Eevee shall be fine. In fact, his heartbeat is picking up. He may be almost awake."

This voice was female as well, but it was older. The voice, who he assumed to be the one called Fey, had a very soothing tone and was calming the younger female down.

"He's awake? Sweet! Hey, wake up little buddy! Rise and shine."

This voice was low and definitely male. It was a loud and booming, jolly sort of voice that was made louder by the fact that the voice seemed to be coming from right beside his sensitive ears. A warm, constant nudging against his side began to irritate him.

"Ryder, quit it! Fey said he may be almost awake. That doesn't mean forcibly wake him!"

That was the first voice again, presumably speaking to the male.

"Yes Ryder, I would appreciate if you would refrain from waking the patient," the voice identified as Fey quipped, followed by a huff by the younger female.

"There is another thing I would like to discuss about the patient, Rei."

That was Fey again, but her tone had reached a concerned lilt. There were some shuffling sounds as the owners' of the voices moved around the room.

"What is it Fey?"

So the first voice must be named Rei.

"You said you found the boy in the rain?" Fey asked, the concerned tone in her voice still present.

"Yeah. Ryder and I were stuck walking through the rain to get back to the Team Base and we saw him knocked out beside the river. Why?" Rei's voice did anything but hide her curiosity.

"It's just that… This child's fur is singed."

He had a feeling the patient they were speaking of was him, so he nearly blew his cover as he let out a tiny gasp. Singed fur? What were they speaking of? And why did the voices once refer to him as an Eevee? He seemed to vaguely recall passing out near the river… But everything was fuzzy.

"Singed? What do you mean, 'singed'?"

Ryder, the owner of the male voice, seemed to at least be on the same wavelength as him for some of his questions.

"I mean singed. The boy must have been near some sort of fire recently. Have you heard of any forest fires lately?"

"No Fey. There haven't been any fires reported for a while now. Do you suppose he got into a fight?" Rei's voice once more was ridden with curiosity.

"I'm not sure, child. But you could ask him," Fey's voice became sterner as the sentence went on and there was a slight shuffling coming near his body.

"Open up your eyes boy, I've kept your cover secret for long enough. It's time to face the light."

He winced at the stern voice coming near his left side, but decided there was no way he could pretend to be asleep any longer with the stranger blowing his cover so openly.

As his body rose up, his small bones made loud cracking sounds, alerting all of their current under use. He opened his eyes, only to immediately close them from pain. Apparently the voice wasn't joking when she said to face the light. His eyes opened again, this time much more slowly to avoid blinding himself.

His eyes scanned his horizons wearily. He was on top of a hospital bed with light pink sheets which brought a light grimace to his face. He looked around at the room once more, searching for the owners' of the voices he had heard before. What he saw before him made his grimace turn into a downright sneer.

An Audino was right near his bedside with a slight frown upon its face. A little behind it was a Vulpix wearing a blue bandanna around its neck. On the right side of his bed was a Growlithe with a red bandanna around its neck seemingly to match with the Vulpix's.

He looked at the three pokémon, who were larger than they were supposed to be, and opened his mouth to speak, only to promptly close it because of no words coming to mind.

He was going crazy.

He was going absolutely crazy.

Despite his obvious plight with sanity, the Vulpix walked closer to his bed.

"Are you all right?"

That was the first voice, the voice he had learned from his eavesdropping was known as Rei. And it was coming from the mouth of the Vulpix.

"Okay. Okay I get it. I'm being set up. Where's the cameras? Where's the actors?" he asked, his voice high with his fear as he involuntarily stepped back, only to trip over something connected to him. As he looked down he saw it was… his tail.

Tail. Fur. Paws. Talking Pokémon.

The scene from the riverside jumped back into his mind at full clarity. His large eyes widened. This wasn't right. This wasn't happening.

Pokémon don't talk. And he most certainly does not have fur or a tail. He was a person. A human. A pokémon trainer.

This was not happening to him.

All three of the pokémon around him were casting worried glances in his direction. The Growlithe in particular looked rather bewildered. It padded closer to his bedside.

"Calm down little buddy, we're all friends here. I'm Ryder. What's your name?" the Growlithe nearly whispered to him, apparently trying to keep his loud voice low to avoid scaring him further.

"You can talk," he spat glaring at the offending pokémon.

The Growlithe tilted his furry head to the side before casting a quick look at the two pokémon on the other side of the bed.

"Yeah I suppose I do. And so do you I see," was the Growlithe's cautious answer.

"But. But you're a pokémon! I'm a human. I have a right to speak!" he nearly shouted at the large canine.

"A human? What are you talking about? You're an Eevee if I've ever seen one!"

That came from the Vulpix on his other side. She was staring at him just as bemusedly as the Growlithe.

"Let's start over. I'm Rei, that's Ryder, and the nurse is Fey. Now what's your name?" the Vulpix chirped at him kindly.

He stared at the vixen pokémon in confusion before deciding to humor her in all of this madness.

"Kai," he croaked out.

That seemed to appease the two fire pokémon as they both let out a large smile adorn their muzzles. The Audino, on the other hand, frowned down at Kai with a calculating look in her eyes.

"You think you are a human?" the Audino finally asked.

Kai felt anger at the question and he glared up at the taller pokémon.

"I don't think I'm a human. I know I'm a human," he growled out in rage.

The Audino merely hummed in thought as she looked over him for any sign of concussion. The light pink pokémon began pacing in front of his hospital bed, casting glances at him every few steps her light paws took.

"I've never seen a case like this in my entire career here as the nurse of the Team Base. I have never come across anyone who deludes themself into believing they are a human," Fey murmured absentmindedly to the two fire pokémon.

"Deludes? I'm serious! I am not an Eevee! I am a human," Kai shrieked exasperatingly.

All three of the strange pokémon glanced at each other before the Vulpix put her paws on his bed.

"Are you serious? Are you really… A human?" Rei whispered.

"Yes," he answered simply, tired of fighting with these pokémon. They were most likely figments of his imagination anyways.

The Vulpix stared at him, her green eyes piercing into his own blue. She lightly nodded before setting her paws back on the ground and looking towards the Audino.

"I believe him," she said simply.

The Growlithe padded over to sit beside the Vulpix and nodded with a quick, "Me too."

The Audino seemed exasperated with the two young pokémon, before casting one quick glance back over his way.

"Fine," Fey sighed, "But you have to watch over him."

Both fire pokémon grinned, seemingly ignorant of his cries of indignation of the nurse pokémon's claim.

As of now, Kai was padding down the hallway outside of the room he was previously in. From what he had gathered from the constant blabber coming from the two pokémon that resided on both sides of him in a near suffocating closeness, the hallway they were walking through was the Medical Wing. The Medical Wing of what was what he was trying to gather.

The walls of the hallway were a light baby blue with a small design at the bottom where it connected with the marble flooring. It seemed to have a calming effect on those who inhabited it.

Apparently the genius who had decided on the color coding wasn't expecting a nearly insane human boy trapped inside of an Eevee body to be one day wading through these halls.

Why an Eevee anyways? Out of all pokémon, couldn't he at least have been something a little bit manlier. He supposed he should be happy he wasn't stuck in a Skitty body, but still, Eevee were still pretty up on the list of girly pokémon.

He continued grumbling to himself, completely ignoring the blathering fools that he was sure were the world's punishment for him. What had he ever done to have been stuck with two idiotic happy go lucky pokémon who didn't know when to shut up?

What had he ever done anyways? He couldn't remember most of anything at all. He remembered how he looked. He had had shaggy black hair and a lanky form. Dark blue eyes that his mother always loved. Mother. He paused. He couldn't remember anything else about his own mother except that she loved his eyes. Kai mentally cringed at the thought. Why couldn't he remember her? Why couldn't he remember anyone? Or anything?

"Hey little buddy, you okay? You seem out of it," Ryder asked jokingly to down at him.

Kai bristled at the question and let a cold glare out in the Growlithe's direction. Ryder just seemed to find this amusing and let out a chuckle which only made Kai angrier.

"Hey," Rei said, nudging his other side, "We're finally leaving the Medical Wing. This is the Main Lobby."

Kai weakly glared at the female Vulpix before looking around the new room they had arrived in. He was momentarily knocked out of his melancholy mood by the absolute beauty of the room. There were six large bulletin boards lining the pale green walls that seemed to be the main attraction. Pokémon of all kinds were sitting around the bulletin boards and taking off papers and chattering with others around them about whatever adorned them. There were a few vacant couches for anyone who needed to take a break and plants seemed to grow out of the marble floor. The whole feeling of the room was alive. Aside from the bulletin boards, a few windows adorned the walls, along with many hallways that appeared to be similar to the one from which they had just exited. Kai was taken out of his stupor by a Mudkip leaping over towards where the group of three was standing.

The Mudkip's blue scales shimmered as it beamed at him, while a Poochyena and a Pidgey hurriedly appeared behind him.

"Rei, Ryder, who's the newbie?" the Mudkip chirped excitedly.

"Little buddy here is named Kai. He thinks he's-"

"Better than all of us, unfortunately. So ignore any rudeness or arrogance that comes from him please," Rei cut Ryder off and smiled at the Mudkip.

The Mudkip blinked at the interruption and looked between the members of the group before smiling down at him again.

"My name is Ringo," the Mudkip nearly sang before pointing to the Poochyena, "And that's Lewis," he continued and then pointed at the Pidgey, "And that's Cale."

Lewis and Cale nodded down at him before nudging their supposed leader.

"Huh, oh! Sorry guys, got to go. I'm sure I'll see you at dinner anyways," Ringo shouted while racing away with his two lackeys following after him.

"Peppy dude," Kai muttered to his companions which earned a round of laughter from the two that made his head want to split in two.

"He was right anyways. We are going to see him at dinner and dinner's going to begin any minute. Best not to be late," Rei said kindly to Ryder and him.

Ryder nodded and bounded off towards one of the hallways, his stomach seeming to take over his old thought to crowd the younger male. Kai frowned and looked to Vulpix.

"Come on," she said and began leading him down the hallway the Growlithe had entered a few seconds ago. This one was a pale orange-ish pink color that made Kai rather sick but he kept his thoughts to himself as he readied himself for having his ears chattered off by the two pokémon sent by Ho-oh to torture him.