I woke up to warm sun and fluffy clouds. That may seem normal to most, but it sure wasn't for me. Back where I'd come from it was dark, cold, and cloudy. I laid still and blinked skywards, unwilling to accept what I knew had happened.
I wished those dang trainers down to wherever it was humans went off to for sending me here. The power hungry little fools. I sat up as something alighted on one of the branches near me, and I glanced over at a bird type pokémon sitting there staring at me. It was a taillow, I noted with a smile at it. It peered at me and chirped some more, and I felt my smile slip.
"Sorry, bud, I don't understand you." It was hard to wrap my mind around, that there was now this ocean between me and my fellow pokémon. Though they weren't really my fellows anymore, I had been dethroned after all. Dethroned and kicked into an entirely new world that was still so eerily the same, I fumed as I looked down at the my hands.
Warily I finally stood up and the taillow took off to continue on with its life. I supposed that's what I had to do as well now, though it was just about reverse from what it had been. After all, before this I had maintained as much distance between myself and humans as possible, and now…now I was a human. Yeesh, that was a hard thought to swallow.
I wandered a short distance and gathered some berries along the way to keep myself fed, and finally stopped beside a small stream. I hesitated and didn't really want to, but eventually I made myself peer at my reflection.
It wasn't too bad, at least I had kept my colors. I'd been nearly white in my original form, so the skin was only slightly off. The hair I had now was the same near black dark blue as my mane had been, and my eyes were the same ruby red. I ran my hands through my new long hair and considered my options.
So I could become the newest hermit in the world and never run myself into any other human, or I could suck it up, accept my fate and try to blend in. Obviously option two would be what I should do, but number one was very tempting.
Perhaps my brothers would have been tempted, but I was not my brothers. So instead I began to try and figure out what to do. Taillow only showed up in certain regions, and I was pretty sure I haven't been moved out of Hoenn. That would mean I would have to be in Petalburg Forest or the Safari Zone. Thankfully that question was easy to solve, I just had to keep walking until I ran into either sea or a sign of a human. I had no problem with walking.
It didn't take very long for me to stumble into a Pokéblock holder, and I was very satisfied with my guessing abilities. I stood next to it and studied the map kindly located next to it. The exit was to my south, so I was just about to head off that way when a trainer stumbled into the small clearing.
For a brief second I reverted back to my original self and tried to race off, but then I caught myself and made my feet stay still. Besides, this trainer wasn't really that impressive. He was some snotty nosed little tween who probably hasn't been away from the nest for a year yet.
He rubbed his cheek where I suspect a branch had scratched him and squinted at me, then he smiled and said, "Hey! No luck with the blocks, huh?"
"Um, I don't use them." I replied slowly, wincing at the thick accent in my voice. It wasn't like I was used to speaking out loud anyways.
"Oh, well, lucky you." He grinned at me. I studied him in return, taking in his shaggy green hair and copper eyes. Give him a few years, and he'll be an attractive little brat. "The pokémon recently haven't been taking any. They are all really restless and aggressive, and the even the scientists can't figure it out."
Well, I wanted to say so badly, that is supposed to happen when my kind pop up. But instead I shrugged, "Probably something beyond our comprehension. Pokémon are complicated." The boy frowned at me for a long moment, and then shrugged it off.
"How'd you get in here anyways? They shut down the entrances because it's so dangerous."
"How'd you get in here?" I defended myself, and he actually blushed and found his toes very interesting. Someone wasn't very confident, I mused. But he was young yet, it was allowed.
Thankfully the conversation was ended thanks to screaming that started off in the distance. I raised my eyebrows at the nasty sound, and at the boy's reaction. He went from tomato red to sheet white in about a second, which was very impressive. "Someone's in trouble!" He cried out in alarm.
"Really?" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I turned in the direction of the continuous screaming. "That someone really has a good set of lungs, too."
"Are you going to help them?" The boy asked me as I began to walk away from him.
"Unfortunately." I called back, leaving him standing there as I navigated the forest as the screaming stopped. As much as I wished I didn't need to, I couldn't let the pokémon attack humans just because of me. I caused the mess, now I have to clean it up.
I emerged into yet another grassy clearing to stare at some idiot girl who'd gotten herself stuck between a couple pickachu and a bunch of oddish. It would have been laughable, but the oddish had paralyzed her and the pickachu were charging up some thunderbolts.
"Whoa! Stop!" I cried, racing out towards her. "Back it up everyone!" They looked about ready to attack me, until they realized what and who I was. Then they started chattering to me in the language I didn't understand anymore. "This is enough; it wasn't these people who did this to me." I told them quietly, crouching down amongst them. "Go back to your lives." I made the shooing motion with my hands.
They dispersed very slowly, clearly reluctant to obey. They also spent some time spitting at a bush, and I got the sneaking suspicion that the boy had fallowed me. Great, last time I checked humans couldn't simply talk to wild pokémon like that.
The girl's immobilization began to wear off, and she blinked sky blue eyes up at me. She still looked scared, but at least she wasn't screaming. I didn't care to hear that while I was right next her, since I heard it loud and clear almost a mile away. She was older than the boy, probably closer to the age that I looked like.
"That was cool!" She informed me cheerfully, her face rearranging itself into a smile. "I've never seen someone do that before."
"Um, thanks." I replied and turned towards the bush. "You! Get out of there." At first the bush didn't move, but then the boy fell out of it. "Are you two crazy? Coming way out here when it's closed?"
"You're here!" The boy argued as he picked himself up.
"Yeah, well, I'm allowed to be here."
"You're a ranger?"
"Um…no." I refused to let the conversation continue, because I sure as heck couldn't tell them the truth. "Whatever, bye." I turned and walked away.
For a few moments I thought they were going to stay there and not tag along and annoy me, but that didn't last. The two shared a look, and then fell in behind me.
"You know what?" The blond girl suggested as we walked along, "We should be a team!"
"A team," The boy was quiet for a bit, and I swallowed a scream. "Well, maybe. How long have you been a trainer?"
"This is my first year; I'm heading to Rustboro City for my first gym leader. I thought I'd come here and expand my team."
"That's quite a hike." The boy noted. The blond shrugged.
"I'm from a small town around here, and the older trainers told me that Roxanne is the best one to try first."
"Yup, that's what I was told too." The boy sounded excited. "What about you?"
"I'm not a trainer." I replied faintly, not really realizing what I was saying until it was too late. "I mean, I'm planning to. That's why I'm out here….studying." Great, what had I just set myself up for?
"Well, hey! You should get your license and starter pokémon in Mauville City! Then we can be a team."
"Hey now, I never said-" But they ignored me and the boy started talking.
"So, what's your name? I'm Caleb." The girl nodded,
"I'm Christi." Both looked expectantly at me, and I ground to a halt and stared open mouthed at them.
The problem was that my true name sure as heck wouldn't work here. I wracked my brains for something, and finally settled on the name of perhaps the only human I'd ever fully trusted that had been a girl.
"Um…Ana." I offered. They both nodded, and then Christi's eyes widened.
"Hey! Look! The exit!" She cried in delight, taking off from the group. I trudged after her and an overexcited Caleb, feeling very out of place.
But hey, I had just been given the opportunity I needed, to act like I should. So it wasn't all bad. I glanced at to see some man yelling at the other two for sneaking into the safari zone. He hadn't spotted me yet, so I set my brain to work as I scanned the area for an escape route. The fence was right there, so I took a chance and ran over to it. I almost tore my nice new khaki cargo pants in the process, but I did manage to dump myself over to the other side.
I was still brushing dirt and twigs off of myself when the other two came out, complaining of hefty fines. Caleb saw me first, and stopped to gape at me.
"How," He looked back at the exit and then at me, "How did you do that?"
"Fences can be climbed over." I informed him with a smirk. Silly little children, they still has quite a bit to learn.
"Well, smart." Christi rolled her eyes at me and pulled out a map. "But we better get moving." Caleb and I gathered around her so we could see it as well. Apparently we were going to march halfway across the region, without strong pokemon. Or, well, without any strong pokemon that could actually do something.