1.1. the interdimensional interstate.

part i

There I was, standing in the middle of the darkness with their blood on my hands. It hurt somewhere inside of me, I guess, but overall I felt better. Liberated, even. The darkness shifted, then it wasn't their blood anymore.

It was mine.

I stared at my hands, horrified, as laughs crept up on me like an icy chill, stilling me and making me feel as stiff as stone. I tried to swallow but my throat was too dry, and I cracked my mouth open just a bit and blood started running down my chin. I hit my knees, feeling completely ravaged, my head pounding and my heart pounding slowly, then my body went completely numb and I fell on my face.

He pried his eyes open past their tears and saw fingers—his fingers, real fingers—digging into hard-packed dirt, his new fingernails splitting from the effort and leaving thin trails of red human blood. He blinked several times, stunned, before the pain returned and he hit the ground bodily, curling in on himself. (Bodily, wow—he could never use that word before sans the sarcasm.) His jaw clamped down on his tongue so hard that the coppery taste of blood surged in his mouth, and when he parted his lips just a little, crimson blood spilled out onto the ground.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the pain began to wane. He became more familiar with his new body, feeling long and wavy hair, a lean torso, and a small burn scar on his left ankle. He braced his hands on the ground, feeling his arms shake and trembling as a newborn ponyta's before he could find his center of equilibrium. He let out a breath of exertion and prepared to get to his feet, however he was interrupted. A new, stronger sensation rippled through him, so potent that he fell on his face all over again. He couldn't retain a cry as vocal agony tore through his throat, his fingers digging painfully into his scalp as he groped for a hold on something, on anything corporeal.

Is this… Is this really what they suffer from? Arceus—tricked—me!

The anger overruled the pain and for the first time in what felt like centuries, he could actually move. He clenched and unclenched his fists as he pushed himself to his feet, swaying slightly before finding his center and raising his head. The room he was in was terribly dark and his eyes couldn't adjust at all, simply forming half-assed shaped from the blackness. He gritted his teeth and strained his ears, trying and failing to make any further sense of things than what he already had. It made no sense that he, who almost was shadows, would fall prey to their dark deceptions. Borderline anything could've been in that room and he, a defenseless human being, would've been powerless to stop it.

"You're half-right, anyway," a familiarly ragged voice hissed somewhere in the darkness. "Bad things take solace here—you know, just as you did, or used to." He tried to speak but found his tongue and vocal cords were immobile yet. Spooks, wherever he was hiding, found that hilarious, and he felt his face heat in anger. "Taking things as seriously as always, I see," his right-hand pokémon continued, and finally he could spot bloodshot eyes through the black.

"—where?"

"Where are we? Containment," Spooks responded a tad smugly. "At least you've found a man that matches your personality to a T."

"—get—get me—"

"I'll get you all right. It's always been 'Spooks do this' and 'Spooks do that' for you because you think you're such a hotshot that every pokémon within a twenty-mile radius just has to prostrate before you. But look at you know, as weak as a human!" Spooks' laugh resounded in the small room as his eyes gradually drifted closer. "Did you know that 'Spooks' isn't even my name? Sure, it's the one you gave me, but it's not mine. Not that you ever cared."

"I—" He felt a cold chill run down his back right before another ghostly laugh.

"I don't want to hear you talk anymore." Another cold chill skipped across his skin as stones in a pond, and then the darkness lightened enough for him to make out Spooks' shape several feet away from him. The distance quickly closed between them as Spooks floated towards him, eyes glowing brighter, until he gave one leap and rammed through his annoyingly corporeal body. He gasped in shock, then groaned in pain as the half-possession distorted his human innards, twisting them around until it felt like a cold fist was jammed inside of his intestines and was tying them up. He fell back against the wall, stunned, as red blood tainted the underside of his skin and more blood drooled from his mouth.

Sleep well, Master, Spooks' bodiless voice jeered from somewhere in the growing darkness of his peripheral. Because if you do wake up, you'll have the entire ghost-type committee tearing you to pieces.

…

…NO. DAMN. WAY.

He reached out blindly, hand coated in the same shadows that Spooks was reveling in, and seized the recalcitrant gengar by his arm, squeezing so hard that his laughter ceased instantaneously. You must have forgotten who you're dealing with, he whispered without really "speaking." I don't care how I treat you or even what your name is, and do you know why?

"W…Why?" Spooks was, for lack of a less ironic term, thoroughly spooked.

Because you are nothing more than one drone in my force, and if you dare attempt to bite my hand again, I will wipe your ectoplasm out of all existential planes. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

"Y-Yes, Master," he stammered.

Now help me get out of here. He released Spooks to clench his abdomen, feeling the man within cry and scream in agony. Spooks moaned in his own sort of agony as he put his paws on the ground, then he resigned himself to the cool feeling of shadowy darkness as they sunk down within them. That darkness, he was completely accustomed to, and he welcomed it like an old friend.

"Where?" He closed his eyes, feeling out the familiar darkness around him. To those that endlessly searched for faster methods of travels like flying-types or airplanes or whatever else ridiculous invention that the humans came up with, they had yet to realize that they were literally standing on the Grand Central Station of their Earth. As long as there were shadows there, beings of darkness could reach that place, and as there wasn't a place without shadows, the reach was inconceivable.

"Viridian City," he whispered, his voice misting in the cool blackness. It would be a while until he could use that body properly, but until then he still had one lackey to push around, just as long as Spooks remembered his proper place. He blinked heavily and watched his blood crystallize in the cold, and he clutched his stomach tighter before his body finally gave out.

He woke only because something was licking his (borrowed) face.

"Koko! What are you doing?" He cracked his eyes open to see a small growlithe getting pulled away by a young girl with auburn pigtails and freckles across her small face. "Sorry, mister," she apologized. "Koko is really friendly."

"You smell like blood," Koko said to him. He snorted through his nose and went to close his eyes again before he remembered what was going on. He instinctively leapt forward, knocking the girl onto her back and pinning her arms to the grass. She shrieked, alarmed, and Koko bristled as she started gnawing uselessly on his wrist.

"Who in hell are you?" he demanded, gripping her wrists so tightly she cried out in pain.

"L-Linda," she moaned, tears streaming down her face. He raised his eyebrows at the sight. "Linda Fitzgerald…"

"Where are we right now?"

"W-We're outside of Viridian City," she whimpered, terrified. "Please don't hurt me." He looked around at the stretch of dirt path and green grass around them. Maybe he could see a city in the distance, he wasn't sure, as his eyes had yet to properly adjust to the bright sunlight.

"Why would I…hurt you?" he finished, a little stunned at his own behavior. His goal was to find the disturbance and get back home, not to freak out the underworld dwellers. Messing with the humans would just make it that much harder to get his job done and return to Yggdrasil unobstructed. "Spooks," he snapped, irritated that his ghost had made yet another disappearing act. "When I find him, I'll—"

"Shady, Needle Arm!" He was knocked away as spinning green arms bearing razor-sharp thorns swung at him, causing him to go rolling across the grass until he reached a stop a few feet away. In normal form that wouldn't even have dented him, however a human body was much more fragile and he found himself with several disgusting and likely to get infected puncture wounds on top of his contorted viscera. He saw a nearly-identical redheaded boy helping the girl up with a cacturne keeping an eye on him.

"Mel," she said, putting her arms around him and burying her face in his chest. Mel held her protectively with one arm as he glared daggers at him.

"What the hell were you doing to my sister?" he demanded furiously, his cacturne prickling with spines. He dragged himself onto his elbows and wiped a smear of blood from his forehead.

"Nothing of consequence… I wanted some information."

"That's a damned way of getting it," he growled.

"Dick," his cacturne agreed.

"Ugh," he groaned, the pain really hitting him. "You two…you'll regret doing that…" He dug his fingers into the hard dirt for a moment, trying to gain leverage, then he pushed himself to his feet, feeling his body sway gently from side to side. "Spooks… Spooks!" he shouted, clasping his fists. Unless Spooks had suddenly metamorphosed into one of the random pidgey above, he sure as hell wasn't coming anytime soon. "Damn it, that gengar is so— Wait." He paused, getting a good look at Mel's cacturne. "Dark-type," he said sternly, pointing at Shady. Shady's eyes narrowed a little in response as it stepped forward. "I command you to use Pin Missile on the brat."

"Shady won't—" Mel started, an interesting mix of confused and irritated, just as Shady spun around and fired a stream of arrow-like barbs at him. He froze, eyes wide, before Linda tackled him out of the way, the pins exploding into a shower of dirt and grass on the ground. He laid sprawled for the better part of five seconds before carefully pushing her away and sitting up.

"Shady won't what?" he taunted Mel. "He knows how to save his spiny skin. Now, I have a little favor to ask of you two. Try attacking me again before I can speak and this plant will wither before your very eyes—like magic."

"No!" Linda cried, beating Mel to the punch. She held Koko back as she barked angrily.

"You two can call me…" He searched in his mind a bit before smirking and snapping his fingers. "Orville. That's his name. You two can call me Orville."

"I know what I'll be calling you," Mel hissed in response, holding Linda protectively in his arms as her eyes watered in fear. Oops, there he went again. If he wasn't careful, he would make a ruckus before he even got close to discovering—

"…I have a question," Orville told them. "Were there any strange occurrences by your proph—newscaster? Psychic happenings? Weather disturbances? Anything like that?" They exchanged a look that was more or less meaningful before shaking their heads in unison. Orville stomped his foot down, becoming aware of his lack of protection there. He had to remember to grab some sort of footwear. "Don't lie to me." Mel's cacturne raised his arms as well.

"W…We're not!" Linda said, distressed. They had to be lying, as he was completely certain that the energy he sensed was in that area. Maybe they were completely oblivious, he couldn't tell, but for all he knew they were hiding something. Had Spooks been there, he could've extracted the information from them within seconds, but since he felt like playing hooky, Orville had to play it by the book.

"Then how about a deal?" he offered. Mel's expression soured almost immediately as Linda paled. "Don't think it's anything too sordid," he added, raising his hands defenselessly. He noticed Shady emulate the gesture from the corner of his eye and grimaced. He nodded his head a little to the side and Shady's eyes darkened as he returned to the world. "I just need some help, and if you two can give it, not only will I leave you alone, I'll help you as well."

"You can help by getting as far away from here as possible," Mel snarled.

"Not happening, and frankly, you're annoying. Shut up. Anyway, I'm looking for sort of…anomaly. All I know is that it's here in this area and I need to get rid of it A.S.A.P. Help me and I, uh, won't kill you." That broke through even Mel's façade and Orville clamped his mouth shut. "Wrong words. I don't plan on killing you two—but I will hurt you," he added as Mel tensed as if for a fight, "all one hundred pounds of you."

"Mel, just agree," Linda whispered to him. "That way, he won't hurt us."

"Hurt us?" Mel exclaimed, taking out a pokéball. Orville couldn't move fast enough as Mel returned his cacturne and got to his feet. "Linda, make Koko fight him."

"I—no, she'll get hurt—"

"We'll get hurt!" he argued. Distraught, Linda released Koko from the cage of her arms. The little growlithe sped across the grass before sinking her teeth into Orville's leg. He stumbled, shocked, as blood matted her fur and she started tearing.

"Get off of me before I stomp you to death!" he hissed, trying to regain his balance on one foot. Growlithe were known for their persistence, however, and she did not even flinch at the threat.

"Tear his leg off, Koko!" Mel said. Orville growled even though it didn't mean much as a weak human.

"I said get—" He stopped, still balanced awkwardly on one foot as the pain slowly began to make a return. Arceus, not now! He waved his foot back and forth and tried his hardest to quell that damn man, but as always it wasn't his body to control. They always backfired on him at one point or another, always, but this time there wasn't any room for failure. If he did fail, everybody in all three worlds would die.

"NOOO!" he roared, aggravated and in pain at the same time. It was something he hadn't experienced in a very long time from some kids, not since being challenged by that overgrown weed from Sinnoh…

"Koko, stop!" Linda cried abruptly. Her growlithe persisted, seemingly in the zone, and Linda ran up herself to grip her body and try pulling her free. Orville watched as his veins blackened starting from his feet and working their slow way up. That body was rejecting him and his darkness again, but this time he didn't have the strength to fight back. He would get forced out and who the hell knew how long it would take him to find another compatible human? He'd be damned, courtesy of Arceus, and then the entirety of the underworlds would be over too if that anomaly got the change to spread.

A sudden chill ran down Orville's back, making him think that Spooks had returned, but instead he felt a sudden heat bearing down on every inch of his skin. He took a pointless second to consider how much it itched, as if that human was born of shadows as well. He shifted slightly before looking down, and not only did he find that the darkness had vanished from his body, the shades had too, leaving nothing but green grass at his feet.

What? Shadows can't just disappear.

They reappeared just a second later, almost making him believe it was an illusion as Koko detached herself from his leg, leaving a ring of bloody teeth marks as she ran to Linda's side, who had lost consciousness on the grass. A wave of vertigo hit him as time caught up and he just barely caught himself as he spun towards the ground. He let his eyes roam the land to find stretches of darkness like fingers left from the shadows like dirty residue, branching out from his feet and past Linda's body to Mel, who was in just as prone of a state.

"Ugh," he groaned, slapping a hand against his forehead as the world began to slowly spin in his peripheral. He felt like utter crap but he couldn't afford to focus on it at the moment. A disturbance happened there, and even though he didn't know the finer details or even the cause, he did know the consequence: a portal through Yggdrasil would open. He had seconds to take the brats and move before some other pokémon with a grudge against him (which numbered somewhere in the hundreds) would appear and seek their own form of revenge. Oh, Arceus must have sent him there on purpose, as he had to have known how many pokémon would want a piece of him—the human him. Koko barked furiously at him as he picked Linda up, cradling her small body against his unsteadily. He could hold her, sure, but he needed Mel to move. "Be useful and wake him up," he snapped at Koko.

"I'm not your pokémon," Koko growled in response.

"Yeah, well pretty soon you'll be too dead to be anybody's pokémon." Koko bared her teeth, enraged, but he didn't have time to mess around. He stepped down on Mel's wrist, cracking it, and Mel's eyes snapped open the same time that he took a gasping inhale as if he just came from underwater. Orville grabbed his arm, roughly hauling him to his feet before he was fully conscious and forcing him into a run. Not even a second later a deathly boom rang out from behind them as if from tons of pressurized air, knocking them off of their feet and back onto the ground. Linda rolled from his grip and down the path as Orville shifted to his back, watching the pokémon materialize from the air and hover a few feet above the ground. Crimson eyes locked with his as the Eon Pokémon folded back his notorious blue wings to fly.