"Hey, are you okay?"
It was hot. Unbearably hot. The sand prickled his skin, and cold water lapping at his feet sent shivers up his spine.
"Oh, please wake up!"
The harsh contrast in temperatures between sand and sea made him feel vaguely nauseous and incredibly disoriented, feelings only intensified by what sounded like someone screaming directly into his skull. Why were they so loud? He attempted to tell them to be quiet and let him rest, but all he managed was a groan.
"Can you hear me? Do I need to get someone?"
He groaned again, and forced one eye open to look at the noisy thing that was annoyingly adamant about not letting him remain here passed out on the sand. It was a small bipedal Pokemon, cream with little triangle ears and a gleaming coin on its forehead. It looked rather alarmed, fur on edge as it knelt down to peer at him. As soon as he looked at it, it pulled its furry face into a nervous grin. "Oh, you're awake! Are you alright? What are you doing passed out on the beach like this?"
He slowly picked himself up, ignoring the wave of nausea and dizziness that accompanied the action, and slowly looked around. Beach … what was he doing on the beach? How did he get here? Wracking his memory came up with … nothing. A bit more panicked, he tried to recall something, anything - all he could come up with was sand and the ocean's slow waves.
" Hello? Are you sure you're okay?" The Pokemon had drawn back a bit when he sat up, watching him nervously. It was smaller than him, he realized upon sitting up. But it didn't look scared, just concerned. Hm.
" I don't know where I am," his voice rasped, and echoed out of him like his chest was a canyon, and his throat felt like he'd tried to eat half the beach - dry and sandy and raw. He continued regardless, wincing a little. "I don't know - how I got here, or ... Where … am I? Who am I?"
The little Pokemon frowned at him, slowly tilting its head. "You don't remember? Uh … this is the beach, just a little south of Treasure Town. You really don't remember anything?" When he shook his head, it folded its arms and frowned. "Well … I've never seen a Pokemon like you before, but," it paused, seeming to think over its words for a moment before offering him a paw. "You look like you could use some help. Why don't you come with me, and we'll see if anything looks familiar to you!"
He stared at the offered paw for a moment, and painstakingly picked himself up off the ground, holding his hands out for a moment to steady himself before offering the Pokemon his own hand - much more threatening, dark and heavily clawed. My, he certainly had large claws. The other Pokemon took it without flinching, though, and started to lead him off the beach and up a dirt path.
"Oh," it beamed at him, "I didn't introduce myself, did I? I'm Meowth, it's nice to meet you! What's your name?"
He tried once more to dredge up something, anything about himself, but again, all he got was the beach. He thought as hard as he could, until his headache pounded more violently against his skull than he could take. He shook his head again, and got a vaguely sympathetic look from the Meowth holding his hand.
"Well … we'll figure something out!" It said, giving him another cheery smile. He just nodded tiredly and wondered how much longer it would be before he could actually lie down.
A good bit longer, as it turned out. Meowth had seemed rather determined to give him a whirlwind tour of Treasure Town on their way to … what he presumed was the Pokemon's home. He was well aware many of the Pokemon seemed to be giving him a wide berth, out of fear or suspicion, but Meowth seemed cheerily oblivious to it - instead, the little cat Pokemon had taken to asking the Shopkeepers and several passing strangers if they'd seen him in town recently, or at all. None of them seemed to have any more clue than he did, and his headache was making itself more and more known with each introduction. The only silver lining was one of the two lizard brothers (Kecleon?) seemed to take pity on the exhausted Pokemon, despite what he was beginning to learn was considered a rather unsettling appearance to most - and bagged them up some food for when they got home, which Meowth graciously accepted.
And then they were finally there, which he was immensely grateful for - he was starting to learn he despised both the sun and crowds. It was a strange little abode, built into a cliff face that was apparently called 'Sharpedo Bluff'. But it was blessedly dark and by far the nicest place he could ever remember being in. Meowth set about preparing them both dinner, and cheerfully directed him to a small spring built into the wall to get a drink if he wanted.
He did so, and found himself eyeing his own reflection curiously. He was a bit different compared to the rest of the Pokemon he had seen today, certainly. He was dark as shadow, with hair like clouds and brilliant blue eyes. He thought himself rather striking, but perhaps he could understand smaller Pokemon finding him intimidating. That was the impression he got from them, anyways… He idly wondered if the residents of this town did know who he was in secret, or have reason to distrust him, but he shook that thought quickly. Certainly someone would have said something.
"Dinner's served!" Meowth cut into his thoughts, and he lifted himself away from his reflection to settle where it indicated, finding himself quickly being offered a plate of various berries and fruits similar to Meowth's own but significantly more full. "You're a big Pokemon compared to me, so I figured you should probably eat more," it explained cheerfully, plopping down in its own bed and quickly chowing down.
He folded his legs and slowly picked at his food, tasting each thing one at a time to determine what he liked and what he didn't. He didn't seem to outright dislike anything, but he didn't feel overly hungry either. By the time he finished Meowth had already cleaned its plate and was just watching him - which certainly didn't make him want to eat any faster.
"I've been thinking," it said, and he resisted the urge to make some snide comment and let it continue, "that we need to call you something. You don't know your name, and no one even knows what you are, right? So we gotta come up with something in the meantime!" He stared at it blankly, which it apparently took as an invitation to continue. "And I've been thinking of some. Like - Shadow."
"Absolutely not."
"Oh, you're no fun. How about Pitch?"
He gave it another cold look. "A bit too close to b-"
"Okay, okay, forget that one," it waved its paws a bit frantically, but looked close to laughter. "Spooks?"
"That's the worst one yet. You may as well refer to me as only 'the scary Pokemon I found passed out on the beach', it's somehow less childish."
Meowth, of course, seemed to find this very funny, and as it cleaned up their plates he could hear it suddenly snorting to itself and mumbling 'beach dude'. He tried his best to ignore it, for his own sanity, and settled into bed. He got the feeling he'd need his rest for tomorrow.
Before he slid completely into sleep, he could have sworn he heard Meowth say, "G'night, Spooks."
A/N : And here's my first chapter of this fic ! Updates may be spotty , but I'll do my best to keep them regular . I'm really enjoying writing it so far , and hope you enjoy reading it ! That being said , I don't really have a beta reader or anything , and if you have any non-constructive criticisms or nitpicks please keep them to yourself . I'm doing this for fun , and seeing as anyone who's played PMD2 and has figured Spooks out already knows , I'm pretty much throwing canon in the garbage here and rewriting history . Don't expect this to follow the canon game storyline .