By the time that I had finally woken up, I was in a concrete cell with no windows, and long poles to the back of it…or I guess it was the front. I was rather disoriented at the time. There was about five poles, each the same distance apart than the next, blocking my escape, yet letting me see a concrete hallway and another cell across from me, which happened to be empty. I had no idea how I got there, my only sense of thought is the knowledge that I was asleep for a long time. But, to make things worse, I couldn't seem to remember my name. Or my friends. I just remembered that I was a boy. A trainer, I think. I couldn't exactly remember my age, and yet I was nauseous as heck. The world seemed so unreal…my body felt strange. It tingled, as if something was wrong with it. I didn't bother to look however, which was one of my most stupid mistakes. Finally, a strange blue pokemon with a shell wandered by, its eyes blood red, and a frown plastered upon its round face. A squirtle? Well if there was a squirtle, then it's trainer had to be nearby. But the Squirtle simply looked at me, and walked past, the trainer never coming.
Suddenly the squirtle came back and looked at me again, before rubbing its eyes and looking at me once more.
"Um…hello?" I croaked out.
"He's awake!" The squirtle yelled out, causing me to scream and giving me a mini-heart attack. Squirtles weren't supposed to talk!
"What's wrong? Are you stupid or something?" it responded, staring at me. I opened my mouth to reply and then wrapped my hand around one of the poles, trying to get a grip. That's when I made the second big mistake of the day. I looked at my hand. Orange, a few scales, stubby fingers with black claw-like fingernails. In that instant, the Squirtle said something else, but I have no idea what it was. All I know is that I felt more dizzy than ever, and in a second, the world was spinning. There was a THUMP! As my body hit the floor, and the world went black.
Once more, I woke up. The Squirtle stared at me.
"Seriously? You black out as soon as you wake up? I thought you were going to be out for ANOTHER few months."
I garbled up something, still trying to process it all.
"Honestly, you are the strangest Charmander I have ever met." It said.
I garbled up some more gibberish, before gathering myself. Shaking my head, I began:
"I'm a human."
"What's a human? You're a Charmander!" The squirtle said.
"No. I'm a human." I repeated, holding firm my stance.
"Okay, you're a human and my grandmother is the nonexistent Ho-Oh."
"But Ho-Oh does exist…"
"Great, you are nutty as a…um..really crazy nut."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Shut up. Care to explain how you got to Murschia Town?"
"I have no idea what a Murschia is! I just want to go home."
The squirtle remained silent, before shaking its head, and opening the cell.
"I had orders to keep you here to find out more about you. Are you some kind of alien Charmander?"
"Wait…you say that believing in Ho-Oh is nutty, but you believe in aliens?"
"I don't need this." The squirtle said, before closing the cell and walking away.
"Wait!" I called out after him. He kept walking.
"I'll tell you everything!" I screamed out. He stopped and wandered back, with a strange look on his face. Of course, I still didn't know how I got here. But the only way out of this cell was to improvise. And it had to be believable…
"My name is…um…Daniel. I met the rainbow guardian…Ho-Oh…and um, he sent me here to, um, spread peace and warn you all of a, err…coming great darkness?" I said, before grinning. The squirtle stared at me.
"There is no Ho-Oh." He said.
"Um…I'm living proof that there is. How else do you think I got here?"
"Well…you did show up in a glowing yellow sphere…fine. Tell me of this coming darkness."
For a second, I really just wanted to blurt out "NO." and leave him on a cliffhanger. Then I realized the situation that I was in, and figured that I had to let my imagination go wild.
"Pokemon around the world are being corrupted by a strange plague spread by the evil Darkrai. The plague takes control of the pokemon's mind and forces them to hail Darkrai. He's building up an army with this plague and plans to assault Or-kai-ush to spread darkness across the universe and turn us all into his slaves!" I said.
Suddenly, I realized that Or-Kai-Ush was Arceus. But, the squirtle seemed to understand.
"You're telling me that all these nonexistent deities, Ho-Oh, Darkrai, Arceus, are real? And that we're all about to be caught in a middle of a war with darkness and the shadows itself?"
"Yeah, that's pretty much it."
He paused.
"I believe you. We must get ready for this coming threat."
Perhaps I should have told the poor Squirtle that I made it all up. He unlocked my cell and escorted me out of the prison, and told me that it was an honor to meet Ho-Oh's prophet. I was led into the "RTHQ" (Rescue Team Headquarters) where many rescue teams head into dungeons to capture escaped criminals, rescue hostages, even save the world on a few occasions. He showed me to a small room in the right wing of the RTHG with a small pile of hay in the middle to serve as a bed.
He then left to inform the people that ran the RTHQ about the coming threat and about the newly arrived prophet.
I climbed into the small haystack and sighed. This was just not my day.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The next day, a bell rang and a Ursaring walked in, with a warm smile.
"Come on, newcomer. Even though you're not a rescue team member, you should have breakfast with us. I'll show you where it is."
After being led through a maze of twists of turns that I was sure to forget soon, we arrived at a table where many others were settling in. The Ursaring took a seat with his rescue team: a Feraligatr and a Charizard. I looked around and found a seat next to a Pachirisu.
"Hi." I said awkwardly. The Pachirisu looked at me shyly.
"Are you a Rescue Team member?"
"No. Are you?"
"I wish. But I can't find another person to start a rescue team with me." It said sadly.
"So…how'd you get here?" I asked.
"I was going to ask the Statics to join them this morning, and they said that we should talk about it after breakfast. So I was led here, and…yeah."
"Well, I'm sort of a prophet." I lied. The Pachirisu stared at me.
"You're a…a…WHAT?"
"Nevermind." I said swiftly, as Mr. Mimes passed out our foods. A Chatot perched at the edge of the far end of the table chanted the rules of being in a rescue team, before finishing with: "MILES GO FOR SMILES!" The whole table broke out in laughter besides the Pachirisu and me, who didn't quite understand what a huge mistake the Chatot just made. After that, we ate our food in a noisy table with the cacophonous sound of munching, silverware, talking, laughter, and all surrounding us.
Once done, everyone left but the Statics, Pachirisu, and me.
A Joltik and a Elekid walked up to us. Both of them looked kind and friendly, yet they were still laughing about something rather strange.
They glanced at me, before talking to the Pachirisu.
"Okay, so, we're a fairly new team. You still want to join us?" the Elekid said.
"Yes please." Pachirisu replied.
"Do you have any experience or recommendations?" the Joltik asked.
"Well…no…" The Pachirisu said shyly.
"Okay, I want you to do a test spar against us. Your friend can help." The Elekid said.
"Or you can just 1v1 one of us, your choice."
The Pachirisu looked at me.
"Well, do you want to help?" it asked. I figured in a new world, a new ally, such as a member of the Statics may be useful. So I nodded.
We left the RTHQ and headed into a grassy, open field.
The four of us looked at each other, before the Joltik declared "GO!"
The Pachirisu darted forwards and hit with an electric attack onto the Joltik, which didn't do much considering it wasn't very effective. The Elekid headed straight for me, in a full on blitz, to which I jumped out of the way and countered by trying to spit fire at it….TRYING. A puff of smoke came out of my mouth. I guess that I didn't know the move yet or something. The Elekid rounded about and hit me with an electric attack, that caused my body to have a brief spasm, and fall to the floor. I got up, and prepared to strike back, but suddenly electricity coursed through my veins causing me to howl out in pain, while my body couldn't move. Paralyzed. Elekid charged into me, this time a direct hit, causing me to cringe. Deciding I had enough with this, I brought my claw-like fingernails into the Elekid, drawing a few drops of blood, and causing three red marks across his chest. He yelled out, before glaring at me.
He threw something at me, and in an instant all went hazy.
"Don't you just love items?" he taunted playfully, as I stumbled about trying to regain focus. In an instant I was slammed. By the time I had regained my focus, I was right next to Pachirisu, who was trying to work its way out of strings that were inflicted upon it by Joltik.
The Electabuzz approached me. I was ready to fight…but then the electricity coursed through my veins again causing me to scream out as I fell to the floor, panting, my body not moving. The Joltik advanced on Pachirisu and bit it multiple times. The Pachirisu cried out as the Elekid charged me AGAIN.
I licked my bloodied lips and pounced upon the Elekid before descending my snapping jaws into his skin, using a firm BITE! Attack. He stared at me, eyes widened.
"I didn't know Charmanders could pull of the Bite move so smoothly…I didn't know Charmanders could use the Bite move at all." He gasped.
"Well, I'm a very special Charmander." I replied with a grin, which was true. Perhaps being a human at one point caused my transformation to give me strange new abilities…like learning BITE!
The two of us charged at each other once more, and I fell to the ground, on all fours letting the Elekid trip over me. I then pounced on him as he got up and performed another BITE! Attack. He hit me with an electric attack and I yelled out. I brought my claw into his shoulder, scratching him once more, before the Elekid threw a blue, spherical orb at me. In an instant, I was all the way across the field. I ran towards him, and could see that he was clearly weakened. But he ate a small blue berry just as I reached him. As I was about to perform a scratch, my body froze again. He brought a fist down upon my head and in an instant, I felt weak.
Wobbling about, I had to win. I had to! But my body would not obey me, as more painful electricity ran through it. The Elekid seized the opportunity, and defeated me.
When I woke up, I discovered that the Pachirisu had been defeated too. She looked at me, saddened. The Elekid and the Joltik approached us, with huge grins plastered on their faces.
"That was fun! Thanks guys!" the Elekid said, smiling towards us, kindly.
"Amber, you're welcome to join our team any time." The Joltik said merrily, nodding towards the Pachirisu, whose name I now knew as Amber.
"But…we lost." Amber said, obviously confused.
"However, you put up a decent fight for one with so little experience. Amber, your potiential is great, and in no time flat, you'll be just as good as us." The Joltik said warmly.
Amber smiled as she got up and walked towards her new team.
"Thanks, for everything." She said, looking at me.
"No problem. My name's Daniel by the way." I said, and the two of us shook hands.
As they headed off, Amber turned around:
"Perhaps we shall meet again someday." She joyously called out. The Elekid nodded, signaling that he believed we would.
But, I agreed with the Elekid. That fight WAS fun. It was at that time that I had decided to form a recue team of my own.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
