Welcome, One and All, to my lovely rendition of ANI, In a Nutshell! For those fellow fans that have arrived within my humble abode, come have a good laugh at the familiar character's expense through a new pair of eyes. For any possible newcomers, prepare to get a taste for what this great Network it all about, through the eyes of another fellow newcomer. First up of course, is Buwaro's infamous work: Tales of Flame. Second chapter will be a walk through of Dark Magician Girl Aeris's lovely and provocative Anomaly, and the final piece of the trilogy will conclude with Rizuchan's whimsical Hoenn Chronicles. (Well, not really final piece. The epilogue will bring us all home, but by then the purpose of this fic will have been fulfilled and you will all be free to go, technically speaking.) All chapters in order of the Apples Not Included network. (I realize Anomaly is older than ToF, but Buwaro-san started the network, so don't point that out to me.)
This is in response to the ficlet contest hosted by these authors, while the truth of the matter is this idea came into my head long before that. I'll give the full story after this chapter so you can skip it if you want.
Three warnings for this chapter. Number one: There are at three counted and purposeful ooc moments in here, because if I kept these characters in character, no doubt a brawl have broken out if I let it carry on, and I certainly don't want that for this chapter, otherwise I'd never get the damn thing done. (I now have a better appreciation of why Buwaro never gets any arc done in a short period of time. Sheesh.) So they're a tad more passive than usual.
Number two: I've decided not to get a beta reader for this, because as I've learned, I message a lot, get a couple in return, and need to wait a long amount of time between messages only to find that they get busy with life and can't actually carry out the time. I do not want to wait a month to get up a four chapter story. Especially on a deadline. So if there are mistakes I missed, I apologize.
And last, but most certainly not least... there are a couple references to British humor in here outside the usual dialogue, but it's actually because that is My sense of humor- I do it all the time in life. This chapter just gave me an excuse to use it, hehe. I just love witty humor, and love to poke fun at my own country. (Even if I did have to find a substitute for 'Americans') Though I am certainly of the Star spangled Banner, so I don't know a lot of English phrases, just the more common ones used through the chapter. they just presented themselves so perfectly. So don't think I'm making fun of Bu-san or anything.
So, on with the Show!
This day- this lovely, beautiful, sunny, perfect day- was a fine day indeed.
"Watch it!"
The sun was slowly moving into the western hemisphere across the sky, already indicating late afternoon. A cloud or two also made their journey across the tranquil blanket of blue. There was a fine wind blowing to cool the sun tanned trees, rocks, grass, Pokemon, and humans. In the mountains there was a very large, unnaturally made clearing, rectangular in shape and very flat and smooth, give or take a few million specks of dirt and gravel. The red brown of the mountain stone glared from the direct sunlight.
"Heads up!"
Though that did not stop a certain group of active creatures from taking advantage of this sunny day.
"Get her!"
Run run, bash bash- "Oof!"
And each other. Yes, this infamous troupe of pokemon could only have fun in one of the most adventurous and violent ploys imaginable: Football. One small Charmander kept sprinting even as at least three other pokemon came after her. The blue helmet on her head glared white in the light, while the plastic padding on the front of her body glared gray. She whirled and threw her treasure over the heads of her pursuers.
"Go long!"
The oval-ish brown textured ball sailed across the rocky terrain of the carved mountain field. Six blue helmets, and three red helmets scattered and darted toward the designated landing spot. In the very center, a single lizard stood, with one pair of orange arms reaching high above his blue helmet. With a small jump, he caught the ball. And there was much rejoicing. Karren, a lovely Kirlia on the side lines, waved a little blue victory flag to prove that point.
"Stop him!" a floating pink kitten's voice cried.
"Run Flame," cried a distraught green fairy of similar size, "run!"
And run Flame did. The trophy remained close to the scaled torso, and one single paw remained out to drive and push against the enclosing bodies; those bodies that were once his friends and comrades. To the side went the ferocious and glaring Totodile, away went the usually sweet tempered Nidorina, up went the beloved Treeko, -courtesy of Flame's foot- (which was ironic considering that they were actually on the same team and that the reptile was actually helping to fend off the attackers. Though in retrospect, it might have had something to do with Fervo's jab at Flame becoming the sacrifice for his love interest) and there, near the very end, would be the greatest challenge yet…
The huge, muscled, aggressive, expertly psychotic Umbreon.
The two forelegs bent down, stretching its back in preparation for a pounce. The black defender wagged its tail tauntingly and smirked from under its helmet. It shook it's midnight body just a bit, before it leaped forward. The creature of darkness tore the ground of the arena of all arenas, right at the treasure held securely in the arms of fire and claw, while the lizard charged for the desired goal, behind and past the midnight shadow threatening to challenge him. Alas, sacrifices had to be made, where even family had to be pit against one another for the sake of this war of wars. Flame vs. Blacky. Blacky vs. Flame. A pair that no one ever imagined would be brought up against each other. Collective gasps muffled sound and wide eyes transfixed onto the final front in the battlefield. Unconsciously, all rose and leaned as the two were ever closer in their charging. Blacky jumped.
"Oh bugger," the Espeon sibling of the Umbreon swore at the sight from the sidelines where she sat next to Karen, "he's done for!"
No… Flame could not afford to lose now… not even against his beloved Blacky. He jumped.
"They'll crash!" Roco exclaimed from the other side of Karen.
Indeed, it seemed as though all was lost. However, as it turned out. Flame's jump was really a jump-start. For as he sailed across the floor, he rolled under Blacky's flying form, got up, and kept running. Blacky landed with no difficulty.
"Aw, I missed!" the kitish black dog whined.
"Now why didn't I see that coming?" Squirt asked himself.
Flame merely grinned toothily under the blue helmet as he neared the goal line. Ah, sweet victory. This would make the score 21 to- "Eek!"
The feminine exclamation of surprise (which he swore he could kill Sarah for) popped out unexpectedly when an equally unexpected bone twirled and planted into the dirt at a diagonal angle right at his feet. There was no time for him to lift his paws, and his clawed limbs tangled and tripped over the obstacle. He tumbled forward and landed flat on his face only to slide forward several feet with his hind legs in the air behind him. Dirt and gravel kicked up and scraped in his scales even when he stopped. The ball swiveled out of his clawed hands and finally lay still, one inch over the line. Useless, since he was no longer holding it. Blue irises that darkened even further with anger leered up from the white grate up at the Cubone that plodded to him. Even through the skull, it was obvious Sofia was pleased: her black eyes glittered with blasted smugness. Two fingers stuck up from her brown outstretched hand.
"Two apples."
"That was cheating and you know it."
"I didn't hit you." She shrugged. "It's not my fault you're a clumsy sod."
Fangs and teeth ground together in agitation while she whistled even as she wrenched out her bone club. It was at least three meters from where Flame lay now. The other team closed in around her as they prepared for the kick off.
"Close, but no cigar." Fervo pat his shoulder consolingly- whipping his hand away when Flame growled at him.
Everyone lined up, and the ball was handed over to the Red helmets. A tiny figure floated forward, the little pink body wrapped in sections of gray and the usually active long thin tail rolled into a crotch guard taped to his back.
"Alright then," Mew pointed at Scyther, "You're up."
The tall green insect took a few steps back, and held out his blade arms. Blacky and Cray sprinted forward behind the line of blue while Tate and Sofia remained back.
"Oh bloody- everyone get back!" Celebi ordered.
-
The tiny bundle of yellow and black panted as his tiny legs carried him forward, step by step by step. Crawling the gentle slope felt like climbing up a tree at this point. No…had to get out of this narrow mountain path, had to keep going forward… later. Finally he collapsed forward in a shaking heaving heap. Dirt darkened and sweat dampened the yellow fur to his skin. He sniffled. Where was everybody? Mama, papa, sister 1 sister 2, brother 1, brother 2, brother 3, the four aunts, and six uncles, with his cousins all playing around in the fields so happily, while he watched on the sidelines to avoid becoming the ball… he sniffled again. He could here them now, laughing, yelling, screaming, swearing…
His little rodent brows scrunched lightly in confusion. Wait a second… they never used naughty language before. Well, they did, but they were usually careful about it.
The little Pichu lifted his head as the voices echoed through the rocky walls of the canyon. None of them really sounded familiar in the least. He lifted himself up as best he could, well rested, but weak in his tiny limbs. Crawling slowly again, he remained on the rocky path toward where the voices resonated from behind a wall corner. Slowly, his pace increased. Oh please oh please, let it be help! His little round face was bright with hope. Charlie came upon a wall, and turned the corner to see… the biggest, scariest looking Pokemon he had ever laid eyes on. All with huge round shiny heads and a powerful sheet of armor. He winced. Oh Meowth they were running and attacking each other so savagely! And, and, there were some were kicking and shoving and they were throwing something weird around and yelling and screaming and some were even flying without wings, and and... what was wrong with these pokemon!?
Pika, Flame, and Scarlet of the blue sprinted far back on the field while Grovyle, Squirt, and Fervo were slower to catch up. Scyther inhaled once to focus. The wings on his back buzzed into action and he glided forward. The armored foot flung back and snapped forward. Away it flew, all Pokemon sprinting as fast their legs would carry them. Naturally those with four legs were already gaining, though the effort was useless. The ball sailed directly over the heads and bounced off the wall on the opposite end of the field and flew to the side.
Though no one could see from where they stood, the ball nearly hit a stunned Pichu that ducked and put its little paws over its head.
"Steee-rike!!" Mew yelled.
"Not strike." Tate countered. "This isn't baseball."
"Eh, same thing." Mew shrugged, "We're butchering the rules anyway to let the four legged critters play. Game's silly anyway, those Hoenns were just too wimpy to go for rugby." he pointed to the passage where the ball bounced, "Go get the ball."
"Yeah, hurry," Blacky bounced eagerly, "the sun's almost down!"
"You kicked it," Tate pointed out to Scyther, "you go get it."
"And have Scyther slice the swinub skin?" he asked innocently.
Swinub skin? Little Pichu's eyes widened from under his paws and he shook all over. Oh Holy mother of Meowth! They were cannibals!
"… did he seriously just call it a 'swinub' skin?" Fervo clarified to Squirt.
The Wartortle blinked and nodded. "Who even uses that term anymore?."
"Okay then," Pika took charge and pointed at the one other flying pokemon, "Scout you go get it, you're not doing anything else."
The Pidgeotto was the only Pokemon in the clearing that did not have a helmet or padding on. (Besides Sofia and Scyther, who could not fit a helmet.) Birdie eyes glanced at the ball's projectile and looked back innocently.
"I am the referee, it is not my job to retrieve the ball." the top ridges of his wings went up in what was obviously a shrug, though he lost a few inches of air to do it. "Besides, I'd pierce it too."
"Urgh, fine, I'll get it," gracefully offered the ticked Wartortle.
"Thanks Squirt," Mew grinned, "you're the best!"
"Yeah yeah."
He hurried away as fast his combined shell and plastic padding would allow, very conscious of course of a certain pair of eyes that followed.
"Everyone else," Celebi called out, "line up center!"
Little Charlie remained frozen as he huddled and stared at the display of shadows on the wall beside him, for he was too frightened of watching the Pokemon themselves. One of the big scary Pokemon was coming right toward him! Baby Pichu rose his gaze up and up and up with the growing height of the shadow. When there was a tiny movement from the corner of his gaze, he whipped his head around. The creature that came up around the corner was at least four times his height. With a big shiny blue head, and white slit armor more powerful than anything he had ever seen before, with evil narrowed eyes that pierced straight into his soul.
"YUWAH!!"
Little Charlie shrieked and unwittingly released his reserves of electricity. The beast let out a sound of protest and retreated back behind the corner. Teeny bolts of energy scattered about the rocks, and shocked the little Pichu right back. Charlie was hurt and tired and spent… So he fainted.
"Squirt? What's going on back there?"
Squirt was just trying to deem whether or not it was safe to look again. His eyes unsurely darted to the corner to the impatient teammates.
"There's a crazy mini Pika shocking me for no reason!" Squirt called back from his trembling form.
"Who's crazy?" Pika leered.
"Not you, this little guy," he pointed at the corner.
Pika blinked and waddled to join him, while Blacky darted forward with curiosity. The yellow rodent stuffed into the awkward white padding and shiny blue helmet teetered through the passage from the rocky square to join Squirt while Blacky had already run all the way around to see.
"It's tiny!" He came forward and prodded it with his paws. "Hey, don't fall asleep here."
Pika peeked around the corner. Suspicion turned to worried shock as she hurried to the dizzy Pichu lay. She wrenched off her helmet to get a better look.
"Oh no!" She glared accusingly at Squirt. "Poor thing was scared half to death."
Here, everyone paused their fidgeting. "Poor thing?" That thing had to be damn cute to incite that reaction from her. Fervo and Cray were the first to head forward, with Mew flying past them. The Wartortle at least twice the Pikachu's size backed up and held his paws up placating.
"Hey, I was the one nearly electrocuted." Squirt defended. "I didn't do anything, promise."
"A Pichu's energy isn't enough to electrocute anybody-" Pika snapped, "-besides itself."
Her paw lightly pat the little round head, as baby groaned and its eyes tried to open. Though they never could get more than halfway. Cray crawled forward and looked on sympathetically- all rivalry and relation hostility gone. Feminine wiles had a tendency to do that.
"He okay?"
"Yeah, little guy just got excited is all."
"Judging by the yellow puddle by the little guy's feet, I'm prone to agree." Fervo added sagely as he peeked around the corner.
"My my, what have we here?"
Mew had to ask as he came to hover over the dazed creature. He prodded it lightly with his finger, earning an interesting incoherent protest.
"No… too many big scary Pokemon, don't hurt me, let me live!"
"Hm, you found him alone?" he asked Squirt.
"Yeah, just him."
"Funny, he's so far from Viridian."
"This kid must've wandered off then." Fervo deduced.
"You mean…" Blacky's eyes widened, "you mean this baby's lost from it's family?"
"Well, I guess, yeah…"
The little Uembreon sniffled.
"Wha- hey wait, it's not that bad," he gave a half desperate shrug. Blacky, crying, not good, "really, the kid's fine, see?"
He picked up the little Pichu by it's foot and shook the upside down critter to make him wake up and prove his point. Charlie got really dizzy that time and tried to say something, though it wobbled with his movement. It was either 'Put me down' or 'Cut me around.' Pika snatched him and scowled at Fervo before righting the Pichu and holding it at a more acceptable position, close against the plastic still on her.
"Poor little guy!" Blacky trotted forward and nuzzled the child with his helmet head. "I'll take good care of you, I promise!"
"Blacky," Squirt sighed, "He's not something you can take in as a pet."
"What's this about taking in a pet?"
Flame peered around, his paternal instincts tingling at Blacky's tears.
Fervo bristled. "I swear, I did nothing, the kit starting doing that on his own!"
"Uncle Flame!" Blacky hopped up next to the Charmander. "This poor baby's lost from it's family. We gotta help him!"
Flame blinked and looked down at the Pichu.
"Oh."
So that was what was going on. He had to beat back the growing feminine desire to coo and cuddle the poor little thing.
"And help him we will." Mew answered solemnly through the red helmet. He puffed up his chest and put his little paws on his hips heroically. "I will use my amazing psychic power to discover this little Pichu's sad and tragic past, and do everything in my power to return him to his rightful home. Everyone," he spun about, and proclaimed with complete professionalism: "I will need you all to stand back. This could get very dangerous, and I must not be held responsible for any accidents."
"Accidents?" Cray clarified.
"Just a precaution." Mew assured.
First he yanked off the wobbly and too large red helmet and let it plop on the ground, then he shimmied and shed the armor. He finished by plucking off the cup on his back, letting his tail unfurl and stretch, leaving his all natural kitty body.
"Ah, much better."
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Cray had to ask about Mew's lack of disguise. "We don't know him and his family could be nearby."
"Eh, it's just a baby, probably couldn't understand what it was seeing anyway." Mew excused.
He hovered lower and held out his hands to the Pichu. Pika glowered and held the baby closer to her and turned away. Mew shook his head.
"Relax, really. I'll just read his mind a bit and figure out where he comes from."
Pika still did not seem convinced. Her dark eyes narrowed and held on tight.
Mew sighed. "Fine, you can hold him. Takes the awesomeness out of it though. It's getting crowded, and I'll need some room, so lets go back to the arena."
More like an audience, a select few who knew Mew thought.
"I guess this means the end of the game." Flame muttered sourly.
There went his chance of evening the score with Sofia. Everyone turned back to return to the other half of the awaiting team. Some grumbled, some whistled, others cooed the infant, and one kept his eyes on the protectively maternal Pika. The other waiting team, referee and cheerleaders languished impatiently, crossing arms, tapping feet, all around fidgeting. Celebi was the only other one in the air, as Scout had landed on a rock wall and rested. Simultaneously they all looked up at the incoming group.
"What happened?" Grovyle asked.
"Him."
Squirt pointed at the little Pichu, looking for all the world half sleeping in Pika's arms. Until he spotted all the new faces and turned to bury his face in his arms against the shoulder pad. Everyone blinked. Both at Pika's softened expression and the little critter in her arms. This was the thing making so much commotion? Scarlet stepped forward, and her own usually hard face melted at the precious figure.
"Oh, poor little thing, he looks so tired." she murmured.
"I can't imagine how long he's been wandering." Pika agreed.
Karen, who had come up while they were talking saddened at the sight of the small dirtied and obviously exhausted mouse. "Will he be alright?"
"He should be," Cray answered for Pika, "As soon as we know where he comes from."
"Good," Spiral nodded in approval between them, "I bet his family must be worried sick."
Charlie peeked out unsurely at the softened and friendly female faces. Well, this was not so bad. No one was hurting him, and everyone seemed nice enough.
"H-hi…"
The girls all gasped and squealed. Oh, the sweet little darling!
Here, most of males snorted at the gathering flock of females, though Fervo shook his head and Squirt wondered if he would need to lend some moral support. No one associated with Flame- he was muttering to himself again.
"Honestly, what makes girls so mushy around little kits?" Fervo asked no one in particular. "Sure they're cute but this almost seems unnatural."
"Funny, cuz it's nature's defense mechanism."
Fervo turned to see Grovyle strolling up beside him.
"Nature's defense mechanism?"
The long green head nodded sagely. "Think about how those girls usually act. Now imagine they had children." Grovyle ignored the shudder that rippled through Fervo at that, "Kits are generally useless and annoying and whiny, especially when they just hatched and can't even talk yet. If they weren't adorable enough to make even the toughest and craziest females turn into those fawning creatures you see there, the entire Pokemon race would be wiped out after two generations- three at the most."
There was a moment the Treeko considered this. Then Fervo's yellow eyes widened at the rather logical argument and nodded stiffly. "Nature's defense mechanism."
"Alright ladies, give him and me some room." Mew shooed them all to give some space, just before Celebi swooped in.
"Hey, whatcha got there?"
"My good deed!" Mew shot in front and held out his paws protectively, "Go find your own!"
"Aw c'mon, let's share, I wanna help him and be a good guy too."
"No, mine!"
"Stingy." Celebi pouted though backed away. "You always get the attention."
"Right," he floated up a little higher and looked out to everybody. "Silence please."
All side conversations ceased and an eerie quiet descended upon the large ragtag group. All eyes turned to observe the curious spectacle unfolding before them. Hovering up above Pika and Pichu and facing the creatures before him, the final living descendent of the greatest ancestor of all Pokemon held out his tiny paws, closed his eyes and concentrated.
A holy rose light fanned from the Legend. Tuffs of blush fur undulated in the invisible power currents swirling within the aura. The tips of his ears, his hand-paws and hind legs delicately swayed in the wind within the halo. Cerulean sky orbs opened and glowed with power. Dazed black button eyes that had watched the heavenly sight contently closed slowly in a gently induced sleep.
A majority of the onlookers looked up with awe and wonder. Never before had they seen Mew actually live up to the expected nature of a Legendary Pokemon. Though there were a select few audience members that were… less than impressed. Show off. Still, no one made a sound as Mew opened his mouth.
"Higher Powers of the Heavens beyond," his voice resonated through the clearing with psychic power, "lend me your holy power to aid me in this Endeavour-"
"Hypocrite, you pushed me away!" Celebi yelled.
"-adequate holy power-"
"Hey, I have plenty of holy power."
"-with the wisdom to keep his yap shut."
"Now that's just rude."
"Oh get on with it!" Flame yelled out.
"Yeah, get on with it!" Fervo called out.
"Yeah, get on with it!" everyone yelled.
"Never disturb a psychic performing a ritual!" Mew called out from his glowing magical aura angrily. "Now, SILENCE!"
And there was silence. The rose aura extended from just around Mew's body to focus through his paws to descend upon the Pichu. Everyone watched. Pichu snorted, and Mew twitched. His glowing cerulean eyes closed halfway and became hazed in his trance.
"Mama…" he murmured in a much younger voice that was not his own. "Mama, please, don't do this…" It grew pleading and worried, "Papa I'll do anything…"
The emotion and heart wrenching plea made the female Pokemon and Blacky horribly worried. It made the others grow more serious. Except Flame who's eyes slit in a peculiar manner and had a worried expression just like the women and child. Just what could this poor kit have locked into his tragic past?
"Please papa, anything, I beg of you… anything but the Brussels sprouts!"
Several bodies hit the floor, while the others just leered dryly. Flame was the first to pop up from the floor.
"All that for a lousy meal? Don't be so dramatic next time!"
Mew snapped out of the trance. "Hey, I'm channeling the kid's memories and emotions, it's not my choice. And don't do that again, you could have cause some serious psyche damage if I had gone deeper."
Flame merely crossed his arms and glared.
"Flame…" Squirt narrowed his eyes as he took a good close look at the reptilian face, "Were you crying?"
The Charmander glared through the watery eyes with murderous intent.
"No." he growled. Seriously was going to kill Sarah.
"Right, trying again." Mew stated. "This time: NO INTERRUPTIONS!!"
There was dead silence now. Satisfied, Mew tried again, this time deciding that his best bet was to keep quiet, in order to avoid something like that happening again. He lowered until he was standing on the ground in front of Pika. He put a paw on his head to signal the connection, but did not go into the same theatrics as before. Lousy ungrateful audience did not deserve it.
Black. Chaos. Terror.
Ripping growls and jolting teeth. Jarring stomps and towering forms. Eyes of ruthless blood and armor of ivory bone. Fur of rattling earth and striking obsidian. Beasts of great power flitting through the surroundings of brown, green, sunlight and shadow. Cries from flying and scurrying creatures. Yellow and orange and black furred family and friends all running, all screaming for help and mercy as they are flushed from their homes. Wild chases scattering and destroying and panicking for the sake of the chase. And deeper yet within the mind, deep inside, cloaked with the darkness of forgotten instances, buried under the lighter, more pleasant memories of the horrific instant…
Mew's solemn expression remained a moment longer even as he psychically broke contact from the play of memories. He lifted his paw and let it lower to his side.
"Well?" Fervo asked.
"It's worse than I thought." Mew answered quietly.
Everyone waited, and Pika held him closer.
"This child…" the kitten face raised up to gaze upon the eager and expectant audience, "hates carrots too. Ow!"
A rock collided with the pink kitty's head and he glared at Flame. The orange lizard already had another rock prepared in his claws.
"What about the kid's family?"
"Oh, he got lost, just like we thought." He shrugged. "We just gotta put him back into the woods near his home where we found him and he'll be fine. His name is Charlie, by the way."
"And you know where his home is?" Scout inquired, just to clarify.
"Yeah, I can recognize the trails and signs to follow. Hand him over."
Pika silently refused.
"Come on, it would take all day me to wait for you guys, and you gotta get going soon."
"Then just teleport me with you and I'll hand him over to his mother myself. I won't take any chances."
"But what would be the point of that if I can do it myself?"
To prove his point, Mew engulfed his body in light, before a Raichu's form took his place. "See? Now come on."
"Well… what if he gets scared in a strangers company?"
"You're a stranger too."
"But he-"
"Pika," Crescent sighed, "I'm sure he appreciates your concern, but come on, the kid just needs to get back to his family where he belongs, he can't stay with you."
Charlie stirred momentarily before giggling and snoring. Pika looked at him, then at the others. Half of the group simply seemed unsure, not knowing how she would react to the child being taken away. The other half was sympathetic, but not willing enough to come to her defense. Seeing as how she would get no help or assistance, she reluctantly handed him over. Crescent took him in his arms. Little Charlie opened his eyes blearily for a moment. He was met with a Pikachu's adoring and worried face, and a Raichu's goofy grinning face.
"Guess what Charlie?" the Raichu spoke, "We're goin' to Candy Mountain!"
Charlie blinked and looked over at the Pikachu groggily. "Really?"
Pika nodded and forced a smile. "Yeah Charlie, it'll be an adventure."
"Yeah, candy mountain, right." little Charlie clarified to himself. "Okay, I'm just goin' back to sleep now."
He snuggled in and let his mind drift again. Everyone could not help but let their hearts soften at the sight.
"Right-o" Crescent grinned. "I'll be back soon." He hummed a little tune before murmuring: "In the big rock candy mountains, there's a land that's fair and bright…"
And with that, he teleported out of sight. Pika looked longingly at the spot where the transformed Mew stood moments before, before Fervo came up from behind her.
"You know…" he incited and caught her attention, "You make a pretty hot mama."
The bright red bled through the already cherry cheeks. One electrified fist shot up under the Treeko's chin, just before Pika stomped away indignantly. The others easily cleared a path for her before she even reached them. Squirt could not help but raise an eyeridge.
"Hot mama? You thinking about those Treechu?"
Fervo twitched. "No! I was just distracting her!"
"Distracting her," he nodded slowly, "right."
And walked away.
Fervo might have considered giving a middle claw salute, if he had not been trying to get those damn Treechu out of his head.
phew So there you have it, first installment. Like I said, a few moments of slight oocness, but it is all for humor sake, so I hope the authors and fellow fans will agree with me. Also, I did try to get a basic feel for the original humor of the piece, but my mind is also on another cast of equally diverse and crazy characters I am trying to write, so their actions might be subtly different than normal. But, the ToF crazy cast is what got me into this world in the first place, so I was definitely doing my best to provide a tribute to them.
So, so, I hope you like it! Charlie is fun to write. Panick panick run scream! faint. I feel that's objective enough for an oc, don't you? I tend to like characters like that, they're fun. As for the beginning of this fic... it did not start out that way, I swear. It started football, but then somehow I got that one song (Something about a couple running to each other on the beach) stuck in my head, and then the writing followed that comedic tone. Before anyone asks, the thing with Sofia and Flame and the apples: I wanted to include her in this chapter too, because I like her. To get her in, they bribed her with a bet. (How many takedowns she could prevent) Now it would make sense if it was between her and Fervo, given his grudge, but I think as the game progressed, it would have transferred more over to Flame. Just what I think. Especially with stunts like that. And Scyther counted as two pokemon, so that's why Celebi's blue team had one more. And the fawning females... it just had to be done. What female with a heart (no matter how twisted with butch and psychopathic tendencies) could resist a tiny panicky Pichu? And I felt I had to clear the mystery for all the males out there that might have asked the same question as Fervo.
Now, I actually came up with this idea last year, September 27. (Well, a few days before that technically) I read Not quite Drunken Silly, and when I read about the Air Ice Hockey, I laughed at Fervo's lack of response. It was so perfect, considering that this is all normal for them, they don't even think twice about it. Though I thought of how Mew and Celebi weren't exactly hiding their actions, so anyone could see it, like a passing pedestrian. Or a runaway Pokemon.
And that was where Jerry the Pichu was born. (I nixed that name, because at one point (I can't remember if it was before or after this... probably before) I came across another fic with Jerry Pichu there, so I wanted something different.) Anyway, I thought of all the crazy things in ANI, and what a 'normal' Pokemon would think about it all. I remember the date, because it was mentioned as Anomaly's birthday, and I thought: Gasp, that's one month from my birthday! Maybe I can make a request and use that as an excuse! (That's right, my own b-day as a request excuse. Is that pathetic or what?) ...No, wait, they probably won't bother with a request from a new fan so easily anyway. And of course I would want to be in control of Jerry, so that's out of the question. The best thing I could do would be to ask to roleplay with them to make the script, but again, new fan, and the request is just plain weird. Fanfiction is bad enough, but to write about the characters of a fanfiction author? Come up with your own damn characters and ideas. (I'm very critical of myself you know)
Well, that bothered my off and on for a little while, though eventually the idea went away as I beat it back.
But I guess my subconscious wanted to write it more than I realized, because as soon as I saw the words: Essentially, me and Aeris are letting you all loose with the ANI cast- I screamed: "Oh My God YES!" right in my chair. I hadn't even thought about Jerry in months, but instantly my mind whirred again with ideas. A single weekend and I pounded out the manuscript for the rough drafts of the first three chapters. My hand still hurts...
So anyway, yeah, that's the story of how this fic started, and brief fun thing about how this chapter came out the way it did. I have a lot to say so I'll talk more about the other chapters in... oh great. Now I have no choice but to do my own psycho babble This is way to long for a stupid Author's Note. Bloody Brilliant.