Welcome!
This is the wonderful world of Pokémon! Before we can get started, I have a few questions I'd like to ask. They won't be too difficult, and more than anything, they'll just help me to determine what sort of Pokémon you truly are. Are you ready?
I listened to the voice in confusion. Who was that? Why did they want me to answer their questions? I looked around myself, hoping to get some answers from my surroundings. Instead, I was greeted with… virtually every color of the rainbow. Small spheres of light floated all around me, hundreds, thousands even, just surrounding me in every which way. Suddenly, another voice, just too quiet to hear properly, responded to the first.
Alright! Let's get started. First off, are you a boy, or a girl?
Another quiet response, and this time, a new light appeared, a soft, white incandescent one, larger than all the others combined. A few of the other lights around me seemed to just… fade away, once this one came into being. The rest bobbed around a bit, filling in the voids leftover.
Okay, looks good so far! So, let's say you come across a bag with 10,000 dollars in it, and the name of the owner, who you've never met. What do you do with it?
A response again, and this time, the white light took on the slightest, palest shade of blue, while all the lights closest to orange seemed to fade away, just like the ones earlier. What was happening? Why was this large light changing, and others, disappearing?
An interesting choice! Okay, now let's move on to the next question. If you had to choose to live your life forever in the sea, the land, or the sky, which would it be?
The response came again, louder this time, yet still just outside of my hearing. After, two thirds of the remaining lights around me disappeared, just as the ones previous had.
Wow, this is going by way faster than I thought! And Arceus said this would be hard, haha! Alright, let's go for a common one next. If you had to choose between letting an innocent person be given the death penalty, or let 10 guilty murderers be declared innocent, which would you rather have?
There was a pause then, before a few silent words were spoken. Suddenly, the pale light grew a darker shade of blue, and more of the red and yellow lights seemed to disappear. I finally decided to look down at myself, curious to if I had a light. A brilliant jade met my sight.
Huh, that's an interesting way to look at it. We should be able to wrap this up pretty soon, I think! Okay, so if you had to pick between living a life of luxury, but having no true friends or family, and living the life of a pauper with more close to you than you could ever imagine, which would it be?
A fast response this time, one that, while still just too quiet for me to hear, I had a feeling I knew the answer to. Most of the lighter green lights disappeared now, along with all of the purple. I suddenly felt a twinge of fear. There weren't too many shades of green left. What would become of me if I, too, disappeared?
Wow, that was pretty quick! And just two more questions before we finish! Okay, so you have a choice between knowing how you'll die, or when you'll die. Which do you pick?
The light paused, choosing it's words carefully, before responding. I noticed how afterwards, some of the blues started to fade away, and scarily for me, every shade of green lighter than I did, too. All that remained were colors that were mixtures of blue and green in some way,
Looking good! Okay, final question. This one's a bit tougher for most people, but I'm sure you can handle it. You're given a simple choice, one, or the other. Would you rather allow yourself to die, in the hopes of letting 100 random others live? Or would you live, and be able to save any 50 people you want?
The light started to respond, yet it stopped only a few words in. It started up after, but again, it stopped. This went on a few times, before finally, it answered, and I saw every single light disappear, except for my own, and the now large, dark green light.
Congratulations! Thanks for answering all my questions as truthfully as possible. Of all the auras we had to become your partner, this one matched the best! I expect big things out of the two of you, so don't let me down!
With that, I felt myself start to slip, and fade away, quickly becoming enveloped into nothingness as I became one with the large light. And then I started to drown.
o.0.o
There's always been something scary about drowning. Water surrounding you, slowly bleeding through every pore, tiring you out as you tread for longer and longer, hoping, begging, praying that something, anything, can come along and stop it. What's worse, is knowing the odds are stacked against you. You can tread water all you like, but in the ocean, there's nothing. The closest refuge could be fifty feet away, or fifty miles. It wouldn't matter, because you know you won't reach it. The currents control you, tossing you any direction they desire, leaving you with nary a say in the matter.
For me, there's never been anything but drowning. Swimming constantly, gasping for every bit of air I can get, barely hanging on- it's the worst thing anyone can experience. It's the only thing I've ever known.
I don't remember my name. It's been lost to me, for as long as I can remember. All I know is I've been swimming, swimming for a long time. Every once in a while, I'll spot something off in the distance, just barely visible, but with another wave, it's gone.
I want to say I have hope, but the truth is, I don't think I've ever had it. There's never been anyone around me, and nothing either, nothing but the hunk of wood I've clung to, dedicated my life to taking care of. It's pocked with missing chunks, and I can feel it slowly becoming waterlogged, yet at the same time, I know if it drifts away, so will I.
o.0.o
The sun beat down on me, baking me as I lay in the coarse sand. I squint to open my eyes, feeling waves gently lapping at my sides, and look around, doing my best to shield my eyes from the sun. A tan beach met my gaze, the sand glinting eagerly in the sunlight.
Slowly, I rose to stand, my legs shakily supporting me. Sand filtered off my body, billowing on the sand around me. I dragged myself through the beach, away from the water. The sand clumped together around me, leaving masses of it clinging to my fur. Still, I trudged on, headed towards a tree line.
The trees provided me with some shade, which was good. I didn't know how long I'd been in the sun for, but it couldn't have been long. I'd have dehydrated if it had been more than a few days. How I knew that, I don't know, but the fact that I did was good.
I was content to simply lay there for a time, simply allowing my body to rest for the first time in something other than sunlight and water. The sand stuck to my body was a minor inconvenience, yet it wasn't anything overly difficult to ignore. As my body slowly became more relaxed, and I felt more of the tension leaving me, I felt myself begin to drift off once more, yet before I could, I felt myself snap awake. No, I couldn't sleep. Not yet.
I forced my tired body to rise once more, looking deeper into the trees. If there were trees here, then there had to be a supply of fresh water. With difficulty, I began trudging through the overgrowth, my destination any source of drinkable water. My journey was thankfully short lived, however, as within just a minute, I came upon a small pond, no more than 60 feet across.
I pulled myself up to the edge, staring down at the crystal clear water. My reflection met my sight, and I was greeted with the face of an Eevee staring back. My own face.
I could feel an inkling of memories beginning to push against my mind, yet when I tried to grab hold of them, I felt a pain in the back of my head, and I immediately winced in response, losing my train of thought. By the time the headache had passed, the traces of memory were gone.
I looked up from the water, taking in my surroundings. There wasn't truly anything of interest, nothing around me worth checking out. Nothing, save for what appeared to be a small depression in the ground, near the other edge of the watering hole.
I walked through the water, letting the coolness refresh me, and the water brush away most of the sand off of me. When I arrived at the indent in the earth, I saw a few things. One, a folded piece of paper, with writing on the outside. Then, a small bag, just around half the size of my head. And lastly, a round red ball, stuck halfway in the dirt.
I looked over the paper, only to be unsurprised to find out I couldn't read it. I couldn't remember much anyways, so why would reading come easy? Then, I went through the bag, only to quickly discover it to be filled with 3 small stones, a red one, a blue one, and a green one. They each appeared to have something inside them, yet I couldn't quite see what.
Lastly, I looked towards the ball. It shined in the light, reflecting a white light into my eyes. I reached down with my paws, intending to dig it out. Slowly, I unearthed the entire thing, opting to pull it out of the ground with my mouth. It turned out the entire ball wasn't red, but rather, just the top. The bottom was an impeccably white shade, even despite having just been covered in dirt. There was also a black circle halfway down, looking as if it were a button. I opted to push against it, wondering if it would open the ball. It did.
With a sort of high pitched, yet quiet, screech, a red beam shot from the ball, quickly forming into the shape of a Pokémon. Within seconds, another Pokemon, a Riolu, stood next to me, looking all manner of confused. Its eyes darted around quickly, scanning the surroundings much in the same way I did. Once its eyes landed on me, it blinked a few times, an incredulous look on its face.
"H-hello..?" It tentatively asked.
"Hi," I responded, my head cocking slightly to the side as I looked at the Riolu. How did he get here?
"Who are you?" He spoke softly, taking care with every word, almost as if he was treading around someone who might snap at any moment.
"I'm…" I trailed off, trying to remember what to say. It came back to me suddenly, like an electric jolt hit me. "Evan. My name is Evan."
The Riolu just looks at me a bit longer, almost as if he's waiting for me to say more. Finally, he continues. "Do you know where we are?"
My head shakes in response. "I don't think so," I reply, glancing around as I do so. "I know we're near a beach, but other than that, I'm not sure."
Looking downtrodden, he replies, "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I'm… Riley? Yeah, I'm Riley."
The Riolu seemed to have trouble recalling his name, the same as I, but I suppose it didn't matter too much. A wave of exhaustion suddenly collapsed on me, having been creeping along ever since I'd first found the ball that contained Riley. My legs buckled, and I winced as I fell to the ground.
Immediately taking notice, Riley rushed forward, and I felt a caring paw on my side.
He rubbed slightly against my clumped fur, his paw pressed against the various knots. "Are you okay?"
Still struggling to hold myself awake, I slowly replied, "Y-yeah, I think so. I'm just… so tired…"
Barely, I held on, my wakefulness threatened as if it were at the edge of a cliff. It suddenly dawned on me that I didn't know how long I'd been awake for. Hours? Days? Weeks? All of the time in the water just blurred together, and I could feel myself slowly slipping away...