Please excuse any historical inaccuracies.
I do not own Pokemon. That belongs to its respective owner.
Thanks to my beta readers for helping!
Reviews:{} is the questions/reviews, [] is the answers.
[Nope. Not answering those, I don't want to get caught up any of it.]
[If anybody has any questions about this fanfiction I would love to answer them!]
P.O.V: Crane (1st)
I groaned and tried to sit up, only to find out that I had no idea how to move. Everything felt weird and different. The only thing I could really feel was that I was laying on what felt like grass.
After a few attempts at getting up, I was finally able to stand, though I couldn't stop wobbling as I tried to find out how to move my legs correctly. After I got used to standing on four legs I looked around at my body to find that I looked like an orange and black dog.
I shook my head and tried to move forward. It was already a challenge to keep my new body balanced as I stood on my paws because I was already using all my energy to keep myself from stumbling back onto the ground. It took a few hours, maybe three, for me to finally get used to standing on my paws. Then it was onto walking. Oh boy.
I swear I fell onto my tail about seven times before I finally got one foot... paw? paw forward, and with my bastardly luck I slipped on some mud and happened to roll down a hill. How the hell did that happen? How did I not see that hill? Oh, please direct all your questions to that office-llama-god-thing because I have no fucking idea.
As I was getting up I looked to my side to see a large drop-off, easily an eighty-foot drop straight into a lake. I tried to get up slowly, to get away from the cliff, but a severe pain pulsed inside my head. Most likely from the head-on collision with the tree. I tried to get a grip on a rock above me only to lose a foothold and slide down the rocky surface, sending me into a freefall off the cliff.
I felt the freezing cold water wrap around me. I quickly became unable to breathe. I tried to kick my legs and forelegs to stay afloat but my horrible coordination in this new body made my efforts fruitless. I grew dizzy from the lack of air, the process expedited by my wasted effort to swim until I lost consciousness, the world going cold and black.
"Do you think he is alive?" a female voice asked.
"You saw that fall he took. I doubt he survived that," another person said, this time male.
"Yea, but he hit the water. Wouldn't that cushion his fall?"
"No. That's not how water works. If anything, it only made the impact worse," the male voice answered.
"Hey. Are you dead?" Someone said as I felt them poke my face. "I think he's dead," the same person stated.
"Ok, just to be sure I'm going to shock him," the male voice said.
I felt someone place a paw on my shoulder and within a few seconds, I felt an electric shock. The shock wasn't much but it was enough to make me groan as I opened my eyes slowly. I shakily stood up and looked at the creatures in front of me.
Wait... I think they are those 'Pokémon' that Arceus told me about.
There were three. One was yellow and looked like a fox with jagged fur. Another was snake-like but had legs and arms. The last looked like a blue lion cub with a yellow star-shaped tuft of fur on its tail.
"Welcome to the land of the living," the snake-like Pokémon said.
"H-hello?" I said shakily.
"Are you ok?" one of them asked. For a moment I sat in silence, staring at this Pokémon that I seemed to be able to communicate with.
"Yea, I'm good," I said looking around at my surroundings. We seemed to be at the edge of a thick forest, with the water that I fell into at my back.
"What's your name?" The Yellow fox asked
"My name's Crane," I answered.
"Weird name for a Growlithe. Though it's weird to see a Growlithe around here anyway." The yellow fox stated.
"Oh. Never really thought about it. What are your names?" I asked, Keeping an eye on the Snake-like Pokémon. I know they acted nice, but something about that Pokémon did not sit well with me. I don't know if it is my hatred for normal snakes or just the general aura he seemed to give off. Though it seemed like he did not like me as well because it seemed like he is keeping a very close eye on me.
"My name is Keil, the Shinx is Amber, and the Jolteon is Nicolai," the snakelike Pokémon known as 'Keil' answered.
"Ah... Um, what species of Pokémon are you?" I asked Keil.
"Not from around here huh? I am a Snivy," Keil replied proudly.
"And which one is Nicolai?" I said looking beside him to the two other Pokémon.
"The Jolteon."
"Umm... I don't know what a Jolteon looks like."
"You don't know what the Eevee evolution line looks like? have you been living under a rock?" Keil asked skeptically.
"No."
"Did you hit your head?"
"Yes, it's one of the reasons that I fell. Though I'll take a guess and say he is a Jolteon since he is the only other male Pokémon here." I answered nodding my head towards the spiky-haired Pokémon.
"You would be correct. Also, you can just call me Nick," Nicolai said, walking up to me.
"I would love to talk but we need to get out of the open. If humans find a Growlith and Shinx they will undoubtedly try to capture us," the other Pokémon I assumed was the Shinx announced.
"Capture? Why would someone want to capture us?" I asked.
"Damn, either you're stupidly lucky or you hit your head a little too hard," Nicolai laughed.
"Well... Okay, then what do I do if I come across one?" I asked.
"Alright then. So here's what you do when you find a human." Keil started gesturing around with his leaf hands. "You either run or sneak around them. They have these capturing things called Pokéballs. Once you get hit by one, you get shrunk into it, and it'll try to brainwash you into thinking it's a good thing to be captured. If you do happen to be captured, fight the feeling as much as you can! You do NOT want to be captured... do you?" He glared at me, making the fluffy fur on my neck stand on end.
"N-No, of course not!" I replied.
"Then they force you to train for fights you don't want to participate in. Then pretend that they are your 'friends,' but literally throw you away whenever you aren't strong enough for their sadistic battles," Keil answered getting frustrated the more he spoke.
"Calm down man, ya don't want to scare the guy," Nicolai told Keil. Keil rolled his eyes and walked away from the group a bit grumbling to himself.
"Don't worry about him. As long as you don't talk about humans he is usually nice," Amber said.
"Why does he hate humans so much?"
"He never really talks about it, but I'm assuming that he just told you, Nicolai replied.
"Ok. Let's get moving. I'm getting thirsty." Amber smiled and nudged us towards the forest.
I looked behind us at the lake I fell into. "Is that water not drinkable?"
"Yes, but don't blame me if your head gets munched on by a Ferligator."
"What's a Ferligator?" I asked.
"You really hit your head hard, didn't you?"
"I thought we already established that."
"I'll tell you when we get to the pond," Amber laughed. They walked into the forest with me walking behind them as they talked to each other. I didn't really listen in for I was thinking about what I was going to do with my new life.
Would I just relax? Go on adventures? Did it even matter?
I shook my head to get rid of my annoying thoughts as I looked up.
"Something on your mind?" Nicolai asked suddenly appearing right in front of me.
I instinctively launched my paw forward, effectively punching him in the face as I then jumped back, startled at his sudden appearance.
"Damn...that hurt," the Jolteon groaned, holding his paw to his nose.
"Don't sneak up on me like that!" I said, walking up to him.
"I hear ya.."
I looked over to see that Amber was rolling on the ground laughing and Keil giving me a thumbs up with his weird hand-like appendage. I smiled and laughed nervously before we started back on our route.
"Crane?" I heard a distant voice call.
"What?" I asked the group in front of me.
"Hmm? We didn't say anything," Keil answered questioningly.
"Crane!" This time the voice was a tiny bit clearer as I started backing up defensively.
"Who's there?!" I yelled.
"Are you ok?" Amber asked.
"Crane! Get up!" This time the voice was completely clear as my legs and arms failed underneath me and I fell to the ground unconscious.
"Crane! Get up, man!" The voice called out one more.
I opened my eyes slightly to see someone standing over me.
"Crane! Thank God. I thought you were dead," the person said. They sounded familiar. It almost sounded like Mike, wait... It sounded EXACTLY like Mike! My eyes shot open to see Mike dragging me. He dragged me into a small opening and sat me down on the grass, I groaned as I sat up. I looked down to see that, other than the searing pain and weakness I felt in my legs, I was almost completely unscathed.
"Mike... W-What... Happened?" I asked weakly. I opened and closed my hands as I tried to get used to the feeling of having opposable thumbs again.
"Our plane crashed we landed a bit off course. You landed and were knocked out. I dragged your sorry ass here."
"Where are we?" I asked weakly as I tried to stand up, which was a bad idea. I howled in pain as my legs gave out halfway. Thankfully, Mike was there to catch me and stop me from falling face first onto the ground.
"We are about three kilometers away from the target," Mike said hoisting up onto my feet. Thankfully this time the pain was somewhat bearable.
Mike grabbed a rifle and loaded a clip, then picked another one up and held it towards me. "Can you fight?"
I stretched and grabbed the rifle. "Hope so," I said grabbing a clip from my bandoleer and loading it into my rifle. Mike and I got moving towards our target.
"There are so-" Mike was saying before a hailstorm of bullets started tearing up grass and land near us. "Shit!" Mike screamed as we ducked down in a small ditch, bullets whizzing past our heads. The ditch only slightly covered us. I popped my head up and looked at our enemies to see that there were about ten of them all laying suppressive fire. As they stopped to reload I took action and tried to fire some rounds at the Nazis, taking one down before they fired another volley at us. They continued firing consistently as they inched closer and closer.
I looked over to Mike, who was calling over to me desperately as the deafening hail of gunfire tore apart the cover he was in. Then he looked over at me. He started calling to me...
"Mike... Mike... No, " I yelled as he got out of his cover and tried to run to me. Time seemed to freeze as I saw a bullet tear across his chest. He fell right next to me, coughing up blood as he covered his chest.
"S-... Shit..." He looked over to me. That bastard... he still had the strength to make that cheeky smile at me. "Looks like... I fucked up this time, huh?"
My eyes clouded as I looked back at him, "N-No... Mike.." I held his hand. "W-We can't die... what about that r-restaurant we talked about? We'd make lots of money... g-.. get all the hotties.. we still... have to..."
He placed a hand over my mouth, tears running freely from his eyelids and dripping down to the ground below. It was our final moments, and he knew it just as well as I did. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry we... can't do that anymore..." he fell right there, sobbing into my chest as I panted heavily, trying to keep awake. I peeked over our covers, to see Nazis Charging at us.
"What w-will w-we..." I choked on my own tears, holding tightly onto Mike. I could hear the Germans getting closer and closer, their numerous footsteps stampeding through the grass. It was over for us.
"C-Crane... Let's g-give a last message for the f-fucking Nazis..." He muttered into my ear, pulling out a grenade from his shirt pocket. He held it shakily in the air, as the grey-uniformed men ran in.
"Do it," I whispered, closing my eyes and slowing my breathing. The tinging sound of a pin being pulled and the handle colliding against the concrete floor echoed into my ears, as I slowly counted the fuse by seconds...
Five... Four... Three... Two... One.
The Germans stormed in at the perfect moment, as the fuse hit zero. I let out a yell as the grenade went off, engulfing us all in an explosion. With an ear-shattering boom, the world faded away in one instant.
For what felt like an hour I laid down in silence until I had even the semblance of strength to open my eyes. I let out a groan as I carefully opened my eyes, fearing what I would see beyond the veil of my eyelids. As my eyes began adjusting to the light I could make out that I was back in the same forest I was in before I blacked out.
"Hey Fluff, you good?" I heard someone ask next to me. I looked over to see Amber looking at me with a worried look on her face.
"Yea... I'm..."
"You're not good," Amber said laying down in front of me.
"Amber, I'm fine," I replied, annoyed.
"You're crying."
I raised my paw and wiped away my tears.
"Crane, if there is anything you need to tell me, I'm here for you."
"Where are the others?" I asked, trying to change the subject.
"I think they went on the trail to go scavenge for some berries...? I'm not sure." She sighed.
"Mike?" she suddenly said, startling me a tiny bit. "Sounds like an old friend."
"How do you know his name?" I asked.
"You were speaking while you were unconscious. I'm guessing you two were close?"
"I-I don't want to talk about it right now," I answered getting up.
"Where are you going?" she asked calmly.
"F-for a walk," I said, before walking in a random direction. I looked back at Amber only to see her staring at me with a worried expression.
I walked in a straight line for about two minutes before coming up on a cliff overlooking a forest below it.
I sat near the edge for a minute or two before trying to control my breathing as the images of Mike's last moments started forcing their way into my mind.
My breathing quickly started to become more desperate as my vision started to fade and the visions of Mike's blood-soaked face became more vivid.
I clumsily stood up and shook my head, desperately trying to get the images to leave my mind, but my efforts were in vain as the images continued barraging my mind. My mind clouded as I screamed with every fiber of my being and sprinted forward. The ground quickly ran out as I was sent careening off of the cliff.