THE GIRL AND THE LUGIA
By kathlaida-princess
Summary: In order to bring his best friend back to the world he knew, a boy has to make a sacrifice and change into the most beautiful creature, the Sea Guardian itself, so that he could find out the reason why she left in the first place and he could tell her how he really felt inside… However, when the boy is kidnapped by a Pokemon Collector, things get complicated, as the girl must return the boy's love for him to be human again before it is too late.
With the special appearance of Lugia, my favorite Pokemon!
I sure hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Pokemon characters nor the places in the Pokemon World. Blah, blah, blah. But I hope you enjoy this, though.
Author's Note: Hi again! One more time, I want to thank my reviewers BlackRainWillFall (Friends is really amazing! Yeah, Phoebe and Joey do belong together! Don't worry, I'll try to change that with this fic ;)) and gothshadowdragonofhell. If you read this fic and loved it or even hated it, please review, I just want to be a better writer, so help me out! I'll be really happy with you! And, of course, if you have any question about this story, you're always welcome to e-mail me or to post the question in a review! Anyways, I spent too much time with this, on with the story!
CHAPTER 4
THE TRANSFORMATION
As you might still remember, previously, Daniel had found a beautiful children book, and what he found inside made his chin drop in awe. While flipping through the pages, the young man finally found what he had been searching for three years: a way to get to her missing best friend. In front of him, there was a map of the Pokemon World drawn on the pages of that book.
"It can't be!" Daniel screamed, while the librarian shushed him. But he didn't mind it.
With his hand starting to shake from the emotion, Daniel tried to read some of the directions of the map. Yes, it all made sense. Karen probably found that book too. Convinced that she was fulfilling her dream, she must have followed the book. Of course she didn't understand that it was just a child book, and believed that she was really finding the Pokemon World, so she was certainly lost. But she didn't have to worry no more. Daniel was on his way and would finally have the long awaited chance to apologize.
So, Daniel rushed to the librarian and requisitioned the same book, an excited look on his face. The librarian stared strangely at him. Maybe it was difficult for her to understand why was an 18-year-old boy so excited about a children's book.
"You know," she said, "you're not the first one to take this book. Some time ago, a girl came here and took it. We never saw her or the book again. I hope this story doesn't repeat itself…"
Daniel fought not to smile too widely, as his theories were confirmed before him.
"Don't worry, ma'am. I'll bring you the book soon," he said, winking.
I guess I forgot to mention that Daniel is a very optimist boy, as long as he sees the hope illuminating his way. But maybe what he said wasn't the truth…
"Water"
"Checked"
"Tent"
"Checked"
"Chocolate snacks?"
"Checked"
"Why do you need chocolate snacks, son?"
"You know, mom, chocolate makes me feel good! Imagine if I fall in a depression in the middle of the journey, huh?"
Daniel was at home; packing up for his great journey, but his mother wasn't much convinced of the utility of letting his son go.
"Are you sure this is the right thing to do, Daniel? I mean, you looked for her everywhere! Do you really think you're going to find her this time?" she asked her son.
"Mom, I've already told this!" Daniel said, impatiently, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I know she used this book to run away, so logic says that if I go in the same direction, we are bounded to bump into each other eventually," he explained. His mother wasn't any calmer, though.
"Okay, I'll trust you, but promise me you'll be back home soon!"
"I promise." But he didn't have to. Daniel loved L.A.; he thought it was the greatest city of them all. Certainly he wouldn't bear to be away from Los Angeles too long.
His mother messed up with his hair, like all the mothers like to do, and kissed his son in the forehead as a good-bye.
"Have a pleasant trip, son".
"Stay fine without me, mom".
And, just like that, he left for the unknown.
Daniel made that entire journey with a silly smile on his face, full of hope, full of eagerness. With all the excitement, time seemed to go by pretty quickly, almost too quickly for Daniel to appreciate the scenery.
Just like what happened to Karen before, the journey was easy and fun, and there was no need for the chocolate snacks. Eventually, Daniel also reached the big oak-tree that represented the passage to the Pokemon World. But the young man was quite surprised. None of that existed. Why was there actually a big oak-tree? And, to make him feel even more uneasy, there was a sort of aura around the tree, like it was really a portal to another dimension.
Daniel couldn't believe it. Was the Pokemon World… real?
Suddenly, he heard a voice behind him that almost gave him a heart attack.
"Still don't believe it, huh? I thought you had learned the lesson when she left," a really old lady said. She looked quite wise, with her walking came by her side and the serious look on her wrinkled face.
"What do you mean, ma'am?" Daniel asked, confused.
"There's no point in apologizing to her, if you don't feel it inside," she went on.
"Oh, but I do feel it! I've been regretting the moment I said those words since I said them!" he retorted.
"But imagine if you find her, imagine if she forgives you and she comes back to this world (What does she mean by that? Daniel thought). She won't stop believing; now she knows it exists. But if you still don't believe it, then another discussion will come some day, and you'll lose her forever".
"But the Pokemon World doesn't exist! She just thinks too much about it, she should grow up soon!"
"Then how to you explain the portal behind you?"
"It's not a portal; it's just a tree with lots of fireflies around it!"
"Alright, I see it's going to be difficult to convince you," the old lady said, taking a PokeBall off her belt and releasing the Pokemon inside. "Go, Slowking!"
After a beam of red light, a strange-looking creature, with a big shell on its head, serving as a crown, appeared. Stupefied, Daniel circled the amazing Pokemon, touching it, talking to it, confirming it was no mere illusion. He started believing, but he was scared: everything started to run away from plain logic. In a final proof, the Slowking used its Confusion attack, levitating Daniel from the floor for a moment.
"I think that'll do," the old lady concluded, calling the Slowking back to its PokeBall. "What are you going to do now, Daniel?"
How does she know my name? the boy wondered.
"I'll apologize to her even more; I was a stupid dumb ass for not believing her. Sorry about the language…"
"Don't mind me. But you're right; you should be more considerate about your friend. She is very hurt because of you. She won't take your apologies that lightly. She might even ignore you. You must approach her from another way…"
"I don't care how; I just want to talk to her! I love her!"
That last part wasn't supposed to leave his mouth, but it was the truth, it was all clear now.
"I know that already, Daniel. That's why we'll have to make her love you back. She'll make a big mistake if she doesn't. So, I guess I already have a solution".
"Shoot it," Daniel requested, already scared of what could come from that strange lady.
"If you want to win her trust back, you must transform into her favourite Pokemon," she said, with a matter-of-factly tone. "That's the simplest way to do it".
"L-lugia? B-but how?" he asked, seeming now terrorised. "I mean, I'm a boy, not a Pokemon…"
"No worries, no worries. I've got just what you need, wait a moment".
The old lady opened a bag she carried with her and took a small flask from inside it. It contained a liquid as clear as water, but slightly shinning, which made Daniel gulp in horror.
"I'll have to drink that?" he asked.
"If you want Karen back in your life, yes," the old lady simply said while uncorking the flask. "You had better gulp it down, or you won't like the flavour that much," she advised the boy.
In a gesture of courage, Daniel emptied the flask in a gulp, just like the old lady had said. And she had been right; it was as if liquid fire had gone through his throat, instead of clear water.
Almost immediately, the young man felt changes in his body. He screamed out loud and saw as his already long arms stretching even more, getting whiter (more like a silver kind of white), his hands getting much bigger, to the point when he ripped his shirt off. A white tail with two purple spikes on the end sprouted from his pants, opening a hole there. His legs also changed. They got more curved and became as white as the tail or the freshly-appeared wings. They resembled the hind legs of a cat, but much shorter in comparison to the wings. His chest became ovoid, his white back adorned with five pairs of purple fins and his belly becoming purple. But the biggest transformation was in his head. His neck became white and as long as a giraffe's, but just like the animal, it made him much more elegant. His head also changed: it was different from everything you had ever seen (unless you had seen a Lugia before), but was as white as the rest of the body, had this strange purple fins protecting his eyes (which were still the same), had a big and beautiful mouth and had a strange horn that covered the start of its long neck. The change had been painful to Daniel, and it was frustrating not being able to see what he looked like. But by the look on the old lady's face, it seemed like everything had gone fine.
On the ground, still unable to fly and quite clumsy with his new abilities, Daniel didn't represent not even half of a real Lugia's splendour. But everyone could see he was trying. The old lady came towards him and said:
"You're now ready, boy. Go on, enter the Pokemon World. Go find your friend. But be careful, if you get captured or the girl doesn't forgive you, you'll have to get used to that body, because you'll have it forever. You heard what I said?"
"Yes, ma'am," Daniel said, with a voice much different and rougher from his own. Surprisingly, he didn't have to open his mouth to speak. As Lugia was a psychic Pokemon, it could speak with its mind.
But before getting inside the big oak-tree's trunk, Daniel turned his beautiful head to the lady one last time.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but I never got the chance to know your name."
"It's Penelope! Now off you go, lad!"
Daniel dropped down to the tunnel and went through it just like Karen did. But when he got out, that will be a different story…
Seeing himself out of that dark and claustrophobic tunnel surely gave him another mood. Daniel headed to the lake to watch his reflection, trying to make sure he was really a Lugia, and his test proved right. His appearance had changed so much that he doubted even his mother would recognize him (and his mother knew people by their eyes!).
And now what? He asked himself. He stared at the sky above and it gave him an idea. Well, he was a Lugia after all. He could fly.
With that idea on his mind, Daniel stretched his 17-feet-long wings and used his cat-like legs to jump like… like a cat! When he was at the highest point of his jump, he started flapping his wings, but it didn't work and Daniel splashed in the lake. When he thought he was going to drown, he remembered that Lugias are excellent swimmers and started flapping his wings again. However, this time, his powerful wings were able to pull him up high away from the water level and he was able to fly at last.
The feeling was greater than anything was. Even though he hadn't any experience, Daniel's heart told him the exact move he had to perform next. He was still a lot clumsy, it would be very difficult to adapt to that new body, but Daniel was feeling wonderful. The wind rushing through his aerodynamic head, the adrenaline of the nose-dive pumping inside his veins. Everything inside him felt alive and breathing.
I couldn't keep all that joy for himself, so he opened his mouth and the most magnificent sound came out. It was a mixture of happiness and nostalgia, the weeping of the happiest sad heart, a song that only a beast as splendorous as Lugia could perform.
However, being so focused on his song, Daniel missed a big forest that was coming towards him too fast. Yes, Lugia is also one of the fastest flying Pokemon. He turned left in time to pass by a huge pine-tree (A/N: look familiar?) without taking it down, but he completely misled and made a terrible landing in a sandy beach nearby (A/N: NOW look familiar?). The last thing the gorgeous Pokemon saw was a blur that looked like a house not so far away before he passed out.
And that was when Karen's Pokemon noticed something by the beach and ran off calling her. As soon as Karen arrived to the spot where the Lugia was laying unconscious, her chin dropped in surprise and she ran to the hurt Pokemon.
"Oh my God, how did it get here?" she asked, lifting up its head a bit. She never thought she would ever see a Lugia, her favourite Pokemon, in her life, and now there she was, hugging one. Its touch was different from what she had imagined. Sure, there were feathers covering its body, but they were penguin-like feathers, which is quite logical, as Lugia needs slippery feathers to swim the best. However, the touch was still soft and Karen was melting inside just because of looking at it.
Then, finally waking up for her trance, she thought immediately of a plan.
"Joey, I want you to use Strength over here. We need to take it home. When Marion arrives, then we can find a way to help it."
Joey the Furret came by immediately and used Strength to lift up the huge Pokemon. But it seemed that one Pokemon wasn't enough.
"Guys, a little help over here!" he begged.
Chandler and Monica, the strongest, came to the rescue and the three of them were able to lift the entire Pokemon up and take it inside the house.
Karen reunited a great amount of cushions and improvised a mattress with them. Then, the three Pokemon laid Lugia there. Right then, the only thing Karen could do was to wait. Wait for Marion's arrival. Wait for that magnificent creature to wake up.
END OF CHAPTER
Hurray, the longest chapter up until now! And the most enjoyable to write too!
I hope you liked the way I described Daniel's personality and the transformation. I hope I didn't forget any detail, if I did, please tell me! I luvv Lugia!
About Slowking, I was divided between that Pokemon and Slaking, but then my sister said she preferred Slowking, so I put Slowking. I'm sorry to disappoint you, Slowking friends, but I think you'll never see that Slowking ever again!
I hope you liked the description of Daniel's first flight! I know it doesn't seem anything like Lugia, but it was just for fun. If you need more information about Lugia's song, you can always watch the movie Pokemon 200: Revelation Lugia (or The Power of One).
I know it seems strange to see a Furret using Strength, but back in Silver Version, I had a Furret and he had Surf, Strength, Dig and Cut for attacks. Believe me, Joey is quite a tough guy!
Lastly, P-L-E-A-S-E review! You've got so far, I know you're brave enough to click that button and post you're opinion! I'll be very happy with it and much more willing to write this fic!
Well, I had a nice day. I finally got a hold on Digimon 02, episode 13, His Master's Voice (which I was looking for four years ago) and my mum's celebrating her birthday tomorrow, which means fiesta!
Thanks to all my reviewers, one day I'll dedicate a poem to you all!
Well, I think it's time for me to shut up.
kathlaida-princess logging out…