A/N: Well, this is it! You guys who did vote on my poll, thank you all very much. And those of you who didn't... you will be the first to fall to my army of shiny objects! Muahahahahaha!
Anyhow, you guys chose for Ash to... *drumroll* Come Clean! It was a close race, with come clean winning three to two votes. So I hope you enjoy!
Part Ten – Identity Crisis
"The value of identity, of course, is that so often with it comes purpose." - Richard R. Grant
I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but it felt extremely weird. After I blacked out, I found that I was floating in this strange place. I'd read about people who have blacked out, and when they came to, they told of being suspended in a black field of nothingness. What I saw was nothing like this.
I was suspended, but what I saw was nowhere near eternal blackness. I saw actual shapes and colors, and things like that. The landscape was like a normal landscape, with hills and valleys and trees and water. Some of the landscape I could remember, like the lake where I first met Misty, and my hometown, but without any houses.
However, the main things that I saw were these large flat squares. Some were black on the back, and some were gray. But on the other side of each, they were repeating a scene over and over again.
I walked, or rather floated, among these things, looking at various scenes, noticing that they were all repeating a certain event involved me. It was almost as if I was inside my mind, watching my memories. However, I didn't think that that was the case, because some of them showed things that I never did. I could tell because I didn't feel right looking at them. I'm not sure what I felt, but it seemed like when I was looking at something I didn't do, I felt empty, for lack of a better word.
I finally came upon the square that was at the end of the line of black squares. I had realized that they were arranged in a tree of sorts, splitting at places where I made major decisions. I figured out that the gray ones showed what would have happened if I chose a different choice. Some things ended up better, and some worse.
When I looked at the two beyond the final black square, I noticed that they had writing on the backs of them. One said 'Tells his friends about the Legendary Birds' and the other said 'Keep the Legendary Birds a secret'. I floated along and I saw that one of the two paths inevitably ended fairly soon, no matter what choice I took after the current decision. I floated back to the current decision to see which one it was, following the line carefully the entire time.
I finally reached the place and I looked at the decisions again. The choices were still the same, and I looked at the squares. The one on the right was the one that I was looking for. It said 'Keep the Legendary Birds a secret' on it. I floated around it and saw the scene unfold. Strangely, unlike the rest of the scenes, this one was from my point of view. It showed Carol and Tyler turned away from me, saying that if I kept this secret from them, then what other secrets was I keeping. I followed the line and saw that my life after choosing that involved running off and getting killed by a rouge gunshot.
I wondered about whether or not this would really happen, but before I could figure it out, I felt a strange tugging sensation on my body. I felt myself getting pulled back towards the last black square, and eventually into it, as I returned to reality.
Unfortunately, I failed to notice that the other line of decision ended fairly soon after the first one.
I regained consciousness soon after being sucked into the black square. The first thing I felt was this really strange sensation all over my body, and it felt a lot like when you have really dry skin. However, usually that feels annoying, but right now, it felt almost good.
The next thing that I did was open my eyes. I immediately wished that I didn't do that. I guess that those people that have experienced a blackout before really were telling some truths. It did hurt extremely when you open your eyes for the first time after regaining consciousness.
After a few more tries, I could hold my eyes open without it feeling as if someone were drilling a hole through them. The first thing that I noticed was that I was lying on the ground and my head was facing to the side. I used all the energy I had to push myself up. For some reason, I felt strangely heavier, and it seemed harder to move my arms. I just passed it off as a side effect of passing out.
As I finally got myself sitting upright, I noticed that everything seemed very tall: the table, the chairs, and my friends. When I looked at my friends, I saw two things. One was that they looked like giants. Two was that they were looking at me with the most odd look. I couldn't help but realize that it seemed as if they were really confused.
"Guys, what's wrong? You OK?" I asked. As I did, I noticed how strange my voice sounded.
"Um, yeah Ash, we're just fine, it's just that…" Tyler said, his voice trailing off.
"Just that what?" I said, realizing that my voice sounded a little rougher, as if I had a sore throat. I put that off as another side effect.
"Well…" Carol began, "it's a little hard to explain…"
"Just tell me already!" I yelled, getting really angry as I jumped up to my feet.
Right then, I lost balance, falling back down. It felt as if something behind me pulled me backwards, and something above my head made me tip sideways as well.
"What the…?" I said, trying to pick myself up.
I arched my back to try and get a better look at what was holding me down. What I saw was creepy beyond words.
My entire back was covered entirely in hard greenish scales, and at the bottom, there were some strange rectangular things extending out in a circular pattern. I found that I could move them, which both intrigued me and grossed me out even further.
I turned back to face the front and desperately tried to find a mirror. Tyler had me covered.
"Um, you might want this," he said, holding up a mirror.
In the mirror, I saw the reflection of a Larvitar. The stubby arms, the short legs, the snout, and the head fin thing. The only thing that was different was my hat sitting on top of the fin.
"Ha ha, very funny guys. Nice prank," I said, refusing to believe what I saw. Unfortunately, I saw that whatever I did, the Larvitar in the mirror did, too.
"Um, Ash? This isn't a prank," Carol said.
"WHAT?! YOU MEAN THAT IT'S REAL?!" I screamed.
"Um, yeah, it is," I heard from behind me. I turned to see Raidon and Lucky standing behind me. They were both still shorter than I was, but they were much taller now.
"Holy crap, you guys sure seem tall!" I said.
"Well, anything would seem tall to a person who suddenly went from four and a half feet to about two feet," Lucky said.
"Hehe, I guess so," I said, rubbing my neck as best as I could with my really stubby arms. "So, what happened after I passed out?" I asked, turning back to Carol and Tyler.
"Well, the white light disappeared, leaving you lying on the ground, except you were a Larvitar. We waited here for almost twenty minutes before you came to," Tyler explained.
"Wait a second, twenty minutes?" I said. "But that means that Brock and Misty will be here in a few minutes!"
"Oh, crap! I forgot about them!" Carol exclaimed. "How are we going to explain this?"
"Maybe Ash could explain for us what happened," Tyler said, and all eyes were turned on me. I felt extremely embarrassed right now since I wasn't wearing any clothing anymore. That reminded me about my Pokeballs that were on my belt, but I saw that they were lying around me on the ground. I figured that they fell off of my belt when I transformed.
"Well? Come on and tell us, Ash," Carol insisted.
"Well, um, you see…" I started.
Then I remembered the strange event that happened while I was passed out. If I lied to them, I would end up dying soon. But if I told the truth…
"I guess that I'll just have to come right out with it," I said, sighing. "First, you need to know what really happened on the shore with Leaf."
I explained the entire event to them: the reassuring I gave Leaf, the Legendary Birds showing up (and upon request, where they came from), and what they did. As I finished, Tyler and Carol looked just as confused as they did when I started the story.
"That's nice and all, but where's the proof?" Tyler asked.
"Excuse me?"
"The proof! Where is your proof?" he repeated.
"Ugh, alright. I need you to get my backpack down off of that table over there and bring it to me," I said.
Tyler did so quickly, and once the bag was in front of me, I unzipped the main pouch and saw that the golden egg was still in my backpack. That was good, because I intended to keep that a secret. I brought out the three Pokeballs that held the Birds and threw them up, releasing each of the birds in midair.
All Tyler and Carol did was gawk at the three birds that flew in front of them. "But you- How did- Why- Where- Huh?" Tyler stammered out.
I slapped my forehead, and the three birds sweatdropped.
'I guess that Ash was finally forced to reveal us to his friends,' Zapdos said.
'About time,' Moltres mumbled.
Articuno sighed, and said, 'We assume that you are friends of Ash. Are we right?'
Tyler and Carol were even more confused than before.
"How can we understand them?" Tyler asked me.
'You can understand us because we do not speak with our mouths, but with our minds,' Zapdos answered for me.
"What?"
I slapped my forehead again. "They're talking to us telepathically!" I yelled.
"Oh!" Tyler and Carol said at the exact same time.
'So, what is your reason for calling us out, Ash?' Moltres asked.
"I had to tell these two gawking idiots about you, and when I did, they asked for proof," I told them.
"HEY! WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN IDIOT?!?!" Carol screamed.
"Oh, crap," I mumbled, and she began to chase me.
I knew that with my Larvitar legs being as short as they were, she would catch me soon. Then I began to wonder. If I'm a Larvitar, then that means…
"ROCK THROW!" I yelled, pulling a small boulder about my size out of seemingly nowhere and throwing it at Carol. It hit her in the stomach, knocking her into the ground.
"Ouch," she said, lying under the rock, trying to catch her breath.
"Oops, sorry!" I said. I didn't know that it would hurt her that badly.
"Carol, are you OK?" Tyler said, rushing to her side.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess that I'll never be able to beat Ash up like I did before now that he can do that," she managed to say.
"You beat up Ash?" Tyler exclaimed. Then he burst out into laughter. I became really pissed at that. I don't know how I did it, but a loud screech was let loose into the air, causing everyone in the room to cringe.
"Yeowch!" yelled Tyler.
"What the heck was that?" Carol asked after the screech faded away.
'I guess that Ash now knows how to use screech,' Moltres said, who was also feeling the effects of the attack. As I looked around, I saw that Raidon, Lucky, Grom, and Yasuo were also cringing from the attack.
"Sorry, I guess that I got really mad, and it just slipped out," I apologized.
'Now that we are out, before we return to our Pokeballs, we need to give you this,' Articuno said. All of a sudden, a strange green scale appeared in front of me. I reached up and grabbed it. It felt cool to the touch and I felt it emanating some sort of power.
"What is it?" I asked.
'That is the key to using your new power. If you can solve that puzzle scale, you will be able to control your newest ability with ease,' Articuno explained.
'Now that we have given you the key, we must be returning now,' Zapdos said, and they all disappeared back into their Pokeballs.
Just then, the door opened, revealing Nurse Joy. Lucky jumped into my backpack as fast as he could, and I ran behind it.
"What happened in here? I heard a loud screech, and it made everyone in the Center cringe, including all of the patients," Nurse Joy asked. She then noticed that there was a large boulder sitting on top of Carol, and rushed over to help get it off of her.
Once it was off, Carol stood up and brushed herself off.
"Where did that come from?" Nurse Joy asked. "Was it the Tyranitar?"
"No, it wasn't him. It was that Larvitar hiding behind Ash's backpack," Carol said.
'Great, ratted out by my best friend,' I thought.
Nurse Joy came around and found me sitting there. I was glaring at Carol, and she was trying her best to keep her composure, but the leer attack was working.
"Well, where did you come from?" Nurse Joy asked.
"Well," Tyler began, "I believe that he came in here just a few minutes ago. We think that he might know this Tyranitar here, so we let him stay." Saved by the friend.
"Oh, I see. But where's Ash? And why does this Larvitar have Ash's hat?" Nurse Joy inquired.
"Well, Carol said something that made Ash angry, and he threw down his hat and left the room, saying something about needing a little alone time. A few minutes later, this Larvitar came in and saw Ash's hat. For some reason, it seemed to like it, and put it on its head. Carol and I tried to get it back, but he threw a rock onto Carol, and then used screech, knocking me down," Tyler made up.
Nurse Joy fell for the lie, and she nodded. "Oh, by the way, Brock and Misty have just arrived. Would you like to see them?" she asked.
"Um…" Tyler said, turning to look at Carol. She nodded, and said, "Sure, why not?"
"OK, they're right out here in the front lobby," Nurse Joy said, walking out of the room. Tyler picked up my bag and the three Pokeballs lying on the floor and followed her out. Carol and the rest of the Pokemon went with him. Only Grom and I were left in the room.
"So, Ash, love the new look," Grom said.
"Shut it."
We looked at each other, and began to laugh. It was the only thing that I could do at the moment to try and hide my worry. 'What if I can't solve this thing? Will I be stuck like this forever?'
I decided to ask Grom about the scale thing. "Hey, Grom, what can you tell about this scale thing?"
I handed it to him, and he inspected it carefully.
"Well, from the looks of it, it is a block puzzle. You choose two adjacent squares and they switch. You keep doing this until it shows a picture or symbol," Grom explained, handing the scale back to me. I experimented with it by touching two squares that were right next to each other, and they switched places.
"Do you know what kind of symbol it is?" I asked.
Grom shook his head no. "I couldn't tell what it was. You're on your own there."
"Oh…"
"Hey, you should probably get out of here. Your other friends out there might try and catch you if they see you," Grom said.
I thought about it for a moment. Misty wouldn't care too much, but Brock would love to have me, since I'm a rock type, and those are his favorites.
With that, I sneaked out of the room and into the lobby.
As I peeked into the lobby, I saw that there were no other trainers there besides my friends. They were standing to the side of the lobby, and the exit was in sight. 'This is my chance,' I thought.
With that, I dashed for the exit. However, when the sliding doors opened, they made a noise that attracted the attention of everyone in the lobby.
"Hey look, it's a Larvitar!" Brock said.
"Yeah, but why does it have Ash's hat?" Misty asked.
"We should probably get it before it runs off," Brock said.
'Crap,' I thought, as I started running.
"Hey, it's getting away!" Brock exclaimed as he began running after me. I turned to see Misty following and Tyler and Carol were behind her, giving each other looks of worry.
I ran as fast as I could, but they were starting to catch up. I decided to jump into a bush and try to hide. I then remembered something about Larvitar. 'Larvitar love to dig, right?' I thought, looking at the ground.
I tried to use dig, but I apparently didn't know how to use it yet. So instead, I moved my arms as fast as I could, flinging up dirt all around me. I tunneled down a few feet into the ground, and it didn't feel cramped or creepy at all. I actually felt at home.
Unfortunately, Brock spotted the pile of dirt around the bush that I was hiding in, and he yelled out, "Hey! It's in here!"
Next thing I saw was a red flash from the top of the tunnel, followed by a loud roar. 'CRAP, he sent out Onix!' I thought. I began to dig further down. However, Onix had more experience, and he caught up to me in a matter of seconds and grabbed onto my tail thing with his mouth.
"YEOW! Watch it, that's a brand new attachment that I'm not used to having yet!" I yelled.
He let me go and said, "How do you know the human language?"
"Um, yeah, funny story, I am actually Ash."
"Right," Onix said, rolling his eyes.
"No really! I mean it!" I said.
"And why should I trust you?"
"Because if I weren't Ash, I wouldn't know that in my first Gym battle with Brock, I used Pikachu against you and made him use the sprinkler system to douse you in water to weaken you," I said.
He was stunned. "So it is you, Ash!" he exclaimed. "Why are you a Larvitar?"
I sighed, and I told him about the Legendary Birds. When I finished, he seemed to accept it.
"That's really weird," he said.
"So you believe me?" I asked.
"Yep, I believe you. We rock Pokemon actually can tell when another rock Pokemon is lying. And since I can tell that you aren't lying, I believe you."
"Well, that's something that I didn't know about Pokemon," I said. He laughed, and returned to the surface to tell Brock that I wasn't here.
After I was sure that they were gone, I sighed deeply. I looked around me, and then looked at the small scale. I started to mess with it, but then realized that if I solved it here, I wouldn't be able to get out of this tunnel. I looked at the dirt and all of a sudden, my stomach growled.
'Hmm, I remember hearing that Larvitar like to eat dirt. I wonder…' I thought. With that, I picked up a handful (or pawful, I'm not sure what my hand is classified as now) of dirt and put it into my mouth. Strangely, it tasted good. My mind was screaming 'Yuck! Disgusting!' but my mouth still said that it tasted good.
I ended up eating quite a bit more dirt, and eventually, the tunnel was now large enough to comfortably fit a full size Tyranitar. After I was full, I crawled back up the tunnel and popped back up where I went down. It was early in the afternoon, and I could tell because the sun was high in the sky, but not directly over head.
I sat in the bush, trying to solve the puzzle scale, and I eventually figured out that the pattern looked like a bunch of sound waves coming from the thin tip of the scale. I finally solved it, and once I did, the scale developed a hole in the thick end and a ring went through it. Then a chain appeared around the ring, and it floated up and over my head, placing itself around my neck.
Then, I began to glow again, and when I was finished, I was human again. I was extremely thankful that I was clothed, and I took off my hat and ran my hand through my hair. No scales, and no giant fin. Unfortunately, the dirt that I had eaten earlier was greatly upsetting my stomach, and I almost puked.
Then I looked at my hat and saw that there was a huge rip in it. I figured that it must have happened when I tunneled into the ground. The dirt must have forced the hat to rip and go down until it fit on my head and wouldn't move any further, creating the rip where my head fin thing was.
I sighed, putting the hat back on my head. I'd have to explain to Brock and Misty why there was the giant rip in my hat. I then looked down and saw the scale sitting on my chest, hung around the chain. I touched it, and wondered how I could become a Larvitar again. I decided to try and remove the necklace. I took it off and…
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I sighed and put it back on, and wished that I knew how to use that power. I thought of being able to switch freely back and forth between my human body and the Larvitar body. I kind of wanted to be a Larvitar right now. It was actually kind of cool.
All of a sudden, I began to glow. I felt myself shrink, and I felt my features change. When I was done, I looked at myself to see that I was a Larvitar again. I then thought, 'Is that how I change?'
I tried wanting to be human again, and that's exactly what happened. "Oh, I see. I just have to make myself want to switch bodies, and it happens," I said to no one in particular.
I then began to walk back to the Pokemon Center. Luckily, it wasn't far, and I was there within a few minutes. It was time to go see my friends again.
As I entered the doors, Brock and Misty looked over to see me come in. "Ash!" they both exclaimed.
"Hey, guys! When did you get here?" I asked, pretending that I didn't already know that they were here.
"Just a few minutes ago," Brock answered as I joined the rest of the group. Raidon immediately jumped up onto my shoulder. I turned to see him smiling.
"Glad that you're back to normal," he said, and I smirked.
"I see that you've gotten back your hat, but why is it ripped?" Misty said.
"Oh, yeah. I was walking back when I ran into a little Larvitar with my hat on its head," I lied. "I noticed that the hat was ripped so that it fitted around its head fin."
"So how did you catch it?" Brock asked.
"Well, I saw that it was wearing my hat. You guys remember that I can talk to Pokemon, right?"
They both nodded, and I continued. "I talked to it and I explained that the hat it was wearing was mine. It gave it back and told me that it was ripped from when it tunneled underground to escape some people that wanted to catch it. I figured that he meant you two when he mentioned a tall tan guy with squinty eyes and a thin redheaded girl."
"Oh, I see," Brock said. That's when Yasuo noticed the scale around my neck.
"SHINY!" he yelled as he dive-bombed into my chest, knocking me down. I hit the ground with a thud, and Yasuo tried to take the scale. I then did something that surprised even me.
I began to thrash about wildly, and I ended up knocking Yasuo out. I finally stopped thrashing once he was off of me, and I suddenly felt really dizzy, and there was multiples of everything. I guess that I just learned how to use attacks outside of my Larvitar body, and I had just used thrash.
I remember Brock and Carol guide me to the nearest chair, which I collapsed into immediately. After a minute or so, everything stopped spinning, and I could see clearly again.
"Oh, crap, what just happened?"
"You just freakin' went nuts on Yasuo there!" yelled Tyler, who was kneeling over Yasuo. He was fine, but unconscious. "I understand that he attacked you, but did you have to do that? I could have just called him off!"
At this point, Nurse Joy ran up and took Yasuo to be healed. Tyler stayed with us, and he had a worried look on his face, not because he was worried about Yasuo; Tyler told me that he had been through other things that made this look like a play date. Tyler was worried more about what just happened to me.
"Yeah, and you made him faint! How the crap did you do that?" Misty exclaimed.
"I did? Wow, that's crazy," I said, still trying to fully recover from the confusion.
"That's not crazy, it's insane!" yelled Brock. "A human just took out a Pokemon by thrashing around! That's supposed to be impossible!"
"Well, I guess that there's no more hiding this," I said. "I need all of you to come with me; I can't show you this here."
"Ash, what's so important about that scale around your neck that made you go crazy?" Misty asked.
"That will be answered soon," I said, leading the group as best as I could to my room.
End of Part Ten
A/N: So, what did you think? Ash is now Ashitar! Cool, huh? I wanted to go with a human/Pokemon thing, but I didn't want to go with the boring and well overused Ashachu thing, so that's why Grom was put into my story!
Also, on a side note here, I'd like to say that if anyone out there has any ideas that they might like to see put into my story, go ahead and PM me about it. If I think that I could use it, I'll put a note at the beginning of the chapter in which I use it that gives whoever came up with the idea credit for it. Any help with my story is appreciated!
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!
Wingman11, Keeper of Fates, Overlord of Shiny Objects (Yasuo thinks that he can beat my shiny object army, we'll see about that!)