(okay, so half of this is from all the way back in 2011. I realized I had an unfinished fic portion and decided to finish it up and post, just to get it out of my hair. And because I'm struggling to get myself to write my other fics, I guess, so a half-finished thing is better than nothing.

I know, it's weird to randomly update this after years, especially considering this is a very unpopular fic. But I have a soft spot for poor Charm. And the end is amusing.)

Untrue World

8.

You know you are in trouble when you're seeing two of you. - Xatu's Truthisms

x-x

Something strange and exciting was going on today. Leos was not sure exactly what, but he had been put into a giant granbull carrier and brought to a sterile, strange smelling white walled environment. At first, he terrifyingly thought this meant he was going to get shots, but as his cage opened he found himself staring at a person who unlocked faint memories. Had he... seen them before, he quirked his head?

"So, what do you think Professor? Can I have him registered as my first pokemon for the local league challenge?" He turned his head to see Abra (so funny a human was named after a pokemon, did he want to be one or something? but then who wouldn't?) speaking. A small flash of anger bubbled in him. He still hadn't forgiven the other for leaving him behind!

"Hmm. He looks a bit afraid of the strange surroundings. That's not usually a good quality in a battler; you may have waited too long or have trained him too much out of his aggressive instincts." Say what? He turned his head and curled his lips, displaying teeth. Was she calling him a wuss? "On the other hand, he seems to have excellent speech recognition and reactivity. So he may do just fine. However, we will still have to do the testing to see if you can handle him in a battle. And then, we will have to see how he responds to being recalled into a ball."

"Alright." Abraham sounded uncertain, and Leos proudly knew it was because he'd had difficulty getting him to behave at all lately.

"Go, Wartortle #3." Professor threw a ball, and the fast darting movement of the object, like a pidgey, sent Leos's predatory drive crazy, snapping at the movement and then to his startlement finding the ball bursting into a turtle right before his teeth. Said turtle was not at all happy about getting chomped on, and blasted water at him, making him careen across the room into a desk. "Oh dear. Not even waiting for orders."

Abraham scowled. "He was just startled, that's all. Leos, claw it!"

Leos glanced at Abraham. Who did he think he was? An evil turtle like this obviously required... FIREPOWER! With a growl he blasted flame, hoping to kill the evil turtle that got him all wet.

The turtle snorted and blew a bubble around his flame, then popped it in disdain, making it wither into smoke and steam. "Wartortle, use headbutt on the charmeleon." As ordered, it obeyed, and Leos was surprised at how painful it was to get smashed into. He couldn't remember very many times in his life where he'd been in such pain. He felt his angel flooding his body with added strength. Though the angel seemed oblivious to it, it always seemed to strengthen him when it was there. He loathed relying on anyone, though, and snarled inwardly 'Get lost Charm, this is my fight' before slashing at the turtle.

'What's going on?' asked Charm, confused. 'Did you join Abraham's journey or is there trouble?' Leos felt, though it might have been his imagination, the whisp of the thought 'why am I still here? I had believed for sure I'd fade this time for real.'

'Whatever,' thought Leos, sulkily knowing nothing was going his way. Abraham was stupid and not worth obeying, but if he didn't obey, he'd not get to go on a journey. Rules were so annoying. He heard Abraham yelling things but ignored him.

'Ah, so that's what this is.' Grr, he hated it when Charm read his mind! 'I really recommend you listen to Abraham, he's not as stupid as you think. This is a water type, so blasting it won't do much good, and attacking the shell won't help much either. Abra just asked you to aim for the belly with a rage attack. I think you should.'

'...Rage?'

'Get really, really determined to win and angry at your opponent and make your attacks will increase with strength with every blow. I never managed it because I don't actually like hurting others.' Charm was so weird. How could you not enjoy scratching and biting and burning? Still, Leos tried, aiming all his frustrations at the annoying turtle instead of thinking about them. Whamming repeatedly at it, he tuned everything else out.

"Your pokemon seemed slightly confused at what you were asking, but they are doing a fine Rage attack now," noted the Professor. "In future, you should be aware that pokemon do not in fact always know what League-certified moves are even if they have the basic concepts. Pokemon do often pick up a lot of language in the egg and as youths, but not everything. Before using a new move in a real battle you should practice it first and make sure you have control over your pokemon. That is especially important for newly evolved charizard, which may not fully understand their own strength or not care, and can cause quite a bit of damage. In fact, even your Charmeleon here could kill someone if not returned quickly enough, but with Charizard, the moment of attack itself could be fatal; waiting until the attack happens to respond will generally be too late. Still, I see no aggression towards people, only pokemon, so that's promising."

Finally, the annoying turtle was whisked away in a beam of red light.

"So can I use him?"

"Hm, it should be fine for now, but I want a re-evaluation when he evolves - really they should say metamorphoses, but that never caught on as slang - again. I cannot state this enough: Charizard is very, very dangerous, even if it is not a true dragon type," said the woman.

That's right! They should be afraid! He was just that awesome. Imagine him with wings, then he would be even more so.

'I don't think making others afraid is anything to brag about,' came Charm's unwelcome input.

'Shut up Charm.'

'I'm sorry. I don't... know why I'm still here. Or why I was here in the first place.'

There were moments where Leos felt sorry for Charm. This was one of them, although it was replaced with annoyance that Charm was such a weakling about everything. Although, he did like when Charm took him to the zoo and when he showed him how to play those 'video game' things. Or when he'd show him how to cook and mix a really nice 'spicy berry blend'. Or how to avoid others for longer in Hide and Seek.

Okay, so Charm did a lot of things he liked. He was still an interloper in his head, he was beginning to get that now, and feeling rather territorial about it. Nobody else seemed to act like they had another passenger in their skull. Or maybe it was just a Char-family thing?

Abraham was jumping up and down with excitement. "Yes! Yes! I'm going to be a Pokemon Trainer with one of the best possible starters!"

One of the best? He WAS the best, thank you very much!

"Um, one more thing. Charmeleon, I apparently didn't handle the paperwork right when I got you, so you're still registered as Leos, not Charm. Do you want me to change it? It's a little bit of a hassle, but since I bought you instead of trading you - for some reason changing a traded pokemon's name is almost impossible - it should be quite feasible if we head to an official Name Rater."

Leos was baffled, but he felt a flicker of interest from Charm. 'So that's why he suddenly started using our old name.' He shook his head - being Leos was fine! Leos was Leos, Charm was Charm.

Abraham nodded. "Okay then! It's going to be weird to get used to calling you Leos, but I admit my naming skills weren't the best when I was younger."

Charm took offense. 'What exactly was wrong with the name Charm? Is it because it isn't very creative?'

'Dunno. It isn't very humanish?'

'Typical.'

"Remember: stay on the routes and do not travel far off road, and flag a ranger or another trainer if you need help. Do not travel in areas above your skill level, ever. Training can be incredibly dangerous, but as long as you stick close to civilization and well-traveled paths with weaker pokemon you should be okay."

x-x

Leos's attitude problem, unfortunately, only grew worse over time as the duo wracked up victory after victory. A Charmeleon was apparently rather over-leveled for the first gym, even if it was a poison type gym that forced them to frequently heal. Leos didn't seem to remember being here before or the traumatic loss they suffered here, but Charm did.

He took, perhaps, a little bit too much satisfaction when they tore into the gym leader's Skunktank, and so didn't try to pull back Leos as much as he should have. When he realized just how much damage they'd inflicted when Abraham forcibly pulled him back, looking horrified, Charm felt guilty. The purple skunk was bleeding horribly and had a giant gaping hole in its side, but at least it would live.

"Try to control your pokemon better," the gym leader admonished Abra. "Killing other trainers' pokemon is heavily frowned upon, and if he gets more powerful he could soon be doing that."

"I'm sorry."

"You may have simply waited too long to start seriously training him," the leader warned. "There's a reason people start with single evolutions, not evolved forms! I'll let you have this badge, but only if you catch a second pokemon first. For just in case. It's better to have a varied team regardless."

Abraham nodded and went off to do just that.

x-x

The boy, however, was quite unused to trekking in the wilderness and it showed. He wigged at all the dirt and sweat and insects that tried to nibble on him, and if not for Charm he wouldn't have been able to start a fire at night at all, failing miserably at starting camp all on his own.

"Maybe I should just buy a new pokemon," he grumbled. "I don't want a lousy rat or a bug! Where are all the good pokemon hiding?"

'Probably scared off by all your loud tromping around like an elephant.' Did humans have no sense of stealth whatsoever? Or was it just children? He had to admit he hadn't been a very stealthy child.

"Char! I want to catch something, let me go off on my own, I can handle it!" exclaimed Leos.

"You're annoyed too, aren't you Leos? What do you think we should buy?" Abra mused. "Maybe my namesake? They're powerful but pretty affordable because of how weak they start out, so I don't need to dip into my parents' wallets."

Exasperated, Leos just took off into the woods on his lonesome.

"Hey!" Abra exclaimed, and raced after him.

There were some mankey, a pikachu that wisely disappeared before Abra could see it, and a small herd of nidoran that grew skittish at the sight of a running large form looking right at them like a predator and predictably took off. Thus, the mankey were the only things gutsy enough to stick around.

Leos immediately challenged one, because of course.

"Man-man!" a mankey screeched, throwing rocks and sticks. Ouch, those actually hit pretty hard.

Leos blasted flame and threatened to set the whole forest on fire - thankfully, it was pretty wet recently and the flames didn't burn the wood or grass very well before dwindling. 'Watch it!' thought Charm, and waited expectantly for Abraham to do something about this.

"I guess a mankey could do!" Abraham said cheerfully, which was not the response Charm was hoping for. He pulled out his dex which scanned it. "Female, a bit lower level so you'll need to make sure you don't knock it out in one blow, okay?"

Leos didn't listen. He raked his claws right across the mankey, which cried out, then followed up with a tail smack that sent it flying into a tree. It didn't get up. The other mankey started to get angry, chattering.

"Leos!" Abraham exclaimed. "You git."

"Give me a real challenge!" he roared.

The mankey swarmed him all at once, and Charm felt genuinely worried as they started pelting him from all sides. That fool! What was really worrisome was the one bigger than the rest picking up a big rock.

"Dodge!" yelled Abra. It was basic common sense, but Charm felt relieved nonetheless when Leos finally listened to something. Unfortunately, the other mankey decided to dogpile him and try to hold him down while apparent leader of the group came at him with it, slamming it down repeatedly. Leos blasted flame and tried to wiggle his limbs loose, but one of the mankey jammed a rock in his mouth and Leos started to cry.

If they died because of angry mankey of all things just because Leos couldn't keep his ego under control and someone had decided giving a small baby human control of the fire breathing hothead and sending them out into the wilderness unsupervised was a good idea, Charm was going to be pretty pissed in his next life.

Like, really, what was wrong with these people?

Leos fell unconscious, and Charm could tell the difference because suddenly he had full control over the body. Immediately, he twisted his tail into the face of the closest mankey trying to hold his tail down, then the one putting the damn rock in his mouth, and flared his tail fire and expelled his flame as widely as he could. With a bit more freedom to finally move, he broke free of the last mankey and ran for it, grabbing Abraham (who gave a startled yelp) and booking toward town. It wasn't long before another trainer spotted them being chased and moved in to assist.

With another pokemon, a Skarmory, at his side, he whirled back on the mankey and finished the group off, although with a flying type by him he hardly needed to do anything. Abraham threw a ball at the last one, which gave him a hateful look before it vanished.

"That was incredibly reckless," the trainer chided Abraham. "Did you piss them off on purpose?"

"My charmeleon did," he admitted. "Although I told him to fight one, so I guess it is partially my fault."

"It is completely your fault. Everyone knows mankey are quick to anger! You shouldn't have sent Charmeleon after if you weren't sure you could control him. And I really don't think that mankey is going to obey you either, especially now that it dislikes you. Here, let me trade you one of my pokemon for it," the trainer offered. "I've got some pretty tame low level ones. Anything common in the area you like? I've probably got it."

Abraham wrinkled his nose a little at the word 'common', but, then, probably thinking about his loss and how he needed it, he finally deflated. "Pikachu?"

"I said common, you brat. How about a pidgey or a nidoran? With a pidgey, you'd never have a problem with mankey ever again," the trainer tried to coax him to see sense. "And they evolve twice, so they're pretty solid even later on."

"Okay," Abra said, clearly unhappy but willing to behave himself. "Pidgey."

"You're in luck, I left the naming pending, so I can set it to whatever you want. She's a real sweetie-pie, still with a bit of a nestling's temperament, you won't regret her."

Abraham seemed to cheer up at that. "Fluffles!"

"Fluffles?" the trainer seemed taken back. "Are... you sure?"

"Yes! Wait, no," Abraham changed his mind. "Pink. Because she's a girl."

"Riiight," said the trainer. "I can't wait until the law to raise the minimum age for training passes," they mumbled under their breath, then more loudly, "Okay, Fluffles it is!"

"I said Pink!" Abraham whined.

"Sorry, I guess I misheard you. Well, too late now!" the trainer cheerfully thrusted the pokeball in his direction and swiped the mankey's ball, then had their pokedexes connected together. "Just hit 'Yes' when the option pops up."

"'kay," said Abraham, doing so. It occurred to Charm that it would probably be very easy for someone to scam him if he wasn't carefully reading what he was doing, so he carefully leaned over Abraham's shoulder to read the text. Thankfully, it just said 'Successful registration transfer of MANKEY - Unnamed, complete.'

Another thing he noticed, abruptly, was that there was a phone option on the pokedex, as well as a radio and a few other things. Leos still hadn't woken up and Charm had some time to waste, and he wasn't inclined to waste it doing training. He missed doing something intellectual so much, and he still had that strange pokemaniac's phone number.

So when they headed into town so he could get the badge finally, as well as healed up, he waited for a moment when Abra wasn't paying attention (having headed off to get a shower and food, letting 'Leos' nurse his wounds in a free room at the centre) and swiped his pokedex to play with.

After a moment of hesitation of what to do, he found there was a 'text' option, as well as a delete message option (which he'd need), and decided to use that.

ABRA: I am borrowing someone else's device and do not know the next time I'll have it available. Do you have another method of communication we could text over?

POKEMANIAC: Hello? This is?

ABRA: The Charmander at the zoo. You may call me Charm.

POKEMANIAC: Ah! I remember now, that was quite some time ago! Your costume was magnificent!

ABRA: I fear I did not come to speak to you about costumes. You consider yourself a great fan of pokemon, yes? Do you know anything about Jirachi or an asteroid pokemon?

POKEMANIAC: Jirachi? I hear that it appears periodically to grant wishes, at a festival all the way in Hoenn. But that might just be a myth, 'cuz if it were me I'd ask for unlimited wishes. As for an asteroid pokemon, well, some say Clefairy came from one. There's a colony by Celestial Town. If you're looking for friendly local legendaries, Celebi is known to occasionally be spotted in this region. Not very often, though!

Well, that was definitely something. Celebi was psychic, and could probably figure out what was going on with them. That might be a worthy goal to pursue, then. And Celestial Town, that was on their path, so if absolutely nothing else he could talk to some Clefairy when they got there. Provided Leos didn't scare them all off, of course.

Charm heard a noise.

ABRA: I fear my time is growing short. I will have to desist speaking with you now.

POKEMANIAC: OK, I'll give you my details so you can text me by computer! I'm Pokemaniac16!

ABRA: Farewell. I will likely not use this device again, so do not call back.

Then Charm deleted the messages and switched to viewing the actual pokedex function of the pokedex, just in time for the real Abra to come in and stop in dismay at seeing him playing with his pokedex. "So that's where that went! Charm - I mean, Leos, you thief, what do you think you are doing? You can't possibly be reading that!" Abraham swiped it back. "Did you just want to look at pictures of yourself, you silly thing?"

He scowled, then gave way as he felt Leos waking up.

x-x

Although Charm tried to stay out of Leos's life, when Leos 'fainted', Charm had a way of waking up instead. For more experienced trainers this resulted in quite a bit of bafflement as the 'mon they were sure couldn't possibly continue found a way to struggle on just a little longer. Charm could guess that maybe the difference was, as an older and calmer individual, he simply had more pain tolerance. Another, more disturbing possibility was that he was a ghost possessing the body. He wouldn't know until he could gather more information.

Speaking of that, he was delighted to find a wide world of information waiting for him on these 'computer' devices; he'd already guessed they were electronic forms of books, but it was really amazing how quickly one could search for something and have it just pop up, as if magic had summoned the right book to you.

He also kept up his correspondence with 'Pokemaniac16' (what a strange name) and soon others in the man's pool of acquaintances, and found himself in the very odd position of, well. Being something of an expert on Pokemon. On an occasion he was asked a question he didn't know sometimes he could just ask the pokemon in question about it and report back with an answer. This quickly led to others guessing his real identity was of that of a researcher, and asked him when he was publishing a paper?

Charm had to admit that sounded like a really useful activity (how could one not want to contribute to the knowledge of the world?), so he brushed up on the literature around charmanders and decided he'd submit something close to home and easy to check. It helped that, this world being different, there really were things he still needed to learn himself about his own species, so that kept the task interesting. Unfortunately, he realized a lot of papers made reference to extended data sets - he'd have to be careful about his choice if he wanted something that could be published based on the study of just a single charmander - err, charmeleon. Language, perhaps? There seemed to be oddly little on that, so he wouldn't be stepping on any toes. And that could be readily generalized to more than just char-family, but those as examples would be quickest to write translations for.

He quickly realized that humans generally had two names or made reference to a place of origin or their parent, and he'd stand out if he didn't come up with a secondary identifier. Somehow he doubted 'Scorch-son' was an appropriate name, but he'd use it if he couldn't think of anything else. Anderzardel? Anders Charm? Oh, maybe his birth town, Shukuba. That would do.

The Highly Tonal and Inflectional Language of Pokemon, with example translations from the Char-family

by Charm Shukuba

He typed it up in the middle of the night, somewhat awkwardly because of his claws, and then hit send. He figured something so academic would attract little interest.

Charm had no idea what a bombshell he'd just unleashed on the world.