I woke up what felt like at least a few hours later. I was still laying in Bryan's lap, and he was still gently stroking my fur. I noticed Gaze wasn't there anymore. I yawned, telling Bryan I was awake.
"Hey Rye! Did ya nap well?" He asked. I nodded in response, rubbing my eyes. He smiled. "Glad you did, you were out like a light!" He chuckled, guess I was out longer than I thought.
Rye stood up, lifting me up with him. I had been fine with it earlier, but I remembered my dislike for being picked up. I shifted a bit in Bryan's arms to tell him that. He seemed to get the memo and set me down.
"Sorry buddy, didn't know you don't like getting picked up." I gave a yip to tell him it was alright, he seemed content and walked over window. I followed, suddenly hearing the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. I tried lifting myself up on the window seal to see what was happening. I managed to climb up and saw a large black truck parking into the driveway.
"Hey, that must be Mari and my folks!"
After a moment the doors opened and three figures came out. One was a fairly tall and broad looking man, he had a full brown beard covering his face and very little hair on his head. He wore a light brown suit with dark blue jeans, and a pair of dress shoes. Next to him was a short, pale woman. She had blond hair and was rather skinny, she wore a casual red T-shirt as well as light blue jeans. I assumed those two were Bryan's parents. The figure who caught my eyes the most was the third one, it was a large, yellow figure. It's belly was a whitish color, and it had two black stripped ears as well as strips on it's neck and long tail. At the end of it's tail as well as on it's head were two bright red gems.
'An Ampharos' I thought to myself.
All three of them walked into the house. Bryan greeted his mother and the Ampharos with a hug, but only gave his father a simple "Hello sir" and a nod. The father barely nodded at him. The mother then saw me and practically squealed.
"Oh my gosh is this Rye? He's absolutely adorable!" She spoke happily. I blushed so much that I was lucky my fur covered it up. She seemed so happy to see me that I couldn't help but smile, I didn't bother trying to make her put me down. "My name's Jenna! It's so nice to finally meet you Rye!" I gave her a happy yip, she smiled and set me back down.
I looked up at the father, he glared down at me, he was rather intimidating. He just scoffed and rolled his eyes. Turning to Bryan, he spoke in a harsh tone.
"If he sheds on any of my shit, I'm taking him to the shelter. Understood?" He said.
"Y-yes sir." Bryan nodded, stuttering a bit.
The father glared at me once more, I felt my ears go down. "I'm Vince, that's all you need to know. Not that you're competent enough to understand anyways." He walked off down the hallway.
'What a dick...' I thought to myself.
"Don't worry about Vince... he's usually a bit iffy on newcomers." Jenna said, scratching my ear. She seemed genuine, so I decided I'd take her word for it. Though I'd still have to be careful of him.
"Hello there, young one!" A voice from behind startled me, I turned to see the Ampharos towering over me. He looked quite excited to see me.
"Oh! Um, hey there!" I said with a wave. "Y-you're Gaze's brother right?"
"Why yes I am! My name is..." He then posed proudly. "The Mighty Marigold!"
"Mighty... Marigold?" It took all I had to stifle a laugh.
"I am Bryan's main Pokémon! My goal is train newcomers to be accustom to his battle style!"
"So, you like a tutor?" I asked.
"If you want to put it in a less exciting way, then yes."
"So you, plan to train me?"
"Indeed! It took little time to get Emma up to speed, I expect you to be no different!" He nodded at me. His confidence made me nervous, I knew nothing about how to battle in this world. I could only hope this wouldn't make it more difficult.
"We shall start tomorrow morning! Come prepared!" He then walked down the hall towards the garden. I was a little taken aback by his eagerness, but I knew I'd have to learn to battle at some point. Even if only to defend myself.
Not sure what to do now, I walked over to the couch to see Emma. She was just sort of "starring" at the floor, I suddenly felt unnerved by it for some reason.
"Uhh, Emma?" I said. She turned her head to my direction.
"Oh! H-hey there Rye..." She said.
"You feeling alright?" I asked, a bit concerned.
"I'm as alright as I can be, just thinking about a few things. I guess." She said, turning her head to the ground again. I couldn't help but notice she was act quite different from when I had seen her in the Pokémon center, she seemed so, deadpan and broken before. Now she felt like an actual person. Not that she hadn't before, it had just felt less.
I sat next to her. "So... Marigold trained you right? How was it?" I asked, thinking I could get a bit of incite of what it was like.
"It was... actually pretty helpful. It was a little confusing to get used to his way of teaching, but I got used to it quick." She said.
"I see... well, what do you think of him like, as a person?"
"He seemed really arrogant and cocky at first, which he is. But, after a few days of training I really started to see he wasn't just an arrogant guy." She put the word "see" in quotations.
"What's he like?" I asked, more curious now.
"He's seems like a guy who really looks to help out, and just all around tries to bring out the best in others. He taught me some things I wouldn't of known otherwise, and it's helped my battling." She gave a light chuckle.
I was a bit shocked about this, he didn't seem like that kind of guy at all. I almost didn't believe it.
"You'll get used to it. trust me." She turned to me again, a light smile on her face. "You just have to... give him a chance."
I thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, I will." It was silent for a moment, then I spoke up again. "Hey Emma?"
"Yeah?"
"What do you... think of Vince?"
"I'm... not sure... he seems to have a hatred towards Pokémon. His aura is not quite pleasant either." She said.
"How exactly do you define someone's aura?" I asked. hoping I wasn't asking too much.
"It's... complicated. To keep it simple enough, since I'm blind, I can only see a person's to tell who and where they are. My vision is more of colored silhouettes, each color indicating that person's aura. It let's me feel their will as a person. Though I haven't fully learned what each color means."
"So... what color everyone's aura?"
Emma almost smiled. "Well, Bryan's aura is green. Which seems to me he has good intentions. Marigold's is a mix of green and blue. Though I'm not quite sure what blue means yet... Jenna's is green as well. Vince's... is red. Completely red..."
"Is... is red bad?" I asked, worried.
"It means he has... unfavorable intentions."
"I... I see." I said, wanting to change the subject. "What's my aura?"
"I don't quite understand your aura.. it seems to be, gold...
It's one I've never seen before at all." Gold? Did that have something to do with me being human? If only she knew what gold meant. Then I could possible get more answers about this transformation.
I then realized one aura she hadn't said.
"What's Gaze's aura?"
"Oh um... his aura is w-"
"Dinner's ready everyone!" Jenna called out.
Bryan walked over to us. "Come on you two! You'll love my mom's cooking, Rye!"
Emma got off the couch, walking towards the kitchen. I didn't hear what she said about Gaze's aura, all I could hope is that she wasn't gonna say something bad. Marigold and Gaze were already at their bowls once I walked over there. Me and Emma went over next to them to our own. Vince and Bryan were sitting at the table discussing something.
"Hello again, young ones!" Marigold waved at us.
"Heya." Gaze said.
"Hey guys!" I said, Emma gave them both a wave.
Jenna came over, putting a delicious looking mixture of rice and meat into each of our bowls. Marigold already started eating, quite quickly considering he had the largest bowl of all of us. I at some of the food, and my god was this the best thing I had ever tasted. The others hadn't been kidding when they said Jenna's cooking was amazing. It was so good, I started eating nearly as fast as Marigold, finishing rather quick.
Marigold saw me, chuckling. "I see I'm not the only one who's a heavy eater!"
"Did you like it, Rye?" Jenna asked, looking down at me from the table. I nodded and gave her a happy yip. She smiled and scratched my head. "I'm so glad!" Bryan smiled at me. Vince just huffed and got up from the table to clean his dish. Something about him really put me off, especially knowing about his aura...
After we all finished up dinner, it was time for everyone to go to bed. Bryan took me to a small room. There were two soft looking pillows, Emma was already laying in one of them. I laid down on one of the pillows, it was quite comfortable.
"Night you two." Bryan smiled. petting my head. He went over, petting Emma as well. We both yipped at him, telling him goodnight. He smiled, leaving the room.
It was silent for a bit, then Emma spoke up.
"Hey Rye?"
"Yeah?" I lifted my head up.
"Good luck tomorrow."
"Heh, thanks Emma." I smiled. I then closed my eyes, soon drifting off to sleep.
…
"It's about time we finally meet again."
What? Who had said that? I tried to look around, but I couldn't move my head, or my entire body. I was in some sort of pitch black limbo. I heard eerie laugh, then slowly a white figure started moving closer to me. It looked the one I had seen back in the hospital. As it came closer, I saw that it looked like... another Zangoose?
"Why hello there Rye." The Zangoose smirked at me, I noticed that he had a scar on his chest, like I did.
"Who... who the hell are you?" I asked.
"So you really don't remember me? What a shame. Then again, I'm not exactly quite the same as I used to be, at least to you." He chuckled, then squinted for a moment. "How about you just call me... Cope, for now at least."
"Cope... well what do you want with me? Where even are we?"
"Oh Rye, can't you tell that you're dreaming? I'm simply projecting myself into your mind."
"So... we're in my head?"
."In a way, yes." Cope smirked once again.
"Well... why do you look like me?"
He laughed now. "This isn't my true appearance Rye, this is just how I seem to you visually."
"Well, what do you even want? What's this game? Why are you in my head?"
"This is no game my friend. I'm simply here to, help. In a way at least."
"Help? How?" I didn't trust him for a second, but I couldn't help but be curious.
"You see... I know things. Things you desire to know. I have knowledge that you'd die for, Rye."
"Wait... do you... know how this happened?" I was even more intrigued now.
Cope laughed again. "Yes Rye, I know that. And more."
"Well... why should I trust you?" I asked, still on edge.
"You don't have to trust me Rye, all I ask is that you hone your new abilities well." His smirk faded, he seemed serious now. "You'll need it for what's coming."
"W-what? What's coming?!" I asked. Cope tried to speak, but it almost seemed like his voice glitched out.
"Oh dear... it... like..." His words kept getting cut off.
"What? What are you saying?!
"You're waking up... I can't stay... you're awake... Damn it..." Cope looked me in the eye. "We will... again soon... Good... luck Rye!"
Before I could say anything else, my eyes shot opened. Emma was standing over me.
"Rye?... Are you alright?..." I could tell from her voice she was concerned. "You were screaming... and grabbing your head. I could sense your distress." She said.
"I... I'm f-fine..." I said, sitting up. "Just... a bit shaken up." I could still feel my heart racing.
"I see... Are you feeling alright now?..."
I nodded. "Y-yeah.. S-sorry if I woke you up."
"No worries, I was awake long before now."
"Alright... is everyone else awake?"
Before Emma could answer, the door opened. Bryan walked in.
"Morning guys! Did you both sleep well?" He asked. Both me and Emma nodded, even though I was sort of lying. Emma never called me out on it though.
We all walked to the kitchen where Jenna was cooking breakfast. Marigold was at his bowl already, though Gaze wasn't.
"Hey uh, where's Gaze?" I asked.
"He's in the garden, he doesn't eat breakfast." Marigold said as Jenna put a variety of fruits into each of our bowls.
"Oh."
Vince then walked in, sitting down at the table. He glared at the three of us as he passed.
"Yeesh, what's his problem anyways?" I asked.
"Shhhh!" Marigold shushed me, then whispered. "H-he can tell when you're talking about him.." I glanced over to see Vince glancing right back, like he knew I said something about him. I couldn't help but shiver.
After we had all finished eating, Bryan spoke up. "Hey mom, is it alright if I do some training in the garden for awhile?" He asked.
"Sure honey, just don't break anything or mess up the flowers" Jenna responded.
"Alright! Come on you guys!" Bryan said as he started down the hallway. Me, Emma, and Marigold followed.
Once we came out, Gaze was sitting by the flowers. He turned around once he heard us.
"Oh, there you all are." Gaze stood up and went over to us. "You guys out here for trainin'?"
"Indeed we are!" Marigold excited stated.
"Hehe, excited as always to train eh?" Gaze smirked.
"But of course! I must be sure we are all in perfect condition!" Marigold spoke with confidence.
Before they could continue talking, Bryan spoke up. "Alright guys! First thing's first.." He bent to me. "You think you can show me what you can do, little guy?" He asked, petting my head. As nervous as I was, I sorta wanted to see for myself what I could do. So I gave him a nod in response.
"Alright!" He then looked at Marigold. "Hey, Mari! You mind sparing with Rye?"
'Not at all!' Marigold said, Bryan seemed to get the memo.
Everyone backed out of the way, leaving the field for me and Marigold.
"Alrighty Rye! Show me what you got!" Marigold said.
And at that point, I realized I had no idea how to fight with this body. I knew I'd was supposed to have a move to use, but I had no clue how to use it. I didn't know anyway to really play this off, but then I remembered they all thought I was amnesiac, or at least Emma did.
"Umm... I don't exactly remember how to use a move." I said.
Marigold looked at me in confusion, Gaze did as well.
"How... how do not know how to use a move?" Marigold asked.
Emma spoke up. "He doesn't remember anything before our village was destroyed... at least, that's what he told me."
"I see... well then. I supposed I should teach you that first." Marigold said. "So your a Zangoose, you most likely know scratch. Though first you'll have to get your claws out."
Scratch? That seemed pretty underwhelming. But it was a start. I looked at my paws, I could feel something in the them, something I could bring out, those must be my claws. Suddenly, they four red, pointed claws, two on each paw, were unsheathed from my paws.
'Well that was surprisingly easy.' I thought.
"Alrighty! Now, being a normal type, your primary energy is normal energy. That energy is in the core of your body. You need to control that energy, then transfer it towards the body part that does the move, in this case being your claw." Marigold explained.
'So that's how moves worked huh' I thought.
I took a deep breath, then tried to focus towards my core, which I assumed was my chest, like he said. I felt a couple things, four to be exact. three of them felt... natural, but one felt... unnatural. Not in a bad way exactly, it just didn't feel the same as the others, maybe that was a move of a different type? I decided I could test it later, so I decided to control one of the natural feelings. Then, like Marigold said, I tried to transfer it towards my claws. Suddenly, my claw had a very faint glow of white.
"L-like this?" I asked.
Marigold was beaming. "Exactly like that! Now, swing at me with it!" I did as he said, swinging at him as hard as I could. He actually staggered back a bit, but it didn't to do too much damage. He was still beaming. "Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic!"
I glanced over at Emma, who gave me a smile in return.
"Alright! Now tell me, did you feel any other things while you were searching in your core?"
"I felt a few actually... four I believe. Though one of them felt... unnatural." I said.
"The natural ones are moves of your same type, the unnatural one is move of a different. Try controlling that one now!" Marigold said.
I nodded, once again closing my eyes. I once again felt the three natural moves, and then the one unnatural move. I did as he said and tried to control the unnatural one, though I was quite sure where to transfer it to, so I just did it towards my claw again. I opened my eyes, and my claw now had a desaturated green glow on it. I tried to think of what move it would be, then I remembered that Zangoose learnt Fury Cutter. I once again swung at Marigold with it, making him stagger back again, but also beam.
"Very great work Rye! You're a natural!" He smiled. "We'll just need to practice on you learning to do these moves faster!"
I couldn't help but feel sort of proud of myself after learning so fast, so I nodded. "A-alright!"
I turned and looked at Bryan, who seemed quite happy with my progress. He walked over and pet me on the head.
"You're doing great buddy! You'll do great on the team!" He smiled, I yipped at him happily.
"Now then, do you believe you are ready to spar with me, Rye?" He asked.
I gave him a nod. "Yeah! I think I'm ready now!"
Marigold nodded, then his fist was suddenly shrouded in electricity. He lunged at me for the punch, I narrowly dodged the punch. I then closed my eyes, trying to control the power to use scratch as fast as possible, I was too slow though, since he avoided before I could land the swing.
"You'll have to be quicker than that!" Marigold charged up another punch, lunging once again. I dodged again, but he was a step ahead. As I moved to the side, he swung again knocked me back with full force. While getting up, I tried to channel a scratch, by the time I was up, Marigold was next to me, ready to swing again. It left him open for me to fake him out and hit him as hard as I could. He staggered a bit, then jumped back to get some distance.
"I see you've outsmarted me at close range... try long range then!" Suddenly a myriad of glowing stones appeared around him, then all fired at me. I panicked, and started running at an arc around Marigold, trying to avoid them as he continued to shoot them. It wasn't until then I realized how much faster this body was than a human body, it was honestly incredible. Marigold tired out from shooting stones, allowing me to charge at him, readying a scratch in the process. He had predicted that though, when I tried to get close, his whole body was building up in electricity. I saw my mistake too late, before I could escape, he released all the electricity, creating a large blast that shot me far backwards.
"Rye! You alright?" Bryan asked. It definitely hurt, no questions asked, but I felt that I could still keep going. Soon I stood up, giving Bryan a nod. "Alright! Just be careful!"
Marigold turned to me. "Haha! You've fallen for my famous Discharge trap! Do not feel ashamed though, it happens to all of my opponents!="
"Except ground types." Gaze corrected.
"Do not interrupt, Gaze!" Marigold cleared his throat. "Anyways, now it is time to kick things up a notch!" His mouth then started glowing with a blue energy, then he fired a large blue beam towards me. I panicked, trying to dodge by moving out of the way. but he only stopped for a moment before firing another one. At one point he faked me out, shooting the beam in front of me, it hit me before I was able to slow myself down. I fell down, but I decided to use this as bait. I once again readied a scratch as Marigold charged towards me with another thunder punch. I slid underneath him, striking him in the back and actually managing to knock him down to one knee. I quickly readied another one, striking him again before he could get back up. This time it was enough to knock him down.
His body started to be shrouded in electricity again, I knew I couldn't get away fast enough. Not knowing what to do, I tried to transfer one of the other natural feelings, this time I did to my arms instead of my claws, thinking it could help. I thought I was too slow, as he released the discharge, I closed my eyes and covered myself with my arms. But then...
I felt no pain.
I opened my eyes, looking forward to see a blueish, transparent shield in front of me. I knew protect?!
Marigold got up and saw, he was shocked. I looked to see Emma, Gaze, and Bryan were shocked as well. Marigold beamed again.
"Incredible! You knew you couldn't away fast enough, so you used protect instead! Great job thinking on your feet young one!"
I was still dumfounded, as well as out of breath. I barely managed a response. "I-I uh.. t-thanks!" I put my arms down, and the shield faded away.
"Hehe, I think that's enough sparring for now." Bryan came over to us. "You did great Rye! I didn't know you knew protect!"
All I could do was smile, I was just as surprised as they all were. But it still felt good to have learned to use my moves so quickly. Maybe, this wouldn't be so bad.
"Bryan! Lunch is ready!" We heard Jenna call from inside.
"Come on you guys, lets get some lunch!" Bryan said, and we started heading back into the kitchen. Though, Gaze seemed to call Emma back.
(Emma POV)
"Hey, Emma." Gaze called me back as we were walking inside. I turned to his direction.
"Yes, Gaze?" I asked.
"I need to talk to you for a moment." He said.
"Oh, alright." I turned to the others. "Hey Rye, we'll catch up with you all."
"Oh, Alright!" He, Mari, and Bryan continued towards the kitchen.
I went over to Gaze. "I assume this is about Rye, correct?"
"Yeah... And I'm you know what about him."
"I'm sorry, but I don't know much about it. He was new to our village before... the event. I never even got to meet him. All I know is that he was amnesiac once we met back at the hospital."
"Your village was a village with only Pokémon, correct?"
"Yes?"
"Pokémon don't have easy access to human-purchased items. Did you?"
"No, we did not."
I could that Gaze was in a mix of frustration and confusion. He huffed a bit. "Then what the hell is up with the kid?"
"I told you Gaze... I do not know him very well. Besides, he may have had a trainer before Bryan?"
"He has no human traced aside from Bryan and Jenna. Which are the only two who have come in contacted with him."
"And how do you know this?"
"It ain't easy to explain." He sighed. "You said his aura was golden, right?"
"How did you know that?"
"I overheard."
"And what about it?"
"That kid... he isn't normal. And if there's something up, we need to find it out before it gets us all killed."
"You're overreacted Gaze, Rye seems nice enough anyways."
He paused for a moment, then sighed. "I guess you have a point... look, I don't think whatever's up is his fault. But… we have to stay on guard. Just... do me a favor, he trusts you the most at the moment. Can you keep an eye on him? Make sure nothing weird is going on?"
I was going to tell him about what happened this morning, but it wasn't my place to tell. So I nodded. "I'll tell you if I see something odd."
He nodded, and we both made our way back into the kitchen. I couldn't say I didn't agree with Gaze, because he had a point. There was something different off about Rye...
And the more we knew, the safer we could keep everyone. Including him.
(AN: I deeply apologize for the lateness of this chapter! I had written it awhile ago, but the file had gotten corrupted, forcing me to start over. It was a bit demotivating, but on the plus side, I do feel that I improved and changed a lot of thing that better helped the explanation of things in this chapter. Again, sorry for the lateness, I will do my best to get things out sooner next time!)