Mudd's Journey - Part 4

Sunlight poured into the room, a blinding force blanketing the room with enveloped blindness. It was morning, and slowly, I began to wake up. I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling.

Here I was, lying here in a world beyond recognition. At least, I thought that's how I perceived it at least. I was confused - I was going through several different emotions at once, bombarded by barrels of train tracks that carried my thought train and fazing through several states of mind. I had Bulbasaur here with me, lying and mumbling in his sleep, and here I was going through what had happened in just one day.

"Uggghhh..." I began, lifting my head up after thinking about the past 24 hours, "talk about a rough night..."

I didn't forget what happened last night. The reminiscence of my mum passing away. A dream of destiny... but also one of demise along with it. I didn't understand. Why did I dream about my mother dying... and what did it signify? I shook my head, a common trope of mine, proceeding to get up and wake up Bulbasaur.

"Hey, get up, it's morning you know." I spoke to him as I turned towards him.

"Hmm? Unngghhh... Mudd?" Bulbasaur shook himself awake and rubbed his eyes with his bulbs. "Good morning buddy."

"Likewise," I replied, smiling at him, "morning bud."

"Wow... sure is bright in here, don't you think?" he said, looking around the sunlit-driven room.

"Yeah, I guess so." I chuckled, and made my way to the window. Before I knew it, I was greeted to the same setting I saw the previous night, and lo and behold, the sun was gleamingly shining through the dawn, orange gazing upon Cherish Town's horizon. I scratched my head, and proceeded to look behind me.

"You doing okay Mudd?" Bulbasaur asked me, tilting his head to the side.

"Uh... yeah, I think so."

"You think?" he questioned, and approached me endearingly. "Hey Mudd, you do know you can share anything that's troubling you. Even if I do cause you trouble."

He gave me a warm smile, and I stood there, taking this sight in. I was getting dejà vú all over again.

"W-what's wrong?" he shook, and turned to face me. As for me, I had an epiphany. It was another scene I thought I blocked out from my system, but there stood another friend, and I was human again.

**Flashback**

I stood still, and looked around me. I was a young boy again, and I had Froakie by my side. I looked in front of me, and there stood a human friend of mine.

"Mudd?" I turned to face the voice, and there was my friend Fliss, smiling at me endearingly brightly.

"Oh, um... hey Fliss." I said quietly, refusing to look at her. "W-what do you want?"

"I came to check on you to see if you're okay you know. You haven't talked to anyone ever since..."

"Yes, I get it..." I snapped, making Fliss jump, "my mother's dead. S-she left me... my only family, and n-now she's gone!"

Fliss approached me, and sat down next to me. We were both nearby to my house, under the Large Tree (a nickname I had given to where me, mum and Fliss hanged out a lot) and I didn't even want to look at her.

"Mudd... you do realise you're not going to be doing yourself any favours unless you talk about what's bothering you."

She looked at me, and then I slowly looked to turn towards her face. She was a brunette girl roughly my age, and wore a Pokémon trainer hat, and had a large handbag with her Pokémon inside. She wore a skirt and a leather jacket with red chequers covering the entire thing, and had an Eevee t-shirt beneath. The brown-eyed girl smiled at me, of course trying to cheer me up, but to no avail.

"Why should I listen?" I asked, "you know I ran away, and everyone came looking for me. What good is it going to do if you keep on prying the subject? I ran, people found me, and mum's funeral was held... people keep on asking me stuff like 'Oh Mudd, you're going to be okay!' and 'Oh Mudd, why should you worry?' or whatever. But that's not the point. I've been suffering inside, constantly, and this... this is what I have to cope with? My first gym badge win against Brock, and then straight out of nowhere... my m-mum... dies..." I began to sink my head into my arms.

Fliss sighed, and faced forwards. "You know, you've been one of the strongest people I've ever met Mudd."

"H-huh?"

"You heard me. You've always wanted to go on and try to conquer the world with Froakie there. I bet by the time this is all over he'll be a strong Greninja fighting against Steven Stone!"

"Heh, the Hoenn Champion?" I smirked, but shook my head, "I doubt it. I've lost my self-confidence. Mum..."

"Yes?" Fliss looked at me again.

"Mum..." A single tear shed down my cheek, "she was always there for me. She'll go on and on about how well I was doing at the Trainer's School, saying about how well I've been doing. I just can't see that. I started battling out of spite for her, and Froakie here..."

The silent Froakie looked at me as he lay looking up the entire time, and formed a small smile, attempting to reassure me like Fliss was.

"He tried his very hardest when I fought Brock. He learnt Bubble through some training we did prior to the battle, and suddenly he sent out his Onix. That was certainly um... hard."

Memories of how Froakie dodged Onix's slamming rock attacks and body even surprised me, but after I received my first badge, he chirped in delight. I guess he really was the agile fighter.

"Heh, yeah, Brock was hard when I fought him too, but still, you've gotta realise... No matter what happens, I'm always there for you, and you can always share anything that's troubling you."

"Thanks..." I said quietly, before...

**End Of Flashback**

"Mudd, hey, are you there?! Answer me!"

I got pulled back from my shifted state, and returned back to reality, where a grief-stricken Bulbasaur stared back at me, pleading to know if I was okay.

"Bulbasaur?" I looked at him.

"Oh thank Arceus, you're alright!" he cheered, "don't s-scare me like that, okay?"

"S-sorry bud." I sighed, and looked at my leg. Surely enough, I was still a Froakie. The significance of my existence in this alternate world baffled me, but whatever may have happened, my memories kept on flashing into my mind.

"Well anyway, you're here, and I think it's about time we met the other Guild members!" And surely enough again, Bulbasaur returned to his usual, upbeat (but rather clumsy) self.

"Wait a sec, I don't know-" I began, and before I knew it, I was dragged out of my room into the lobby of the guild.

"Heh, I know you're very excited and all that, and I know that need to make sure we can start requests as a team Mudd, but we need to go see the other members of the guild and make sure we get acquainted to one another and..."

"Bulbasaur, will you stop?!" I bellowed, and he yelped in surprise.

"H-hey? What gives?!" he exclaimed.

"Would you at least let me have a chance to speak? You sound like something out of a TV show."

"A what show?" he said, confused.

I sighed, and shook my head. "Never mind, I'm just saying can I at least have an understanding of what's going on? You don't need to speak so fast."

"O-okay, sorry..." he sighed, and frowned. He began to look like he was forming his synonymous sad face.

"Sorry..." I looked at him, "I didn't mean it like that..."

"It's okay," he said, and smiled faintly. "I don't blame you, I usually get ahead of myself sometimes. As I was saying, before I uh..." I gave him a stern look, "dragged you out of the room like that, I wanted you to meet the other members of the guild. Most members of the town already know who they are."

"Oh..." I said, and had a look down the corridor, seeing silhouettes around the corner. "They better hopefully not like be Team Crushers."

"What?! Didn't I already say that on our way here yesterday that the guild didn't have teams like that?!" he looked at me surprised, bewildered in disbelief at what I just said.

"Okay, okay..." I sighed, and accepted my defeat, "let's go and meet them then."

"Heh, finally you see things from my perspective. Right this way!"

Bulbasaur led me to the lobby, and there I was greeted by a whole bunch of other Pokémon. Master Magcargo was nowhere to be seen, neither was Ursaring.

"Well, who doodly do we have here?" I turned around to see a rather goofily talking Pokémon walking up to me.

"Uh... hello?" I turned my head to the side, and noticed it was a Timburr.

"Well, I'm Timby the Timburr, not the most exciting name y'all probably know, but it's how I roll about this fine guild." Timby smiled at me, and I shook his hand in confusion.

"New members, eh?" The ground thudded as I jumped to see another Pokémon stare at me back. "Fine seeing some young folks here, but y'know you better be on your best behaviour you know. I hate troublemakers!"

"H-hi..." I waved, whilst Bulbasaur sneered with his legs.

"The same goes for you too kid!" It was a Donphan, and boy, was this Pokémon loud. It reminded me a lot of Loudred back in the real world, one of Fliss' Pokémon, and how he'd shout every time he won a battle. Fliss' face was hilarious each time.

Bulbasaur jumped, and then slowly nodded his head.

"So you're our new team, what was it..." A female voice from behind me spoke, softly but vividly enough for me to hear.

"Team Hero Helpers, nice to meet you." Bulbasaur smiled, and I nervously nodded as I turned around.

"Oh yes, of course, sorry for not remembering," she giggled, "I'm Sylvie the Sylveon, one of Eevee's evolutions, and I tend to be the healing Pokémon around here, but I do pack a punch when I need to."

"Haha, lady, you usually don't know your inner strength half the time!" The Donphan roared in laughter.

"B-Brutus, how dare you!" Sylvie lashed out at him, but Brutus gleamed.

"Sorry Sylvie, you're just really easy to tease sometimes," he bashfully smiled.

"What's going on in here?" A Pokémon I had never seen before suddenly entered the room, and he looked like a starter just like me and Bulbasaur were.

"Oh hey Flare, nice to see you." Sylvie smiled, and Timby gave a thumbs up.

"Gawrsh, it's been a little while since I've seen you up and going you know." Timby smiled, but Flare's attention wasn't on him, but on us.

"You're Team Hero Helpers then? Well, I uh..." he awkwardly made his way over to us, "my name's Flare, and I'm a Scorbunny."

I shook my head. "A what?"

Flare gave me a sceptical look. "What's up with this guy?" He looked at Bulbasaur, who shrugged.

"It's just... I've never seen a kind of Pokémon like you before. It's just... wow..." I stood there agape with interest, but Flare stood there with growing confusion on his face.

"Well, okay... Anyway, who are you?"

"I'm Mudd. Nice to meet you, I'm a..." I stopped myself from saying what I really was. Was it really the right time to reveal that I was a human? No, it wasn't.

"...Froakie."

"Uh-huh... I know that, you know." he laughed, which I'm assuming he was getting a kick out of doing this. "Mudd was it? It's nice to meet you too."

I smiled, and he smiled back too. "Do you have a team yourself?"

His smile turned to a worrisome look. "N-not really, I've been here for quite a while for someone to take me in but no one would notice..."

Bulbasaur came up to him and smiled. "Hey, did you want to join us?"

"J-join you?"

"Yeah, we'd love to have all the help we could get." Bulbasaur smiled, and pushed me in nearer to the pair of them.

"W-well, haven't we just met?"

"Heh, to be honest, me and Mudd only met yesterday, so it's crazy as it already is." Bulbasaur chuckled.

Flare thought for a few moments, thinking hard, and then smiled with joy.

"Please!"

"Well Mudd, would you like him in?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed, and Flare came and hugged me. "Whoa, easy there tiger."

"Huh, what's a tiger?" he said confused, but laughed, and I hugged him back. We now had three team members - Flare, me and Bulbasaur. Although now that I wondered...

"Hey Bulbasaur, can I ask something?"

"Sure Mudd, what is it?" he looked at me awaiting a response.

"Well, it was a nickname for you. I'm Mudd, he's Flare. Surely we can give you one too?"

"T-that's..."

"Yeah!" Flare smiled, "we should come up with one for you as well!"

"No need..." he smiled slightly, "it's one Mr Ursaring usually called me. Well, he did call me Squirt quite a lot before using my full name, but he also called me Bulbs since I'm a Bulbasaur and of course I usually use these." He showed us his bulbs, before smirking and tickling me.

"H-hey stop! T-that tickles!" I blurted out laughing and fell on my back before rolling around.

"Heh, Bulbs huh? Let's go with that. What'd you say, Mudd?" Flare turned to me.

"W-well, it's..." I tried to say through my laughing fit, "a g-g-great name! Stop already, haha!"

Bulbasaur grinned, and then turned to the pair of us. "Bulbs... You know what, that's now my new nickname. From now on, I'm Bulbs!"

"Bulbs it is." I grinned.

"Golly, and here I thought Sylvie laughed a lot." Timby stood agape, but tried to hide back laughter, leaving a less bemused Sylvie stare at him and Brutus.

Just as this happened, Ursaring, Guild Master Magcargo and other guild members walked through the entrance.

"Hohoho, if it isn't Team Hero Helpers. Oh!" The Guild Master gasped, "you took Flare upon as well? Good for you. The poor boy has been here looking for others, but never had any luck. I'm glad he now has a new team for himself!"

Ursaring came over to us, and smiled. "Bulbasaur, Flare, Mudd, great to see you. Hopefully Bulbasaur isn't causing trouble over here."

Bulbs looked up and retorted back at him. "Hey, I'm now Bulbs you know Mr Ursaring!"

Ursaring chuckled and smiled. "You always make me laugh 'Bulbs', despite your clumsiness."

"Hey!"

"Now now, that's enough." A large female Pokémon came over and greeted us. "I take it you're the new team then? My name's Primrose the Primarina, and I manage tactics. I may have the appearance of a singer, but I can assure you, I usually make more tactics in battle."

Another female Pokémon also accompanied her, and I had a strange feeling about them all of a sudden.

"Like Primrose said there, she covers tactics whilst I cover plans. My name is Gardevoir, and I'm a Psychic Pokémon." Gardevoir looked at me suddenly and then was suddenly surprised. "There's something special about you. You'll do great things, the same as that person once did for me."

I was suddenly confused. Did Gardevoir... suddenly know about who I was?

"Well, I'm... Mudd."

"Mudd huh? ...Very well, I shall look forward to working with you and your team then." she stood quietly for a second before walking away followed by a sternly looking Primrose.

"What was that about?" I looked at the others, and then towards Ursaring.

"Don't mind her Mudd, she's like that. Come on, it's time for breakfast, and then your first assignment."

"R-really?!" Me, Bulbs and Flare said in unison.

"Yes, and after all, I am the Guild cook! Come on!"

"Okay then Mr Ursaring!" Bulbs gleamed as we made our way there. I stopped to quickly catch a glimpse of an Aipom and a Mankey snickering towards one another, before they noticed me and walked away.

"What the?" I looked before the Guild Master ushered me to the dining room.

"Come on now sonny, don't mind them. Let's go eat."

"Sure." I nodded as the others went ahead of me. "But..."

"Hmm?"

"There's something I think I need to tell you about myself..."

(To be continued for in Part 5..)