15. The Pokémon in Me
Danny and Richard had woken up early this morning, after the events of the day before. Training and fighting in a gym battle for Danny, and for Richard chasing the thieves who stole Squirtle. Both got a good reward, Danny the Cascade Badge and Richard his new friend Eevee.
As both walked out of Cerulean City, they saws the sun rising above the horizon.
"A brand new day, what do you think will happen today?" Danny asked. "Don't know. Can't be too bad, at least not worse than that Rocket stuff of yesterday." Richard answered. Danny could still feel the anger in Richard's voice.
"You know, the worst thing is, the one who stole Squirtle actually got away with it." He continued. "If I meet him again, he would wish he would have never stolen Squirtle in the first place. Coming with it, he also stole Eevee, that makes two." Danny started to laugh. "Calm down, that guy is probably already punished by his team leader, the bringer of bad news always gets the blame." "You might be right, still, if I see him again…."
Their conversation was ended abrupt when both boys heard a guy screaming for help.
"Can't get a little bit of rest can we?" Danny said. "Why can't people just enjoy a story about us when we are relaxing?"
Richard started laughing. "Come on, don't know what's wrong, but we might be able to help." Danny nodded. "You are probably right." "I know, I am always right." Richard had to have the last word.
The boys ran towards where they heard the screaming, but couldn't find anyone. It was a dead end as well. The only thing visible was a lake and one small cottage.
"Maybe those two heard something." Richard said, pointing towards a couple sitting at the water.
"Hi, can we ask you something?" Danny said. "Stay away from me and my girlfriend." The guy directly screamed. "Calm down Chad. Sorry, my boyfriend is easily offended." The girl next to him said. "My name is Haley, can I help you?" "Yeah, we heard someone scream, so we wondered if you heard it as well?" "No we didn't, I'm sorry." "And now get lost." Chad added.
"Thanks anyway." Richard politely said, as they walked away.
"So much for kindness." Danny said grumpy. "She was nice though."
"Help!" "There it is again, it sounds near." Richard and Danny started looking around as lunatics. "There is no-one around." "I am down here." Both looked down, and saw a Clefairy, walking to stand in the midst of them.
"You can talk?" "Yeah, because I am not a Pokémon. The name is Bill, I am a Pokémon researcher, I am doing research towards the system that transports your Pokéballs towards wherever you want."
"But, if you don't mind, what are you doing in a Clefairy sized doll?" Danny couldn't keep himself together. "You know, if I were you, I would have chosen something like a Charizard or something."
"Something went wrong. I'll explain it in my lab, follow me." Danny and Richard followed Clefairy Bill, Richard serious, Danny still laughing.
"A Clefairy, the idea." Bill heard it, but decided not to respond.
As they followed Bill, they went back to the dead end where they just came from, and they saw the couple again, but this time, they went towards the small cottage which they had seen earlier.
When they walked in, they saw machines and computers everywhere. "Wow, you really are a computer genius, aren't you?" Richard asked. "Well, I wouldn't call someone that transformed himself into a Clefairy a genius." Danny started laughing again.
"That is the problem. I was a new machine that should show which Pokémon is your favorite, put it made me turn into a Clefairy." Poor Bill, he shouldn't have mentioned favorite Pokémon.
"So Clefairy is your favorite!" Danny almost fell onto the ground from laughter. "Are you okay Danny?" Richard asked. "Yeah." Danny still laughed. "Just give me a second."
Bill and Richard decided to ignore the 15 year old trainer and went on with what was the actual problem. "So Bill, how did you turn into a Clefairy?" "I don't know, it should have shown my favorite Pokémon, but it turned me into a Clefairy." Bill answered. "I know how to fix it, but I can reach the buttons."
Danny, trying to imagine how that would look, Clefairy Bill jumping up and down, which his small arms trying to hit the panel, and Danny started to laugh again.
"I'll help you, which buttons do I need to push?" "Push the green one at the left, not the one at the right." Bill started. "Done." "Okay, now take those four strings and give them to me." Richard took four stings, all of them with some kind of suction pad at the end, he gave them to Bill, who plucked all four of them against his head.
"Now, push the big, red button." Richard nodded, and pushed the big button in the middle of the pattern, one of those 'never push on this button' buttons.
A strong light emerged from the pattern, which made Richard do a step back, and Danny even stopped laughing, and looked up at the shining light. "Something wrong?" He asked Richard. "Don't know, Bill?" Bill didn't answer, the light was getting really fiercely, and neither Danny or Richard trusted it anymore.
"Should we get help?" "No.. It… Works…. Perfect.." Bill managed to get out, while his size and shape was changing completely.
Five seconds later, the fierce light faded, and a young man with brown hair was standing right in front of them. He was wearing a blue T-shirt and blue shorts. He had a kind look in his face. Short, he just looked like a nice person.
"This is how I really look like." Bill said, smiling. "It is an improvement." Danny said nodding slowly. "Sure is." Richard smiled. "What do you think went wrong?"
"I'll tell you that, but first, let's get you something to eat. What's the time?" Danny looked at his small, black watch. "Just past 10 a.m." "Well, would you like something, tea, coffee?" "I would like a cup of coffee." Danny said. "I rather have some tea, thanks." "I'll get it. You wait here." The young researcher said, as he walked off to his kitchen.
"He is okay." Danny said. "I think so to, you should have been nicer to him." "I can't help it. He is a guy that likes Clefairy's, I know I shouldn't had, but I couldn't help myself."
Bill quietly laughed, and thought off something. What if he did some things visibly with the machine, like it looked it was repaired, but actually it isn't. "Let's see what your favorite Pokémon is Danny." He said silently.
A loud whistle made clear that the kettle was done boiling the water, and that tea and coffee could be served.
As Bill walked back into the main research room, he saw several Pokémon sitting on the ground.
"Woah, I thought I had four guests, two humans and two Pokémon." He laughed. "Well, we thought we should give them some fresh air." Richard said, who was sitting on one of the chairs, and was stroking his Eevee, that led on his lap.
"You know, that brought me to an idea." Bill said, as he took a Pokéball that had led on one of the materials, and he let a brown Eevee out.
Richard's Eevee, extremely happy to see another Pokémon of her species, jumped off Richard's lap.
"So, I think I know what is wrong." Bill started his act. "It might be either this, or this." He started fiddle at the machine, without changing anything. "Well, it could be this as well."
His act worked, as both Danny and Richard looked like it was all for real.
"It should work now." Bill said. "Danny, could you try it for me?" "Me? Why not you?" "Because I can switch things back easily if it goes wrong. I just hope your favorite Pokémon isn't an Onix or a Gyarados, otherwise, where fine." "Okay than, let's go."
Danny walked up to the machine, and let Bill plug the four cables onto his head. Bill had a small grin, which went unnoticed by Danny, but Richard saw it.
"Bill, what's so funny?" He asked. But it was too late, Bill already pushed the big red button, and a fierce light appeared. 10 seconds later it had faded, and where Danny had been, there was a Charmander now.
"Bill, turn it back. Right now." Bill started to laugh. "Payback Danny, payback." Richard could see the fun of it as well, although it would have been even funnier if Danny's favorite Pokémon was also a cute little one.
"I'll turn it back now." When Bill turned around, he accidentally pushed a small green button. The ones that are like, 'although the red one is bigger you should push this one for safety' button. Bill likes to think the other side around.
Red was save, so green was…. Well, not too safe.
The machine started to crack, and several small smoke plumes lifted up from the pattern. "That doesn't look good." Bill said. "What doesn't look good? I got your joke, now turn me back." Danny started to get frustrated.
"I think we should all run away from the machine and dive, quick!" Bill said. "It is going to explode!" The word explode was enough, all of them quickly dived behind either a machine of some other big thing that could be used as protection.
The smoke plumes got bigger, and the cracking louder, and the entire machine exploded , fire spurting out of it, pieces flew through the entire room, as the heat was almost unbearable.
When the explosion had ended, and all of them where still okay, the crawled away from behind their shelters.
"Now we got a problem." Bill said serious right now, but Danny, who was a still a Charmander, had other interpretations of 'problem'. "We got a problem? I am the one in the Charmander body!" Danny screamed.
Charmander, Danny's, not Danny, walked towards Danny, and tried to calm it down. "Wow, I never seen you from this perspective." Danny said, calmed down indeed.
As it seemed to work, the others tried it as well, and Beedrill, Abra, Bellsprout, Krabby, Pidgey, Squirtle, Sandshrew and both the Eevee's walked towards Danny.
"You know, this is actually not all that bad." Danny started to see the good part of it. "That, however, doesn't take away that I have the body of a Pokémon!"
"Calm down, I'll start working on it right away, and it must be ready in no time." Bill said. "I'm sorry Danny, I didn't thought it would go wrong."
"Bill, can I maybe help you out?" "I think I know just the thing you can help me with." Bill smiled.
"And what can I do?" Danny asked. "Everything you like. As long as you remember that the fire on your tail has to be kept burning." Bill says. "Otherwise…." Danny tried to get more tragic details. "Otherwise you'll die." Bill said, and turned around. "Have fun."
"Really, what a great guy." Danny said, as he followed his and Richard's Pokémon outside.
"Maybe I can talk to them now, hey Charmander." Charmander turned around, looked at his trainer, and said happy his name, as most Pokémon do. "Nope, that doesn't work." Danny sighed. "Well, let's get playing."
Nearby the cottage was a lake, in which both Squirtle and Krabby happily dived into. Charmander and Danny, however, didn't get to near the water. Sandshrew followed them up directly, while all three of them where weak against it.
"I might even get used to this." Danny said, as he laid himself on the ground, next to Charmander. "This is the good life, right?" Charmander nodded.
"Now I have had it all. Being a trainer, being a Pokémon. Never thought things could turn out this way."
In the cottage, Richard and Bill where working their hardest to get stuff done as fast as they could.
"I still don't know how this could happen." Bill said. "When it changed be into a Clefairy it didn't exploded either."
"Those things happen, luckily, Danny doesn't seem to be too angry, it would have been worse if he would have been changed into a Clefairy himself." Richard laughed. "Where can I put this particle?"
Danny was amusing himself quite well, he had decided to play instead of resting, this was maybe his only time to play with his Pokémon while being a Pokémon.
"Beedrill, over here!" Beedrill, who was currently flying up in the air, flew towards his trainer. "Let's play tag." Tag is a game, that is played as the following: One of the players is the tagger, and he or she has to tag some of the other players, than the tagged one becomes the tagger. The others need to prevent themselves from being tagged.
The other Pokémon quickly joined in as well. Danny started off being the tagger, but was quickly freed, after he tagged Krabby. The poor crab Pokémon was way too slow to tag anyone else, so it kept walking, chasing Sandshrew or Bellsprout, but couldn't tag neither of them.
Krabby's luck changed when Bellsprout slipped and fell, and the crab Pokémon didn't hesitated to tag Bellsprout, which made the last one angry.
"Come on guys, you are the tagger now Bellsprout" Bellsprout refused. Krabby, as shy as it was, already started walking again, as if it was still the tagger. "Krabby, you don't need to be the tagger anymore. Bellsprout is."
Bellsprout was still angry, but knew it better couldn't get into an argument with its trainer. Not only because Danny was its trainer, but right now, also at a type advantage.
This didn't mend, however, that Bellsprout was planning to be the tagger for long, it took the slowest player, which was Krabby, and tagged it again. This made Danny furious.
"Don't be so mean Bellsprout, you know Krabby isn't the fastest, tag someone else." Bellsprout sighed, and thought of another strategy.
It used Vine Whip to let Danny the Charmander slip, and tagged it directly. It didn't see what it did, Danny slipped, and fell into the water, that far, that he couldn't swim back to the coast. For some reason, being a Charmander also disabled his swim knowledge.
"Help! Help!" Danny screamed. He directly remembered Bill's advice and grabbed his tail, and kept it above water. This costed him one of his hands, and now he was struggling in the water with one of his hands, and both his feet.
"I need help!" Squirtle and Krabby didn't hesitated and dived directly into the water, both swam towards their trainer.
Bellsprout was shocked that it managed to get its trainer into trouble again, and had already its vines out to help its trainer back on the solid land.
Squirtle and Krabby had now reached Danny, and where now trying to figure out how to get him back onto the land.
Richard and Bill had heard some screaming, and had ran outside, and where just in time to see Danny struggle into the water.
"I'll go after him." Bill said. "No wait, Squirtle and Krabby are handling it." Richard stopped him. Krabby was now holding up Danny's tail with on claw, while swimming with the other, while Squirtle was guiding Danny back to the land.
Once there, Bellsprout took Danny with its vines, and lifted it up to the ground.
"Thanks you guys." Danny said, as he was still shaking from this nearly death experience.
"Good to see you all okay." Bill said. "And we've got good news: The machine is fixed, we can get you back to your human form." "That would be great, knowing what Charmander has to get through, I rather be a human."
The four cables where plugged against Danny's orange skin, and Bill pushed some buttons, before pushing the big red one, avoiding the green one.
Within seconds Danny was no longer a Charmander, and was back in his human state.
"Thanks Bill, if you ever dare it again, you'll find out how it is to swim as a Charmander." Bill started to laugh. "We'll see Danny, we'll see."
"The machine should be good now, Richard, can I ask you to test it?" Richard hesitated at first, but when he thought of the fact that Squirtle's could swim, he decided to give it a shot.
This time around, the machine worked perfectly: On the screen appeared a picture of a Squirtle. "Yes, it worked. Danny, want to try it?" "No thanks, I know now what my favorite is." Bill laughed. "About that by the way, the machine turned me into a Charmander, but I'm sure my favorite Pokémon is a Charizard." Danny said. "It isn't anymore." Bill answered. "You always liked Charizard, am I right?" Danny nodded. "That's why I decided to go with Charmander." "Well, you have gained a huge liking towards Charmander, you care about it a lot, that's why it is your favorite."
Danny nodded as in understanding. "Shouldn't Eevee be your favorite than?" Richard asked. "Well, it is. But you see, my girlfriend has recently captured a Clefairy, and it is such a cute and adorable Pokémon, that it has won a place in my heart." Bill said.
"Well, we should be on our way, shouldn't we?" Danny said, "Yeah, I think so." Richard answered. "It was nice having you here, whenever you get through Cerulean City again, don't forget to pass by and say hi." Bill said., "We will." Both boys said, as they waved the Pokémon Researcher goodbye. "See ya."
Both walked straight into the horizon, on with also laid Vermillion City, their next stop, where Danny has the possibility has to acquire his third gym badge. What new adventures await our heroes? Find it out in the new chapter.
Well, it took me quite some time to finish it, I finally got some inspiration. Don't worry about the chapter for upcoming Sunday, they idea is almost completed, only the title and the writing.
The idea of Danny almost drowning is an idea by Martyn, a guest account. I first got this request at the chapter before the capture of Krabby, so I couldn't say Danny can't swim at all, since it was shown in Chapter 7. I hope this fits with the idea you had Martyn, thanks for the request.
I hope more people have great ideas, you can send them by pm or as a review, some chapters, like evolution and stuff, have already been decided, but the so-called filler chapters, to introduce some of the Pokémon that otherwise won't be shown, and to give the characters some character development, haven't yet. So if you have an idea, doesn't matter if it includes a Pokémon, than send it to me, and I'll see what I can do.
One last thing, as a foretaste of upcoming Sunday: Danny and Richard will gain a travel compagnion!