Note: Before you read this, if you haven't already, go read FireHybrid's Intertwine Dreams. If you don't, this story might make little sense to you.

VAGABOND

By Yoshiman, a.k.a. Rick Griffin

Chapter 1

The Wanderer

Wildest Dreams.

What's that phrase mean to you? If only by some chance they might come true, so that you life would become more comfortable/luxurious/adventurous/monotonous/whatever than it is, life would be just perfect.

Perfection rears its ugly head.

A paradise, on my hand, is unpredictability, yet safety from untimely death. Lucky I got both. All happened when the world changed. . .

Yes, the world changed. It used to be much unlike what it is now. Thank whatever gods there are now for that. I might have died from my previous experiences.

I hate erratic monotony.

Sounds like an oxymoron? I'm sure some of you led the live I lived. . . lived. . . But I'm not here to go into details. I'll go into when everything changed. . .

What I'm talking about is before the, well, 'incident'. Back when everything was how it used to be. When I was a lonely teen, not finding acceptance from much anywhere except in my artwork. To tell the truth, my parents loved me, but they didn't understand me all the way. There were things I wanted, like solitude, adventure, and just exploring. I never thought I would actually get those things. My name's. . . well, you can call me Rick Griffin. I was six feet tall, brown hair, gray eyes. This is my story of change.

As I was talking about, the surprising thing, I had received a beta version of an internet Game Boy link. This was a shock, as I never received anything, but also my older brother wasn't home so I got to test it first. But what to play?

My internet server wasn't very reliable at the time, so I picked a game that I could play a quick game of, and more importantly, cheat in. I picked up my Pokémon Blue cartridge.

I'll admit it, I cheated in it. It cost thirty dollars for the Pelican game enhancer with built in Pokémon cheats, and I wasn't going to let my money go to waste. Besides, I always had a resentment to cheaters in other online games, so I played against players with screen names like D@r| |\|e0 and P|-|33R |) |_33+ /\/\@n to give them a taste of their own medicine. Thus said, I had my pokémon's stats maxed out to 999 on everything, including hit points.

I don't cheat much. I'm not a cheater at heart. As a matter of fact, I epitomize fair play. 'Course, I also epitomize justice. Mine's more revenge-like, though. . . justice desserts, if you get my drift.

But now the oddest thing happened. I woke up in an unknown van, the oddest thing about it I really didn't intend to fall asleep. Or actually fall asleep for that matter. Or even get out into an open stretch of highway somewhere in the Midwest. But that didn't prepare me for when I looked down.

I wasn't me.

Well, of course I was me, but it wasn't the me I knew when I thought of 'me'. Another me took me. . . er, 'my'. . . place. What this new me was I wanted to know.

I only realized it after I had started scratching my head, noticing a strange absence of hair, but instead fur. I looked at my hands, now rendered 'paws'. It was time for a body check. And mirrors nearby that I might possible use. . .? The van's rearview mirror.

Shock. Surprise. I was a Typhlosion.

Not exactly a Typhlosion. . . there was a very distinguishing fact that my face looked relatively human. . .

I was a hybrid!

There it is again, wildest dreams. At least one of them. . . I least expected this one to come true, out of all the much strangeness of the other dreams of mine.

Dream?

Maybe this was a dream. No, if it were a dream, I would always wake up afterwards. And besides, my dreams didn't obey the laws of physics at all. Now if I could fly, that would also be cool. . .

What am I doing? Since this wasn't a dream, it was real. Was it? Maybe someone tripped me up with LSD. No, I don't think that would obey the laws of physics, either.

So this was real.

Typhlosion. . . it was odd, as I had always been partial to cold. Aversion to water, yes, but not to cold. Meaning? I supposed there was none. I was a new me. This was a new life.

Man, it felt exciting.

But now on to more important matters. What of this world? Was it still the same as before I turned into this new me? Was this where I lived? I didn't want to take chances at the moment. It was time to go. But first. . . Some more quick checks. . .

I currently wore no shirt, just blue jeans. No shoes, either. I checked: No underwear. Fur is a good thing to have. Moreover, I was at least twelve or thirteen inches taller, and had a wider girth than my previous skinny frame. I had a tail of fire, something that I don't recall being usual for Typhlosions, but I had one anyway. That was going to make sitting down a little hard.

And whoever's van this was, I sure hoped he wouldn't miss a mechanical pencil and a clipboard of paper. . .

\-~|~-/

Lucky for me, I wasn't alone in this world. There seemed to be enough different hybrids around. . . I retraced all the theories through my head. I'd been to several pokémon hybrid websites. Which, if any, applied here? What rules applied?

It was time to make a pit stop.

Pit stop was weird. I guess it had to do with this body. The tail of mine didn't seem to scald any rims or whatnot; it just cooled down. But I was also here for some other things: snack machines. I got a few Snickers for now and the road. My wallet seemed to be chalk full of money, lucky for me. And the walls of this place were likewise with maps. America was intact, thank goodness, as was much of the known world. So the geography was basically the same. . .

Yes, there were also humans, as well as actual pokémon. And then I wondered. . . it was time for a little experiment. I ran outside to the miniature park.

No one was around, So I decided to test something out. Making a fire ball, or at least fire breath. It took me a while, and I don't know how I did it, but I coughed up an Ember attack. Useful. . . maybe I'll take up smoking or something less poisonous.

A little stronger now. I could crank up the heat like a stovetop to a Flamethrower with a little concentration.

This was so cool. I wonder what I can use it for. . . or what else I could do.

There was a park table nearby. Maybe I had enhanced strength. . . I quickly lifted it up into the air, and discovered it had been bolted to the ground. I replaced it before anyone noticed.

In an amazing stroke of luck, if you could call it that, I happened to witness a robbery taking place in the parking lot. It was a common criminal, human, no weapon, he just came up and snatched a woman's purse, then running towards the thin forest behind the station. Being of that vengeful sort by nature, I was inclined to stop him.

Jump. Landed in from of him from twenty feet away. The crook swung the bat he was carrying at me almost in perfect time and reflex. If there had been a brick wall standing where I was, it might have had the same effect.

I grabbed him by the collar, and just for fun, shook him until he dropped the purse. I discarded him like a used tissue (in the garbage can) and returned the handbag to it's owner. The lady was obviously relieved to have her purse back, but was, to be honest a little frightened of me. Understandable. She thanked me anyway.

That was also cool. It was official, I told myself, I had become a veritable superhero. But there were so many others like me, it seemed. Or were there? Probably not so, as not all pokémon were ultra killing machines. I was positive I wasn't unique, though, in that respect. Others had to be like me. Much like me. . .

Had the world realized it changed? I stunned myself at not have bringing that subject up sooner. It seemed as though it were business as usual. I had better not risk embarrassment by asking. It had to have not realized it changed itself, I supposed. The lady didn't run off screaming, in the least, and pokémon. . . no, too many things to realize change and not go into pandemonium.

And like me. . . maybe others realized change.

\-~|~-/

Time passes and the world becomes ever more the strange, and for the better.

Number one reason being I didn't need to sleep for more than two hours a night, and I had more than a thousand dollars in my wallet. And it was growing. I'll get back to that. . . now about people.

The world in general seemed like normal, excepting the fact I seemed to have been treated like a black man in the Queens section of New York City. Not that I didn't get any respect. . . just not enough. Well, so much for Utopia. Not my idea of perfect anyway. . .

I know I could count on certain people to trust me anyway. . . and some of the sources seemed weird that way. Law enforcement officers (Every force has to have a 'Jenny') and Pokémon center attendants, of course other hybrids, and the general population didn't mind much. Taxi cab drivers on the other hand. . . (IT'S CAUSE I'M A HYBRID, ISN'T IT? I yelled once just to be funny in my own mind)

Now for a job to make my wallet grow. What could I do? I could make use of this clipboard I'd been carrying for two weeks now. And that I did.

The old me was a mediocre artist, compared to what the other street artists might have done. But now I was one of them. My eye could pick out the keen differences in shadow and light. Nifty effect to be able to do something I couldn't do before. Sold portraits for fifteen dollars a piece, bought colored pencils and sold color portraits for thirty. I made just enough to not lose any money every day. . . Then I came upon a festival.

Historic city. Tourist season. Festival time. What luck. . . I just had to find the organizer to see if I could get a table. . .

The three-day festival was awesome. I sat there until it was almost store closing time. Made six hundred dollars. If I could do that every day. . . No problem living at all. Fancy hotels every night. and I always liked four-star meals. . .

I deposited the cash back into my wallet when I noticed a card in a slot. I took it out to inspect it.

A driver's license.

So it was my van after all. . . The card said I was twenty-one. Old enough for anything. Of course, I told myself, I could easily have fabricated a false birth certificate. So I was basically twenty-one. The ID itself had some interesting features, including both my Hybrid and my Human stats on it. Human stats? I raced through my mind. Transform into human? What could this mean? I went through the theories again. Not Pokémorphs, definitely. That's human normally then change to pokémon form. But maybe that 'new' fanfiction I 'recently' read. . . A New Beginning. By Fire Hybrid. If that's it, than I should be able to change into a human by concentrating. . .

Success. I was the old me. And I just realized I didn't care much for the old me. The most the old me could do was pass for a human. Maybe I should go buy a shirt. . .

Shirt I did buy. (I got one with the word 'Typhlosion' on it) And I was still transfixed on the license. It had 'hybrid alias' under the picture of me, and I could assume that some Hybrids might give themselves nicknames. Mine was 'Fuzzball'. Heh, that was funny to me seeing how that was one of my previous internet nicks.

\-~|~-/

I didn't go back for my van that moment, I decided to take the scenic route back. Spending a few weeks traveling (That wasn't hard for me on foot, I never seemed to get tired as a Hybrid) I took a long way around. I had learned much about my human form, too, mostly that I was still strong, but not nearly as much as I was in hybrid form. I still could walk as far, I was still sturdy as a brick wall, and I didn't need much sleep.

A long time afterwards, I had reached a place called 'Sapphire City'. Or maybe it was 'Town'. It didn't matter, most every place was one of those two. . . Hmm. What was I doing here?

I had barely arrived, when I was mugged again. (This was probably the tenth or eleventh time in my trip.) I might have just broken his spine like I did the others. (Well not really. Just maimed them then ran out of town cause I was sure as you-know-where I wasn't going to show my face there for another month or so.) But he struck fear into me. He was a Wortortle Hybrid.

Always thinking on my feet, I slipped the twenty that I hid in my change purse for just such an emergency, into my pocket, and threw the wallet at the mobster. He caught it and ran like the wind. Hindsight, I probably should have changed to human right that moment, but I didn't know if it would have mattered.

With my twenty dollar bill I had saved, I went to a nearby Applebee's restaurant, luckily serving to both humans and Hybrids. Knowing I probably wasn't going to sleep in a hotel that night, I spent my last twenty on pasta. The following was a bit embarrassing, but it happened: The pasta was cold when it arrived at my plate, so being the intuitive person I am, I decided to warm it up with a little Ember. Not being able to flick it on for a minute or so, and constantly getting angrier at it, I yelled, "THAT'S IT!" And launched a flamethrower attack. Needless to say, I couldn't repay the restaurant for the table, but I didn't even have a shirt on my back to give to them. The kicked me out permanently.

Besides losing my last twenty bucks, I didn't get to eat that night. So much for honor.

Then the oddest thing happened. I saw a group walk out of Applebee's, and when I saw one of them I immediately thought of Fire Hybrid. I had met Fire Hybrid over AIM. We'd become fast friends. And I couldn't stop thinking about it when I saw that certain certain kid with them. I don't know, he seemed. . . familiar. . . I might learn something if I followed them. So I did.

A residential part of town. I fought the urge to ring the doorbell, but everyone rushed out of the house anyway. They forgot to lock the door, and I let myself in.

That was easy. And now I was a thief. I didn't have a flashlight with me, but my natural flames illuminated the place far more than enough. I searched for a computer room for some reason. I found it, and a n almost new computer, and I flicked it on and hacked in. There were files for the story A New Beginning. And half of the next chapter. This was his computer all right. How oddly coincidental. I made my way back to the porch.

So FireHybrid was here. Maybe now I could learn something useful. If he still remembered the old world, But I'd have to take my chances on disconcertion sooner or later anyway. It was all about risk, this entire thing was. I never regretted one thing about this strange new world. Left to my own devices. Leeching off society. Life was good, and screw the opposition.

I sat on something. . . a stone, and a note. I pocketed them quickly, intending to give them to the intended receiver. When he returned, of course.

----

I'll pick this up when I need to. Ciao!