A crash of thunder
Tires screeching
Metal bending
Flesh tearing
Bones snapping
Heart stopping
Life ending
Light blinding
"Greetings, it seems you've gotten into a mess, haven't you?"
Voice booming
"Well, it seems that the world has no place for you, does it?"
Mind questioning
"I think i have a place for you, just a moment, and you'll be there."
Pain surging
"I'll be speaking to you again… Damien."
Chapter 1: A Beginning
Waves crashing, churning sand, muddled noises of birds. Sand under body. Wait, where am I? Thoughts flooded into the mind of a recently unconscious figure, shifting and moving, sand getting caught into their fur. Wait, fur, hold up..Attempting to stand, a vulpine body shifts itself, dark gray fur rolling through the sand, red tipped plume from the top flowing itself upwards from the ground. Tear drop shaped tail, sharing the same tipped red, with the broad side connecting to the small body of what is clearly, a Zorua
Shakily standing onto it's hind legs, only to fall forward, and catching itself with it's front, feeling far more natural like this It stares down past it's dark grey fur collar at it's front paws, lifting them up and examining them.
"Oh… Oh no… This isn't right, this isn't right at all!" An adult male seems to come out of the small body, not exactly matching properly.
Looking around his body, examining as much of as he can with the limited movement supplied by a quadrupedal body. What am I? A… Zorua? What is that? A pokemon, I think. Wait… I can't remember anything.
"Oh no, Oh no, nonono. THere has to be something in my head, something." The Zorua's face scrunched up, as he attempted wrack his mind, trying to pull any information that he remembers on himself. "Okay, okay… fuck… My name is… Damien, okay that's good. Uhh, I'm 20 years old, okay okay, wait, I was a human." A human, that's what I am, or was at least, I need to get back. "How the fuck do I do that?" A good question
Like radars, the large ears atop Damien's head seemed to naturally swivel towards a direction down the beach, a verbal altercation it seems, but still too far to discern the words. Ah good, people, maybe they can help, hope it's nothing bad going on. Beginning to move, the fox trips over itself, still unfamiliar with the body, but getting used to it after a series of 4-5 more trips every couple steps, eventually getting the rhythm down and making his way down the shoreline.
Only traveling maybe 20 steps before he could make out a series of shapes 3, one seemingly humanoid, while another is flying next to it, they seem to be confronting a similarly four legged creature simple in shape, and has a leaf on it's head. Getting closer, the humanoid throws a fist at the quadruped, hitting it, knocking them to the ground, followed by yelling, assumedly from the humanoid.
"We told you, just give us your shit and this won't get any worse for you!" That doesn't sound friendly, nor look it, I need to do something. Beginning to speed up his pace, Damien begins to run, naturally, almost like he wasn't just tripping over himself less than a minute ago. A dark sheen passes itself over his front paws Hone Claws, learned at level 8. The sheen seems to pass over another 2 times before Damien reaches the group, jumping at the humanoid who has begun readying another punch directed at the now visibly green, leafed creature, a Chikorita.
With a claw outstretched Damien scratches at the, now easy to see Machop who reels back from the scratch. A fighting-type, not the best matchup, but I'll see if I can fare.
"OW, fuck, why did that hurt so much?" The Machop spoke, the voice sounded younger than the Zorua's, but still male. "Heh, what are you? The bean's little boyfriend?" Hmm, they're classic bullies it seems. "Tch, that was a hard hit you got on me, but there is 2 of us." The Machop continued speaking and gesturing towards the flying figure who appears to be a Fletchling, while not necessarily the most menacing of pokemon, it's orange and white body seems to be giving off an aggressive flow to it as it flaps quickly, keeping itself aloft.
"My relationship doesn't matter, I'm simply stepping in." Damien speaks up, his clearly deeper voice startling the two aggressors. 'I know i'm just one, but you'd best back off. That scratch was fifty stronger than normal, and I doubt in your state now, you could handle another." A good question is, where is this knowledge coming from, it's just flowing into my head, questions for later.
"Tch, I hate to admit, but you're right." The Grey skinned humanoid shape who stand only slightly higher than the fox. Turns around, scoffs and gestures to the Fletchling to follow. "Come on Flin, it isn't worth it anymore…probably didn't have a lot anyways." The Fletchling just chirps begrudgingly and flies over to the Machop and landing on his head, nestling in to the grooves.
After a moment of watching the two leave, Damien turns to the Chikorita, putting a small smile on his face, he extends a paw to help them stand. "Are you doing alright?"
The Chikorita just stares at the fox's paw. Before a few awkward moments, reaching for it. "T-Thanks, and yeah, I'm fine, I've got a berry that'll help." A female voice speaks from her, having a vine sprout from her side, reach into a bag that was nestled on the ground behind her. Right, they can do that, grass types huh? She pulls out a round blue fruit that is speckled with very small black dots and a small green it's slightly flattened top. She starts eating it, sitting in the sand.
"That's good." Damien says sitting into the sand with her, his back facing the two pokemon that recently left, hers facing the ocean. "The name's Damien." The same smile appearing across his snout.
"I'm Maggie." It's difficult to tell from her voice, her age, but the way she acts is that of someone near Damien's age, but a feeling sits in the back of his mind that age probably is different for pokemon than humans in how fast it is. "So, you're not from here, are you?" She asks, after swallowing another piece of Oran berry, whatever nervousness she had from when she first spoke gone.
"That obvious, huh?" Damien says, attempting to scratch his chin only to realize it's just a paw with no claws. Damn, no wonder dogs like having people do it for them.
"Well, we're in the north, and Zorua and Zoroark are red and white." She says taking another bite of the berry.
Red and white? Hisuian form, I believe… Seriously, why do I know all of this? "Huh, yea that's fair to say." Damien began pondering to himself, before something came to mind. "If we 're up, why are you here, you're a grass type."
"Pshh, I don't live up here, I live more southern, sure still a part of the North, but the southern section where it's more mild."
"Ah, makes sense, so uhh… where are we exactly?"
"Like I said, the north, very specifically the north-easter shore, currently in the middle. Why? Did you get lost, 'cause you look lost." She said taking a final bite of the berry,
"Lost sure is a word for it. I just woke up on the beach, attempted to get my bearings, heard some noise, came to investigate, and here I am." A moment pauses as Maggy continues chewing. "I uhh, don't remember anything except my name, age, and…" Is that something I should say, i mean there's probably humans here right, I mean, there aren't many games where there isn't. "And that I was… human." Despite his thinking, Damien was still hesitant on saying it.
Putting up a single clawed foot, trying to quickly swallow what remains of the berry to speak, coughing slightly. "Wait a human, there aren't any of those around, not anymore at least, they extinguished themselves from the planet several millennia ago, us pokemon are just living off of there scraps and have just made it out."
"Oh… wow, alright… that's hh, that's… wow okay." Those words struck in a very strange way, it kinda hurt, but Damien couldn't tell why, if it was so that he was in fact human, he believed something like that would hurt more, but it didn't, just pang of sadness foloowed by no feelings good or bad. There has to be a reason for that.
"So there's no way you're human."
"Hmm, maybe so, then why is one of the few things I seemed to remember, many things to think about."
"Yeah, maybe don't say something like that to others, they might think you're crazy, I mean I think you're crazy, but you seem like a good enough 'mon. You said you remembered your age as well right?"
'Yeah, twenty."
"Oh… you're not lying either. Maybe you are human, Zorua tend to only age to about 6 before evolving, and then live up to quite a high age, but only as a Zoroark." She said looking at the sand, the waves now breaching past he claws as the tide rises. The cold water wrapping itself around them. She leaps up with a yelp, going forward, and colliding with the Zorua who was deep inside his own thoughts.
Ow, Geez, you good?" Damien says, picking himself up.
"Yeah, I'm good, yep. Just cold." Standing up, and staring up into the now darkening sky as night begins to fall upon them."Hmm, it's turning night time, nothing dangerous really happens out here, but we should set up camp… Come with me, I've got a spot where we can rest."
"Oh alright." She has a way with changing up her mood very quickly, huh. Swiftly following behind the green quadruped, they walked for close to 30 minutes, darkness still descending upon them, they reach a small in lay, about 50 metres from the shore. THe in lay seems to be covered in sand on the bottom, and a circle of stone lays in the middle with a series of charred twigs rests in the circle.
"And ta-dah! Our camp!" She says quite excitedly, as she moves into it.
"Huh, I dig it. Any tinder?" Damien said looking at the circle which seemed to only be about 6 metres in diameter, which would be able to hold the two and a flame comfortably, considering the quickly decreasing temperature.
"Uhhh, no, used it last night." She said shrugging. "Shouldn't be hard to get more, so stay here, I'll be back."
"Are you- okay, she's gone." He says as she hops out of the sandy divet. Despite the ever approaching night, Damien's sight never decreased, A nice bonus of being a Dark-type, I guess. Sitting there, the zorua begins thinking about what else he might know, sifting through shapeless, muddled and non-existent memories in his head. WHat do I know? How much do I know? Moves, what moves do I know, uhh, Hone Claws, Scratch… Umm… Extrasensory, wait what, that's an egg move… "Why do I have an egg move? Wait, why do I know what egg moves are?" This is just getting more confusing." Hmm, what else… Torment? That's an interesting one, not the most useful though, maybe I'm wrong.
Seemed after a few minutes of these running thoughts, the Chikorita jumped back into the sandy campsite, spraying sand up, catching Damien off guard, but he didn't move much from his spot. "Heheh, sorry, got some stuff though." She said releasing a decent stack of stick and twigs from her vines, splaying them out in front of the Zorua. "Do you know how to start a fire? No, cool, I got it."
"I didn't even- alright." I mean I don't but alright I guess.
Placing some of the twigs in the circled, piled in a triangular shape, and taking s single stick, placing an end on the bottom of the pile, and began spinning it very rapidly with her vines, much a human would. Before a moment later, a small ember formed, igniting the stick she was spinning, and releasing it into the pile, slowly beginning the formation of a campfire.
"Ah hah, still got it." She said, proud of her flame. 'So, Damien, why'd you end up saving me earlier?"
"That's an odd question, but uhh, just felt like the right thing to do." Damien just shrugs.
"Uh huh, alright, that's good enough for me." She says laying down in the sand, creating a small groove for her to lay down, folding her front claws under her chest.
"Uhh, Okay… Since you asked earlier, how old are you?"
"You don't ask a lady that, I feel like someone who's twenty should know that." She says, a smirk coming up her face, and an emphasis on 'twenty'.
"Right… sor-"
"I'm 4, another few months, and I'll evolve into a Bayleef." Excitement filling her voice once again at the prospect of evolution.
"Huh, so evolution is based on age, and not so much strength, or combat experience?"
"Yeah, is that not normal?" Seeming confused, she tilts her cylindrical head.
"Uhh, well… I'm not sure, thinking about it now."
"You are very strange, I like you."
"Thanks?" Genuine confusion enters his voice, before he seems to copy Maggy's position. Huh, comfy.
"OH!" JUmping up from her position, startling the now laying down Zorua. "I've got an idea, you probably wanna return to being human right?"
"Y-yeah, that'd be nice." Her emotions scare me.
"Well, if we join a rescue team, we can work at a rescue guild and go on adventure, exploring things and maybe discover a way to return you to normal, a pretty good idea right? I think it's a really good idea."
"Hmm, okay, I guess. I can only assume what it's about from that name and explanation, it seems fun." Rescue Team huh? That'll be an interesting prospect.
"Yeah! It'll be loads of fun, I'm sure." She says, settling back down in her spot, and using a vine to throw another twig into the fire. He has a good heart, he's perfect for a rescue team, I'm sure. AND he's good in a a fight too, so he truly is perfect for it. Her mind trailing.
"Well, how long until we get back into town tomorrow?" The Zorua staring at the red and pink eyes of the Chikorita that just seem to be staring at him as well. I can't tell if she's stranger than me or not.
"Oh, just a few hours, we'll make it there by the afternoon if we don't get held up by something."
"Huh, okay, well, you'll have to fill me in on the world while we walk, I'll need it to not be seen as weird, y'know?"
"Pshh, yeah of course, happy to teach my little knight in dark fur." She says with a wink.
What, was she flirting with me, what? So many questions. "I'm not that much smaller than you." She is about half a foot taller than the small fox, which for small pokemon is a much bigger difference when considered. "Or… nevermind."
"Heheh, goodnight Damien." She says curling up
"Alright, I guess… Goodnight Maggy." The Zorua follows suit, using his oddly shaped tail to cover his face as he curls into a natural feeling position. Falling asleep after a few minutes of his mind racing some more.