Chapter 2: A Friend, Indeed
Everything was hazy to Jenna right now. She felt like she had just woken up. Did she? She didn't remember going to sleep.
She had walked home after and evening with Phil, her boyfriend, and started playing some Pokémon on her Game boy on the walk home. When she walked in the door, after seeing her brother Robert playing some Mario Bros, she turned it off. And that was all she knew. She might have fallen asleep on the couch and forgot what happened before that. But this didn't seem like the couch. It didn't smell like it either. It smelt like . . . a forest.
Everything shifted into focus. Jenna saw she was obviously laying on the ground. A forest floor, to be exact. Everywhere around her she could see trees, and hear birds. She was outside. How did she get outside, though? And this forest didn't look like any she'd ever been to before. In fact, it didn't look completely natural. The trees were fully straight, although they were fairly tall. And above all, she was . . . way too sweaty! This forest didn't have an air conditioner to sit next to, but she was right next to a pond. But was someone waiting for her? She might have been kidnapped. If she was, then Robert might be around here, because he would have been a witness. Or maybe she had gone to her room and some kidnapper jumper her there.
But why kidnappers? And if so, why wasn't she dead yet? Jenna bent over the pool of water and touched it with her hand. Cold, like she had hoped. She splashed some of the water onto her face. It felt better, but her face felt odd. She dried her face off with the sleeve of her sweater. Maybe that's why I'm hot, Jenna thought, I'm wearing my sweat gear.
Jenna absentmindedly looked into the pool. She thought she saw a yellow face in the pool, but she knew that was silly. She looked again as the water started calming from the ripples her hands made. What in the-- the reflection looked like a pikachu? But that was totally absurd. Jenna looked down at her hands. Her hands had yellow fur, four fingers and claws. Her feet were the same, only with three toes. She was still five feet tall, and was wearing all the clothes she had before, but she was still a pikachu! Jenna looked in the pool reflection again.
Jenna still wore her cap and poké ball necklace. She still had her blonde hair. But her face looked like a pikachu! Except for the eyes, though, they were still human. What happened to me? She thought. This wasn't a kidnapper, something altered reality, like from The Twilight Zone. But she knew that this wasn't real. She had to be dreaming. Yeah, that's it. Dreaming. This is a dream I'll wake up from any second now . . .
It wasn't working. Thinking it away wasn't working. Jenna's heart beat faster. She was alone in the middle of the woods without Phil or Robert, and besides that, she was a pikachu hybrid. Well, pikachu was her favorite, but this? This was too weird. More thoughts flew around in her mind. What if she was stuck like this? What if she wouldn't ever see Phil again? Even if she did, would he recognize her? Tear welled up in Jenna's eyes. There were too many whatifs for her to handle.
"Are you alright?" She heard a young man's from somewhere. Jenna turned around and looked up to where the voice came from. "It sounded like you were crying." The voice said again. Jenna could see a figure in the tree. "It's alright." The thing said. "I'm one of you."
One of me? Us? Jenna thought. More than one of what I am? The figure came down from the tree, and it walked into the light. Wow. She thought. He is like me.
He was a hybrid just like Jenna, only a raichu. A sort of cute one, at that. He was at least half a foot taller than Jenna, and had orange raichu fur all over his body; he had yellow cheeks and brown striped back. He also had the white raichu fur on his chest and belly, too. He wore only a very worn pair of blue jeans with the raichu tail coming out of the back. His ears were like a raichu's, and his feet were oversized, and had three toes like a raichu's. His hands had brown fur on them, too. But above all that, his human facial features were still there, as his short brown hair. His eyes still looked human, too.
"What are you doing out here by yourself?" He asked. "And . . why were you crying?"
Jenna froze for one second. "I . . . I'm lost." She finally said.
"That's understandable." The raichu hybrid said. "I haven't seen you around here before. Where are you from?"
"Uh . . . Blue Springs." Jenna replied, surprised at the thoughtfulness of him. He seemed so kind, anyway.
"Blue Springs? Can't say I've heard of it." He said. "I have a map here . . ."
Jenna walked closer, as he took out his paper map. "Can you read?" He asked. "I've been all up and down this countryside for years, and without a need to read, I can't very well anymore."
"Why do you have a map, then?" Jenna asked him.
"This is a world map. You know, just in case I need it. I usually leave it at my den, but I don't know why I brought it with me today."
Jenna looked at the map he was holding. It didn't look anything like the earth.
"Are you sure this is a world map?" Jenna asked him.
"It was when I bought it." He said. "It says 'world map' on it, doesn't it?"
Jenna looked across the map. She didn't recognize any of the names on it, except for two small areas. Kanto and Johto.
"Umm . . ." Jenna thought. She had to think fast. "It. . . it doesn't matter anymore." She said. "I don't want to go back."
"Understandable, also." He said. "When, exactly, did this happen to you?" He said, with a little emphasis on you.
"What do you mean?" Jenna asked him.
"I mean your hybridism." He said with a slight laugh. "When?"
"I . . . I don't know."
"You don't know?" He said abruptly. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"I just don't know!" Jenna said, starting to cry again.
"Hey, hey, I'm sorry!" The raichu hybrid said.
"It's not you . . ." Jenna said, still crying. "I don't know where I am, I don't know where anyone I know is, I don't know where I'll go, and I don't know why I'm like this . . ."
"Don't cry!" He said. "You know what they say, 'if you don't care where you are, you ain't lost.'" He said as he put his arm around Jenna's shoulder.
"Thanks." Jenna said, feeling a bit better. Then she suddenly said, "What's you're name?"
"My name's Skye. What's yours?"
"Jenna."
"Let's go to my den." Skye said. "We'll talk."
"Thank you." Jenna said, feeling a bit more relived. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
"Because we're both hybrids." He said. "And that's really all that matters."
"But what about humans?" Jenna asked as they began to walk.
"What about humans? They want nothing to do with us."
"All of them?"
"Well, not ALL of them, but most of them sure do."
"But why?"
"Why not? They seem to fear everything they can't understand. Like back in the caveman days, when they worshiped any old rock or tree as a god. But the pokémon didn't."
"But the pokémon were just animals."
"What?" He said, stopping in his tracks, "Are you out of your mind? Your transformation didn't happen very long ago, did it?"
"No, it wasn't . . ."
"Pokémon are as smart as any human."
"So why didn't they civilize?" Jenna asked as they continued walking.
"The pokémon lacked natural cooperative skills, which was the only thing the humans had that we didn't."
"We?"
"Sorry, I talk like that sometimes. Goes with the gig."
Jenna nodded her head in understanding.
"So," Skye asked, "What was Blue Springs like, when apparently you were human?"
"It's just like any other town, with the streets and houses."
"No, I mean I want you to tell me details. It's been seven years since I've lived in a city."
"Well, I lived on a one-lane road in a neighborhood. I lived in a blue two-story house, and down the street was my boyfriend Phil's house."
"You realize he probably won't be your boyfriend anymore when he sees you. Like this, anyhow."
"My brother Robert would definitely freak, but not Phillip. Phil was the kind of person who could cope with anything."
"Anything, huh?" Skye repeated, "Even this?"
"Well, this might be a little weird for him, but if I could convince him . . . no, nevermind. I just get sad again when I think about him."
"Some guy, huh?"
"He was more than that . . . " Jenna said, almost crying again.
"Hey, if it makes you that sad, we won't talk about him."
Skye suddenly stopped and perked up. "I hear something." He said. "It sounds like a pokémon."
"A pokémon?" Jenna asked.
"Yes, I can hear one . . . were you ever a trainer?"
"No, I wasn't. Umm . . . my parents wanted me to wait until I was done with school." Which was an outright lie.
"Well I've never heard this kind pokémon before. I was hoping you could tell me." He said, turning to the noise.
"I . . . I probably could."
"It's over there. Can't you hear it?"
Jenna listened. "Yes, I can hear it."
"Over here." He said, waving her to a bush.
"I see it." Jenna said, lowering her voice to a whisper.
"What pokémon is it?" Skye asked, also lowering his voice.
"It . . . it doesn't look like a pokémon at all."
"You're not telling me it's a regular animal, are you?" He said with surprise.
"No . . . but that's not a pokémon at all. That's a Waddle Dee!"