[Mika]
The noise of several cars driving by woke me up from my sleep with a massive headache. What was going on..? It was never this busy outside in the morning, and I really would be surprised if I had slept in… While I was certainly interested, first thing's first- getting up.
As my senses returned to me, I couldn't help but grimace at the awful smell… probably dad burning breakfast again. But I soon realized that wasn't possible. How? For starters, I was on a cold, hard floor. My bed was definitely not cold, hard, or a floor. And opening my eyes confirmed that I was, in fact, not in bed. Or anywhere near it.
I was outside, on a stone - maybe concrete - ground. Seemed to be an alleyway- either side of me, buildings made of olive bricks rose up around me. Olive bricks weren't the most surprising thing I'd seen, though- My house was lime green, for example. I got up, immediately noticing two things about one observation.
One: The awful smell was probably coming from the dumpster next to me.
Two: That's a fucking massive dumpster.
"Wait, what the hell?" I muttered aloud to myself, as I stared at the dumpster. "This isn't right…" I then glanced around, particularly up, to the massive buildings stretching above me. "Everything is huge. The hell?"
But when I tried to walk closer to the dumpster to try and compare my height to it, I fell over instantly. In doing so, I did catch a glimpse of my arm- covered in a strange golden fur. And when I tried to get back to my feet, I couldn't this time. Was it something that had happened to my arms? Or maybe my legs? Was it both? I looked around and tried to figure out what might be going on. And then I spotted them.
Behind me, and seemingly coming from me, were six orange tails. Golden fur, and several orange tails? An inability to get up? Looking down confirmed the suspicions that were growing- those weren't hands or feet, they were paws. That could only mean one thing, no matter how impossible it seemed, right? Was I somehow a Vulpix? It… had to be a dream, right? I couldn't really be in the Pokémon world, as a Vulpix? Regardless, I wanted to make the most of it. "This is so cool!" I grinned, and my tails started wagging to match my excitement.
And then I heard a voice. "...thought I heard something over there." The voice was distant, but with my new ears I could tell it was a male voice. And they were definitely approaching me, based on the footsteps that were, without a doubt, getting louder bit by bit.
"Shit, I need to hide. Um, hiding, hiding… Fuck, guess the dumpster will do…" I muttered. With no confidence in walking on these four paws just yet, I simply used my hind paws to push myself over behind the dumpster.
"I swore I heard a Pokemon 'round here…" And the next words out of his mouth made me realize that I'd already forgotten about my tails. "YO! Is that a Vulpix!" The footsteps approached, as did his scent. And I soon heard him peeking over the dumpster at me. "No way, a Shiny too?" Right. Golden fur was a shiny Vulpix coloration.
I started to panic, however. This was clearly a trainer, and he clearly wanted to catch me. I tried to be as intimidating as I could, starting to snarl at the boy despite how terrified I was.
"Hey, hey, calm down! I ain't gonna hurt ya!" I nearly paused for a moment when he said this. "... I just wanna catch ya, that's all!" And there went any hesitation. My snarling didn't stop, nor did the boy's ramblings. "It'd be great if you came with me, y'know! For one, I could flex on all my friends!"
I still was not a fan of this. I kept snarling, turning up the volume. I wasn't letting myself get caught, not this soon, no way. Not before I knew what moves I had, or my ability, or anything along those lines! "Yeesh, you're loud… playing hard to get, eh?" He remarked as he pulled out his phone. "At least let me take a couple pictures of ya before I try and catch you…" Oh, he wanted to use me for fame? The actual fuck? I could actually feel my body heating up in anger. "At least my social media'll blow up! ...not that you'd understand, Vulpix... W-woah!" He stumbled back from the Ember that I launched without even realizing it.
"Sheesh! Grr... If I'm gonna catch ya, I'll have to train ya not to do that, Vulpix... " He grumbled as he brushed his bangs to the side, while grabbing a Pokéball off his belt. Yep, if it wasn't clear before, this was definitely the Pokémon world. "Come, Bulbasaur!"
The Kantonian starter appeared right in front of me. "... ehhh… I don't wanna…" It groaned unenthusiastically.
"Time to show her who's boss!" The boy pointed at me. "Grab ahold of her with your vines, Bulbasaur!" And at that moment, my mind went into overdrive. Bulbasaur was a grass and poison type starter. But poison was bad- even if I had the type advantage, poison is still deadly no matter what.
I was completely stumped and stunned for what to do, which let Bulbasaur grab me with the vines. And while I couldn't tell anymore, my body must have still been burning up, as he pulled his vines back without me in them. "Agh, that's hot!" Heh, Will Smith.
"Can't use your vines, Bulbasaur?" The trainer asked his Pokémon.
"I'd burn myself." The grass type answered, adding a shake of the head to get the point through the language barrier.
"...uh, use Poison Powder, then!" That was the complete opposite of what I wanted. But I had nowhere to run except straight at my opponent… And in my panic and anger, I didn't notice the Ember I had used until it hit the dual typed starter right in the face.
"AGH! CRAP!" Bulbasaur winced as the attack landed, sending out a strange dark blue mist from its bulb. The boy was able to cover his mouth to not breathe it in, but I wasn't as lucky, seeing as I didn't have any way to cover my mouth in the first place. The instant it entered my system, I could feel the effects. My legs were shaking, and my tails were quivering.
"Heh, looks like she's weakened!" The boy was pulling out an empty Pokéball. I tried to get my legs to move. "Time to catch her!" And yet my legs would not move, as the Pokéball was thrown right at my head. And as it made contact with my head, everything went black.
And it stayed black, too- I hadn't passed out, I was just in some kind of void, it seemed? Was this what the inside of the Pokéball was like? No wonder some Pokémon would burst free without the ball even shaking. This looked awful. But how did I get out of here? I needed to figure it out quickly.
The "ground" around me shook. And as it did, this weird void started to form rock out of nowhere underneath my paws. It stretched out around me, as far as the eye could see. It was certainly solid, that much could be said about it.
And then, as the ground shook again, walls of rock made similar to what was under me rose up in a cone shape, leaving a hole at the top. It looked like it was making something like a volcano..? Why..?
And then I realized. The ground wasn't shaking, the Pokéball holding me was. And as it shook a third time, I started to panic. Ignoring the lava appearing in the volcano it was making for me, I glanced around desperately. I had to get out. I was inside a Pokéball, this couldn't be real, just a trick to make me feel safe! It was fake!
All this was just one big trick!
It seemed my mind was how I fought the Pokéball, as with that realization, the volcano started crumbling to the ground, fading, as the black around me turned back into the alleyway. I stood there, facing the trainer who had tried to catch me with his Bulbasaur, the Pokéball now in half on either side of me. And I was pissed.
Despite still not quite knowing how, I fired my third Ember from sheer anger alone. It struck true, and the starter staggered back in pain. This was my chance, and I was about to take it. With adrenaline, and solely that, I managed to get my legs to move, and I bolted out from the alleyway, heading to the right.
"H-hey, wait! D-don't run away!" I could hear the boy trying to get me to come back, but to no avail. I wasn't turning around, not for someone who had tried to poison me- no, succeeded in doing so- and then tried to catch me. I kept running.
Everything for the next couple of minutes was a blur. I don't quite remember how long I ran, or how far, nor what I saw. However, I do remember finally stopping near another alley, at my limit from the poison, and proceeding to duck and hide in it. I thought no one would see me there- I could faint or whatever, and wake up fine after a rest. But I was quickly proven wrong.
"...what's a fox doing in a place like this?" A different voice was talking. This wasn't the boy that had just tried to catch me, but it was another boy. Wait, fox? I figured he must have just meant fox Pokémon… After all, a wild Pokémon in the middle of a city is a pretty rare occurrence, isn't it?
His footsteps stopped where I could only assume was beside me. "Oh, you poor thing…" He said, before pausing and adding in a whisper: "... wait… it… has six tails?" What was he talking about? Had I somehow gotten back to my world with all that running? "... t-that shouldn't be my concern right now." I flinched slightly as he put a hand on my neck, while I was still trying to process what he was just talking about. The poison was making it hard to think. "... i-it's burning up… that's not good…"
The next thing I knew, I was being picked up. "I need to get you to a vet…" The boy said with a sigh, before running out of the alley with me in his arms. He ran over to someone on the street. "Er, excuse me, sir! Do you know where the nearest animal clinic is?"
Out of the top of my vision, I saw the man raise an eyebrow. "... animal clinic..?" He looked down at me. "Shouldn't you be looking for a Pokémon Center?" This only confused me further, although I didn't have much time to think about it before the boy holding me voiced his own confusion.
"... a-a what…?" And at that statement, it clicked. I had ended up in the Pokémon world, yes, but that didn't mean I was necessarily the only one, did it? Maybe this boy was also from my world, and just… hadn't ended up as a Pokémon. Maybe he didn't know as much about Pokémon at all..?
"Pokémon Center's just over there." The man pointed down to the building- even in my state, I could recognize the iconic building. But I couldn't help but glance at the boy. Our situations were so alike if my guess was right… so alike, and yet so differe-
My thoughts scattered from another surge of the poison. "...um... " The boy looked over to the building, probably confused as to what the hell was even being talked about.
"You'd better hurry, that Vulpix looks like she's been poisoned."
"O-Oh… okay… thanks…" The man started walking away from us. "... what's a Vulpix..?" He mumbled, looking down at me. "... Are you a Vulpix..?" If my suspicions weren't confirmed before, they were now. This guy was definitely not from this world. I could only nod to him, although I doubted he'd have even understood me anyway. "Huh…"
I then winced as the poison coursed through me even more. "... oh god, you're burning up even more, I should definitely bring you to that Pokémon Center place!" He started rushing towards it, avoiding people as he went. Luckily, it really wasn't a far walk. Once in, he rushed up to the counter. "E-excuse me…"
The Nurse Joy behind the counter turned to face us, and her eyes landed on me right away. "Say no more." She pressed a button, and a Chansey with a stretcher came rushing out to us.
The boy holding me didn't react right away, and the normal-type gave a slightly frustrated sigh, pointing at me, then the stretcher. "... o-oh, right." He set me down on the stretcher, and the Chansey started rolling me off to the back.
"You can take a seat, and your Vulpix will be back to full health soon." Nurse Joy assured the boy. I wasn't his Vulpix though- at least, not yet… although I figured it would probably be for the best if I went with him, helped him figure this out.
It didn't take long at all for Chansey to get me healed up, less than 10 minutes for sure. Soon, the normal type was bringing me back out on the stretcher, and to the boy. "Eh? Th-that was quick…" He remarked as he saw me hop down and sit at his feet. In response, he kneeled down to me. "... feeling better now?" I nodded, my tails starting to wag.
"... weird how it didn't take them long to take care of you…" That was something that I'd have to try and explain somehow. "... wait, wait, do I have to pay them for this?" He reached in his pockets, but they likely were empty, since his eyes soon widened. "... oh crap." I knew it would be fine, but I didn't know how to tell him… except writing in the dirt. I shook my head and motioned for him to follow as I went outside.
"... huh? Where are you going?" I didn't have to look behind me to know he was following me. I led him out to the back of the Pokémon Center, but as I did so, something red caught my eyes. And as much as I hated it, I knew it was probably for the best… so I walked over to the Pokéball.
"... what's that?" He asked from behind me. I quickly etched the answer into the dirt, and he read it aloud. "...'Pokéball'...?" He picked it up as I nodded. "... what am I supposed to do with this." The boy just looked down at me.
I carefully lifted a paw, it shaking ever so slightly, pointing at the ball, then at myself, and finally tapped my head with my paw. "... I don't get it. Is this some kinda game, fox? Do you want to play fetch with this ball?" No, I didn't… But I couldn't explain that in time, as he kept speaking while examining it. "... if so, that'd probably be a bad idea… this thing looks like metal, how did you find this…"
I sighed and repeated the motions again, but he wasn't looking. "What's this button in the center..?" He pressed it, and the Pokéball opened, proving it was empty. It sort of looked like a storage container inside… "The hell?" Yep, definitely not from this world. "... I still don't get it." He closed it, and set it down in front of me. "Sorry, buddy." And that was when I got an idea.
He might not have been a trainer yet (otherwise he would probably have known what a Pokéball was by now), but he still was the last one to touch the Pokéball. It probably would work… So I touched the button with my nose, solidifying my choice to help this boy out.
The ball opened once again, and it faded to that familiar black void. I could hear the boy panicking outside of it. "EH?! Fuck fuck fuck that's not good-" The ball shook once, and any sound was drowned out for now. The volcano started to reform. But this time I didn't fight it. The ball shook again, the walls now intact. And with no resistance, the lava appeared in my Pokéball's domain with the final shake, and the ball clicked to confirm I was caught.
"I-it clicked?" I felt the ball move, as he picked it up. I couldn't tell what he was doing, but it was soon made clear as the ball opened, and I appeared in front of him. Shaking myself off, I smiled up at him. "What the hell was that?! I-It just trapped you inside!" Then he saw me smiling. "... that smile… d-did you know this would happen?" I nodded in response. "Why? How? Gah, this is so freaking strange…" He groaned as he put a hand to his head.
I then started to look around. I had to explain somehow. Then I spotted it- a stick, right nearby. A lot easier and cleaner to write in the dirt with. "Just where the hell am I…" The boy mumbled to himself as I went over to grab the stick. This was going to be one LONG explanation, and using a stick would NOT make it any easier, but nonetheless, I began writing into the dirt...
