Review Replies!
LoneGarurumon: ah, that's EXACTLY the kind of question this fic is gonna answer! :p Amy's 'new' outfit is about to make a debut and Tails, uh...is likely enjoying his dinner. XD Glad you liked, hope you enjoy the new chapter, too!
Shadow Huntress: ah yes! (though I always think of it the other way around - Pokemon make a noise and then humans name them after that noise. :p Kind of if we called roosters cock-a-doodle-doos...on second hand we should. That would be hilarious. XD) And heh, if you don't know much about Pokemon you're discovering them together with the Mobians! That sounds like fun :) More Knuckles this chapter, thanks for the review! :D
Scot flower: True, he COULD do that...only in this universe all he'd do is likely attract a herd of excited Voltorbs or something^^° But cool idea as such! I'm not quite sure how far you can hear a Sonic boom...do you know?
Guest: Will do!
What previously happened on Catch Them If You Can!
Well, after a Chaos experiment gone awry, Sonic and Co have gone AWOL, that is, after an explosion in Robotnik's lab, Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles have found themselves on a weird, weird planet with even weirder creatures and people who don't speak their language. Sonic so far at least has made friends with the slightly strange Professor Oak, a scientist who developed a translating device for Mobian/Pokémon planet language. Tails however, seems to have been adopted by a pack of fire-breathing feral foxes and is not quite as happy with that fact. Amy has found some new friends in three human sisters and Pokemon trainers who own the giant swimming pool she landed in (though with the language barrier they can't quite make heads or tails of what she is) and Knuckles...well, let's just say that Team Rocket is in for a bit of a surprise if they intend to sell this particular 'Pokemon'...
(Author's note:Due to the language difference, when there's no translator around like in Sonic's scenes, Pokemon characters speaking a language the Sonic characters don't understand (or vice versa) will be speaking in Italics. Meowth has the ability to be telepathically understood by everyone, all the time, regardless to whom he speaks.)
Chapter 8: Not-Quite-Silent Night
"Whew. He's gone to sleep. Finally." James leaned back on his hands, breathing a sigh of relief. By now, night had fallen dark and proper, and the sparks of their fire in the clearing were rising toward the star-dotted sky. "Sadly after eating all our food..." he hung his head with a dejected whine, rubbing his grumbling stomach.
"Oh shut up," Jessie replied, unperturbed. "If we can deliver him to the boss tomorrow, all with him still believing that we're taking him back to his home in the Miki Ruins or wherever, we'll never have to worry about food again."
"Yeah..." James sighed dreamily. "Still, it is pretty weird that he can apparently understand Meowth, but not us. I've never seen a Pokémon like that before."
"I don't even understand what he is," Jessie said, pursing her lips. "Meowth, you couldn't get it out of him either, could you?"
"No," the Pokémon shook his head. "I don't fink he actually understood da question, even. He keeps calling himself a 'knuckles' or an 'echidna', but I haven't heard of eitha of dose."
"Weird...but whatever he is, he is insanely strong," James said, with a (still slightly wide-eyed) side-glance indicating the hole where a tree stump had once been. It had left its spot when the fire had been in danger of going out and the freaky red Pokémon had decided to rip it out of the earth and then tear it into limb-sized pieces to throw onto the fire, an action which had left the three members of Team 'Bucket' staring in a mixture of amazement and terror. Now the creature had at least nodded off, having been given James' sleeping bag (over very feeble, quickly overruled protests) and lay curled up in it on his side with his back facing them a few metres from the fire, breath slow and regular.
"Yes. So whatever happens, he absolutely must not find out about our plan until we have him safely inside the head quarters where we can contain him, okay?" Jessie instructed them earnestly.
"Hahah, yeah, but don't worry," Meowth said with a cattish grin, leaning back in smug relaxation, head tilted back and eyes closed. "Da only one he can understand is me, so as long as I don't tell him we're planning on capturing him and selling him to da boss, all is-"
"You were planning on doing WHAT with me?!"
xxx
"So...you're not a Pokémon."
Somehow, the boy called Ash seemed to have trouble grasping that particular concept.
"No, Ash, he's an alien," Misty, currently busy setting the table, replied exasperatedly, giving Sonic an apologetic smile. "Sorry. He's kinda slow."
"Hey!"
"Sonic, would you like to eat something while they're squabbling?" the darker-skinned boy, Brock (who still hadn't opened his eyes) was working at the kitchen counter, busy with meal preparation. Jerking a thumb at the two other kids squabbling, he added, "Because that can go on for days..."
"Heh." Sonic, who had been leaning against the kitchen door, rubbed his nose with a grin. "Don't mind if I do. Thanks."
"Sure thing. Here at the ranch we always have enough food for everyone," Brock said. "Now, do you usually eat at a table, or...?" Sonic followed the boy's gaze toward the corner, where Pikachu (and a few other small, strange creatures, vaguely resembling an over-sized turtle, a green...thing, a butterfly and, more disturbingly, a flying stone with two arms) were eating from various bowls. One of them, a sort of yellowish duck, had also somehow managed to fall over face first into its food and was now flailing and quacking in distress.
There was a bit of a pause as Sonic very slowly looked back at Brock, and, consequently, the second half of the boy's question stuttered to a halt, the bicycle of conversation getting stuck in the sand pit of embarrassment.
"Brock?" Misty snapped her gaze up. "You're not seriously asking Sonic to eat Pokémon food from a bowl on the floor, are you?" She put her fists on her hips (Ash seeming relieved she at least appeared to be finished with him), staring at the older teenager with the sort of indignant disbelief seemingly god-given to ten-year-old girls alone. Under her gaze, Brock flushed immediately.
"What? Er, uh, n-n- well, I just thought...I thought..." he stammered, withering under Misty's glare, until Sonic decided to take pity on the human and stepped forward.
"Heh, it's okay. And yeah, we generally eat at tables in my world." He threw a meaningful glance at Brock. "We're also in the habit of using cutlery. And not eating our young."
"Oh, what, no, I never meant you did-!" Brock looked at Sonic aghast, now blushing harder than ever, which made it only all too easy for the hedgehog to continue, now with a bright grin,
"Also, I will promise to not catch mice in the night and deposit them half-dead beside your bed in the morning-"
"Look, I said I'm sorry!" Brock defended himself, looking very much like he wished he'd never opened his mouth at all, while at least Misty and Ash had caught on and were now trying not to laugh too hard,
" - but I'll forgive you 'cause that stuff you're making smells delicious," Sonic finally quipped, at the same time walking over to the counter and taking one of the pink muffin-type things the human had just prepared a plate of and popping it into his mouth. "Wow! That's great. What are those?" he asked, then paused, when he noticed that suddenly the three humans were all looking at him. "What?" Sonic frowned.
"Oh, nothing," Brock replied, for some reason now suddenly sounding smug, "I'm just glad you enjoy my...Poke Puffs."
"Uh. Your what?" Sonic asked, now looking at the seeming confectionery more than suspiciously.
Behind him, Ash began to laugh. "Wow, Brock, we all knew your Pokémon food was great, but this is taking it to another level!"
"Pokémon...oh. Oh," Sonic managed, now actually feeling the beginning of embarrassment himself, though, he supposed, this was probably fair payback for his needling earlier.
"They're treats given to Pokémon to raise their affection for you," Misty chimed in cheerfully. Brock bent a little down toward Sonic with a grin.
"Can you feel your affection for me rising already?"
"Not if you don't shut up about this pronto, no!" Sonic snapped back, sensing a slight heat creep into his own muzzle to accompany the blush previously on Brock's face. In a rather unfair twist of fate, Sonic noticed, even the Pokémon seemed to find his current predicament entertaining. Finally, the hedgehog gave in, shaking his head and offering a conciliatory grin.
"Fine, fine, I admit I walked into that one. I promise I'll shut up now about that whole food business if you will."
"Sounds good to me," Brock replied, turning back to the food still on the stove. "So, what will it be for you, then? Pokémon food or pizza pies?" he asked with a slight grin over his shoulder.
"Pizza pies, please. And not in a plastic bowl," Sonic said pointedly as he, together with Misty and Ash, sat down at the table. It was set for five people, indicating that Oak would probably join them for dinner sooner or later, and the pizza pies, sitting in the middle of the setting already smelled delicious, even through their plastic bag wrapping. However...they didn't quite smell as delicious as...
Sonic sighed. There were some battles you couldn't win.
"And," he added through gritted teeth, "Could I...please...have another Poké Puff?"
Thankfully, Brock only laughed. "It's okay, I'm actually quite flattered. Here, have those," he said, putting a few of the pink confections on a small plate and setting it down next to Sonic with a friendly nod. "We've got to make up for attacking you first thing somehow..."
"Eh, like I said, no harm done." Sonic returned the smile, and gave an easy shrug as Oak came out of the laboratory and joined them as well. The pizza pies Ash's mum had sent were unwrapped as well and the combination of the foods, the hedgehog had to admit, was pretty much almost as good as Chili Dogs. Almost.
Brock's 'Poke-puffs' indeed seemed to be a taste not only appealing to him, but also to the other critters, given that not soon after they'd started, Ash's pet, Pikachu, had finished its bowl on the floor and then bounded over to Sonic, enthusiastically leaping onto his lap.
"Pika!" it exclaimed cheerfully, staring expectantly at the puff Sonic had just been about to eat. Then it seemed to widen its eyes a lot.
"Pi...ka...?"
"Huh." Sonic raised a wry eye ridge at the yellow bundle of exaggerated cuteness in his lap. He was also aware of the curious gazes of the humans on him, Ash seemingly slightly embarrassed by his Pokémon's behaviour, but Sonic found he didn't actually mind as much.
"Well," he asked with a small grin, twirling the puff in his hand. "Looks like someone has forgiven me for concussing their human pal, yeah?"
"Pika, pika!" Pikachu nodded enthusiastically, (Sonic not quite sure whether it had understood what he'd been saying, but going by the betrayed expression on Ash's face he sure seemed to think so), and Sonic laughed.
"Got your priorities in order, I see." He let the puff drop into Pikachu's waiting paws with a grin. The Pokémon swallowed it remarkably quickly and then promptly eyed the remaining puffs on Sonic's plate.
"Pika...?"
"Now, Pikachu, that's enough-" Brock began in a chastising tone, but Sonic waved him off.
"Nah, it's fine, it can have them," he said. "I appreciate its taste in food."
"PIKACHU!" In what was potentially a Pokémon-language declaration of undying gratitude, Pikachu immediately swiped the remaining puffs out of Sonic's hand as he offered them and ran back with them to its other mutant friends in the corner.
"How do Poké Puffs taste?" Misty asked, morbidly curious. "I mean...I wouldn't have thought you to like them, since you also like the human food...Brock, what are they even made of?"
"Eggs, nuts, oils, salt..." the other human counted off on his fingers, "Oh, and crushed and ground mealworms and maggots, mostly. And spices."
"They're made from what?!" Misty looked horrified. "That's disgusting!"
"For you, maybe." Sonic grinned. "I want the recipe."
"You eat insects?" Ash asked him, wide-eyed. "Because you like them?"
"As snacks, sure." Sonic shrugged. "I am a hedgehog. It's just, your average insect is hardly large enough to make for a proper meal as soon you're older than two or so, so..."
"Fascinating," Oak commented, again having immediately taken out his notebook and scribbling in it. "You're how old, then?"
"Seventeen. Why?" Sonic replied, shifting a bit on his too-large chair, privately thinking that 'talking' to Pikachu had been more fun than this twenty-questions-thing that seemed to be about to begin again.
"Does that make you an adult?" Oak asked, eagerly. "Or are you still prebuscent? Do you evolve during your life, can your evolution take different paths-?"
"Professor!" Misty chided at once. "Stop it, that's really rude!"
"Oh." The man immediately winced, now also noting that Sonic looked slightly disturbed. "Is it?"
"Evolve?" Sonic asked.
"Well, yeah," Brock said, also sounding apologetic. "The Pokémon on our world grow by aging for a while, and then rapidly changing appearance into a bigger form when they've gained enough experience. Sometimes they also change shape, or colour, or even look nothing like they looked like before."
"Okay," Sonic replied. "Well, we don't...do that. Usually, anyway," he added under his breath - telling the professor anything about turning into Super Sonic, Darkspine Sonic, a Wisp-induced form or into a wolf, Sonic correctly guessed, would not end very well. "Evolution works kinda, uh, slower where I come from."
"Right, I...I see," Oak rubbed his head a little, looking slightly awkward. "I think I may have gotten carried away a little there. Sorry. Sorry."
Sonic sighed, deciding that despite being really strange, probably none of them had meant to be rude. He cocked his head as he relaxed on the chair a bit more, giving a sliver of a lop-sided grin.
"So I guess I must really look like a...Pokémon to you, huh?"
"Well, you do exhibit similarities to quite a few known species, yes." Oak leaned across the table, his tone more restrained now as if he was trying to apologize for his earlier outburst, but underneath still excited as ever. Now he was showing Sonic the gameboy-like thing again, opening it and switching it on. "In fact, when I first saw you, I wondered whether you were perhaps a yet unknown evolution of a recently discovered Pokémon called Cyndaquil-"
Sonic squinted at the picture displayed on the device, which seemed to show a blue and tan mouse-like creature, but with its back covered in flames reminiscent of spikes. It did not appear to be bothered by this.
"...huh. Well, I guess I can sort of see the resemblance, but I'm honestly a hedgehog, not a mouse..."
"Are you really sure, though?" Ash looked at him, curious again. "Maybe you also become more powerful when your quills are set on fire."
Sonic threw him a look. "Kid. Don't get any ideas."
"Ash, maybe it's time to go to sleep now, hm? I think you're still a bit concussed," Misty said, flicking the black-haired boy on the head who winced.
"Ow. Uh, yeah, maybe..."
"In fact, maybe we should all go to bed, hm, Professor?" Misty asked, rising from the table. "Sonic, I'd be happy to show you to one of the guest rooms in the house, there's lots. Ash is probably gonna go over to his mum's for the night, but me and Brock are both staying here."
"Hm? Oh. Yeah, that'd be good, actually," Sonic said, noticing the fatigue coming over him again at Misty's words. He gave a nod at Oak – yeah, slightly weird guy, but he seemed to be trying – and also offered the human a small, but friendly smile. "Thanks for the place to crash."
"My pleasure, Sonic," the man replied with an answering smile, now also rising and putting a hand on the hedgehog's shoulder. "And I'm sure you won't mind if I run a few experiments on you in the morning in exchange, riiiiight...?"
Sonic heaved a very big sigh.
Xxx
"Aaaaaaah! He's awake! He was awake da entire time!"
"No no no! We aren't planning on capturing you at all! Meowth was making a joke!"
"James, you idiot, he can't even understand you-!"
"YOU!" Knuckles roared, jabbing a pointed finger toward the three Team Bucket members immediately scrambling together and clutching at each other in the face of his ire, "YOU were planning to BETRAY me!"
"No!" Meowth desperately tried to wave his hands at Knuckles, "Look, being sold to da boss is actually a great fing, you gotta see da benefits-!"
"I have been taken for a fool once," Knuckles growled at him, violet eyes blazing as his spiked fist clenched. "Never again."
"James! Try to get our Pokémon, maybe we can capture him if we fight-!"
Now the woman was yelling something, the man darting toward their camping gear, to get weapons, to signal for help, Knuckles didn't know, but honestly he didn't care. Robotnik had learned back then what it meant to lie to his face, and now so would these clowns.
Knuckles screamed and charged.
When his open palm connected with the man's shoulder first (not his fist; he wasn't planning to kill them) and knocked him away from their bag tail over snout into his companions, however, something very surprising happened.
"Team Rocket is blasting off again~!"
Knuckles stared in amazement, as, against all odds, his one swipe had somehow succeeded to launch the troupe into orbit.
xxx
Inside the bathroom, Amy was taking a moment to lean against the wall, trying to relax again. Yes, she had no idea where she was. Yes, everyone here was speaking a weird language she had never heard in her entire life. Yes, in the past twenty minutes she had come face-to-face with not one, but two horrifying sea monsters and been saved by someone who had turned out to be just slightly sort of a pervert. But at least those three human girls seem to be friendly, Amy thought. Young, non-threatening, and they had given her fresh clothes and taken her wet dress away to dry, so that was something, she guessed. Now, what have we here...?
Curious, she shook both bunched-up items of clothing out to look at them. When she beheld them in her entirety, somehow, she wasn't all that surprised.
Well, Amy thought dryly, gazing at the orange skirt and green blouse, when I go looking for Sonic, at least he'll recognize me on sight.
Shrugging, she let her towel drop to the floor, and started to pull the skirt on, the green blouse with the white collar flung over the rim of the sink for the moment. Briefly, half-dressed, she paused to look at herself in the mirror – with her head band also given to the humans to dry, her quills were now standing up every which way in the back again, indeed letting her appear a lot like she had looked two and a half years ago, travelling to the Miracle Planet when she had only turned twelve.
Well, a voice commented in her head stubbornly, even if she now was forced to dress like a little girl again, at least she didn't look like one any more...right? She wondered, staring at the mirror with a frown (and, for a moment wishing the sisters by some miracle might have had also a spare bra).
Oh, well. I hope my stuff dries soon, Amy thought, before dropping her hand and bending over to pick up the blouse again.
It was as this point she noted that the door was only ever so slightly ajar.
With one very familiar blue head poking through.
"Golduck...?"
xxx
In the living room next door, the three sisters and leaders of the Azure City Gym by now had also changed from the swim wear, and were currently waiting for their guest to emerge again. It was Violet who broke the silence first.
"Okay, like...that Pokémon. Are we sure she is a Pokémon?" She ran a hand through her hair. "It's just, she acts really...well, human."
"Well, what else could she be?" Lily asked, frowning. "I mean it's common knowledge that really intelligent Pokémon exist." Then she gasped with excitement. "Oh my gosh, do you think she's a mew?!"
"I have honestly no idea," Violet shook her head. "Seriously, why does this happen, like, the first month that we re-open the Gym as an arena instead of just for shows, something weird immediately shows up."
"I think it's kinda exciting, actually," Daisy smiled. "Finding out what she is and where she came from could be fun."
"Yeah!" Lily agreed enthusiastically, just before immediately frowning again. "But, say...just to rule that out, she can't really be a...transformed or mutated human, right?"
"GET OUT!"
It was at this point that all three of the sisters' eyes widened simultaneously, as all they heard was an unintelligible (but definitely enraged) scream, and then already saw Lily's Golduck flying out of the bathroom and into the living room backwards, where it collapsed against the wall unconscious, one hammer-print on its forehead.
"Goolduck..." it groaned.
"Well," Daisy let see a wry smile. "Dunno about human, but I have a feeling she'll fit in here quite well regardless…"
xxx
"Ow...owowowow..."
"Dammit, I thought we had filled our crash quota for the week..."
"This is all your fault, Meowth."
Somewhere in the nightly forest, there was a clearing with three figures inside it in various uncomfortable-looking landing positions, all softly moaning into the moss they had landed in.
"Well, how was I sapposed ta know he wasn't sleeping?!" the cat Pokémon, the first to sit up and hold his head, snapped at his companions.
"If you had just...kept your trap shut..." Jessie growled, slowly uprighting herself again, "We wouldn't be here now, just as lost as that weird Pokémon."
"What was that thing even, that attack was just as strong as that twerp's Pikachu..." James also groaned as he sat up, wincing as various bones cracked into the correct position again.
Jessie glared at him. "Well, we're never gonna know now, are w-?"
"HEY!"
Team Rocket abruptly stopped their conversation. And then turned around to stare in absolute terror.
"Don't think you can get away so easily! I DEMAND an explanation!" at the side of the clearing they had landed in, the red, terrible Pokémon was back and now roaring at them in towering rage.
"AGH!"
"How did it find us?!"
"I don't care! Run away! Run away!" James screamed, and, in a manoeuvre practiced many times, Team Rocket was already on their feet and tearing away screaming, arms waving above their heads.
(This, unfortunately, only seemed to provoke the Pokémon.)
"Stop it! Who do you think you are?! GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!"
xxx
Elsewhere, blue ears twitched as a sleeping blue hedgehog, currently lying in an oversized human bed, rolled over in his peaceful slumber. A light frown briefly passed over his face as some faint noises, curiously sounding not entirely unlike an enraged echidna chasing three terrified, screaming people through a nightly forest, wafted up through the open window, but even if the hero of Mobius then actually did open his eyes for a moment, in the end he only turned onto his other side, pulled the comforter over his head and curled up again.
Probably just some strange nocturnal 'Pokémon'.
To be continued...
Hey there! Really happy if People are still here despite the long gap, but I hope you liked! I'll try to update somewhat faster...always happy to hear what you think, too, so if you read, please Review! :D