Anonymous Review Reply!
LoneGarurumon: Aw, thank you! :D Yeah, one of the cool things about writing this fanfic largely from the perspective of the Sonic cast as they go through Pokémon life events is to come up with how things look like from their perspective, when experienced by someone with a largely human mindset and intelligence :) Ash jumping in the way of a Pokémon attack, I'm also completely sure that he would. I still remember one of the early episodes where he's trapped with his Pokémon in an ice cave and instead of getting them out to warm him, he wants to put them into their Pokéballs so they will survive, even if he won't. I really like writing each character so their strengths can shine. Thank you once again for such a wonderful review! :D
Chapter 22: Strange Old Worlds
"Okay, so...why were you even in that graveyard in the first place?"
"Erm." Sonic looked up from his breakfast at Misty who had asked the question. Right now, all of them were sitting at table again in various states of consciousness, with the plan to later pile into Professor Oak's car to drive to the city of the tournament to get there in time. Sonic scratched his ear.
"I dunno...I think I wanted to see whether there were any Pokémon in there that had been killed by their trainers," he muttered, not really in the mood to revisit the events of the previous night.
"Killed by their trainers?!" Misty, Ash and Brock suddenly all looked at him, aghast.
"Um...yeah," Sonic said, frowning. "I mean, you do enter them in fighting tournaments. Where we come from, humans who do that to animals often let them fight to the death."
"They...they do what?!" Brock stammered, horrified. "Wh-why would anyone do that?"
"Entertainment, kid," Knuckles cut in, tone cold. "Something your species is exceedingly fond of. They do it to dogs, cocks, bulls and whatever else they can find. Film it for everyone else to watch a living thing die for fun. Sometimes they put metal spurs on them so they hurt each other worse."
"Um, Knuckles? Maybe don't lay it on quite so harshly," Amy whispered, mostly because Misty and Ash looked like something in their world view had just broken, Misty even looking close to tears.
"Yeah. We...we don't do that here. The tournaments only ever go until one of them is no longer able or doesn't want to continue fighting," Brock said, also sounding slightly shell-shocked, but better able to digest that bit of info than the younger kids.
"...ah." Sonic managed. "Right."
"Oh…oh gosh. I'm so sorry, we didn't know. That is absolutely horrible what's going on in your world. What must you have been thinking of us?" Misty asked, eyes huge and glistening. "No wonder you were so reluctant to, to go into the tournament…"
"Um. Well..." Sonic looked from one to the other, not sure what to say right about now, when it was already Ash kneeling down in front of him, looking at him with imploring eyes,
"Sonic, honestly, I'd never do that to my friends. Can you believe me in that?"
"Well, considering that like five hours ago, you ran into the psycho-whatever attack of a freaking ghost when it was wailing on me..." Sonic gave Ash a smile that looked a lot more relaxed and genuine than the one he'd given him only the night before. "No worries. We're good."
"Speaking of which, how did that Pokémon even manage to get a hit on you? And why couldn't you finish it off yourself?" Knuckles asked, frowning.
"Yeah, that was actually kind of freaky. Like, my attacks passed straight through the thing," Sonic replied. "Do you guys know why?"
"Well, Gastlys are non-corporeal Ghost type Pokémon," Brock said. "Its Pokédex entry says that that gas emanating from a graveyard was possessed by the grievances of the deceased and thus became a Pokémon."
"...wait. In your world there are...ghosts?" Knuckles asked, now curiously also having turned a lighter shade of pastel.
"Well, some," Misty said. "Ghost types are among the rarer kind of Pokémon but there are trainers who specialize in those. They are almost always kinda creepy people, though..."
"Yeah, and ghost types can't be harmed by normal type attacks," Ash said. "I'm guessing that's what your spin-dashs and kicks count as."
"But...but then what is Sonic supposed to do if some weirdo trainer at the tournament has one of those?" Tails asked, swallowing.
"Pika!" Pikachu piped up at this point, jumping onto a chair, onto the table and raising tiny paws curled into tinier fists in front of Sonic, before turning around and making punchy motions towards the rest of the group. "Pika-chu!"
"Heh," Sonic commented. "Seems like I've got a champion who's rearing at the bit to swap in for me if there's any ghosts. We're good."
"Good morning everyone!" Professor Oak's voice called out to them from the farm's garage. "If you're ready, car is parked out front and we should just about make it to Saffron City in time."
xxx
"Wow. That's a lot of people," Amy said, looking around at the masses of spectators, trainers and officials milling around the stadium grounds.
"Alright, you guys go get tickets," Ash said, "Sonic and me will have to go to the exam office first to check in. Just use sign language while we're away, alright?"
"Exam office?" Sonic asked as they ambled away from the others. "What, is there gonna be a test?"
"Uh...almost," Ash said, looking faintly apologetic. "It's mainly a check to see whether people really have the exotic or rare Pokémon they claimed they had when they registered. They'll want to have a look at you."
"Uh," Sonic said, not sure he liked where this was going, but then they had already entered the tent and he closed his mouth again, unwilling to have this conversation in front of another human who would freak out again.
"Hi, I'm Ash Ketchum? I registered just two days ago-"
"Ah, yes! Got you right here," the young man working the desk smiled at him before glancing at Sonic. "And that's your exotic Pokémon, right? Wow, I really haven't seen anything like him before. Please step into the room behind the flap where the vet will briefly check him out."
"'Check me out'? Kiddo, I'm telling you now, if they plan on sticking things into any orifices, I'm out of there," Sonic muttered under his breath as they headed over and Ash blushed a little, fumbling.
"Er, no, I don't think so – they'll mainly just want to check that you're really an exotic species and not just, I dunno, a Pikachu painted blue or something, or a rattata that someone has glued spikes on – it happens."
"Well, they better not pull at any of my spikes or else they'll cut themselves," Sonic shot back, but then quieted down as they walked through the tent flap and were greeted by another friendly-looking, young and black-haired woman in a vet's white coat.
"Well, hello there! Oh my, what is that? That certainly does look like a new species…!"she exclaimed, looking at Sonic with interest. To Ash and Sonic's combined relief, the exam really seemed to be just the Doctor asking to briefly look at Sonic's teeth and inside his ears, a quick prod at the base of his back quills and taking a small sample of his fur to be dumped in some sort of clear liquid, all of which seemed to yield satisfactory results judging by her pleased demeanour.
"Okay," the vet said finally, brightly. "That all seems to be in order," she marked something down on her chart. "And you're thinking of naming this evolutionary stage of this new species 'Sonic', yes? How did you come up with that? Is that the sound it makes?"
"Uh...well..." Ash gave Sonic a kind of desperate look, the hedgehog currently looking SO not impressed by the human species in general, but the vet seemed disinclined to let this go.
"I mean, it does make some sort of sound, right? Hey, little one," she abruptly asked, bending down toward Sonic and smiling. "Wanna call out for me?"
The expression Ash shot Sonic at this point could probably have qualified as pleading.
Sonic took a breath…
"Sonic," Sonic said, and somehow managed to imbue the word with an acidity usually only found at chemical disaster sites. "Sonic, Son-ic."
(And then he switched the translator off and also said something else that suspiciously sounded like a rather unpleasant suggestion concerning the clip board in the vet's hands and possible storage options for it.)
"Ah! Right. Bit more varied than most, its vocabulary, isn't it?" the vet blinked afterwards, smile slightly confused. "But you do seem to have chosen the most common sound to name it, so that seems about right. Well done, young man! Both of you, good luck in the tournament."
"Thank…you…" Ash managed, also carefully not actually looking at his 'Pokémon' right until they had returned to the others.
Xxx
"Okay, I had been wondering about that. So you really just name your Pokémon after the sound they make?" Sonic asked as they were walking toward the rest. "By that logic we'd be calling feral dogs back home Barkbarks or something."
"Well, why not?" Ash asked. "I mean, it is easy to remember. No need to make things more complicated than necessary, right? Although we do have exceptions for Pokémon who make noises that are hard to imitate for humans, like caterpies, for example. "
"Right…" Sonic managed, actually not quite sure how to argue against that.
"Hey Sonic!" Tails at that point turned around and waved at them. "We all got tickets! Did the check-in go well and we can go in?"
"Yeah," Sonic nodded after a moment before glancing at the entrance of the stadium where more and more trainers and spectators were pouring in, the noise of the crowd inside swelling in an indication the tournament was about to start any moment now. "Okay. Let's."
"So…are you ready to go in the ball, then?" Ash asked and Sonic tried his best not to wince.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry," Ash was looking down at him with a grimace, looking like he didn't quite knew what to do with his hands, whether to take out a Pokéball or not. To his credit, Sonic actually thought he looked genuinely apologetic about this whole thing. Slightly unwillingly, the hedgehog bowed his head and sighed.
"Oh man. Fine." Trying not to notice the radiating smugness of the echidna, he added, "Although before I go...Knuckles, you're sure it was fine in there?"
"When you thought it funny to imprison me before even thinking about it?" The echidna asked back, pleasantly, obviously enjoying the slight cringe from Sonic, but then seemed to relent. "...yes. It was...weird, and dark, but not painful or bad."
"Ugh. Fine." Sonic repeated, "Hope you're right." Then, looking not unlike someone who was about to face his own execution, straightened and looked at Ash.
"Alright. Capture me."
Ash nodded. "I'll get you out as soon as I can, promise. Just sit tight."
So saying, the last thing Sonic saw was the human boy reaching to his belt for one of the red and white spheres, the thing enlarging in his hands and then he had already tossed it at Sonic, and his entire world dissolved in a flash.
xxx
In the world outside, all the others saw was a Pokéball, now closed, falling back to the ground and then rocking a bit, before eventually it stilled, the red light at its front going out.
"Huh," Misty finally managed, after all of them had been staring for a morbidly fascinated five seconds. "He's not coming out again like Knuckles did."
"Well, he agreed to be captured," Brock pointed out. "Pokémon can be caught at full health if they don't mind it."
"So...it actually is nice in there?" Amy asked, tentatively trying to pick up the ball. Tails wondered whether it was completely coincidental that it apparently tried to roll away from her. Ash eventually picked it up and pocketed it again.
"Well, like I said, we think it is," Oak pointed out. "Why don't you ask Sonic after this is over?"
xxx
There was darkness surrounding him.
After the initial flash, which hadn't felt that different from the beginning of a Chaos Control, this was all Sonic could see now, and he also had a creeping suspicion this was because he no longer had eyes.
This realization somehow didn't freak him out as much as it should have.
Instead, if he had had to describe the way he was feeling now, it would have been a state of strange...discorporation, he supposed. He still knew what his body was supposed to look like, could feel it if he really tried, but without any outside stimulation and a general sensation of being completely immobilized, it felt like it had just dissolved, leaving only his consciousness behind in this dark, weightless void that was neither hot nor cold, neither liquid nor gas surrounding him. The feeling was slightly resembling what it had been like to be suspended by Silver and his telekinetic powers, not immobilized, but completely cut off from an outer world.
Sonic could also sense a strange mixture of feeling safe and protected, and at the same time an instinctive desire to struggle against his bindings – the hero of Mobius could only suppose that this was because he trusted Ash, but wasn't exactly 'tamed' as his Pokémon friends were.
And now he was morbidly curious what perhaps was going on outside the ball, but if he didn't want to risk them getting thrown out of the stadium, it seemed like all he would be able to do was float in this strange darkness where he couldn't see or hear or feel and wait...
Until suddenly, a beam of light fell into his vision. Sonic blinked.
Wait. He could blink?
In the strangest sense, sensation was now flooding back into his limbs as he could feel his body re-assembling, becoming corporeal again like after a chaos control. Around him, a world also suddenly started to flash into existence, at first only consisting of the same darkness, but now suddenly criss-crossed with light green lines, a grid not unlike the spacetime visualization Tails had once shown him in a physics textbook.
Sonic tensed as he noticed that he seemed to be fixated onto that grid, too, hanging in it by invisible restraints around his ankles and wrists, spread-eagled in the no-space. Then, in front of him, suddenly a curtain of green, ever-changing numbers started to rise as an impossibly wide, impossibly tall matrix, the speed at which the ciphers in it changed and flickered threatening to make him dizzy. And then, just before he would have had to close his eyes or avert his head to prevent a headache, the numbers all at once slowly stopped moving, pinging to a stop one by one.
"Uh..." Sonic, still unable to move, looked at the matrix wall now solid and unmoving in front of him, and even wondered for a moment whether this was supposed to be it, that he would have to hang around here in matrix-geek-land until Ash at some point maybe remembered that there was this tournament going on and an impatient hedgehog trapped in his freaky-ass balls (and Chaos, that sounded so wrong), until suddenly, a row of maybe ten or so numbers from the middle of the wall zoomed forward and out of it, now hovering as a giant, green projection in front of Sonic's face.
What...?
And then, the hedgehog gasped, because the next thing that happened was from somewhere above him that he couldn't see, a green laser beam emerging from the ceiling and hitting him straight above his navel.
"Ah!" Sonic had tensed himself for pain, but what he hadn't been prepared for was the thing being...ticklish?!
"Ah! Ahahaha! No!" the blue hedgehog tried to squirm as the weird light beam started to move across his stomach in strange, jerky patterns, its movement not unlike a printer's, but to his dismay, the restraints held fast. Gritting his teeth, the blue hedgehog managed to hold still long enough to focus and look downwards at what the laser (or whatever it was) was doing to him, and when he saw the result, his eyes went wide.
The number that had been hovering in front of him a few seconds ago was now already halfway written across his stomach.
A special ID gets assigned to each Pokémon depending on which trainer caught it and will be encoded into its digitalized data to make it uniquely identifiable...
Whatever Tails had been technobabbling earlier, now it made sense. Sonic at once would have liked to panic, he didn't want to be marked like a chipped pet, but by now it seemed to be far too late. All he was able to do was endure the rest of the ticklish procedure, the laser beam torturously slow across his fur as it branded him, and if he had been certain that the human could have heard him from inside the ball, Sonic by now would have shouted a few choice words at the dark non-ceiling.
As it was, all he could do was hang his head in resentful embarrassment, sides helplessly hitching as the laser grazed over the lower edges of ribs underneath tan fur, the procedure seemingly taking forever until the world then suddenly flashed. The matrix and the laser and his restraints abruptly disappeared, the black nothingness being replaced by light from all sides, dizzying Sonic with the speed and suddenness of shapes emerging, background rendering itself, and even gravity all at once establishing itself with a -
"AGH!"
- slightly painful bounce, as Sonic, now apparently fully released but unprepared, fell backwards onto grassy ground. As he sat up and glanced down at himself, the first thing he noted was Ash's ID number not being printed across his belly any more, a fact that was a definite perk in his book. He did find it a second later again – now written in very fine, black script around his right wrist like a bracelet (or a ringed pidgeon, a peeved part of his mind couldn't help but comment) but at least this was no place he couldn't conceal with a glove cuff. (If that number would even show up in the real world outside the Pokéball, which the blue hedgehog hoped it wouldn't – after all, none of the other Pokémon had ever shown any signs of them, right?) But speaking of which, now that he had been released from the freaky ID-branding matrix, but obviously not yet from the Pokéball, where was this, then...?
Finally, the blue hedgehog looked up. And stared.
All around him, there were loop-de-loops, palm trees, checkered earth and endless, rolling meadows, and everything exactly as he remembered it.
"No way," Sonic whispered, but there was no way to deny it.
He hadn't seen it for years, but Green Hill Zone looked just as beautiful as ever.
"Awesome!"
And the fastest thing alive had taken off like a rocket.
xxx
"Whooo-hooo!"
Sonic was still running, having lost all sense of time, trying to beat the records he had set there in his childhood, and generally having the time of his life.
He could sometimes hear Ash's voice echoing from somewhere, reminding him occasionally of the real world outside – he supposed this was another Pokémon-trainer bond thing – and from what he'd caught, it seemed like the battle was pretty balanced, so far. Sonic had heard Pikachu being called out, and then called back sometime later, and then another other Pokémon called a Charizard - which had to be the one from his nightmare - but that was also apparently not about to last much longer, if Ash's slightly worried shouts were any indication.
Sonic rushed down the end of a loop-de-loop, launching himself into the air to curl up and hit a TV box in one of the palm trees with an expertly executed homing attack, loving the exra freedom his new techniques brought to his exploits in his childhood home. He had just landed, was about to charge up a spin-dash when-
"Alright! Now it's all down to you, Sonic, GO!"
"Woah!"
The entire hedgehog yelped, as the landscape dissolved just as quickly as it had formed, and Sonic actually gave a strangled cry as suddenly also his legs had become nothing but light bursting apart, and then, just before everything went dark, there was a terrible pull, as if someone had reached into the very heart of his being and he was hurled...into...
"SONIC! It's your turn!"
"Umph."
Sonic made contact with the real world again very ungently when he was promptly dumped onto a gravel field face first.
"Wha...?"
Pushing both hands against the ground, the hero of Mobius lifted himself onto his hands and knees. The sudden onslaught of light, sight and sound was deafening, and he had to take one, two breaths and a headshake before the world dissolved into meaningful shapes again. Finally, he lifted his head.
He was, still on his knees, looking up at the inside of a giant stadium filled with roaring people. And in front of him was a dragon.
"It appears a bit confused!" A booming voice now filled the speakers, letting Sonic's ears automatically flatten themselves against the noise. "Is it not trained properly yet, perhaps? But – wait! Amazing! It actually seems to be a new Pokémon! Unbelievable!"
As if in reaction, the audience roared even louder at this announcement.
"Sonic! Get up!"
A familiar voice cut through the din, and Sonic's head whipped around to see that behind him, at the sidelines of the gravel field that made up the arena, Ash and the others were standing and waving at him. The trainer was still clutching a Pokéball that Sonic figured he just had to have released him from. A quick glance at his wrist followed – as he had hoped, in the real world, the ID number was gone – but he still figured he'd have to have a few choice words with Ash about that later.
Even if I'm not sure he'd have known it would be like that. Still.
"Its owner is the Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum!" The voice, which Sonic figured had to be the announcer of the tournament, proclaimed at this moment and the vid screens in the stadium had focused on Ash and their friends now. A woman carrying a microphone was also running toward them, just as the announcer said "Tell us, Ash, what kind of amazing new Pokémon have you brought us?!"
"Uh..."
The screens switched to a close up of Ash's face, the trainer floundering. Sonic, on his feet by now, but still eyeing the giant, orange-coloured, winged reptilian monstrosity (that thankfully had made no move to attack him yet) in front of him, felt inclined to point out that they were getting in a tizzy over a 3 feet tall sapient hedgehog WHEN THERE WAS A FREAKING DRAGON, but then simply shrugged and let it be.
After all, he'd be the first to admit he was pretty awesome.
xxx
"Ash Ketchum! That is definitely a Pokémon not found so far! What is it called?!" came the enthusiastic question from the tournament reporter currently thrusting a microphone into Ash's face.
"Err...Sonic, but technically-"
"IT'S A SONIC, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! What an exciting tournament, I can't wait to see Sonic in action!" the reporter yelled into the microphone and the crowd cheered loudly.
Amid the mayhem, Sonic's gaze snapped to the other side of the tournament field where he realized their opponent had to stand. His eye ridges rose a bit as he realized it seemed to be another ten-or-eleven year old kid, but then mentally had to shake his head again – after all, human pre-teens somehow running around with incredibly powerful creatures at their beck and call seemed to be the normal standard of this world.
(For some reason, though, this ten-year-old also seemed to have some sort of teenage human dancing cheerleader troupe behind him, which Sonic for the moment chose to ignore).
"Hah, you probably thought you could surprise me with a new Pokémon, didn'tcha, Ketchum?!" the other boy with the wild, spiky brown hair and intensely purple shirt sneered at them, crossing his arms. "Well, guess again! I don't even know how you loser managed to get one to get into a tournament that's usually off-limits to rabble like you, but that still won't stop me from stomping it with my Dragonite!"
Sonic cast a quick glance back and was surprised to see a flash of genuine anger on Ash's face – clearly the two of them had some sort of backstory going. For his part, if he looked at the smugly superior expression of their opponent's face, he was immediately drawn to Ash's side of the thing, though.
"Oh yeah?! Well, for that you'd have to even be able to touch Sonic!" Ash yelled. "And I'm not a loser! GARY!"
"Oh really? We'll see about that! Dragonite! ICE BEAM!"
Sonic was pretty sure there had been a "Sonic! Dodge!" command somewhere, but he was already well away as the dragon had opened its mouth and blasted a ray of freezing cold at where he had just stood. Sonic came to land a few metres from the impact, whirling on his feet to face his opponent again. So the dragon didn't have much on him when it came to speed. Good. Now-
"Alright, Sonic! Spin-dash at Dragonite! NOW!"
For a split-second, Sonic hesitated. Not because he was afraid – no, mostly because the dragon was just standing there without a command by its owner, looking actually kind of cute. And while Pikachu had been enthusiastic about battling him, there was no indication this dragon wanted this also.
But if he didn't, they'd never get this Emerald, and something always went south with Chaos Energy in the wrong hands. Sonic tightened his fist. He needed to remember this.
He attacked.
xxx
To be continued…
Well well well, things are heating up! How will our hero fare in the tournament, and what kind of surprises might there to be to complicate things last-minute? Read on for Sonic Vs Dragonite next chapter and if you liked, please review! :D I cherish every one and my replies are nice, promise :)