Untrue World

A/N: Wow, a review. Honestly didn't think I'd get one of those; not that I'm complaining, I like silence a fair bit. To answer your question, I think the instructor needed an extra pokemon and figured murkrow would work just as good as a pikachu would. :) Both have similar difficulties in taming (pikachu might be worse because it can electrocute you), though I'm sure a lot of kids would have the same reaction as you towards it. 'Murkrow? Really?' I got some more muse right after publishing as fate would have it... O: Edit: the format came out weird. Odd. Managed to fix it, though I don't know if anyone saw that.

Warning: Mentions of blood and violence. Minor cursing, like hell, bloody, drasted, arrrrggghh.

Disclaimer: Do not own Pokemon.

2.

Humans are just as real as fairies, I see them in my wall living as midgets. What do you mean you don't believe

in faeries? You can't say that, every time you do it kills a faerie! ~ Mental Patient Dorice the tangela

As the face came upon him, he tried in terror to think of something, anything, to force his limbs to move. He'd always been a shy individual, and was one of the many who had families that never seemed to evolve anymore, not needing to fight. So many humans, he didn't think running would give a chance of escape, and was vastly outnumbered. These strange pokemon beside him, he rather expected they'd fight against him rather than join him, as well.

But just as suddenly as this had all happened, he seemed possibly rescued. "You don't have to take that particular one, by the way. Since they're popular I have a few extra charmander this year, including a rare female."

"Really?" the freckle-faced kid turned away for a moment, and the charmander took the opportunity and launched forward, sinking his teeth into his arm then unlatching to drop away on to the floor. "AAWRG!" the kid screamed, tears whelming up as they backed away. Other children scrambled to give Charmander space as he tried to duck behind the desk, looking around for his next opportunity to escape in the masses and warily watching for retaliation as he considered what to do next.

"He's rabid!" someone whimpered, sucking their thumb. It struck him that all this humans seemed to be acting awfully strange... and awfully young. Were they giving away babies to babies? That didn't seem right.

"No, he's just vicious." sneered a girl, a female-human he identified from smell.

"It just needs t-to be tamed." stuttered another holding the off-hue pikachu, and they all began to argue with one another. Perfect, that meant they were distracted. Then, he felt something soft and weird in texture grip him firmly around his sides and kicked out, struggling as he was roughly put back on to the table. He heard a loud booming voice speak out above him. "Calm down everyone. Charmander are commonly fiesty, and this one just seems a bit wilder than usual. As I said before, I have some others." He should have known. It was that large, adult male that had snuck up behind him- he cursed his lack of awareness, but Charmander had never been very good at paying attention to his environment before, always daydreaming.

The boy who'd originally wanted him opted to take another, the female in the belief that they were nicer (hah, yeah right. Females could be even worse- there was a reason they were rarer.) and he felt joy at his success. But by evading being taken, the thought struck him, what would happen to him next? In horror, as many started to drift away excitedly from the scene with new starters, he saw the adult human move to take a pokeball. No, hell not, he wasn't going in there! With a savage snarl, he made a break for it, leaping off the table a second after the other let go and dashing to the door. He was going to make it! He was going to-

Oww! He curled over as pain descended on him, laying on the floor and not quite sure what had just happened. Determined, he opened his eyes and pulled himself up, lips curled to see his attacker. A young man stared down emotionlessly as his face, with a rather disheveled appearance to his fur as he stood just at the door, one foot paused in midstep.

"Oy, instructor Berry, sorry I'm late." the boy moved his foot away from Charmander, so it was no longer in danger of stepping on his body. "...I guess I'll take this one." Lackadaisically, the young male stretched down as Charmander made to scramble away and excruciatingly grabbed him by the tail. Hissing madly, he scratched at the air, and sparks sizzled from his tail, but to no effort. Drawing a deep breath, he tried to summon fire breath, but nothing expelled but a tiny puff of smoke and sparks to his internal fury. "Kinda feisty."

"You shouldn't grab them at the tail like that, you could get burnt and it angers the pokemon." the instructor chided. "Kebin, I should refuse you for being late- again, but go ahead and come on in. You need this for your safety just like everyone else."

"No thanks. I just need the dex and I'll be on my way, I don't need a tutorial on using a pokeball, battling or nothin'." his 'trainer' scoffed, before outholding his other arm to receive whatever that 'dex' was. It certainly wasn't in any of the stories he'd heard.

"Don't be lazy. You can come in and get yours from the box just like everyone else." He jutted a thumb in the direction of it, and Charmander wondered how he hadn't noticed it before. Then again, there were a lot of things he hadn't noticed until now, like the fact the humans had different colored manes on their head. This Kebin's was black, being upside down he got a fair view of it. He felt himself bump up and down as his captor walked across the room, and wheezed for breath now, the pain in his tail making him unable to think. He was really sensitive there, all very young charmander were, because if anything happened to his flame he'd die. They weren't the kind of lizards that could afford to lose and regenerate their tails.

The hand relinquished him, and the charmander hit the ground with relief, wobbling around pathetically. He licked at his tail, and felt pretty certain he was crying. It didn't make him feel very good about himself. The others were talking, but his ears were ringing and he tuned them out, trying not to feel so awful.

"Follow me, Leos." Kebin commanded, and the pokemon realized that was his new name. In defeat, for the moment, he shuffled after, trying not to focus on the ache. Something strangely compelled him now, perhaps one of the rules of this new world, or perhaps because had the circumstances been different he'd have vocalized well before now.

"Charrr..." he growled, green eyes staring fiercely up at the sky. Soon, he promised himself, he'd be free. He was not completely demoralized; this was just a set back.

"Scratch, Leos!"

It was all too strangely easy to obey the order to fight when your opponent was trying to kill you, he mused, as he stared at his newest, and first, opponent. They had not traveled far into the field before encountering something. Pidgey had timidly pecked about on the path, but one bold rattata had stepped forward, seeking to test the human traveler to see if he was as stupid as he looked. At first, Charmander had been very amused- a battle like in one of the novels, really? But all these amusement had ceased as it had shot out with fangs to rabidly bite at him. It was like it was actually trying to kill him, he thought worriedly as he backed away as slashed outwards to deter it.

Going backwards, it paused and eyed him. "Ratta tat atata! Human-toy!" it growled to try to intimidate him,although he thought it was kind of cute until he managed to translate. Two could play the intimidation game. Ignoring the humans orders, he aggressively puffed himself out and bore his fangs and teeth in an intimidating manner as he howled a snarl and stomped forward.

"ChaaaarMANDer! Oh yeah?" Or at least, that's what he hoped it translated to. He was extremely bad at this, and his inflections were slightly off. The rattata actually seemed to pause for a moment, and he took advantage of it being off-guard to slash at it some more. Injured, he expected it to flee, but the apparently stupid creature leaped in again at him, nipping down and drawing blood on his leg. As it did he retaliated, and this time, ripped it open wide until large gashes lay gleaming wet in the fur. Horrified at what he'd done, he stepped backward as the small mouse collapsed before him, and he heard his sadistic trainer cheer.

Oh, hell, oh bloody hell... he gazed at his bloody claws unhappily. Had he just killed someone? It had to still be alive, but if they left it there it was surely going to die.

"Good job Leos. I heard pokemon can be a bit slow to learn what orders mean, so I'll forgive you for not obeying me this time. You still won, and that's all that matters." the other boldly said, and strode forward to examine the unconscious thing. "Don't want to eat it? Guess that means you aren't a wild caught one after all- the breeders who got you simply did a piss-poor job."

Kebin, Charmand- Leos- whatever, decided that the guy was rather unpleasant in character. Although, Leos wasn't a bad name, he thought, and he'd always had difficulty picking a unique one for his own and had never gotten around to it. He didn't think it matched him very well though; Leo rather implied he was a brave warrior, and with this... No, Charmander felt absolutely sick to see the blood. He'd always eaten pre-made food before to supplement his berry diet with protein, he'd never had to kill anyone...

His trainer walked off with out him, and it was actually some time before he came back. Leos thought about running, but couldn't help but continue to stare at the rattata, then look up hopefully for some sort of mercy.

Couldn't they help him? Heal him or something?

The act of mercy, it never came. "What the heck is wrong with you? I almost got attacked without you! You're supposed to follow me to protect me." A lecturing tone lashed at him, the human's voice and body language strongly reprimanding, fists tightened and eyes narrowed. "Do not make me ask again."

Ha. That wasn't asking, the charmander thought with curled lips, it was just demanding something the other didn't deserve. Turning around, he planted his behind on the ground and refused to look at the trainer. They could get attacked again, he honestly wouldn't care. A clicking noise caught his attention, and he turned his head just to get sucked into a red beam. Oh! That. He'd forgotten about those drasted pokeballs. Any noise he might have made was sucked into silence, as he disappeared into the light, and then fell into a strange, pitch black darkness...