Untrue World

3.

Battling was a part of nature. It could not be rejected, especially at one's superior's command! - The Book of The Furious Jigglypuff

What happened next was a strange and unusual, but rather welcome break for him from the cramp nothingness of his ball. Inside he had been vaguely aware of time going on, yet had felt strangely unlike himself, a vastly uncomfortable experience. Being 'released', when it came, was very much a release of nerves as much as the physical act of being let out when he poured upon the floor. Gazing about the room, he found himself tended to by Chansey in the back room of something called a 'Pokemon Center'. Even in his world, they were well known to make good nurses, but were fairly rare. It amazed him that here there were so many of them and no other pokemon nurses except a few female humans.

There he was fed for the first time in this world, a happily inoffensive unidentifiable brown substance, and could listen to a strange voice in another room talking. Poking his head around a corner, he could see a human talking inside a box. Fascinating. Their technology truly was more advanced than his own kind's...

"Were you to see an asteroid, in fact, and suffer the same fact as the ancient Kabutops, you would only have a single flashing second, with no other warning. This is because they travel faster than a bullet as they come crashing out of the sky. If one was heading towards us today, we'd be very lucky to spot it with our telescopes within sufficient time to make any sort of plan to stop it or recognize it as on a collision course- even a year's ahead notice might not be enough time." the graying man stated on the screen. "But your chance of dying from an asteroid is very unlikely."

But... I could have sworn I saw it coming at me! Right at Milktank's house! he blinked, poking his head back out when a human passed by. I don't... gazing at his young, babish claws, he began to doubt his sanity. Could it be none of my life ever happened? That can't be. He closed his eyes and slunk against the wall. I know too much to be a baby...

"I want Leos back now." a cold familiar voice came from the other room. Frantically, Charmander glanced around, looking for somewhere to escape to. But the only way out was back towards Kebin!

"Please hide me!" he begged the Chansey, who stared at him oddly with their round, big eyes.

"Chaaansey?" it questioned, and he cursed. Who heard of a pokemon who couldn't understand other pokemon? He was such a disgrace... although the thought occurred to him that perhaps neither of them could understand the other. He was just too bad with this old dialect.

"There you are," snorted Kebin as he walked into the room. "Return!" he shouted, outstretching the pokeball, and despite his struggle, was utterly helpless against getting sucked away in.

"GO!"

Suddenly, next thing he coherently knew, he was standing in front of a pidgey, fighting again in a grass field. It launched at him, and tried to peck his eyes out, and in fear he kicked out at it, sending it against a tree, and slashed at it to keep it down before it could go at him again.

"Good. Return!"

"Growl, Leos!"

Whirling outward, he gave a reluctant cry, not because he was told to, but because he was alarmed to suddenly be on the ground again as a yellow rodent smashed into him, thundershocking him at the command of some chubby trainer. In a harrowing next few minutes, he scratched and bit and tackled against the nasty little mammal that had chosen him, for whatever reason, as a victim of choice to slowly paralyze.

He barely avoided having to faint, as it toppled to the ground before his teeth. Next, he thought he had fainted, for everything went black again.

Again.

"LEOS! SCRATCH!"

With little warning, he was out again, a dizzyingly in an entirely new location. A tall dark forest was around them, and the early evening sky twinkled above them as a beedrill buzzed angrily, circling him. Dodging as it stung at him, he scratched outward again and again, but wasn't entirely able to maneuver out of the way of it's fury quickly enough and felt it sharply dig into him. Poison filled through his veins, and he winced, before instinctively opening up his jaws up and outward at it to send a fistful of ember at the insect's yellow face. It crumpled to the ground, and dragged itself away...

Leos turned his head, expecting perhaps some sort of congratulation-

And was sucked right back in.

"Now you, Pidgey!" he heard faintly before it all grew too dull and distant away.

He had been healed again, somehow. At the center? He didn't remember waking up, or eating there, from the rumble of his stomach. It was still early night, the sun having just dipped over the horizon and a small ray of reddish purple was faintly visible. There was no immediate opponent facing him this time, but a young girl was nervously fiddling with her pokeballs in front of him. "Um, okay, I'll choose you... Wurmple!"

Feeling no threat at the new creature in front of him, he stretched, blinked, and looked around at his surroundings properly for the first time in awhile. Forest. Maybe it was the same one they were in before?

"Tackle, Wurmple!" the young girl commanded, and Leos yawned, walking out of the way of the furiously scurrying forward bug that tried to leap on him repeatedly like some sort of overgrown flea. Yeahhh, so intimidating.

"Ember, Leos." Kebin commanded, without the slightest hint of a please like always. He turned his head around to face his hated trainer and narrowed his eyes, feeling the wurmple finally landing a hit on him as he stopped trying to avoid it. Ignoring it as it gave a cry of happiness, he grew steadily closer to his dark haired 'master', mouth opened aggressively wide. "What are you doing, you stupid pokemon? I'm not the one you are fighting! Get into battle!"

"No." the charmander growled, flaming tail flickering in vigor. "You are the one I'm fighting." With horrific glee, he breathed flame upon the young boy, and watched him scream as he caught flame and tumbled to the ground, rolling frantically to get rid of the heat that ate at him.

Opening his mouth to flame again, he was stopped by something beating him upside the head, and shook his head to glance back at the wurmple, who was shouting at him.

"Bad! You bad! Fight Wurrrmplleee not traiiner! Bad pokemon you!" it scolded. Meanwhile, his trainer screamed something that sounded like the word 'cucumber' over and over again in hysteria.

"Are all pokemon in this world as freaking stupid as you?" He stared. "You wouldn't stand a chance against me if I fought you, not at these respective levels. Can't you see your trainer is sending you out to the slaughter?"

It stared blankly at him, for a moment, struggling to get through his strange 'accent' and crude manipulation of the language, and perhaps, if he or she understood that far, the complex concepts that laid within after that. "Not nice. Can't you see he in pain?"

That actually made Charmander pause, glancing guiltily as he noted how horribly fragile the human seemed to be, wheezing in pain on the ground as they, with the help of some water from the girl human, managed to get rid of the flames. Burns marred their face, all ever so easily... too easily. Humans really were typeless. "He hurt me first." Charmander replied with what he knew was a very juvenile response, before darting away, making a break for it into the wilderness.

Why, dammit, should he feel guilt about running away now, he thought as he scrambled through the growths and bush? Kebin had done nothing but make him miserable, and escape was the only way. He had forced him to fight against others, but when Charmander had turned the tables, hadn't been able to take his own dish served cold. I miss home. I miss Mama. The last thought made him internally freeze. I am truly turning into a child! I haven't seen my mother or wanted her since I was- well, this age!

After a short run, he gasped for breath and hid against the hollow crevice of a tree, his babyish fat limbs already giving out on him. His reddish-orange body and burning tail were pitiful for hiding, making him shine like a beacon in the dark forest out to everything, he scowled. Forcing himself to get up again, he knew his only choice was to go on before someone caught up with him, and tried to catch him again. He had to find better shelter, some place where he wouldn't stick out.

A strange music caught his attention...

"Tododile, dile, dile." a happy voice chirped out, as he came over a hill and looked over towards a clearing where a gentle musical tone played from a sort of metal box. Another of those silly humans stood, cooking something at a fire, while a content water pokemon danced around it. He thought he recognized the tododile from the place they'd been given away at, and the human. Two to be wary of, then... but both seemed off-guard. He could sneak around them.

Crawling around, he startled as a loud noise popped up, a crackling voice. "Alert! We interrupt your program to give a report on the Pokemon League News!"

That box was a news device? Like their letter-service but with sound? Fascinating. Was it possible they knew about his deviance already? That was worrying... he pressed himself against the ground to hide while he listened, hoping the glow of his tail would be mistaken for some of the light from their own fire.

"Aww, not again..." the human yawned, then stuffed his smelly meat sausage into his mouth and chewed on it. "W'nder w'at it iff t'is time." Tododile stared at the human in response, shrugging.

"A mysterious flying pokemon has been spotted in the Chartreuse town area, killing locals. We ask all inexperienced trainers to keep away, and for the assistance of expert trainers who happen to be in the area. In addition, three starting trainers have been injured in a grass pokemon incident at Brown Town by attempting a novice solar-beam, and we highly recommend all trainers to train their pokemon thoroughly before relying on them. Nineteen trainers dropped out of the League running this week, one of which managed to gain four badges already, Miss Alice Kite, and seemed to be quite full of shining promise..."

Relaxing a little, but still vigilant and on his guard, he scanned his surroundings and the skies as he listened on. It was very informative, though not what he'd been expecting. So there was some sort of league they were all competing in, these trainers? What was the prize for winning? Why did they fight?

It was a subject often overlooked by his books that he read. Many simply said they fought for the enjoyment of it, or sadism in the more monster-themed ones, whilst some of the more trashy ones left out the battling aspect all together and made them cuddly barf-buckets of romance or cuteness. Admittedly, some of the littler ones had turned out to be kind of cute looking, but he found the vast majority to be rather ugly and apish looking.

"A thunderstorm is expected for this area, so do not linger long. We will return you back to your program." the audio beeped out, then music began to play again. Charmander immediately felt panic, and scurried across the ground to get away. Thunderstorm? As in, water? Crud, he had to find a way out of here, and some shelter, and soon!

"Charmander! Leos! Where are you?" he heard Kebin call out, somewhere, and hastened to turn around the other way, heading off in a direction as far away from the other trainers as he could. At this point, he'd rather face the storm then that round red-and-white jail cell again, he miserably scowled to himself. "I command you to come back to me! ...Please!"

The air felt heavy and moist, but eerily still and windless as he rushed through the air, padding along the ground in muscles he was very unused to. Up ahead were more and more trees, with the occasional clearing splattering around here and there. A splatter of water hit his head, and the reptilian fire pokemon broke into a run.

Another and another drop hit him, and he swung his tail under his belly to guard it from the rain, determined but shivering.

Jirachi, the wish maker pokemon... he gazed up at the sky, desperately. Did you do this? I swear I didn't mean it, that wish... I was just jesting, thinking to myself it might be fun to know what it was like! I don't truly want this! I wish I was home again! Nothing, only the flash of light of a storm, answered him. Please... The sky rumbled, then the navy-blue blackness poured upon his wet, orange figure. He wasn't sure if he was crying or not, the pain in his tail and the cold in his chest intensifying as he forced himself to slug on through the rain. 'Leos' tried snuggling up his tiny self against a tree that massively dwarfed him in size, but to little avail. The water found him just as easily there, though it saved him from the wind that began to wail.

Just give up, why don't you? he exhaustedly placed himself down on the muddy ground to rest his eyes, too tired to go on. The only ones who might rescue you will just enslave you again, and expect you to be a wonderful pet... And nature will just ask death of you... You aren't home, and you can't find it, so just stop pretending... just stop...

"Charmander!" he heard Kebin yell again, and he listened to him yell on a few more times again, before giving up on him and going silent, heading away for his own shelter. At least he had that newest pokemon to protect him now, that was a pidgey, wasn't it? The boy would do okay, he'd still be able to go on his idiotic adventure and fight another day despite those burns he'd given him... it obviously hadn't muted his voice...

He listened for, on the off-chance something might occur, for footsteps now or the sound of another pokemon, but nothing like that came. Everything had fled to seek shelter from the storm, except, stupidly, himself, who had no clue where to find any in this world. Was this the end, now? Was he dying in the rain?

Closing his eyes, the charmander thought to himself that if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that he was quite tired of everything going black...