Author's Note: I thought by this point I would know what type of person I wanted to be Meryl's trainer. However, my brain will not allow me to think-even this chapter was hard to write. So now I will accept OCs for Meryl's trainer, the pokemon that trainer will have, a rival, and maybe a few companions too. I'll add the form on my profile. Please submit forms via PM.
Her life was over. She was dead.
She had to be dead to feel this heavy. Her lungs felt like a rhinoceros was crushing them. This is what it felt like to be a beached whale.
And yet, she could breathe. Her heart was still beating—albeit, faster than usual, but she blamed that on fear—and she was still thinking. If she really were dead, she would feel nothing. Know nothing. Be nothing.
So Meryl was still on Planet Earth. As she grew conscious, she could hear the world around her. All sorts of birdcalls filled the air with melody. There was splashing nearby, so she was near water. Where did the bus stop go? Her bus stop was right in the middle of a metropolitan area. The only animals there were the cockroaches and rats.
Was I roofied? Meryl's heart skipped at that thought. She quickly opened her eyes and glanced around. Walls of grass blocked her view. She stood carefully. Her legs felt weak and unused; not all at what she was used to. Band camp had reduced her legs to rock-hard muscle, and even in her weakest moments she needn't struggle to move them.
The grass was just at eyelevel. Meryl peered over, standing on her toes to look for something recognizable. What she saw was a mystery. This patch of forest only lasted for another hundred feet at most. It ended in a rocky shore where a small lake started. On the far side of the lake was an amber wooden bridge occupied by a small amount of people stationed every fifty feet. On the other side of the bridge lay another shore and a huge plateau.
Where the hell am I? Meryl drew in a ragged breath. A whistling sound filled the air and she yelped, only making the sound worse.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Instantly Meryl screamed again and whirled around. At least, she tried to, but instead she fell on her face. The source of the voice gave a shrill, harsh laugh followed by a clicking noise. Meryl forced herself to her feet and turned around.
She was talking to a crab. A giant, red and white crab that wielded two huge claws. It was nearly as huge as she, and acted as if this was perfectly normal, "Come in the water with me. You look dry." It said and sidestepped around her, ignoring her petrified look. Meryl turned around and watched the crab walk to the shore. It seemed there was nothing she could do but follow. When in Rome, act like the Romans do…She remembered, a quote from some old movie or book; what, she couldn't remember.
The red and white crab lead Meryl to the shore, and soon she became aware of just how weak she was. Her legs felt like sticks, and a heavy weight sat just above her butt. She couldn't feel her arms anymore, nor could she move her head to look at herself. All she could do was look ahead and hope nothing scarier than a crab appeared.
Once they reached the shore, the crab sat just under the water where it passed entirely over him but was not strong enough to cast him away. Meryl hesitated to follow, but she knew this heavy feeling on her chest would subside once she got in the water. She took a step forward into the water, and then paused.
The water was clear, clearer than any water she had ever seen; lake, ocean, or tap water. She could see a perfect reflection when the waves reached her, slowly lapping at her feet. Instead of the pale, curly-haired girl, there stood a small blue…thing with a twitching swirl on its stomach. Thick red lips sat above the swirl, and just above that were big baby blue eyes. Behind her twitched the source of the pain on her butt; a thick tadpole tail. She could barely see her legs; they were inappropriately small for a body this big.
What have I become? Meryl could barely hear the crab speaking. Anger sparked in her as she remembered clearly the events from before; Gabriel and that insane fight with the iPod kid over some shitty cupcake, and this is what happened to her! Who was he to let her take of bite of some cupcake—It probably wasn't a cupcake! It probably was some time-space machine!—and get her trapped in this universe—I know where I am. I'm at Nugget Bridge, and that crab is a Krabby and I'm a—and turn her into a freaking Poliwag! No one had the right to take another person's life in their hands and change it just on a whim, without even telling them what was going to happen! Meryl let out deep growl, something that hurt her throat.
"Hey…are you okay?" The Krabby said softly. "I am going to kick Gabriel's ass." She spoke. No remorse, no regret, no tone at all in her voice. Later, she wouldn't remember saying that.
NEXT TIME: Meryl gets a trainer! Will they be reliable and help her grow stronger in her quest to kick Gabriel's ass, or will they be a bumbling fool? Or perhaps something inbetween? Find out next, on Water-Breathing Tadpoles and Magical Cupcakes!