Vulpine Times
Disclaimer: Don't own it.
Quietly, almost silently he landed only a few feet from me, standing taller than my tails by a good foot, though in human terms that likely wasn't all that large.
It wasn't really his size that was intimidating, though; I'd seen that movie, I knew what he could do, and running would do no good.
Not that I wanted to run, but my body was certainly considering it. He was giving off truly frightening vibes.
He looked at me, his eyes hard, sharp, judging, "What are you?"
I froze, like a mouse at the sight of the eyes of a large snake; before me stood quite possibly the single most powerful BEING in this world. Before him I was a speck, a bit of dust to be brushed away, why would he even be giving me the time of day? Lest I had offended him somehow, angered him... 'I, I-I don't..'
He narrowed his eyes and a refreshing jolt went through me; I shook my head, attempting to clear it. He'd asked a question, and I had an answer, 'I'm me, what else do I need to know?'
He smiled, a smile not cruel, yet at the same time reminiscient of Vegeta's smile upon those he percieved as being beneath him; a tad warmer, but radiating the same confidence. It was still an improvement over the overwhelming, judging look. He crossed his arms, "What did you do to be here?"
His words echoed in my head, though my ears failed to hear them. At this message thoughts, flashes came, crashing unasked for to the front of my mind, and for a moment I curled, helpless as remembered, phantom pain coarsed through my very being, pulling at barely-healed seams, yet at the same time...
"I see. I won't ask again then. But tell me, what are your intentions now that you are here?"
Pain receding I found my mind, itself raw, instantly worn yet somehow calmer... and I thought, 'I'd like to explore, with a human maybe. I want to learn, grow, and...'
"And then you will leave once more."
Something bothered me about that statement, but I nodded, I couldn't deny it; my intention was to leave. I did not know how long I would stay, but I would eventually overstay my welcome, and need to move on.
"You're concerned of 'welcome' now?"
He wasn't asking me to answer him, he was just prompting me with questions, then pulling the answers from my mind. I cooperated, bringing thoughts to mind of my purpose. I did not guard them, did not filter them.
"I see. And you fear that you are not ready."
'I may never be, but I have to try.'
He considered me for a moment, then spoke with that strange, echoing thought, "You're right. They will come. Out of curiosity, and a particular dislike for their kind, I will distract them for a time, but they saw your arrival just as I did, they will not be kept at bay forever."
I cringed; I hadn't even been thinking about that, but I knew to what he was referring just the same. The 'Teams' never stay out of 'interesting' things for long. A strange pulse of energy was just the thing to capture their attentions.
Quietly, I thought for a moment, then spoke, 'I thank you for your help, but I ask, are there others?'
"Others like you?" He smiled again, making it clear he knew the answer to his next question, but asked it to make me answer it anyway, "Like you in what way?"
I gulped, 'Other... former humans.'
He laughed, a deep voice that was just like I'd imagined, though he quickly calmed, "I know a few, so yes. And yes, some live with the clones and I."
I nodded quietly, feeling a bit more comfortable now that I knew that Mewtwo was acting as protector rather than attacker. 'Okay.'
He was silent for a moment, then looked up, at an area of sky near the sun, and spoke once more, "When the sun sets this night, as it touches the horizon, you should try that Metronome of yours. That's all I will say." He then took off, silently ascending to the air as though carried aloft by the same force that propelled Superman in wingless flight.
He was hardly out of sight when Natty, the female I recognized from the group that had come to greet me the day before, came over a small rise of the ground to approach me curiously. 'Who was that? I didn't recognize his kind.'
I looked up at the portion of the sky to which Mewtwo had gone, and then back to Natty, 'Mewtwo.'
Natty seemed confused for a moment, but then she frowned, 'But there are more than two Mew! I don't get it?'
I blinked; I had thought that she had never heard of Mew, but apparently that wasn't so, 'He's a new sort, he and Mew are close.'
'Oh...' Natty looked up as well, but then looked back at me before smiling, 'So, do you like Altair?'
"Pix?" I considered, 'He's nice. Why?'
She smiled, 'He's my brother! And I think he likes you.' She rubbed her cheek on mine, thankfully holding back any sparks that might have wanted to come out.
I considered, 'Brother?'
She nodded, "Pi!" 'Ya!' She held her forepaws to her mouth as she giggled, 'He keeps talking about you, too!'
I nodded numbly as I remembered a scene from the night previous. ""I think you're interesting, why wouldn't he?""
I had no time to respond before Natty waved me to follow her, 'Come on! The berries get good after they've been in the sun!'
'Uh, right!' I followed, perfectly ready to leave certain thoughts behind.
Mind. It.
There was a tree in front of me, and it was still standing strong. Mind. It. Mind. It stood there. Mind. It hadn't moved yet. Mind. It was a target.
Mind. It. The pull was there, but rather than simply seeing it... Mind. It. I pulled back. Mind. It. And suddenly, a fire filled my veins, pushing at my skin like air against the confines of a balloon...
I yelled, and a yellow film covered my vision... but beyond that nothing changed. 'What happened?'
The tree was unhurt... as was I... as was the grass arou-wait. Just a foot beyond my body the grass turned from green to that strange yellow color... in a perfect circle all around me. 'What is?'
Aik'sha ran at me with a smile, 'What is that!? Is that a shield? It looks neat! How'd you do it!? Can I learn how!? Please?' She stood at the very edge of my little dome, experimentally poking it with a claw, finding that it didn't budge, 'So neat!'
I smiled, not entirely sure what had happened myself, 'You remember that thing I was doing when the moon came out?'
She nodded enthusiastically, 'Yeah! You were nodding your head and going' "Pi-chu-pi-chu-pi-chu-" She started waving her head, arms, and body back and forth rhythmically, mimicking my own chant from the night before in her own language.
I laughed, 'Yes, that, you can stop I get it.'
She looked at me blankly, still chanting, "Pi-chu-pi-chu-pi-chu. Pi. Chu. Pi. Chu. Pi. Chu. Pi. Chu. Pi. Chu."
'Ooo-ookay, you can stop now!'
My eyes widened as her eyes started glowing dimly as she continued to chant, and I remembered; the 'chu family is a member of the Fairy group, which includes the Clef family (Cleffa, Clefairy, and Clefable). Knowing this, it would make sense that Metronome would come naturally to them, especially with a young, pliable mind as the Pichu before me. "Pi. Chu. Pi. Chu."
I backed away a step; I had no idea what she might do, but it was clear I was the likely target, and suddenly glad for my shield, 'Aik'sha...'
Suddenly she glowed, opening her mouth without thought as a blue glow collected there, and before I could think about what was happening my shield was being deformed by a strong, blue, heavy push from the front.
With some effort I tried to maintain it, but I hardly even remembered how it'd happened, let alone how to reinforce it! It lasted for a while under the onslaught, but after a few moments it failed...
Aik'sha finally stopped, blinking curiously at me as she did, "Chu?" 'Huh?' She came closer, inspecting me.
I shivered a bit, my eyes wide and my fur likely looking like that of a drowned rat; I could just see myself, standing there, shivering, looking every bit like a dog that had just had a bath. The water was robbing me of my heat and my fur, flattened as it was, was not insulating me as it should have been.
'Are you okay? What happened? What did I do? That felt funny!'
I smiled through the shivers, 'Well, don't you learn fast?'
"chu?" 'huh?' She tilted her head, then smiled, 'Yeah! But what did I do?'
I laughed, 'When you chant and move your head like that, it's Metronome. It lets you use an attack that another Pokemon knows that you don't.' I shook some of the water from my fur on impulse, upping the heat to try to get rid of the rest, 'That was Watergun, I think. Like what a Squirtle uses.'
She thought about this, then her mouth gaped open, 'That would work on a ground-type, right!? That's neat!'
I laughed, the cold and shivers making me just a bit more jolly, or at least more expressive, 'Yes but it won't always work; You couldn't control that very well, could you? I didn't even know I did that shield thingy.'
She sat on her bum, "Pi..." She was silent for a second, then she stood, her forepaws held in fists as though ready for a fight, 'But it's still better than zapping them right? Zapping them doesn't work at all!'
I smiled, Aik'sha's enthusiasm was infectious, 'I'm practicing it, want to practice with me?'
'OKAY!' She jumped and came to stand beside me, pointed at the tree. We practiced for a while then. Ka'shi, one of Aik'sha's brothers, came and tried it for a while, but it didn't work for him and he soon lost interest. Altair and Natty seemed interested as well, but Natty's mate soon came to fetch her, leaving only Altair and Zapam to watch us.
In that time the both of us had accomplished some rather strange feats, not the least of which was when I suddenly shot a beam of strange energy that encased the tree in ice, making me feel rather... odd. Though perhaps the winner for strangeness was when Aik'sha suddenly shot into the air and came back down on the tree, riding on a wave of electricity before she slammed into the tree, feet first.
When she came-to she found that she was latched onto the tree, with no idea how she'd accomplished the feat, though I was somehow convinced that she'd just used the 'Fly' technique, albeit altered for the fact that she had no wings.
Sometimes the strange and illogical is the most entertaining, but eventually we got hungry.
It was reaching into the afternoon, with the sun into the final third of its journey across the sky when Aik'sha, Zapam and I came to the bush that grew my new favorite treat. The way the spicy/sour things affected me had not changed in the day since I'd last eaten them, which meant that with one bite I was on my back, stars in my eyes and a smile on my face as one leg twitched shamelessly in the air.
Aik'sha wasn't as dramatic as I was, but she was still a child, so when she got on her back and started playing with her food with all four paws, she just came off as overwhelmingly cute, her cries of "Pichu-Pichu-Pi!" were some of the most endearing sounds I'd ever heard.
Zapam, of course, just seemed entertained by both our antics and ate the berry that he'd picked quietly, apparently hardly even noticing the flavor.
Finally I confronted him, 'Don't you love it? It's wonderful! It's so yummy!' Matching opinion to action, I took another bite from my unfinished treat, collapsing again into bliss as I chewed.
Zapam finished his berry and spoke in that quiet, yet powerful way, 'I don't like or hate any berries, my human said something about nature. This kind makes your body grow stronger, my trainer said so, so I eat them sometimes.'
I heard his words through my bliss, and I thought, 'Make me stronger? I could use that, not that I'm arguing!' Mind recovered, I happily picked off the last of my snack, making pleased noises as I did so.
'So I'll grow big and strong like you!? Neat! Hooray!' Aik'sha celebrated a bit as she took another bite of her snack, hers taking longer to finish than mine had due to her smaller size.
I looked up at the sun, it was coming to the edge of the world, and I could hardly wait for dusk to come; that was when I would take Mewtwo's advice and... well, who knew what would happen? For all I knew, I could end up teleporting somewhere important, or perhaps even evolving...
I had to admit, the idea of suddenly teleporting to some volcano somewhere had a certain appeal to it. Maybe I'd even see some other Vulpix!
Other Vulpix... well, I had certainly adapted to thinking of myself as a fox Pokemon rather quickly. When had I started thinking that way?
Oh well, it wasn't really important.
The scratchy, yet smooth voice of a Raichu interrupted my thoughts, 'What did that Mew talk to you about?'
I looked at him, Zapam seemed genuinely curious so I made a genuine effort to answer him, 'He asked me what I was. Then he asked why I was here, so I told him.'
Zapam tilted his head, one of the few true expressions I'd seen him use, 'Why would he ask what you were? Isn't it obvious?'
I sighed, this was going to be hard, 'I know what I am now, but I used to be human. He wanted... to know which I thought I was now, human or Pokemon.'
He tilted his head the other way, still curious as Aik'sha started taking interest in the conversation, 'What did you say?'
I shrugged my shoulders, 'I am me, what else do I need to know? I can never be human again anyway.'
Aik'sha climbed atop Zapam's head to look down at me curiously, 'Why not? If you changed once, why not again?'
I sighed, trying to think of a way of putting what I was trying to say into words that my companions would understand. 'I... when I changed, I didn't just change my outside. My inside changed to, so I can never really be human again.'
Aik'sha tilted her head, 'Oh, okay.' She climbed off the elder and resumed her pleased eating.
Zapam responded in his own way, 'Humans are strange. It's like they're Pokemon that forgot how to be Pokemon. They're good leaders, like my human was, but I think you're better off.'
I considered this for a moment, then smiled, 'Thank you, I think so too.'
Zapam was quiet for a moment, looking at Aik'sha as she rolled on the ground, berry held in all four paws as she played with it while eating it, then he turned to me, 'Will you train more?' Aik'sha suddenly stood, berry between her two forepaws as she suddenly took great interest in what was being said, a plea to join in already on her lips.
I shook my head, 'I want to groom before the light goes away, then I'll do what Mewtwo told me. You don't say no to a Pokemon like him.'
Aik'sha suddenly appeared between us, fruit in mouth as she stood from all-fours, which she quickly moved to her forepaws as she looked up at Zapam, 'Will you train me, eldest? Pleeeeaaase?' "Piiiiiii?"
I could visibly watch as Zapam's resistance crumbled; he was opposed to hurting her, but he could no more resist the Puppy Dog Eyes than I could, and after a moment he descended to three paws, 'Let's find some others then.'
'Okay!' She stuck her snack into her mouth and the two of them were off, Aik'sha tacking the ground repeatedly for each of Zapam's relatively long strides.
I chuckled under my breath as I watched them go. 'So I'm better off am I? We'll see. I think she would agree.' Satisfied, I started trotting my way to the burned out spot, which really just seemed the logical place to do this sort of work.
I then started off on fire-blowing the dust, debris, dirt, and leftover water residue from my fur. If nothing else, doing so allowed me to shrug off the last of the lingering cold from Aik'sha's little accident earlier in the day.
Besides, looking good was important. I didn't know why, but it was!
Most, if not all of the Pikachu had retreated to the power plant as the sun was nearing the horizon, only Aik'sha, Altair and Natty sat with me as I watched its inevitable retreat to the waters visible over rolling hills far, far away; we'd retreated to the top of the cliff in order to see it better. Or at least I had, the others had merely followed me there, despite the dangers of a Graveller or something jumping out and attacking us.
With so much stone around and behind me, I'd have felt better if Zapam had come, but he and the other Raichu were inside, tending to the Pichu that were now settling down for the night. Aik'sha would be going in with Natty, who bedded with her mate Zak in the Raichu's chamber (he being one of said Raichu).
The sun reached the water's edge, and I started with little preamble, Aik'sha mimicking my actions in her own way.
Mind. It.
Mind. I saw. It. Was there. Mind. Familiar now. It. And so easy to simply take. Mind. And pull. It. Yank. Mind. To take, pull, yank, and claim. It.
Mind. It.
But for the moment, Mind. I ignored it. It. Instead studying myself. Mind. Wondering on what was there. Mind. It. I did not touch. It. Though it was there.
The Pokemon element of the Metronome was there. It. Just before me. Mind. It. Like a rope. Mind. It. I'd learned that if I pulled on it. Mind. It. It would break. Mind. It. And the last thread to break would become my new skill. Mind. It.
But suddenly, I was no longer satisfied with pulling. Mind. It. I didn't want to break it. Mind. It. I wanted to follow it. Mind. It. As I had with that tunnel, all those years ago. Mind. It. To not simply benefit from it. Mind. It. But to learn from it. Mind. It.
And on an impulse, I did just that. Mind. It. Pulling not the rope to me, but me along it, seeking its other end.
Mind. It. There was nothing to see around it, just a familiar blackness...
Mind. It. I heard echoes, though. Mind. It. Echoes of thoughts... Mind. It. Reverberating in the blackness... Mind. It. Powerful. Mind. Confused. It. Desparaging yet connected... Mind. It.
There were eyes on me. Mind. It. I was in a place I didn't belong. Mind. It. The eyes of hundreds. Mind. Thousands. It. Perhaps uncounted millions. Mind. It. Would be so easy to become lost... Mind. Here. It. These were...
Mind. It. Mind. It. Mind. It. The minds of Pokemon. Mind. It. Lots of them. Mind. It. They reminded me of something. Mind. It. It was familiar. Mind. It. I'd seen it before.
Mind. It. The Unown.
Mind. It. Seperately they were fragmented, mere symbols of a greater whole. Mind. It. Like the letters on a page. Mind. It. But arranged. Mind. It. Together. Mind. It. As a Whole. Mind. It.
They were more.
Mind. It. Mind. It. Mind. It. Mind. It. Mind. It. Mind. It. Mine. Dit. Mine. Dit. Mined. It.
They were confused. Mind. It. Collectively, they had a hive mind more powerful than that of Mewtwo. Mind. It. But when they saw me, they were confused. Mind. It. And I didn't blame them. Mind. It.
I don't know what they were expecting. Mind. It. But they did seem to have expected my arrival. Mind. It. And they reacted.
Mind. It. Mind. It. Mind. It. MindIt. MindIt. MindIt. MindItMindItMindItMindIt.
The world around me lit up into a purple haze, and coming out of that haze I saw...
Mind. It. Mind. It.
The next thing I knew, Natta was saying something and backing away, so I looked at her, wondering what she wanted.
'She's going to explode!' Suddenly my companions ran and dove for cover behind a large rock, as I simply tilted my head, wondering what was wrong.
The sun had set completely now, leaving only a light orange just behind the horizon and plunging our surroundings into darkness, but to my sight it was well lit, with shadows banished by a light literally coming from my every hair.
'Huh, am I going to use Explosion then? Oh well, I learned something important. That's plenty.' With this thought, I took the metaphorical bull by his equally metaphorical horns, taking this skill that had been planted into my skull and FORCING it out.
And there was pain. I screamed out as it felt like my body was being torn to pieces, shredded from the inside out as every bone in my body screamed, every muscle ripped, every nerve fired at once and my mind drank it all in as it happened.
And just as quickly as it started, it was over.
I looked around, 'Funny, this doesn't look like an explosion's aftermath.. shouldn't there be a crater? Or at least a scorch mark! Am I that weak? Bah!' Of course, with some experimental moving of my many limbs, I found that, other than a little pain and maybe some itching, I was rather unharmed; explosion made Pokemon pass out totally spent, but here I was, still standing on all fours and wondering what went wrong.
"Pichu?" Aik'sha poked her head from behind the boulder, and I saw her eyes go wide, "Pichu!" She ran at me, followed shortly by a pair of equally aghast Pikachu.
I had to admit that I felt a little strange, but I couldn't understand why they were looking at me like that, and when Aik'sha asked how I was doing I answered, 'I'm fine.'
I slapped my paws over my mouth, standing on my hindquarters on reflex, nearly falling backwards with the force of it. I then moved my paws away from my face so I could get a look at them.
They were yellow. So was the rest of me. "PiPikachu!"
End Chapter 3
Yay! Chapter 3 finished! A little shorter than previous chapters, but these things end when they want to, not when I want them to. Heh.
And coincidentally: Ouch. I can only imagine that rearranging the cellular structure of a biological organism whose cellular structure is not made to be rearranged would HURT. Perhaps even more than exploding (though that would probably hurt to).
My head hurts in sympathy even as I write this. Ouch.
Alex Ultra: Forgotten Melodies
LATER
