"Why are you not in Rustboro yet?" The all too familiar voice of the little girl was back. She pranced around in the white room that was only home to me and her. "I told you I need your help, but you are not helping." Just then I remembered how I woke up with a cut on my face the next morning after my last dream involving her. These dreams…no, nightmares, were starting to freak me out.
"Who are you?" She stopped and stared at me. "I asked who you are."
"Have you not learned by now that I can't just give away information? You have to earn the information in a game, silly. Now what should the game be this time?" She tapped the side of her face pondering on what way she should torture me now. "How about we play a game of hide and go seek, wait we did that last time didn't we?"
"How about we play the game: tell me who you are." It was worth a shot, but she only laughed and continued to think of what game to play. A look of excitement then came across her face as she started jumping up and down.
"Let's play the game of cat and mouse! You'll be mouse, and I'll be the cat! Meow…th!" With that last statement she started to change. Her dress started to meld into her skin as well with her hair and…well just about everything. Her eyes were now big and wide with the pupils being much more slit. Her ears were large and outlined in black, and in the middle of her forehead was a large coin. She appeared to be slightly purring.
"Is this your version of cat and mouse? I am about a good three feet taller than you." She looked me in the eyes with her large eyes and they started to glow a dull, eerie green as she snapped her fingers. Then she started growing, no wait…I was shrinking.
I looked at my hands which were no longer hands that had visible fingers. They were more like yellow mittens. I looked down only to see a yellow body and yellow feet. I placed my hands on my cheeks in shock only to find there were rough circular spots there. What was wrong with me? I looked behind me and noticed a short stubby tail. I placed my hand-mittens on my head out of shock only to feel long ears on my head causing me to gasp out loud. I was a Pichu!
I looked up at her with my big brown eyes carrying fear in them. She wasn't that much taller than me, only about four inches, but it was like it was natural instincts to fear her, or at least her Meowth form. She grinned at me baring her tiny sharp teeth which could easily pierce through my soft flesh.
"No. This is my version of cat and mouse!" With that large boulders rose from the ground and the room seemed to expand to no visible point. Some of the boulder levitated off the ground creating steps and a few more platforms above our heads. "Above us, on the fourth floor is a block of cheese for your cute, little mouse self. If you get the cheese, you also get my information and a nice little snack. But I'm going to try and stop you with all my might. Oh and don't forget that everything that happens carries over into reality. Now I'll give you a ten second head start starting…now! Ten."
I immediately started running towards the stairs. Surely I could get enough distance between myself and that crazed cat to get to the top floor without having to worry about. Nine. I easily moved out of the way dodging large boulders that were jutting out of the ground. Eight. I was only about a twenty yards away from the stairs. Seven. I was almost there. Six. Just a little bit more. Five. If I could only. Three, two, one…as soon as I reached the stairs I heard an awful cat battle cry. I looked to see how far away she was, and she was already halfway to the stairs. I frantically scurried up the stairs often tripping over myself trying to get away from the feline devil. I was only half way up the stairs when she reached the first stair. She glided up the stairs, often going two stairs at a time, but I somehow ended up getting to the second floor before she reached me.
Not a second later, she burst out jumping right over me and landing in front of the way to the second staircase. She grinned again showing her razor sharp teeth and raised her paw to swat at me. I barrel rolled to the left avoiding her paw and continued to run. She simply put her paw on my tail which stopped me dead in my tracks.
"You have lost the game." She brought up a claw and her claws jetted out of it, more than doubling in size. Fright filled my body as I struggled to get lost. Then a warm sensation filled my body and I got this tingly feeling. Static started crackling around my body, then a loud *CLACK* sound was heard and I released an electrical pulse through my body.
I think I had just used Thundershock, but I was not quite sure. I didn't really care either because when I did so she pulled her paw back in pain. I started running towards the stairway until I realized that the ground was starting to break apart as segments of the floor fell through completely. All that was in front of me were a couple of floating boulders that led to the staircase. I would have to jump them.
I jumped on the first boulder and it seemed to wobble a bit, but eventually stabilized. I then flung myself to the second boulder. I caught myself as I landed on it. When I landed it caused the boulder to float a bit farther off from the rest of the boulders. I did not have time to adjust myself, I had to jump now. I jumped for the third rock and caught onto it with my hands, or paws, or whatever they were. My hand-paws started slipping and I accidentally looked down. I did not see down into the first floor. All I saw was a black abyss. My hand-paws continued to slip. Curse my lack of fingers. I somehow got a grip and pulled myself atop of the floating rock. That's when I saw the she-cat was now on the first boulder. There was no way I could outpace her on this terrain, so I sent a massive electrical shock through the first rock destroying it and catapulting myself to the next one. I repeated the process until I made it to the stairway.
I took in a deep breath as using all that electricity caused me to be fairly fatigued. I saw that she was now preparing to jump. She leapt across the abyss, but I was too busy running up the stairs to notice whether she landed or not.
The third floor was a maze reminding me of one of my first dreams with the eccentric girl. I tried to remember if Pichu's knew any attacks that could get them through this. Wait, don't Pichu's know Volt Tackle? I tried to summon the immense electrical field needed for Volt Tackle but failed. I tried again with no success.
Then a paw landed to the right of me. She had made it somehow across the darkness. I backed up only to be pinned up against one of the walls of the maze. I looked around to see what possible chance of escape I had. If I went to my left, I would only effectively trap myself, while to my right was the entrance to the maze, so the decision was clear.
I dove underneath her legs, sliding along my stomach as I escaped being cat food. I scrambled to get up and ran into the entrance of the maze with the cat-girl right on my heels. I started to run on all fours as it felt more natural in this form increasing my speed and slowly, but surely started putting distance between us. Left, Right, Right, Left. The maze seemed endless as eventually I stopped to take a break. I looked back to see no Meowth. That was good, now I could rest a little bit. I heard a soft 'meow' in the background as I started to rub my little feet to hopefully make them feel better.
After what felt like a minute or two I got back, up feeling somewhat better and started to make my way out, this time at a slower and more steady pace. Finally I reached the end of the maze and quickly climbed the stairs to retrieve the cheese. As I climbed the last stair, the room came into full view. And right in front of me was that dreaded feline.
Almost instantly my foe swung one of their claws at me as I narrowly avoided being decapitated by stepping back. 'That Volt Tackle could surely come in handy right now' I thought to myself as I dodged blow by blow. The cheese was so close, yet so far.
Suddenly it hit me. Not one of her swiftly moving claws, but my training with Martin, and how Pokemon can sometimes master moves of theirs in time of desperation. Electricity started forming around my body and the Meowth girl backed off. I aimed myself directly at her launching like a rocket, she sidestepped the brilliant electrical attack but she wasn't my target. I kept barreling forward right into the cheese.
A bright flash of light was summoned as soon as I touched the cheese, and suddenly I was back in the white room with the little girl.
"Grace." She muttered something under her breath.
"What did you say?"
"My name's Grace."