The plot bunnies won.

Chapter 1

I waited patiently while my "guide" worked his way through the documents on his desk.

I had no clue why I was here, or if he actually had to go through the massive stack of papers on his desk, but I recognized a reincarnation office when I saw one.

"Alrighto-" he neatly placed the papers he was readying down, "You're gonna get the standard pokemon package, but with a twist I decided to add."

I nodded and accepted my faith. It would be dumb of me to insult the person that was about to resurrect me, so I said nothing and looked at him expectantly.

"So this is what's going to happen: Imma make you a team, and your power is going to be able to transform into said team."

So I wouldn't get an actual team? Bummer. Though, the thought of actually becoming stronger excited me.

"The way we're going to choose your pokemon is with a combination of what I think would be useful and your preferences."

He leaned down, opened a cabinet, and took out another folder. This one has my name written on the cover.

"Let's begin with the psychic type. They are going to be important, so you can avoid master effects-" wait a minute, "so let's see, your favorite psychic type is… gardevoir. How… unexpected."

"Wait a moment, I know what you're thinking about. It isn't like that. My first game was omega ruby, and gardevoir is by far one of the best psychics."

"Uh huh, except you actually didn't get a gardevoir on your run in that game. Still, let's see, how many times have you wanked one out to a gardevoir."

He began leafing through what I assumed were my papers.

"Imma be honest and say that a few times, but I actually believe it's a good pokemon."

He stopped and looked me dead in the eye. "And I totally believe you."

He leaned back and continued as if I hadn't had one of the most embarrassing moments in my life.

"You're going to need a fighting type. I know most of them aren't that good, but learning how to fight will be a necessity for you, and having a pokemon who will naturally boost your learning speed would do you some good."

I began to sweat a little.

"And your favorite fighting type is… lucario."

"I swear, on my mother's name, I actually don't like lucario like that."

"And yet, your rule 34 history says otherwise."

"No no no, I'm for real this time, I might like Lola bunny, but I ain't a furry."

He raised an eyebrow at me, and I did my best to not look away from his stare.

"If you say so."

He scribbled a bit on the post-it note he had and continued.

"Now, with the absolute necessities done, let's get to the fun part, pseudo-legendaries."

I nodded at him one more, the faster we could forget about the last two pokemon, the better.

"Let's see, your favorite is… garchomp. Why are you like this? I bet your favorite water type is vaporeon!"

"No! It isn't!"

He began speed reading my papers only to slam them on his desk a moment later.

"It's a fucking tie between vaporeon and swampert- You're a basic bitch!"

"Noooooooo! It's not my fault the fandom is full of degenerates!"

"You are one of them, you fucking idiot!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Cooler minds prevailed, and swampert was my chosen water type.

"Ahem, with that out of the way, I recommend getting a flying type. Sometimes you just need a reliable way to travel, and flying types fill that niche perfectly. So, what do you want for your fifth slot?"

"Mmmm, corviknight. I already have a special defense wall, so getting an actual wall sounds good."

My guide nodded and stood up.

"Now, for the last pokemon you will get. You need something strong, something with an oomph, the rest of the team is well-made, even if ground and steel is repeated, both are good typings. So what do you want?"

I thought about it, considering the team that I had, I could actually just go for almost anything and it would be totally fine… Still, go big or go home, right? "Can I have tyranitar?"

Guide's head tilted from one side to the other as he considered my request. Getting a tyranitar would be good against a lot of stuff, rock was always a good type and dark type could deal with most esoteric mind powers, or so I hoped it did, I still hadn't forgotten how he said "master effects". There was only one place in the multiverse where that was a thing, also, tyranitars are just fucking cool.

Getting one or not would not be a matter of life or death, but it would be pretty chill. So I just hopefully looked at Guide.

"Mmmm, here's the thing, you already have a pseudo, getting two seems unfair." He sat down.

"What? No it wouldn't every pokemon has the capacity to become stupid strong, getting a tyranitar would just make the road a tad easier."

"Yeah no. That's not how this works. You see, I think you are still thinking about pokemon stats and how good they were in-game. Right now, we are talking about real life. So no, I won't give you another pokemon whose powers are comparable to some demigods."

"Ohhh."

"Exactly, so choose another thing, one not in the mythical, legendary or even pseudo category."

I moved in the chair to get more comfortable and looked at Guide. "So, as long as the pokemon is not in one of those categories, it's free game?"

"Yup."

"Can I get volcarona?"

Guide sighed as he grabbed some more papers and shuffled through them. "I guess, that was sneaky by the way. I approve."

Hah! The fire moth was stupid strong according to some pokedex entries, but he wasn't even classified as a pseudo-legendary.

"Thanks guide person, I appreciate it."

His exasperation went unnoticed as I basked in my victory. "Let's finish this. I want to give you some drawbacks in exchange for some boons, how about it?"

I considered his words for a moment and slowly nodded. "What drawbacks and what boons exactly?"

He held up two fingers. "First, the ability to work with your aura even in human form, it would be bad for you to die miserably just because you were caught unaware or by surprise. The second boon would be to give you all the pokemon's abilities. At the moment, you'd just get their standard ability."

I nodded to show him I was following, but he didn't continue talking. "... So… what would the drawbacks be? I'd like to know before I agree to anything. If my guess is correct, you're going to send me to worm, it would be dumb to get a drawback that'd fucked me once I get there."

Guide smiled at me and shook his head. "You are right about where you are about to suddenly appear, but no, I won't tell you what the drawbacks are going to be. Though I do suppose you are getting much more out of this little deal, if you choose to accept."

Fuck, so, do I risk it? I't be dumb to stay weak as a human, and getting all the abilities would be very good. Plus, he said I'd be in my favor… "I accept. What are the drawbacks?"

Guide's smile became feral as he stood up again and started walking towards me.

"Great! First drawback, your new name will be Cynthia, and you won't be able to say otherwise. You've filled out a number of CYOAs, so think of this drawback as a conscious geas."

Ah. "Are you gonna take away my manhood or just my name?"

He waved his hand. "Just the name, I find it funny. Like this, I can continue spreading the fear the name Cynthia produces."

Alright, I could live with that.

"The second drawback is that you won't be able to cover your identity. No masks, no fog, no nothing that would make you unrecognizable. This way we keep things interesting."

Well, that wasn't so bad. He could have left me a cripple or something.

"And third-" Wut. "you are going to start off with just one starter, and the baby stage. This journey of yours shall be of growth, not a steamroll through poor earth bet. It doesn't need another overpowered asshole appearing out of nowhere."

"Ah shit."

"Ah shit indeed." He touched my shoulder in a way I was sure was supposed to be comforting.

"I'll see you later if you die somehow. Good luck." It certainly didn't fill me with confidence.

The world around me turned black and in a blink I was in the middle of a street while cries for help rang around me.

Mother's pleading for help, children screaming their lungs out, and people just generally dying.

"Damn."

So, as I said, plot bunnies. Damn them. Also, this story is… I guess inspired would be the correct word, by all the pokemon fics that have been uploaded recently.

Also, with which one of the pokemons should Cynthia start with? I'd go for mudkip, but as said in the chapter, that would be a basic bitch move.

I actually have never read Worm before, so this is just like a prologue. Imma have to read the whole novel to feel comfortable writing a fic for it, so the next update might take a while. Though I do want to make this a bit AU, mostly so if there are any inconsistencies I can say there is a reason behind them, reasons that I won't ever explain.

Also, if this is filled with grammatical or orthographic errors… I'll fix 'em when I wake up.

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