And we are back with another chapter of this story! Sorry for the delay but you know, work, life and writers block and stuff, but we finally got through it.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading this! Hope you enjoy the next chapter!
Chapter 11
As the sun rose the next morning, Hikari gracefully bounded out of the gummi ship only to stumble slightly at the interesting sight before her.
Sora's clothes were now in a heap over his new smaller pokemon form with his now scaled down tail sticking out. Riku was in a much different situation. He was still wearing his clothes in a sense, but his shirt and vest had torn partially at the seams near his shoulders. While his belt had held, his pants were now partially shredded at the bottom. Curled up into his side was Claire, who was small by comparison.
Hikari walked over towards where Claire and Riku were sleeping before stopping almost right in front of Claire. She then used her tail to swat at the small fox's face. Claire's nose twitched as she slowly opened her eyes.
"Hmm...Hikari? What is it?" She asked groggily.
"It's morning, and I figured that I should wake you up before others noticed your… position. " answered Hikari while walking a bit away.
"Huh...what?" Claire asked as she blinked a few times as she heard a yawn from behind her. Turning around Claire looked up to see that Riku was now awake and staring right at her. Before anyone could say a word Claire immediately jumped up and stumbled backwards, crashing right into Hikari.
"Uh.. Are you okay?" Riku asked, sounding a little confused on what just happened.
"Ahh...How did I?..." Claire muttered with a panicked tone as her breathing increased. "Sorry! Umm it has to be some...animal instinct or something."
Hikari shook herself off before saying anything. "I tried to wake you up before you caused a scene, but it seems that you have done so anyways."
Claire groaned as she shook her head. A small faint chuckle was heard from behind the girls. Claire turned around and looked at Xavier, who was now awake.
Claire stared down at him, "What's so funny?"
"What? I didn't say anything?" Xavier said.
Claire continued to stare at Xavier before letting out a huff of air, which also contained a ball of fire, directed right at Xavier.
Xavier managed to stand up and jump out of the way just in time before the fireball hit the ground. "Hey! What was that for?!"
Claire sighed and grumbled, "Nothing…"
"Are you sure there is nothing going on between the two of you?" Hikari asked Claire while tilting her head slightly.
Claire finally looked away from Xavier and looked at Hikari, "No...I just am I little shaken up...or whatever. I didn't expect to wake up….like that." Claire looked at Riku, who was now in a sitting position. "Sorry again…"
"It's alright," Riku responded. He then looked over to his side, to see that Sora was still fast asleep in the pile of clothes. "And of course Sora sleeps through all of that…"
"At least you are getting better with using Pokemon moves," Xavier said coming a little closer now.
"Yeah… I guess," Claire sighed again.
"Well now that we are all Pokemon, I supposed Sora and I should try and learn Pokemon moves," Riku stated as he slowly started to fully stand up on all fours. His legs shook a little as he tried to keep himself up. "This is going to take some getting use to" Riku said quietly.
"We should probably all have breakfast before we continue." Stated Hikari as she walked over to her bag.
The others nodded in agreement as Riku looked over at Sora, who was still sleeping. "Sora, come wake up."
Sora yawned as he crawled out of the pile of his clothes. Sora looked around at everyone and then at himself, "Whoa, I didn't know that Pikachu was so small compared to the rest of you guys. Ah well, at least I am light on my feet," Sora said with a smile as he bounced around a little.
The group then went on to eat breakfast while Riku continued getting use to his new Pokemon form. Sora on the other hand easily got the hang of it as he was cheerfully walking around after they had all eaten.
"Nayh nayh naayyh."
Almost everyone looked around for the source of the sound, but didn't see any one or any Pokemon. Hikari just sighed.
"What was that?" Sora asked as he looked around.
"It sounded like a Pokemon, but I don't know where it's coming from," Xavier added.
Hikari shook her head,and called out. "Dawn, why don't you finally come out and introduce yourself?"
"Nayh!" Hikari's bag rustled before something else was heard from it. "Skitty use tackle!"
The bag popped open, and darting out came a mostly pink cat like pokemon that had a beige face and underbelly and a paw like fluff at the end of her tail. It immediately lunged itself at Xavier, plowing into his side and rubbing its face against him.
Xavier stumbled back as he looked down perplexed at the Pokemon nuzzling against his leg. Xavier blinked a few times with confusion, but didn't know what to say.
"So… that's Dawn?" Riku asked.
"Nayh?" the cat like pokemon stopped nuzzling Xavier and turned to look at Riku.
It immediately launched from Xavier's side and tackled Riku. "Fluffy Nayh!"
Before Riku had a chance to react to the cat-like thing that rammed into his side, he was knocked back onto the ground. It then buried its face into the scruff of fur around his neck.
"Nayh" the cat purred.
Hikari let out a sigh before calling out "Dawn! Behave yourself!"
The pink cat, now identified as Dawn, looked up at Hikari. She tilted her head and then glanced around, spotting Claire "Nayh nayh!" Dawn then lept at Claire before stumbling, and rolling across the ground. She landed on her stomach, her legs splayed out, tail resting on her head, and swirls in her eyes. "Ending Dawn-ex-machina…" Dawn said dizzly.
The concentric purple rings of light that were briefly in front of Hikari faded away. She just shook her head and sighed "Ignoring that. We should probably get back to searching for the source of the Heartless."
Everyone nodded in agreement as they prepared to head out. They decided to split up into their previous groups, leaving Dawn sprawled on the ground. They all walked out to the beach area before heading out in different directions. Hikari, Sora and Xavier headed further down the beach as Claire and Riku headed into the forest.
The trio followed along the coast until it became too rocky and they were forced to head inland. Staying as close as they could to the water's edge, Hikari, Sora and Xavier bounded along the forestline as the rocky shore fell away to a cliffside overlooking a river.
"Whoa, quiet the view from here," Sora said as he examined his surroundings.
"Yeah, this island is very large and has a lot of hidden coves and other areas on it," Xavier stated.
Hikari's ears twitched before turning to look out on the other side of the ravine. She then hopped off the edge, and began gracefully hopping from one ledge to the next, down the cliffside. Within seconds she was down at the bottom of the ravine, leaving Xavier and Sora still at the top.
"Um...did she see something?" Sora asked as he peaked over the edge.
"Most probably. Out of all of us, she most likely has the best hearing," Xavier responded.
"So...how are we going to get down?" Sora asked.
"There is a hill leading down, a little ways that way," Xavier motioned to their right.
The two headed over to the hill and made their way down, looking for where Hikari had gone off to. When they reached the bottom, a few pebbles fell from the wall above them. With quick sighs the two began their way across the ravine and over to another hill like area to head up and try to catch up with Hikari. Once a the top, they looked around for where she had gone, but saw nothing but forest greenery.
"Hikari?" Sora shouted. "Where'd you go?"
A Powerwild came flying out of the canopy before impacting the ground near the two and exploded into bits of darkness and a pink crystal heart. Following a similar flightpath, Hikari had tackled a second Heartless out of the trees and landed on it, destroying it upon landing.
"Oh that's where you went," Sora said casually.
"There's more Heartless up in the canopy," Began Hikari. "How well can you fight in the trees?"
"I've done it plenty of times before, " Sora stated.
"I suppose I probably could as well," Xavier added in as he looked up at the tree tops.
Hikari nodded before bounding between trees, climbing higher before disappearing into the and Xavier looked up at the tree tops before looking at each other.
"I guess we better get up there and help her," Xavier said as he prepared to lunge up at the trees.
"Hold on one moment," Sora said stopping Xavier from jumping. Xavier turned to look at Sora, who ran over to him and jumped up onto his back. "Okay. now let's go!" Sora shouted cheerly as he pointed his paw up at the trees. Xavier let out a small annoyed grumbled before lunging up into the tree tops.
Hikari was tackling more Powerwilds, however instead of making sure that they were destroyed, she was just keeping them away from a specific tree. When more than one attempted to attack her from behind at the same time, a transparent blue barrier shimmered into existence, preventing the assault from harming her. Hikari then spun around, keyblade materializing in her mouth for a brief moment to bat the Heartless away before it vanished and she continued to tackle and claw at the nearest targets.
Sora jumped off Xavier, leaving him to try to manurer in the very limited tree space. Sora immediately sent off bolts of electricity towards one of the Powerwilds, stunning it. Xavier on the other hand tried to move and shift around, but he wasn't able to get enough room to properly attack anything.
"I think… I may just patrol over the ground area for now…" Xavier sighed as he adjusted himself to get back down to the ground.
Sora on the other hand ran towards the Powerwilds and summoned his keyblade, which was now scaled down to his new Pokemon size. He slashed at the Powerwilds, destroying them in only a few hits. Most of the Powerwilds began to scatter, some dropped out of the tree and to the ground below.
Within minutes all the Heartless from the treetops had been cleared out. Sora jumped back down to ground level to find Xavier taking on the few remaining Heartless. Hikari faced the tree that she was guarding and spoke.
"Are you alright? It's safe to come out of hiding now."
Xavier and Sora turned their attention over to Hikari and saw that a little Pokemon had been hiding behind a few of the trees. It resembled a dog in a way, with black fur, and red underbelly and muzzle. Two little fangs stuck out of its upper jaw and it had a little triangular black nose. It also had two rib-like ridges on its back, and around each ankle, and on top of its head was something that resembled a basic skull shape.
"I'm okay. Thank you," the little dog pokemon said with the bow of its head.
"You're welcome," Sora responded. "I'm Sora by the way. And this is Hikari and Xavier." Sora gestured to the two next to him. "What's your name?"
"Sheoloren," responded the dog.
"Can you tell us what happened? What happened when the creatures showed up?" Xavier asked.
Sheoloren nodded, "Yes. I was just with my friend Erucae when those strange looking Pokemon showed up and tried to attack us. We ended up getting separated from each other as we were chased. But then you three showed up and help!"
"Do you know where your friend is now?" Sora asked.
"No… I don't. Though I think she may be somewhere still around here," Sheoloren said.
"I am right here," A new voice said.
All turned their attention to see a dark, shadowy Pokemon emgured from behind a different tree. It was covered in sleek black fur, with crimson red eyes. On its forehead was a yellow fur in the shape of a ring, there was also a ring on each thigh of the four legs, as well as two around it's long pointed ears and tail.
"So… what were those weird shinny sticks you were using?" The one called Erucae said. She tilted her head slightly narrowing her eyes with suspicious and distrust.
"Oh… the keyblade? Uh… well it's not really a stick, but…" Sora trailed off as he thought of the proper words.
"It's a weapon of sorts," Hikari began "One that chooses its wielders. Traditionally shaped like a skeleton key, it comes in different forms and sizes. While I won't go into their history, we use our keyblades to keep the balance between light and darkness."
"Hmm…" Erucae hummed thoughtfully for a moment before speaking again, "I see. Now while it isn't that odd to see a Pikachu around a Luxray...the Espeon on the other hand is the odd one in the group."
"That's said coming from a Umbreon who is friends with a Houndour," Xavier responded.
"We're both of the same type; dark," Erucae responded with the roll of her eyes.
"Eh...It's just not all that common though is what I meant," Xavier added.
"No matter what though, I must thank you for saving me and Sheoloren. Now I kinda ask you all to go away," Erucae said as she turned around and started to leave.
Sheoloren just sighed and gave Erucae a nudge in the side before clearing his throat. Erucae paused and closed her eyes for a moment. She then turned around and faced the group again. "Fine i guess it's only polite to invite you over for a meal."
Hikari looked over towards Sora and Xavier. "While grateful for the invitation, we're actually in the middle of a self imposed mission of sorts."
"But maybe next time," Sora cheerfully added in.
"A self imposed mission? What possible kind of mission could you three be on?" Erucae asked.
"We're trying to find out what is calling those creatures that you saw us defeat to this place. They're drawn to something in the area that I believe is also affecting us adversely." answered Hikari.
Erucae and Sheoloren shared a glance at each other, and then Erucae spoke again,"What do you mean affecting you adversely?"
"That's… a little hard for us to explain," Xavier said.
"Yeah, you probably wouldn't believe us," Sora added.
"Try us," Erucae said.
"Well we all aren't...really from around here," Sora responded.
"Uh huh, yep still not seeing how the island is adversely affecting you," Erucae said innocently, though her eyes were glimmering in what Xavier was starting to think was amusement.
"You know something don't you?" Xavier spoke up, taking a step forward.
Erucae blinked slowly, "Know what? That anybody who comes to this island is cursed with the form of a pokemon? Because no I don't know such a thing."
Hikari tilted her head. "And yet did you not outright state information that no native resident of this area would know?"
Erucae gave a blank stare before doing what seemed to be an attempted at a face palm. "Wow how low is your intelligence that you can't even tell a basic form of sarcasm, congratulations, you've won the award for the lowest intelligence on this whole godforsaken island, even the natives as you call them are better at understanding sarcasm."
"And your choice of response is to insult someone who isn't even human in the first place." Hikari deadpanned. "You could have just admitted that you are not truly a pokemon, and chosen to help us reverse the effects. "
"Meh why should I? I quite enjoy being a Pokemon, much better then returning back to the household." Erucae said.
"So you were a human one," Sora stated.
Erucae nodded, "Yes. Sheoloren and I have been here for sometime now, but we were once human." Sheoloren shifted a little at the sound his name, but he did not say anything.
"How...long have both you been here?" Xavier asked.
"Hmm…thirteen years I believe," Erucae stated.
"Thirteen years?!" Sora shouted with surprise.
"Yes is it really that surprising?" Erucae asked with a sigh as she sat down with a huff.
"We had no idea the curse has been here that long," Xavier said. "They've only been here a few days while I have been here a few months."
"And after all of that time, do you have no desire to return to a human form?" asked Hikari. "You don't have to return home, as it seems that you disliked it, but you could start a new life somewhere else."
"Why?" Erucae asked as she twitched her ears slightly, "I have a wonderful life here. Why go somewhere else where I would have to start a whole new life?"
"Well we at least are trying to find a way to get back to normal. You wouldn't happen to know anything on how to do that would you?" Sora asked.
"Maybe I do maybe I don't. But if I did i sure as hell am not going to tell you." Erucae said with a yawn, her patience for this long gone, "Come Sheoloran, let's head back home" With that she turned and walked away deeper into the forest.
Sheoloran paused and whispered out, "We don't know anything, we never looked" Sheoloran then dashed off into the forest to catch up with is friend.
"It seems that while fruitful in finding others in a similar situation, we haven't progressed in our search for the source of this curse." Hikari commented.
"We should look some more probably, there is still a lot of island to be covered," Xavier said.
"Yeah let's go," Sora said as he began to walk ahead, "Maybe we will run into more who are trapped here like us. Hopefully someone knows something…"
And that wraps up chapter 11! Learning new things and meeting new people...er.. Pokemon lol.
The cameo OCs Erucae and Sheoloran belong to my friend TheDeadGirlRisen.
That's all we got for this chapter. See you guys in the next chapter of this story or one of my many other stories!