Should I? Or should I not?
Xavier was curled up in his bed of soft straw as he decided whether to tell his friends about him being a human. A thousand thoughts raced in his head, especially ones that contained fragments of memories about his life as a human. An hour had passed since he last rested in his bed and he could constantly hear Zachary snoring while Yvette laid face-first on the floor.
He couldn't shrug the fact that he got transformed from a human to a pokémon. That's not something that happens every day. But that wasn't the reason to him not sleeping. The real reason which was pestering him was whether he should've told his newly made friends about his past. Should he? But wouldn't they find it weird that he was a human? Surely they would find him as an outcast. A million thoughts raced through his mind, but he then shook all of them. He decided to get some sleep; it would be a big day tomorrow.
He closed his eyes to find peace and sleep, but that night he had a dream…A strange one.
The night is cold. A drop of water splashes on a stalagmite, providing growth for a stalactite above it.
A strange creature hovers in the air, finding sleep in a bouncy bubble as she swirls in it. Her mind is carefree since she knows that the many Magikarp and other water elements swim peacefully in the vast lake, while the only sound that disrupts the silence is the occasional cracking of the million Venomoth eggs that are beginning to hatch and give birth to new life.
"Oh, sweet glorious sleep…" the creature inside the bubble moans loudly, but it doesn't escape through the walls of the bubble. She flickers her long and elegant tail before she coos again. "After so long…"
But her sleep is destroyed.
A strange creature, roughly her size, zooms across the long passageway that leads to her domain. The evil and power-hungry grin on her face shows his merciless nature.
He tries not to awaken his target. But a slight crash against the tip of a stalactite sends the almost-noiseless sound to her sensitive ears.
Her eyes open wide.
In a second, she slaps the bubble around her and it breaks, sending a popping sound that echoes in the cavern. The Venomoth stop laying any further eggs.
"Hello, Lady," a male voice says.
"What are you doing here?" she fiercely replies. "You should be at your own domain!"
"Oh, ho, ho!" he chuckles. Although a male, his voice is childish. "You know what I'm here for."
Her eyes widen in fear. "N-No…I won't give it to you! The Father—"
"The Father is asleep!" he cuts off rudely, making her flinch. "It will be a long time before he awakens."
"I won't give it to you!" She glares at him madly. "I'll fight back! I don't know how you escaped them, but I'll stop your operation right here!"
"Ha!" He laughs once again. "Itsy-bitsy Lady Mew trying to beat…me…? You lost last time, horribly!"
"Eat this!" The pink pokémon brings her palms together, forming an ectoplasmic sphere in the space. She then fires it towards her opponent, who skillfully dodges it.
"You think a weak Shadow Ball is going to stop me?!" He cackles once again. "Well then…here is a return gift!"
He opens his mouth and blasts a Shadow Ball at her, which advances towards her with such speed that Mew has no time to retaliate. She slumps down in defeat as the purple sphere rammed into her torso, and a sickening crack is heard as her head clonks against a rock.
Her enemy's eyes glints with excitement. He floats past her and towards the lake, finally diving inside and retrieving an object in the form of a question mark, but without the circle. "One down, three to go…"
"WAAAH!" exclaimed Xavier as he woke up from his nightmare, his face covered in sweat.
"Ugh…" Yvette rolled in her sleep and groggily looked at the frightened Treecko. "Xavier…Go back to sleep…"
And with that, he cautiously rested his head in the bed of straw, not envisaging any dreams that night.
"RAAAAAAAWR!"
"WHAAA—What the—"
Xavier woke up to see the grinning face of an Exploud. He almost fainted in fear, but the Exploud's face then turned into a frown.
"This is the third bloody time I roared this morning," he said in a baritone voice, "and you wake up now?"
"Hey!" Yvette exclaimed as she looked at the Exploud. "You're, uh…"
"Whis, member of Team Strike Now with your wife Whitney, who's a Flaaffy," Zachary informed in a bored voice.
"Y-Yeah, that's what I was going to say!" the Torchic exclaimed as she managed a grin.
Xavier frowned at this. But it was acceptable, since he somehow knew that the two previously mentioned pokemon were in the same egg group. Huh…was I a pokémon expert or something? Hmm…He'd heard of stranger pokémon romances as a human. Memories started to flock to him…Wait, memories! Yeah! They soon started to disappear. No…No! Don't go! D-Don't!
"That's correct!" The Exploud interrupted his thoughts. "But anyway, you three have gotta go to the common room. That's the usual stuff!" He turned around and stomped his feet as he walked away. "Well, see ya lads downstairs!"
A few minutes later, they were in the meeting room, going through some silly chants which Xavier found pretty silly and stupid. They seemed to belong in a nursery classroom, but he didn't mind.
"Well said, my guildlings," Zairian approved. "Now, go on missions, catch outlaws, rescue pokémon and collect money!" Everyone laughed at that. "I, in any case, have something special to attend to, concerning our neighboring kingdoms!" She winked and set off to her office.
Kingdoms…?! I thought there were regions, and a government! Does that mean this is a kingdom too? Xavier grew worried. Oh, no…I don't know anything about this world! Damn it! He turned to see Yvette and Zachary talking about their next mission. Yvette was constantly denying Zachary's choices while the Croagunk was drawing a deadpan look on his face.
"Hey, Xavier!" Zachary called out, gaining the Treecko's attention. "Let's go!"
Xavier immediately followed the duo to the assembly room and walked to the left side of the room that was filled with numerous papers. Zachary continued to stare at the board while the other guild members snatched missions, happily grinning at the job as they walked away.
"Faster, Zac!" the Torchic said. She was now growing impatient at the Croagunk's speed. "At this rate there won't be any job for us!"
"Wait a minute, Yvette!" Zachary hushed. He looked closer and then his eyes widened. "Aha! Here it is!"
He jumped a foot above the ground and snatched a piece of paper, then showing it to his other two teammates. Xavier nodded in approval while Yvette simply grimaced at it.
"What the hell is this, Zac?" Yvette asked, clearly annoyed. "What the bloody hell is this? Retrieve a spoon?!"
"Well, it says here that the pokémon is a female Alakazam, and that without her spoon she won't be able to concentrate her psychic energy. And the reward that we get is…" the Croagunk looked above, as if calculating something, "…around sixty P and a handful of items. I say we go!"
"Pfffft!" Yvette scoffed. "Zac, that mission's just lame."
"Well, we are helping someone," Xavier interrupted, voicing his opinion and making the Torchic look at him. "I mean, we're an exploration team, we've got to help pokémon!"
"Well, alright…I guess…" Yvette finally agreed. "Where's the location?"
"The place is called…'Gooey Hills'," Xavier answered.
"Then let's go!" Zachary and Xavier exclaimed in unison. "Team XYZ to the rescue!"
"Ugh…"
Xavier gasped for breath as he chugged down another bottle of cool water. He, Zachary and Yvette were coated in sweat, tired at fighting off feral and wild pokémon. The Goomy were very protective about their territory, and were proving a difficult battle, since they were dragon elements. They had a varied move pool, but Xavier's repeated Dragonbreath finally knocked some sense into them.
Another problem was the varied poison element pokémon. A large Arbok was about to pin them down and rip their head off, but a kind-hearted group of Slowking and Slowpoke helped them against defeating the enormous serpentine pokémon. They further walked up the hill, each step proving difficult.
Then they started feeling hungry. Their stock of apples started to deplete, and now all they had was an apple and a few Oran berries. Xavier had to resist the urge of sneaking his arms into the backpack and munch on the Oran berries.
Harsh sunlight blinded their vision as they reached the summit of the hill. In the middle of the summit was a silver spoon stuck in a blob of purple sludge.
"There it is!" Yvette sighed in relief as she sped towards the sludge, trying to pick up the silver spoon. But she was taken aback when the purple sludge grew in size and revealed itself as a vile Grimer!
"Whoa!" Yvette jumped back and accidently let out a blanket of flames that struck the Grimer. The poison element cringed in slight pain as she then turned towards her attacker, and then let out an ear-piercing cry that echoed in the air. Suddenly, blobs of purple, smelling sludge crawled towards them, with a large flat puddle that advanced towards them. They all grew in size to reveal many more Grimer, while the leader was a smelly and big Muk!
"What the—there was no description of this in the piece of paper?" Zachary exclaimed.
Yvette pulled out the paper and gasped in shock at what he saw. "Shit!" he yelled. "This was an S ranked mission!"
"We're screwed!"
"Oy," the Muk said in slurred speech. "Why did you com 'ere?"
"We just wanted that silver spoon, and then we'll get going," Xavier explained, trying to get out of the situation.
"NO!" His voice boomed across the stage. "We not give you Spoon! It make psychic element strong! We weak to psychic element…Psychic kill poison!"
An idea clicked in Xavier's mind. "B-But none of us are a psychic type!" The Muk tilted his head in confusion at the last word. "Err, I mean element! I need it! I'm a grass ty—element!"
"You say truth?" the sludge pokémon asked.
"Yes!" Finally, they were getting somewhere.
"YOU LIE!" Xavier groaned in annoyance at hearing this. Apparently the Muk could read his opponent's mind. "We no give you spoon! You fight for it, and then we give spoon!"
"If you say so," Xavier mumbled, and immediately fired fiery red flames that struck the Muk between his eyes. The fire and dust cleared out, but the Muk was hardly damage. He gave an expression of what looked like a smirk.
"My babies, ATTACK!"
"Shit!"
His instincts took over and he immediately jumped in the air, avoiding a Grimer that was going to crash into him. He looked down to see another Grimer looking at him with hopeful eyes, as if wanting to catch him, but Xavier smirked before breather another set of fiery flames that kept him hovering above the air till the flames died down.
Zachary was doing a good job with Mud Slap. He was constantly scooping up dirt and wet mud from the ground and then hurling it at his opponents, obscuring their vision and letting them absorb the mud in their sludgy body as they grimaced in pain at the effects. Apparently the mud distorted their cellular structure and was very effective against knocking them down.
Yvette was so pumped up that she was continuously breathing embers at her opponents. The Grimer did not mind them, but after some time the heat started to liquefy their body and turn their sludge into thinner substances. She kept on doing this until one of the Grimer was nothing but a purple, sticky puddle on the ground.
"You no defeat us! Attack, my children! Use Sludge!" the Muk announced.
All of the Grimer came together and belched unsanitary sludge from their bodies. They joined together and formed an enormous blob of poison that then exploded upon the Muk shooting another blob of sludge that struck into the other one. The sludge flew in different directions and finally struck Xavier, coating him with poison and keeping his legs stuck to the ground, disabling him to move.
"Grr…" Xavier growled.
"Hold on, Xavier!" Zachary said as he hurled another scoop of wet mud. An oblivious Grimer swallowed it and started gaining weird expressions on her face, until she finally slumped to the ground and formed another puddle of sludge.
"We'll fight them off!" Yvette assured, but with so many Grimers and a large Muk, it was difficult to believe.
"Who took the retrieval mission at Gooey Hills?!"
The Guildmaster burst into the Assembly room, looking distraught and angry. The guild members flinched when she entered and Vicky walked to her.
"What happened, Zairian?" the Hawlucha asked, concerned.
"Gooey Hills…mission…" were the only words that came out of her mouth.
"Gooey Hills…? Why would there be…Oh, no…" Vicky gaped at Zairian.
"Quick! We need to get there!" Zairian snapped her fingers. "Vicky, if an exploration team has reached the summit, who knows if they'll be alive the time we reach there…"
"Don't worry, Zairian," Vicky assured. "We'll save them."
"I…can't…hold on…any…longer!" Xavier exclaimed as the sludge restrained his movements even further.
The battlefield was a massacre. Grimer were lying on the ground, thinned down to a soupy substance, while their evolved form kept on absorbing each and every fallen Grimer into his body and grew bigger every time he performed this.
"Take this, you crackpots!" Yvette blasted another set of embers that struck an already defeated Grimer who attempted to get up, poisonous vapors rose from the body of the Grimer.
"Sh-Shit, that's Poison Gas!" The Torchic jumped in the air and continuously flapped her wings in the air, attempting to blow the poison away from her. She fell to the ground and then jumped back up to perform the same task, but this time breathed in a few vapors and choked on them.
A purple energy crackled around her body, indicating her status. She was poisoned, and was finding it harder to focus on enemies and struggled to coordinate her movements. She coughed as she spat on the ground, wetting the floor.
"Yvette! Gaaah!" Xavier breathed another Dragonbreath that struck a Grimer not far away, but he was getting weaker by the second. The poison was trying to seep in his body, but his skin wouldn't allow it, and the poison was now trying to diffuse through his skin. He grimaced at the thought and set off to trying to break free from the sludge.
"We kill you! First Croagunk, then Torchic and then green Treecko!" the Muk exclaimed. He then swirled in his spot, throwing blobs of sludge from his body as he spun. The poison struck Yvette, but Croagunk skillfully managed to evade each and every one of them.
"Come and get me…FAGGOTS!" Zachary taunted. The Muk roared in anger and advanced towards Zachary, but he was a step ahead. He sharpened his fingers and pokémon them in the Muk's eyes, making him roar in pain at the trick. Who knew that Zachary could fight so dirty?
The Croagunk then continuously stabbed his opponent, and although it hardly dealt any damage it further enraged the Muk. Zachary then delivered a Cross Chop that sliced the Muk's body.
"Screw you!" Yvette's eyes glowed red as she spewed a spiraling flame at the two Grimer in front of her, and it struck each of them before knocking each out. She had finally learnt Fire Spin.
"Whoa—WHOA!" Yvette blasted another Fire Spin, but this time at the ground, once she saw a ginormous blob of poison heading her way. The Fire Spin projected her upwards and the sludge crashed into the ground, forming a small puddle of sludge.
"We kill you!" The Muk belched another mass of sludge. Yvette dodged it once again before finally succumbing to a Grimer's clutches. She screamed in agony as she tried to break free, only making the Grimer tighten the grip around her.
No…! Xavier cringed. It can't end like this…I just came to this weird world! He fussed around his spot. Think, Xavier, think! What'll help to destroy those buggers? Ground type attacks? But Zachary knows only Mud Slap, and Yvette knows Sand Attack, but it won't help…An idea formed in his mind and he opened his eyes wide. Wait, Sand Attack! Sand Attack! And she's a…Oh, yes!
"Yvette!" The Torchic managed to turn and look at Xavier with sore eyes. "Try to destroy that Grimer and then use Sand Attack on the Muk!"
She raised an eyebrow and looked at him with an expression of puzzlement. "What are you—?"
"JUST DO IT!" he screamed, almost begging.
"A-Alright…!" Yvette squirmed in her spot and managed to look face-to-face against the oblivious and smiling Grimer. With a fierce expression, she scorched the poison type with a powerful, spiraling flame that struck it between its eyes. The Grimer wriggled in pain and loosened its grip around the Torchic, and she jumped out and continued to burn the Grimer. A few minutes passed by and the Grimer melted into a thin, purple pool.
"Now use Sand Attack!" Yvette nodded at Xavier's command and dug her claws into the ground. She forcefully pulled out her leg and hurtled a handful of sand towards the Muk, and the sand advanced towards him.
"NOW BLAST FIRE SPIN ON THE SAND!" Xavier yelled.
Yvette flinched at the scream, but still listened to the Treecko's command. She opened her beak and a powerful, spiraling flame advanced towards the sand and the Muk. The flames engulfed the sand particles, confusing the Muk at Yvette's tactic, but when the flames disappeared the sand was replaced by glass shards.
"Whoa!" Yvette exclaimed in awe.
The Muk didn't have a chance at reacting. The glass shards struck him on the face, embedding them into his acidic and poisonous sludge body. He roared in pain as a weak, green liquid oozed out, and Xavier grimaced at the sight of Muk blood.
"Shit!" Yvette exclaimed in panic. "I-I just drew blood out from a Muk!"
"I kill!" the Muk threatened as he weakly pointed a sludgy arm at Yvette. "I kill you! My poison babies, atta—huh?"
Xavier turned his head to see nothing but fainted Grimer or puddles of thin sludge. He inwardly grinned at the fact that they only had the Muk to defeat, but the poison enveloping him made him cringe. He had to get rid of this muck.
"AAAAAH!" the Muk yelled. He then whirled around his spot, sending speedy blobs of poison that struck Zachary and Yvette. The cried out in pain as they were plastered to the floor and the Muk evilly grinned as he crawled towards Xavier.
"You die…NOW!" Xavier shut his eyes at the oncoming attack. Any minute now… But it never came.
What he saw, instead, was the Muk being thrashed by a fierce warrior, and Xavier could see the Muk pleading for his life as the pokémon continued to soundly thrash him.
"Take this, you filthy maggot!" The pokémon threw another punch at the Muk. He slumped to the floor and his eyes rolled upwards.
The next thing he saw was a blue figure hopping over him and blasting a jet of water that struck the Muk. The Muk got up once again, this time groggily, and jumped on the blue figure and engulfed it with his sludgy body. The next second, orange rays of light seemed to pour out from the Muk's body, and a powerful orange beam made the Muk explode and destroy him into tiny bits of goo. The remains of his sludgy body rained down on the ground and they started to squirm after some time.
Xavier rolled his eyes in pain as his vision went hazy – the poison was seeping into his body. It would be only a matter of minutes before he would pass out, or worse, die. He groaned weakly in pain once he heard familiar voices, as if trying to call for help, and then he entered the realm of unconsciousness.
"Where…am I…?"
Xavier opened his eyes to see a blurry sight, but a few blinks made his sight accustomed to the light in the room. He forced himself up, but his arms were weak and his head felt heavy. Wasn't he dying? What happened after that? He turned to see familiar face, particularly an angry on that scared him out of his wits.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" Zairian exploded in disbelief. "YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN YOURSELVES KILLED!"
"We're sorry, Guildmaster…" Xavier identified the voice as Zachary's, and the Treecko turned his head to see the Croagunk looking at the ground in fear.
"It was fortunate that I saw the job at Gooey Hills soon enough and that Vicky and I came to save your sorry bottoms," the Azumarill said in a very informal tone.
"Aw, come on, Zairian," Vicky calmed, putting a hand on the Azumarill's shoulder. "They're just kids; they didn't know that a Muk clan lives there. I don't think they even saw the team ranking," – Zachary flinched – "so they couldn't possibly know."
The Guildmaster sighed. "Alright…You will not be punished, but don't do missions that are out of your ranking! You will still not be receiving you reward, however."
Xavier and his friends accepted this. The nodded quietly before Yvette spoke up.
"Guildmaster," she asked warily, "what happened to the Muk? I mean, you destroyed him with some weird but powerful attack, didn't you?"
The Azumarill smiled. "He didn't die. Muk are interesting creatures, Yvette. He will still be alive in an odd way, alien to most living organisms. By being destroyed, they—"
"Separated into many new Grimer," Xavier completed, stunning everyone including himself. He was surprised that he knew that knowledge, and it felt like he instinctively spoke up. "So, those tiny bits of sludge were small practically defenseless new Grimer, but it's still possible for them to come together and form a larger Grimer or probably even a Muk," he added, surprising everyone further. "But it would be a completely different organism than the one that was destroyed. Fission like that destroyed the original's identity, giving birth to new Grimer. So basically, the Guildmaster just created many new organisms. That's incredible."
"Yes," the Guildmaster agreed softly, astounded. "Yes it is."
How the hell did I know this? Xavier asked himself. Who the hell was I in my past life? Memories flocked to him once again. Memories of him mixing chemicals and wearing a white coat…That's it! I was a pokémon professor's intern! Yes! Finally, I get to know something about myself as a human…Wait, no! Not again! He mentally cursed himself when his fragments of memories started to disappear. Oh, how he longed to know more about his past life…
"…But anyway, you three managed to keep up with the Muk and Grimer for so long!" Zairian clapped her hands furiously in excitement. "I think it'll be just a few more missions before your team gets promoted to the Bronze Rank."
"Really?" Zachary asked in disbelief. Xavier frowned, since he didn't know what they were talking about, but it looked like something important considering that Yvette's eyes were gleaming with awe too.
"Now don't ponder on it. I think you all should go to your cabin! I'm afraid you won't be able to do any more missions for the day, considering your situation now," Zairian said. The three thanked the Guildmaster once again before setting off to their cabins.
The rest of the day went well. Since they weren't able to go and do a job, they helped the guild members by carrying out chores. Yvette fussed about cleaning dishes, but Xavier agreed to do her task. They spent the rest of the day helping the guild members a chatting with them.
For dinner, they had the same set of berry dishes, which Xavier adored. He wondered if he could get the recipe back to his own human world.
"G'night, Zachary, Xavier," Yvette said as she yawned. She slowly blinked her eyes before curling into her bed of straw, and she wheezed softly before finally going to sleep. Zachary gave a sleepy look before he too dozed off, leaving only Xavier awake.
After a few minutes, when it was clear that his companions had fallen asleep, he sighed. He looked at the peaceful faces of the Torchic and the Croagunk, not having a care in the world. "What do I do?" he uttered to himself, frustrated. "I don't know anything about my past, except for what I did and the fact that I was a human. Why was I brought here?" He narrowed his eyes. "I won't get any answers like this. I'll just have to bide my time and wait for some solutions."
The Treecko bent low and laid on his bed of straw. He put his arms behind his head before turning to his left and curling into a ball. "Better go to sleep…"
But as soon as he fell asleep, he found himself in a color-filled void. He turned around to see himself trapped in a dome-like structure, and he grimaced at the new place he was in.
"What the…" he muttered, but a familiar voice interrupted him.
"H-Hello?" the voice said in a raspy tone. "C-C-C-Can you h-hear me?"
...and I think that's the right way to end it. Ooh, don't you just love cliffhangers?
I'm really sorry for not updating in so long, it's just that I had loads of other work to do (yes, I have a life). I did say that I'd be updating on a Tuesday that we already passed. Next chapter will hopefully be on the coming Sunday!
Xavier's dream - I can only tell that the evil guy is one of the cutie-legendary pokemon. Nothing else, till the time comes!
...And now for the review replies (yes, this is going to be a regular thing from now on and I'll try to do as many as I can)!
November Red Angel: Yes, I made Yvette do that to show more of her character at first. But don't worry, cannibalism isn't going to be seen any more in this fic (hopefully), except for, probably, a few mentions of it.
Guest: No they don't. I mentioned (I think) that pokemon will eat stuff like those apples and berries rather than they're own kind...Just think of them as humans. Do humans eat humans? No they don't.
Lotto the Blue Mage: Yes, Bajula was cliched villain. I'm trying to focus more on Xavier and Yvette rather than Zachary because I feel that the two could have more of character development and that I'm trying to give Yvette a greater and more prominent character than her companions. You'll see more of her and her actions in the future, too.
Team Claws is going to play a major role, something like a rival exploration team similar to Team Skull in PMD Time/Darkness, but without the truly evil characteristics.
And I think that's it. A big thanks to people who reviewed, and if I didn't reply to your review it just meant that I didn't have enough time or that I didn't have anything to say. Don't feel ignored, because I most certainly go through what your written for what I've written.
So I'll see you guys on Saturday! Goodbye, fellow Fanfiction-ers(?) !