The next series of events were things that were hard for me to explain. For some reason, during my sleep, I felt the air get a bit cooler and was able to hear the sound of waves coming onto the shore. It was still dark and night time, but last I checked, our base was on the west side of the square, meaning furthest away from the beach there. I also felt colder for some reason. Why was the blanket not giving proper protection from the cold weather? I was literally freezing in my sleep. Well, right then, it was not important enough for me ot wake up and care, so I drifted back to sleep on the sand.
...
SAND!?
I immediately opened my eyes and looked at where I was lying. It was sand on a beach away from the base. And I could tell I was not with my brothers or the rest of the team, since I was laying on my left side. If I were still in the base, Naruto would have been right in front of me. I immediately sat up and looked out at the ocean. I blinked to realize that somehow I was on the shoreline of some beach area. And that's where the weirdest thing happened. When I looked down, my body... WAS HUMAN AGAIN.
I gasped and looked at my hands and my legs: EVERYWHERE. It was the original me with the same clothes I had on that I described for you all at the beginning of this story. I even felt EVERYWHERE to see if I was fully changed and I was. I blinked again and took a deep sad breath.
"Does... Does this mean everything was a dream?" I said, as I shook my head and got up.
Feeling depressed and betrayed that I had two of the best brothers turning out to be a fantasy, I shoved my hands into my pockets. But it was then feeling something in my pocket that snapped me out of my mood and pulled it out. I looked and it was something that gave me hope that this was the dream itself.
"The Rescue Team badge!" I said happily.
Wow, I was worried for a minute there. So, it wasn't fake after all. But if that's the case, why was I human again and how come I was on a beach somewhere? It was then I decided to look around to determine where I was. Wait a minute... a huge boulder-like rock on the left... a bunch of woods behind me... and the peaceful air around it...
It couldn't be... yet it was...
I was back on the alcove of Kilyla City, my home!
"This is crazy... how did I get back here...?" I said aloud to myself, "Am I here because I need to be here for some reason?"
Many ideas floated around in my head, but all of them revolved around Jirachi who had the power to send me to the Pokémon world. Was I here because I forgot something? Was my time up there? Did I have to complete something that I need to do here? So many questions floated through my head about this, but a certain one popped into my head that made me pale up. I felt ill as my face sort of groaned without noise. That question was:
Did I have to go through that horrible changing process again? ... nnnnnghhh...
For those of you who don't like to read a good story from the beginning (and you know who you are), chapter 31 described how I changed into a Pikachu, and it hurt like hell. Bones breaking, choking was involved, just absolutely hell. So, I prayed that I wouldn't go through it again. I mean, I will in order to be with my brothers, but not again if I don't have to.
I looked around and there didn't seem to be boats, people, or anything to give me a clue on why I was there. But nothing seemed to give a hint of anything to note why I was here again. Suddenly, an idea came to me.
"Maybe if I go back to my house, I can talk to Old Man Fellows and figure this out," I thought.
Now, at the time, I forgot that Old Man Fellows didn't know I was a Pikachu or that I had gone to a different world in the future. All he knew was that I had left the island to escape Mr. Pepperridge's false information against me and using the police to try to get Sasuke and Naruto away from me. Yeah, remember all this? Do you guys remember how long ago that was? If not, go ahead and read back. If not, you're either new or you have a bad memory.
So, I decided him, my friends Tucker, Jocinda, and Kaname or the trainers that visited from the main regions could help me figure what was going on. But just as I got to the little path that would take you back to my house, I rammed into something. It was invisible, but it sparkled everytime I touched it. It was some sort of a barrier wall, and it was unbreakable, after I tried pushing and hitting it. Shaking my injured right hand off, I folded my arms and closed my eyes.
"So, I can't leave the alcove...," I thought to myself, "Does that mean I'm supposed to do something here...?"
Just as I opened my eyes, I suddenly heard approaching footsteps to my left. I turned to see a human figure running towards my direction. What was weird about it was that the human figure was completely pitch black, not from his skin or the light, but everything about him was indescribable. He kept running towards me, but by the way he was running, it wasn't that he was coming after me, but fleeing from something. The figure passed me and ran through the trees back to the city, some place I couldn't go back to. I soon heard some strange noise come over past the boulder and even further past the clearing to the main beach.
But as I started to make my way towards the area to investigate why such a human figure would be running from there, the sky suddenly began to brighten. Yet, it wasn't like a normal day. It began to brighten as if something was forcing me out of this area.
"Thomas..." I heard a familiar voice say out of nowhere.
Suddenly, the whole island disappeared at the sudden moment when I realized this was another dream. I slowly smiled as I closed my eyes and then feel asleep again. But that would not stop my wondering.
-
"Thomas, time to wake up, little brother."
I heard a calm and gentle voice talk over me as I moaned a bit in my light sleep. Turning over, the voice giggled and I could feel a body lay next to me from the body heat. Then, I felt a cold nose slowly touch my cheek and then a warm wet tongue soon licked my face. It felt good, but it started to wake me up. It kept licking my face until I finally stopped sleeping and opened my eyes. I was back in the team base again and my body was a Pikachu again. Thank God that was a dream. I didn't have to go through torment to change again.
I heard another little giggle as the tongue licked me again. I smiled and turned to see Naruto smiling at me, laying by my left side. He wagged his tail and kissed my cheek.
"Morning, little brother," he said softly, "Did you have a good sleep?"
"Yeah, I did. Thanks, bro," I said groggy as I rubbed my eyes and tried to stop being drowzy.
I noticed once I cleared my eyes that Naruto and I were the only ones in the base. Everyone else was gone.
"Um, bro, where's Sasuke and the others?" I asked.
"Did you forget? Today's the Rescue Team Exams," Naruto said cheerfully.
Suddenly, I sprung into action with that sickening feeling. People in college and school know exactly what I mean. It's the feeling you get when you just wake up from sleeping and then you remember or find out that something is due today in class and you scramble to get ready. Don't take my word for it. Trust Tucker. He always went through that all the time at Pokéschool.
I looked at him as I felt pale and said, "Oh, no! Are we late? Did we screw up the chanced to get in this year?"
"Nope, not at all. You see, you, King, and Zev slept in later, because Sasuke decided to let you guys get rest instead of spending your morning in study books. He said you could get a bit more sleep and I stayed to make sure you made it on time. We got ten minutes to get over there. You ready?" He said happily, wagging his tail.
Tightening my headband on my head, I nodded and replied, "Yes, let's roll!"
Running outside as fast as we could, Naruto and I quickly made our way to the Exams. We quickly began to run to the area we needed to go to as Naruto looked at me.
"So, Thomas," he said, "I really wanted to talk to you about this whole thing. I'm really worried about you taking this with us."
"I know, I know," I said, sighing a bit, "It's because I haven't taken a test before, right?"
"No, that's not it," Naruto said, taking me a bit off guard, "It's just that the Rescue Team Exams aren't that easy, brother. A lot of teams have failed and given up being official teams. Even A.C.T and the other four important teams when they started had problems before."
"So, you're worried I might buckle under the pressure?" I asked.
"A little bit," Naruto said, "I know Sasuke told me not to worry but... Thomas, I really love you. Ever since the Hyper Beam incident, I've sworn to protect you. I don't want you to get hurt or be crushed by these exams."
He then looked at me and said with a happy grin, "Which is why if you ever feel it's getting too tough for you, if anything starts to feel too much, I want you lean on me and get behind me. I'll protect you from anything."
I smiled and nodded, "Okay, Naruto, and I promise I'll do my best, regardless of your promise."
As he nodded, we were turning the corner to go to the bridge. But before we got there, I didn't see where I was going really or how fast I was running. I turned and ran right as I saw someone come right at me walking. I gasped and hit the Pokémon square (pun intended) on in the face. I went headfirst on the ground and then rolled as I grunted. Naruto gasped and was immediately by my side.
"Thomas! Are you all right?" he said as he carefully took his muzzle and began helping me up.
"Y-Yeah, I think so..." I said, rubbing my head.
"What was the meaning of that?!" we heard.
I opened my eyes to see that the Pokémon I ran into was... a small Articuno! Wow! Those Pokémon are legendary at my world! I gasped as she was a small thing though, about as tall as King was. She was not happy about what had happened.
"I-I am terribly sorry!" I apologized immediately, rushing over to her, "It was my fault."
"You're darn right, it WAS your fault!" She snapped at me, causing me to back up in a bit of fear (since I didn't want to experience the wrath of a legendary Pokémon).
"Oh, please don't get mad," Naruto said, trying to diffuse the situation.
"Oh, don't tell me that!" She said, obviously too angry to listen, "That's it! I want you boys both at my house, pronto! You are going to learn respect, young men!"
"W-What?" I said stunned at the fact she was CLEARLY overreacting.
"We don't have time for that! We have to meet our friends!" Naruto pleaded.
"I don't care!" the Articuno said, "I'm going to teach you a le-"
"Now, honey, I think you're getting a little too angry. After all, he did say he was sorry."
We heard a voice start to come out of the woods, which revealed to be a Blaziken talking. There was three factors that made him different then most regular Blaziken. First, he had a belly, signaling he was a bit beefy. Second, he wore these wrestling tights you see professional wrestlers wear on TV. But the most crucial factor was that he was blind, yet it looked like he could see where he was going.
"But these boys ran right into me without looking where they were going!" the Articuno protested.
"I know, but I'm sure they have a good reason," the Blaziken said, and then turning to us, "Let me introduce the two of us. My name is Elek, and this is my wife Arty."
As Arty ruffled her feathers with a snort at us, Naruto introduced us, "My name is Naruto, and this is my little brother Thomas."
"Hello, nice to meet you, and once again, I am terribly sorry for running into you," I said and then bowed in apology.
As Arty was about to yell at us again, Elek said, "So, I'm sure you boys have a good reason for running into my wife."
"We do, sir," Naruto said, "You see, we're late to meet up with our team to take the Rescue Team Exams, so we were hurrying over to get there."
"Oh, I see," Arty said, surprisingly forgetting about the whole issue and then being a nice sweet person, "What is your team's name, sweetie?"
"Team Believers," Naruto said.
Both Arty and Elek widened their eyes with a sudden smile and looked at each other. I wondered what they meant by that. Then, Elek smiled at us as he bent down to us.
"Your team is one of the most watched newcomers this year," he told us, "In fact, my wife and I were looking forward to hearing if you pass this year."
I know he was blind, but something seemed to twinkle in Elek's eyes as if he knew something about us that we didn't. But it wasn't hostile, so Naruto and I didn't perceive it as a threat. My brother wagged his tail as we smiled and nodded to him.
"I promise that Team Believers won't let you down, Mr. Elek!" he barked happily.
The Blaziken smiled, but as he turned to face me, although he was blind, there was a way he sort of looked at me that seemed to suggest that there was something not right about how he viewed me. It was the same sort of glare or interested look King's brother Pyro gave me. It was like they could tell that I wasn't a true Pikachu, or a normal one. But Elek seemed nice so he smiled at me and then turned to his wife.
"All right honey, these two young boys need to get going. Let's let them go," he said.
"Oh, all right," she said smiling, "I guess we can let them go."
"Thank you for forgiving us, Mrs. Arty," Naruto said happily, and with a wag of his tail, looked at me and said, "Let's double-time it back but with carefulness!"
"Roger that!" I said with a grin as we both waved good-bye to our new friends, who would later become big players of the story.
Yet, I kept a little thought to myself. That dream with the pitch-black indescribable human figure... I wonder... Did it have to do anything with my previous dream about the two Pokémon shadows?
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