.

Hey guys, Lag here. Before I start chapter 3, i just wanna say, the feedback and reception for chapter 1 and 2 has been absurd. It was far beyond my expectations, and I'm super glad you guys like it. I also updated 1 and 2 to fix some errors that I missed. I put a lot of effort into this chapter, and i hope you guys like it! Enough chatter, on to chapter 3!

Chapter 3, Reality

Ava was the first to wake up. As the sun began to show from beyond the mountains, loose beams of light, gaining in strength as the minutes passed began to strike her, waking her from her slumber. As she stretched and looked around, yesterday came back.

'Oh yeah. I met that Eevee, Ian, who said he was a human. I should probably wake him up,' She thought, as she let out a yawn.

She jostled him for a moment, the tuft of fur around her neck moving with her motion. "Hey, it's morning. Wake up, sleepy." She whispered in his right ear, which had folded itself down last night.

"...Urgh… Mom… You wouldn't believe the dream I had last night…" he mumbled, before falling asleep again.

'Heavy sleeper.' Ava thought, before she tried yesterday's tactics of tackling him. She stepped back a few feet, before...

She tensed her legs, and after a moment, sprang forwards into Ian, ramming into his side.

"Agh! Ok! Ok! I'm up! I...oh… Ava. Good morning."

"Morning sleepyhead. You were sleeping in, and missed the sunrise. Check it out!"

Ian struggled to stand up, similar to yesterday, but eventually, managed to turn around and faced east, only to see the latter stages of an amazing sunrise peeking over the mountain range.

"Wow. That's pretty cool…" he said, letting out a small chuckle. He absorbed the breeze and just relaxed for a minute…

'Wait a minute. I'm not at home… so that means…'

He opened his eyes, and immediately panicked. 'Oh god. I'm still a Pokémon. Ok. Ok ok ok ok ok. Ok. I can figure this out.'

"Hey, uh Ava?" He said to her, while she was packing up preparing to leave the site.

"Yeah?"

"Do you, uh, have a spare journal? By chance? Yesterday during dinner, I saw you quickly jot down something in one, and I kind of wanted to do the same, you know, due to my humanity? Please?"

Ava sighed, before pulling out a sealed bottle of ink and a leather journal with a few pages torn out. "I use this one for loose paper and the like, but I haven't used it for a few months now. Go ahead, I guess."

Ian scanned the supplies given. "Do you have, like, writing utensils or something?"

"No. Only the bipeds use those. Just dip your claw in the ink." She said, gesturing to the bottle which had opened upright.

"I have claws? Seriously?"

Ava laughed at this. "Of course you have claws, dummy! You aren't a Bulbasaur!"

"Oh. Well how do I, uh, use them?" He said sheepishly, as she walked over.

"Hold out your paw."

"Ok…"

"Now tense it, putting a bit more effort into your digits." Ava explained, holding out her paw and doing it. They popped out immediately.

Ian did as instructed, and almost immediately, the claws popped out. They were a touch smaller than Avas. "Woah… This is weird." He exclaimed, looking at his paw with fascination. 'This is super weird. They just… kinda come out.' He thought, looking at his now sharpened hand-weapons.

"You said you wanted to write with them?" Ava asked, putting away her claws.

"Umm… yeah. So I just dip one and write with it?" Ian asked

"Yeah"

"Ok. I got it from here. Thanks." He said, letting his paw loosen, which retracted the claws. Ian proceeded to retract and extend them a few times, before he set the journal on the ground.

After dipping one of his right claws in the ink, he began to write, in very sloppy English.

February 20, 2021.

Well, it happened. I became a Pokémon. Never thought it would happen. Jesus, this just sounds weird, now. It's not a dream, either. Something must have happened. I became an Eevee, which is nice I guess. It could have been much worse, and there's already a lot of things about it that are different. I have claws, which I'm using to write this. I'm, well, a quadruped now, as well as a foot tall. It's… humbling having to relearn basic things like walking. What else… oh yeah, my ears. Much bigger and more sensitive, although it hasn't been an issue yet. And my sense of smell is absurd now. II should wrap this up, I'm getting low on paper. My last thing for today… I don't want to forget my human life, or anything from it. So I'm going to write down the most important things. I was a 15 year old boy, 6 foot 2, and lived in Canada. I had a good home life, and friends, both online and out. Online, well, that's its own mess to never have a chance to deal with. Ian… what was my last name? Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Ian Eevee.

Ian let out a sigh, as he closed the book… and a chapter on his life. It was going to change forever. From now on. He was still a human, and he couldn't let that leave him. He couldn't, at all costs.

"Hey Ava, one last thing."

"Yeah?"

"Can you please... keep my humanity a secret when we get to Frosted Village? please? I don't need unnecessary stress worrying about whether or not someone judges me, or attacks me, or anything else. Please?"

"I... ok. I can do that. for you." Ava responded.

"Thank you so much." Ian said.

"Are you ready to go?" Ava called out, as she began to walk ahead.

"Yeah, I just need to put this in your bag for now." He said, doing just that, before turning to the north. "You ready?"

"Ready as ever."

The two of them started their long journey to frosted village. At their current pace, it would take around 4 more days. As long as nothing went wrong, they would arrive just fine.

3 days later...

"Well, this is it. The final day." Ava said, as the 2 of them ate breakfast.

Ian had long since eaten all the prepared food from the bag, and had resorted to trying to start fires at night to cook his food. He had only been successful once, last night, and tonight, he had no plan.

The scenery around them had changed. Ian had asked Ava some time in the last few days what month it was, and after explaining the concept of months, and relating it to moon phases, he had figured out when it was.

September 24th.

He had since updated his nightly journal logs with the new time, and started to use it instead. By his estimations, his birthday in this world lined up with new years eve exactly. He would celebrate it then accordingly. In the meantime, however.

"What did you get for breakfast Ava? He asked as the 2 of them settled a bit for the morning.

"I found a couple Sentret. Also, you and your fire starting shenanigans are only gonna take you so far. You'll eventually have to eat something other than berries. Here, just take one." Ava explained, as she tossed a dead Sentret to Ian.

"I know… I just…" he sighed. 'I'm gonna have to eat it eventually, so I may as well get it over with.' Ian thought, before reluctantly taking a large bite out of the meat.

After a moment of chewing, he started thinking. 'Hey, this isn't half bad. It's surprisingly flavourful and… wait a minute. Why am I thinking like this!? It's raw meat! Why-' he froze. Was he going crazy? Was this Eevee body to blame? Why was he thinking like this again? As he slowly settled down from it, he continued slowly chewing away at it, finding it quite difficult with the new facial structure.

After about 5 minutes, it was gone. Ava was just finishing hers too.

The path they had been travelling on for the last few days had thinned out considerably, and was headed into an autumn forest at the base of a large snow peaked mountain. The forest extended up it quite a bit, and near the top, far beyond the tree line, you could see a cluster of small buildings. Ian had noticed this, and had been looking at it.

"Hey, is that mountain there the location of Frosted Village?" He asked, gesturing towards the peak.

"Yeah. Once we get through these woods, we should have a straight line there." She responded, as she began to walk towards the mouth of the woods.

"You know, why are you heading there?" Ian asked.

"To create a Discovery Team."

"A what?"

"A Discovery Team. This whole region of the Mist Continent is hardly charted or mapped or anything. There's hardly any known dungeons, or settlements, or anything. Frosted village was founded here to send out discovery teams of all sorts to scout out the surrounding area. It's… similar to the Exploration Teams or Rescue Teams of the other continents, but due to the isolated area, there are no outlaws, and rescues are really uncommon. We mostly just chart out areas and note the mystery dungeons in the region." Ava explained, while Ian listened closely.

"Ah, ok. So You basically explore and map out this region? That sounds better than the other teams, honestly," He said.

"Yeah, that's why I want to do it." She said, as the 2 of them set off towards the mountain.

After a few hours of travel, the pair arrived at the entrance to the forest. The trail went through the forest, and was covered in falling leaves. It was a picture perfect autumn forest that winded up the mountain.

As the 2 of them entered, they could see the sun shine down through the leaves still on the trees, creating a beautifully shaded area.

Except something felt off.

Ava was the first to notice. At first, she had assumed it was nothing, but after about 15 minutes of walking, there was a branch in the path.

"I knew it." She muttered under her breath.

"What? What is it?"

"Does something feel… off to you, Ian?" She asked, dead serious all of a sudden.

"N-no?"

"Ok, well let me explain then. This must be a mystery dungeon. Randomized mazes that appear and disappear randomly around areas. This forest must have become one. Stay close. If we get separated… who knows what could happen." Ava said, her fur suddenly standing on edge, as she started walking carefully down the path on the right.

"How should we get out?" Ian asked. He didn't remember the details from the games very well, and couldn't remember how you left them.

"We just gotta get lucky, and eventually, we find the exit after enough paths are taken. But it's not that easy. The paths are different every time you enter, and wild Pokémon who originally lived here are much more violent and dangerous… and …" she paused. "If a sentient Pokémon, like you or I were to stay here for more than a couple of days, we would go completely feral. You would lose your mind, and become sort of "assimilated" into the dungeon. It takes much longer if you're with someone else, but still. Don't get separated."

"I… ok." Ian said, shuddering at her descriptions. Some things, like the random maze nature and wild Pokémon seemed familiar, while other things like going feral after a time completely terrified him. He wasn't able to fight, he wasn't able to do much still. Hell, he couldn't run properly even. This was incredibly dangerous, and he had to rely on Ava for help through the place.

Suddenly, interrupting his thoughts, an angry Weedle jumped out at them, hissing and preparing to shoot a line of string at the pair of Eevee.

"Move!" Ava yelled, as she quickly circled around it.

Ian followed suit, but went in the opposite direction. He would stay back for now.

The Weedle, however, targeted Ian. It could tell he was weaker, and it wasn't afraid to go for him. It shot out some silk in his direction, before…

"YAAAAAAAH!" Ava yelled, as she tackled into it from behind, quickly unsheathing her claws and raking them into it. It was unable to retaliate, and promptly passed out. It had fainted.

"Oh Jesus. Thanks Ava." Ian said, as she stepped back from the unconscious Weedle.

"Don't mention it. Now let's go. I think this is only the beginning of the wilds, and we need to save our energy." She said, continuing down the path they were travelling on.

As they walked, the pair occasionally had to fight off wild Pokémon, mostly bug and grass types. There were a few other branches in the path, too. After a while…

"You know Ava, you seem good at this. Have you done it before?" Ian asked, as they had stopped at a clearing to rest for a bit.

"Yeah. My parents taught me how to survive these places." She responded, while taking a drink out of her canteen.

"They sound nice."

"They were."

The two of them continued down the dungeon, fighting off Pokémon and choosing paths.

Eventually, however, Ian took the lead. Ava had told him he needed to learn how to fight, and leading a mystery dungeon group was the best way to do that.

They had just finished an encounter with a wild Treecko, and they had reached a 3 way branching path. Ian had taken the left path, and continued on for a while.

"Hey Ava, what were your parents like, anyways?" He asked, without turning around.

No response.

"Ava?" He said quickly, turning around.

She was gone.

"Oh no… no no no shit! Shit! Of course, the second I take the lead she goes missing! Fuck! Ok! Ok. Ok. When did I last see her…" he exclaimed, quickly dropping into a panic. "I… I think it was that 3 way clearing." He said, quickly turning around and running back to the clearing, ignoring and running past the enemy Pokémon that kept jumping out at him.

He reached the clearing, and called out, "AVA, WHERE ARE YOU!?" Ian listened for a moment before…

"Ian?!" a distant voice called from the second pathway. It sounded panicked. Ian quickly took off in that direction, running faster than he ever had before, human or Eevee.

'I gotta save her! I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to her!' He thought, as he ran down the orange tree filled corridor.

Suddenly, a Beedrill flew out into the path in front of him, and once it spotted a sprinting Eevee, it stopped, and tried to jab its stinger into Ian. He managed to dodge, however, and quickly tackled into its side, pinning it down. Before it could get up, Ian, in a borderline rage, unsheathed his claws and slashed the Beedrill across the face.

It got up, and quickly charged into Ian, before he dodged to the side, not unlike a Zigzagoon, and jumped at the Beedrill as it sailed past, headbutting it once it was down, and knocking it out.

Ian took a breather, and quickly continued sprinting to where he heard Ava minutes earlier. As he ran, his mind raced.

'I… I just knocked out a Beedrill! A fully evolved Pokémon! And without much effort! How, though? I can worry about it later, I gotta get to Ava, and quickly! He thought.

Eventually, after a few minutes of sprinting, he caught up to a dead end, where there were 3 Pokémon. An angry Caterpie, an orange Leafeon, and Ava, wrapped up in string by the Caterpie.

"Ava!" He said, before noticing what had happened. "I'll get you out! Just give me a minute!" He said, fueled by adrenaline.

The Caterpie quickly left the tied up and now starry eyed Ava, who couldn't talk, and ran on its tiny legs up to Ian, who quickly tackled into it. It fell back, and before it could do any more, Ian bit it, in a moment of anger. The surprised Caterpie wasn't able to throw off the 20 pound fox, and promptly fainted.

Once it was out for the count, Ian turned to the orange Leafeon, an angry, borderline feral look in his eyes. 'Must… kill it!' He thought, as he charged at the evolved Eevee, his chest tuft of fur ruffling in the air as he flew at it.

The Leafeon wasn't going to just stand there and take it. Instead, it fired off a barrage of leaves, a few of which cut into Ian, and forced him to stop running. The Leafeon followed up with a tackle to the unevolved Pokémon, landing on Ian.

When it landed on Ian, in his rage, he began to swat at it with his claws, landing two good rakes across the Leafeons face, as it jumped back. It was bleeding, now. Without hesitation, Ian jumped back up, and landed on it.

"Mmphh!" Ava tried to yell something, but both couldn't due to her mouth being tied up from the string, and the fact that Ian wouldn't have heard anyways.

As he ran at the staggered grass type cat, it tried to fire off a few seeds at a high speed, but they missed, allowing Ian at it. He tackled into it, and raked its face with his claws again and again, in furious swipes across the face. The Leafeon quickly got back up, this time unwilling to fight. It ran off into the trees again, blending in immediately from the colouring.

Ian took a deep breath, and promptly passed out on the ground, since the exhaustion of running and fighting combined with fighting so unusually brutally left him unable to stay conscious, all the while, Ava watching the entire thing.

After about 5 minutes, Ian began to stir.

"Uuuggghhh… what happened… I remember… there was a Leafeon… and… AVA!" He said, suddenly breaking out of the grogginess. He looked around and found her, tied up still from the string, and looking quite terrified. Her eyes were watery from tearing up slightly earlier.

"Oh my god! Ava! What happened? Here, let me help you here!" He said, quickly unsheathing one of his claws, and slicing through the string around her. The moment it fell off and she was free, she just tackled Ian in a hug.

"Thank you… thank you so much." She whispered into his ear as the surprised Ian quickly returned it.

"I…" he noticed another blush covering his face, similar to a few days ago. He just let it happen, this time. "Your welcome." He said simply, as the two hugged it out for a few minutes. Eventually, she broke it off, a huge smile on her face. "C'mon! Let's get going!" She said, as she trotted off down where Ian had come from. He followed quite slowly, recalling the fight and how it had happened.

'What… was that? I got in a fight with that Leafeon and even the Beedrill, and I remember it all, but… it doesn't feel real. I… I felt so off during that fight too. Less in control of myself, and so angry, almost instinctual. I… I don't want to be controlled by them like that anymore! It's scary! And I seriously hurt that feral too! just because it was attacking us didn't mean it deserved it!

As the 2 walked, Ian's thoughts continued to plague him as they reached the intersection again. They took the path that they were originally going down. Ian continued to think.

Eventually they got to the end of the dungeon. As they stepped through what looked like a veil of light at the end, the two of them were treated to a beautiful view. They were about halfway up the mountain, at the edge of the yellow and orange forest, on what was like a plateau over a large cliff, that overlooked a large roughly 50km wide valley, with a tiny snaking path visible through it. Across the mountains to one side, you could see the edge of the continent, and to the other side, you could see what looked like a large tundra.

It was sunset, and the view stirred some emotions in Ian.

'It looks almost like some of the places in breath of the wild. It's so beautiful…' He stopped and closed his eyes, absorbing the cool breeze and sunlight, as his fur ruffled from the wind. Ava had been doing mostly the same, looking out to the south where the path originated from.

After a few minutes, Ava broke the silence. "So, we're maybe 20 minutes from Frosted Village. Should we get going?" She asked, still looking out at the view.

"I'm ok with that." Ian said slowly, before turning around. The 2 of them walked up the rest of the trail.

It continued on for almost a half an hour, with the trees quickly disappearing, and a thin layer of snow showing up around the path. It was getting quite cold too. Fortunately, Ian and Ava had fur coats, so they were mostly fine. 'You know, this is the first time I've noticed the fur coat. It really is warm, and not too hot either. Its honestly nice.' He thought, as the 2 of them continued to travel up.

Eventually, they came across a gate in the side of a large fence.

"Halt! Who goes there?" A voice called from behind it.

Ava quickly responded, "2 Eevee. We were travelling to Frosted Village to found a discovery team." She spoke with a surprising amount of authority.

"What are your names?" The voice said.

"Ava Eevee and Ian Eevee!" She responded.

"Ok, fine. You two can come in." The voice said, before a moment after, the gate lifted, revealing frosted village.

It was small, maybe 10 houses. Due to the time of day, not many Pokémon were out. There was an Umbreon walking the streets, and the voice Ian and Ava had just heard, a Flareon who was standing guard.

"So you two are Ian and Ava, eh?" He said with a fairly gruff voice.

"Yep!" She said. "The 2 of us are gonna form a discovery team here!"

"If yeh want to do that, yer gonna have to go talk to Neo and Nova. They run the place." He said, pointing with his overly fluffy tail towards the large building farthest from the entrance.

"Who are they?" Ian inquired, a confused look on his face.

"Ol Neo and Nova. They founded the place. Before doin that, well, yer just gonna have to ask em what they did before it. They're nice." Flareon said.

"We will!" Ava said cheerily, as she and Ian walked towards the building. She stopped, quickly. "Hey Flareon, what was your name?"

"Oh, the names John. Nice to meet ya! Now git! You guys gotta start your team and be up early tomorrow!" He said, smiling.

"Yup!" Ian and Ava said simultaneously.

They walked through the village, noting the many facilities, most of which were closed since it was dark out. Except for one, a mart with a Kecleon.

"Psst, hey Ian, why do you think they let that Kecleon in if it's only Eevee here?" Ava whispered as they walked past.

"No clue" he whispered back, as they passed it.

Eventually, the two of them reached the large building on the end of the town, and knocked on it.

"Come in." A voice telepathically called put to both of them. Ian and Ava glanced at each other, before pushing open the door and walking in.

Inside, the building was scarcely decorated. A few framed photos, a small bookshelf, there wasn't much. The inside resembled a log cabin. It was lit up with torches on the wall, and at the end of the large room was 2 Pokémon. An Espeon, and an Umbreon.

"Welcome to frosted village." The Umbreon said calmly, gesturing the 2 of the forwards.

Ava spoke first. "Hello, I'm Ava and this is Ian"

"Hi"

"And we were wondering if the 2 of us could found a discovery team here in frosted village!" Ava said

The Espeon spoke. "You know, you didn't even bother to ask our names. Also, no need to be so formal. Me and Nova are just another team here too, you know." The Espeon spoke with authority, and a sense of playfulness, and a hint of… anxiety?

"Yeah you two. Lighten up. Or else Neo and I might just say no!" Nova said, as he got up.

Ian was blown back by the informalness of it all. He expected them to be much more serious, especially if they were supposedly the same Espeon and Umbreon he knew so well from Gates.

"Anyways, you wanted to form a discovery team? Sure. What's the name gonna be?" Nova asked.

"Ummmm… Ian, you got any ideas?" Ava asked, as she turned to face him.

"Hmmmmm…" Ian thought back to his time as a human playing the games. In every one of them, he always went with the same name. Team Supernova. He could explain the meaning to Ava later.

"Team Supernova? Er, no pun intended Mr Nova." He said.

"Its fine. I like it, actually. You guys are gonna go far with a team name like that." Nova said jokingly. "Anyways, who's the leader gonna be?" He asked.

"It can be-"

"Ian!"

"Me?" Ian asked, surprised at Ava volunteering him for the job.

"Yeah! You were good on the way here, and you seem really strong, too!" She said, smiling at him. His face turned red for a moment, before returning.

"I… ok then. I guess I'm the leader." He said.

"Great, now lastly, just sign here, please." Nova said, as Neo psychically moved a piece of paper over in front of the pair of Eevee.

Ava got out her ink bottle, and dipped her paw in the ink, before splotching it onto the paper, leaving a messy paw print. Ian took the ink, and signed too, instead choosing to scrawl his name out in English with his claw.

"Great. Anyways, you two run off and get some sleep. The 4th little house on the right when you exit our place should be empty. There's beds there, and a bit of food stocked in the cold storage." Neo said, waving them out. Once they had left, she shut the door behind them, and turned to face Nova.

"You know, there's something off about that boy, Ian. Can you feel it?" She asked, looking Nova in the eyes.

"No, what is it, Espy?" Nova replied, using a light pulse of dark to put out the torches in the room.

"Its just… something. His mannerisms, and his signature… its in Unown script." She said. "Umbry, what if…?"

"No. It can't be."

"Why?"

"I couldn't feel it. When we worked with Brandon, he felt off to be around. His aura, or something. But Ian feels like any Eevee should have. But, I get your concern. We don't need more world ending scenarios brought about by another human. Still though, both of us should keep an eye on him." Nova explained.

"Will do Umbry… will do." Neo said, before the two of them fell asleep.

Ian pushed open the door to the house they had been given. It was much warmer inside, due to a crackling fire in the fireplace. The entire thing was maybe the size of a motel room, but for a couple Eevee, it was more than good enough.

"Nice room, eh?" Ian asked, as he wandered over to the desk in the corner. "Here, toss me my journal and the ink, please?" He asked politely.

Ava brought them over, before answering. "Yeah, it is pretty nice here. Tomorrow, discovery team supernova will commence its first mission! Im so excited!" She exclaimed, before laying down on the large bed of hay near the fireplace.

As she did that, Ian dipped his claw like usual, and began to write.

September 24, 2021.

We arrived in frosted village, the "all Eevee town" as its known. We even founded a discovery team called team Supernova. I'm honestly pretty excited, but I cant help but wonder…

What happened, in the dungeon today?

We first entered the dungeon on accident, and after traversing it for a while, Ava went missing, and I had to find her. Alone. See, these dungeons apparently make you go feral if you stay in them too long. I think that might have begun to happen to me, as when I found Ava and saved her, I blacked out after angrily fighting off an orange Leafeon. It was surreal. I went into almost some sort of instinctual panic. Is that normal for Eevee? Is that normal for me? A human? I don't know what to think of it, although I know I don't like it.

I'm running out of paper. I should finish this up.

September 24, Ian Eevee, the human.

He sighed solemnly, before closing the journal and walking over to the bed, laying down and closing his eyes.

After a few minutes of laying there, he opened his eyes, and found Ava was right in front of him, holding one of his paws in hers, while she slept. She even seemed to be letting out a guttural purring noise almost.

'Ava's so nice.' He thought. 'I hope I can stay with her.'

Those were the last things to cross his mind, as he drifted into sleep, paw in paw with Ava.

Well shit. This took me all week to write. I had a hard time during monday-wednesday due to school, and then a long weekend combined with a "close contact with a confirmed covid case" means I'm locked in my bedroom from Thursday for the next 2 and a half weeks. So don't be too surprised if i end up uploading more than once a week for a while.

Beta read by; Digital_Acid

Thanks for reading, and please review. See you later.

updated march 8 to fix grammar issues+general polish. chap 4 is on its way, i swear.