The train door hissed as it swung open, allowing a flurry of would-be passengers to slowly board. Fortunately, Damien had pushed himself to the front of the pack, quickly stepping through the doors almost as soon as they opened. Too many times had he politely let others in before him only to find a lack of seating once he had boarded. Today, however, he managed to find himself a window seat: placing his newly bought bag on the seat adjacent to ward off any strangers. It felt somewhat rude, but he figured anyone who did get annoyed would soon get over it. Of course, they could just ask him to move it, but this is England: when one has the option to say something, it's more likely they'll simply grumble and go along with their day. He's not that much different in that regard, simply meandering along through the day, not letting himself worry over the little things.
However, today is arguably the opposite of a 'little thing'. Almost unnecessarily so. Although most people would probably understand his situation, as it's typically only once you find yourself boarding a train heading to a strange new place with a strange new school. It's even worse when you consider the reputation of said school: Oxford. Damien was incredibly surprised when he had been notified of his acceptance into the prestigious and, at times, infamous University. He never considered himself particularly special nor particularly intelligent but more often than not he found himself sailing through school and college on top of an abysmally small amount of studying. It simply wasn't his forte. Ironic, considering his chosen subject ended up being History of all things. He enjoyed the ridiculousness of it, the fantastical elements deep within. It was like a big puzzle, just with blood, plots, horrific acts of war and all sorts of other wonderful subjects. More often than not, it was just about finding the missing pieces to complete them.
He had played it safe today with his outfit, opting for some brown trousers and some off-brand Converse. It was the beginning of winter but not cold enough to warrant a jacket. He had opted for a loose, olive green corduroy shirt with its sleeves rolled up. It was honestly a little bit too big for him, but he enjoyed baggy clothes. He had tactfully decided to wear his rings today, four in total, as well as a pair of dangly earrings. He didn't want to give off the impression he couldn't dress himself on his first day. First impressions always matter.
Shaking his head in an attempt to free his mind from the sudden tangent, he pulled a small plastic card from his jacket. His new student ID.
'Damien Harte' He read to himself.
Always sounded a bit made up he thought, but typically he just stuck to Damien when introducing himself, so no worries there. Damien stared down at the card for a while, specifically the photo printed onto it. His hair had grown to quite a length over the summer, resulting in a sort of dark brown mane. His blue-grey eyes stared blankly forward, paired with his usual frown to create a very sad-looking ID. It was a good thing he was handsome, or at least he thought so, or else he might be accused of being a serial killer with how he carried himself. He had always been told he needed to smile more but he just thought his face looked far too strange when he did. Too many times had he caught himself laughing and forced himself to stop, worried he might look strange.
'I should probably put some weight on whilst at it. Maybe hit the gym? Kind of a pain but better than being a beanpole my whole life.'
Giving a small sigh, Damien fidgeted around in his seat, trying to stretch his long legs about within the confines of whatever leg room the designers of this train thought appropriate. You'd think that with the average height increasing over the years, they'd learn to design things with people like himself in mind. Muttering quietly to himself, Damien reached into his bag for a pair of headphones. He switched them on, connecting them once more to his phone through Bluetooth before tapping on some random playlist and hoping for the best. It was usually all the same genre anyways, no need for a million different playlists for the same kind of music. He had a habit of listening to the same songs over and over anyway until he eventually moved on and did the same for a new set.
He watched as more and more passengers began to flood the empty carriage, some pushing past each other to try and find a seat. A group of lads bustling with energy managed to claim a small table for themselves. They began to joke and laugh amongst each other. Without realising it, a small frown had grown on Damien's face. Perhaps it was envy, or perhaps a tad bit of melancholy from being reminded of his own situation. Leaving home and your friends behind was never easy. Making new friends was even harder.
With a small sigh, he tore his eyes away from the group. Sinking deeper into his seat, he instead looked out the window. The train had already left the station some time ago it seemed, though he hadn't noticed.
...
Damien lurched forward in his seat, as the carriage suddenly shook.
'Odd. Do trains usually shake like that? Can trains get turbulence? How would that wo- I should look it up.' Damien pulled his phone out for a quick Google search. He began to type in his nagging question when he was suddenly sent forwards once more, forcefully this time, causing his forehead to smack into the seat in front and his phone to fly out of his hand, skidding along the carriage floor.
"Ah, piece of shit!" Damien exclaimed with a hiss. He quickly stood from his seat to retrieve his beloved device, only to find himself falling sideways alongside a few other passengers as the carriage groaned: finding itself and the whole train being upended suddenly. Miraculously, his headphones maintained their position on his head, heavy rock now replaced, momentarily, by a strange static.
Unfortunately, Damien had no time to process the occurrence before he quickly found himself sailing through the air and away from the floor and sent hurtling out of the carriage window through the thick glass. Shards of glass embedded themselves into Damien's skin, primarily his hands and arms as he had managed to brace himself moments before.
'SHIT FUCK OW! THAT GODDAMN HU-'
His body sailed through the air. Only now did his headphones slip off his head, allowing his ears to take in the screams of other passengers no doubt in as much, or more, pain as himself. Perhaps it was fortunate he would only hear such distress for but a moment, as his body suddenly came to a stop. A single, well-placed tree blocked his path and his body met it head-on with a sickening crunch.
His vision went black and the orchestra of screams and wails went quiet.
Damien awakened with a gasp. His head pulsated like a small bomb had just exploded in his brain. He is quickly forced to roll over as the contents of his stomach make their way back to the surface, spewing onto the grass below him.
The distinct sounds of screams and confusion are gone, replaced by a familiar tranquillity of leaves rustled by the wind. It's not long before pain takes hold of Damien once more. His arms are still covered in small shards of glass. He groans as he forces himself to sit up, gingerly holding his arms out in front to avoid any unwanted contact with the ground.
He looked around with a grimace, his head still pounding. Strange. The forest around him, though very similar to the one his train was passing through, was now missing said train. In fact, it seemed wholly different from where he should have landed. He now found himself in what seemed to be a forest clearing, the sun peeking its way through the gaps in the canopy.
'Where the fuck is the train.' He thought to himself.
'Wait. No. More importantly, what the fuck just happened? I'm pretty certain I just hit a fucking tree. Did I die? Jesus Christ.' Damien looked around once more, somehow hoping a fresh look would provide more insight.
'Well, I doubt I'm in Heaven. Going by the GODDAMN GLASS IN MY ARMS!'
'Fuck it. Not in Heaven and I'm pretty sure it's not hell going by the lack of flames, but who knows on that one. Maybe I'll just assume I'm not dead for the time being.' He sighed heavily, attempting to collect his thoughts and push away the… unnerving thought of his own death.
He's quite certain he remembered being flung beside the train and not five miles away, or at least, far enough to not see the damned thing. So then why is the train gone?
With considerable effort he stood himself up, his muscles groaning in defiance. Looking around once more, he noticed that not only was the train gone, there were no tracks; no people; no screaming. He pushed the issue to the back of his mind for now, turning his attention to the glass in his arms. Slowly, but surely he began to pluck the pieces out of his skin, hissing through his teeth with every shard. Luckily none of them were particularly large, or particularly deep. Something had unfortunately managed to slice through his cheek right alongside the side of his mouth. He could only pray it wouldn't scar too badly. He had to maintain his youthful and pretty
appearance after all.
'My phone. Shit, where is it? Hopefully, it went in the same direction as me.' He thought, glancing about for his prized device.
It didn't take long to spot a black, rectangular block lying amongst the weeds. The leather case had been torn up somewhat, but honestly, it barely made a difference to its already-weathered appearance. Damien hobbled over to the phone and swiftly snatched it up. He flipped over one side of the case, easily breaking the magnet seal to reveal a shattered screen. All of his cards and random bus tickets were still firmly in their pockets. Damien pressed the power button, hoping for the best. To his surprise, the screen lit up to reveal his lock screen. With a quick gaze to the upper right corner, it soon became apparent he had no signal.
'Guess I must be pretty deep in the woods somewhere. Still doesn't explain where everything's gone… or where I've gone.'
"Pat-pat" A squeaky voice cut Damien's thoughts short.
"Patrat!" A second, slightly deeper squeak followed shortly after.
Damien slowly turned his head to the side, his vision now focused on a pair of very familiar creatures. Not but a few feet away were a couple of rodent-like creatures, their big red and yellow eyes staring up at him with caution.
'Patrat…? Why am I seeing Patrats?' Damien thought to himself, dumbstruck by the sudden appearance of a Pokémon of all things.
The sensible and logical conclusion was that he was merely dreaming at the moment, his actual body still unconscious beside a derailed train… and yet, he felt like this was distinctly real. His dreams never made sense but always had a certain haze to them. This whole situation was far too clear: the smells, the sounds, the pain he was feeling. Even the little rats in front of him were strangely detailed: their brown fur moving softly in the breeze.
"Where am-" Damien choked as he began to speak, only now aware of how dry his throat felt. He coughed violently, holding a hand out signalling the pair to wait.
The sudden coughing fit spooked the pair of Patrats. They both quickly ducked behind a tree, putting it between them and Damien.
"Sorry guys." Cough "Just didn't realise I needed a drink.." He spoke, his voice still coarse.
'Wait. Why am I talking to them? I think I'm going crazy. Maybe the impact shook my brain up… or something. Though, I'm pretty sure the last thing I remember is slamming into a tree. I doubt that did little more than shake my head around.' Damien pondered, scrunching his face up in thought.
The two Patrats seemingly decided it was safe to come out again. The pair moved, with caution, from their hiding place. This time they had taken to holding each other's hands: perhaps out of comfort. They stared up at Damien with what looked like sympathy in their eyes.
'I remember the show always made Pokemon out to be oddly expressive despite their… biology? Still, it's weird to see it like this.' He thought to himself.
Damien crouched down on one knee, wincing in pain, before extending a hand out to the pair of Pokemon. They take a moment to look at each other as if seeking mutual approval. The leftmost Patrat slowly approached Damien, extending its own, small, furred hand forwards to shake his.
VRRRRRRRR
A loud, monotonous droning noise echoed through the trees. The Patrat quickly retracted its hand and turned to flee alongside his buddy. They both disappeared into the underbrush, leaving a befuddled Damien alone - his arm still extended.
VRRRRRRRR
The droning noise erupted once more, though this time it seemed much closer to Damien than it had originally.
'Alright… first Pokemon. Now what? A spaceship or something? Maybe the Gates of Hell are opening up for me.' He thought to himself, sighing heavily as he forced himself to stand once more.
The droning noise was cut short, before being replaced by the rustling of some bushes not far from Damien, albeit in the opposite direction to where the Patrats had fled before. A small, light blue, oblong-shaped head poked its way out of the bush extending for a moment before being accompanied by a similarly coloured body, arms, legs and finally, tail. From heel to head, the thing looked about as big as Damien's calf. The strangely shaped creature waddled forward for a moment before finally craning its neck to look up at Damien, revealing its sizable head adorned with a strange black pattern. A pair of large green, glass-like eyes made up what Damien assumed to be its actual face. The creature raised its arms, revealing a trio of green, red and yellow orbs attached to where hands would usually be. The orbs, alongside its eyes, flashed lightly as it let out a low droning sound similar to the one from before.
'This is getting out of hand. Patrat… Sure, weird dream. This, however… is beginning to worry me.' Damien creased his brow in thought, rubbing the sides of his head with his fingers in hopes it would somehow help him think better.
He raised his head once more to properly take in the new arrival. He knew what this was. Arguably an uncommon sight in the games themselves, and he was pretty sure the thing wasn't particularly popular when compared to most Pokemon, but the design was unique enough to remember it by.
'Elgyem, huh? Though, I distinctly remember they used to pop up at that big ol' tower. Not a forest.' Damien rubbed his chin in thought, doing his best to ignore the constant stings along his arms.
'Wait. I'm getting ahead of myself, this is a dream. The thing can pop up wherever it wants, no need to follow the usual logic.
Maybe if I close my eyes and wait a minute it'll suddenly disappear. Dreams tend to move quickly right?' He scrunched his eyes as tightly as he could, shaking his head lightly in hopes it would somehow wake him up or change the scene. He opened his eyes, revealing that nothing had changed. Instead, he had merely given himself a small headache.
'Shit. Ok then.' He sighed.
"So then, what's up little dude" Damien finally spoke to the creature before him, unsure of whether it would understand.
The trees around the pair rustled quietly as the two of them merely stared at one another in uncomfortable silence.
"Can you underst-"
"VRRRR."
Damien was quickly cut off as he went to speak once more, the Elgyem deciding now was the best time to respond. If you could call it a response.
"Vrrrr?" Damien imitated.
"What does 'Vrrrr' mean? Is that a hello? Vrrrr to you too buddy." Damien gave up on maintaining a sense of logic, deciding to simply go along with things for now.
Elgyem's colourful digits lit up once more as it stared at Damien, perhaps processing his thoughts before speaking. It pointed its right arm at Damien, its glassy green eyes suddenly turning a shade of purple.
Very quickly, Damien's vision distorted, split into numerous fragments: compound. A cacophony of sounds and noises arose from nowhere. Almost like a foreign voice had placed itself alongside his inner consciousness.
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Damien's mind became a jumbled mess of broken puzzle pieces, each one representing a different memory or piece of information. Memories of him stepping onto the train; the music blaring from his headphones; the sudden groaning of the train as it derailed; his journey through a desert storm. Wait. That's not his. A series of memories distinctly not his own flowed through his head for but a moment, he knew they had been there but he couldn't hold onto them. Were they Elgyem's? He had seen them as though through another's eyes. What was going on?
The noise was cut short.
His vision went black.
Floating in a sea of darkness, Damien made out a familiar light-blue creature floating beside him. Elgyem.
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What was it saying? He was fairly certain now the noise and sudden visions were certainly Elgyem.
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'Open? Open what? This is annoying. I don't care at this point. Just do what you want.'
With that thought, colour rushed back in to fill the void. The familiar sight of the forest returned. The pain returned. A soft wind blew across the opening of the forest, brushing along his wounds. Damien would have winced in pain were it not for how dumbfounded he was at the moment.
A small, strange little creature was standing just opposite him. The same position he had been in before the visions ensued.
'Shit. This isn't a dream, is it.'
Elgyem shook its head.
'What. Did it just shake its head at me? Did I say that out loud?' Damien stared, unblinking. Not sure if he was going insane.
It shook its head once more, a small humming noise emanating from somewhere near its head.
'Can you hear me…?' Damien thought, somewhat cautiously.
Elgyem nodded its head. Its eyes flashed purple for a mere second. Suddenly, an image of a large thumbs-up flashed in his mind. Without his doing.
"Are you in my goddamn head? Is that what that was all about?" Damien groaned and collapsed into a deep squat, unable to both stand and process the whole situation.
Another large thumbs-up flashed in his mind, quickly answering his question. An odd sensation
Damien sighed, dropping his head in thought. This was all a bit surreal, and yet glaringly real. He always had quite the imagination but this was all a bit too detailed and far too coherent to be a dream. Something had happened after he went unconscious. It was all a bit strange anyway. The static in his headphones, the sudden crash, the weird noises. Was he… transported? Wasn't that usually a truck's job?
'I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm getting used to this whole situation a bit too quickly. Maybe that's for the best at the moment… just go with the flow for now.' He thought to himself.
Honestly, if this whole thing was real, worse things could have happened. Damien was fortunate to have bumped into a weird little alien than any of the other far scarier Pokemon. Perhaps bumped into wasn't quite right... It seemed more like the thing had been looking for him. He shook his head, erasing the thought for now.
"So, are you in my head per-?" He began to speak.
Before he could even finish the sentence, an image of an hourglass slowly ticking down appeared in his mind, as if Elgyem had predicted his question.
"So, it's not permanent then. Huh, alright."
"So what's your deal then? You sure came out of nowhere just to mess around and scramble my brains. Got an explanation?" He said with a huff.
There was a significant pause this time. Usually, its responses had been near instantaneous but it appeared to be struggling as to how to best explain.
Eventually, the image of a pair of cartoonish-looking magnets facing each other displayed itself in Damien's head.
Damien sat there for a moment and reflected on the possible meanings behind it. Unfortunately, the whole strange situation and constant headache made it difficult to reach any satisfying conclusions.
"Alright, I'll deal with that later. How about you answer some other questions I have, and in return you can follow along for as long as you need. Deal?"
The Elgyem nodded its head. Shortly after, Damien's eyes went blurry for but a moment as he felt something disconnect. It was a downright strange and alien feeling. He could only assume whatever connection he had with Elgyem had ended.
"Alright, first of all, what's your name?" Damien began, ignoring the strange feeling for the time being.
Silence.
"Fine. We'll stick with Elgyem."
It nodded, seemingly satisfied.
"You a boy or girl? Or… whatever else I guess."
An image of a standard male symbol flashed for but a moment.
"Alright. Interesting. Didn't think I'd be communicating with a Pokémon through emojis or whatever, but when life gives you lemons I guess." He said with a sigh
Elgyem simply tilted his head to the side, seemingly confused.
"You don't know emojis? Or was it the lemons thing? Whatever, not important right now. How about this? Am I in a dream?"
Elgyem shook his head.
"Shit. Ok. This is all way too unreal. Uhh, am I anywhere close to civilization?"
Elgyem hesitated for a moment before his eyes glowed a familiar purple tone. His eyes maintained their new colour for a solid ten seconds before they faded back to normal. Soon after, Elgyem raised his arm and pointed in a vague direction behind where Damien was crouched.
"Really? Just like that? You got a compass built in you or something? I guess you are a Psychic-Type…" Damien said as he scratched his cheek.
He looked behind him in the direction Elgyem had pointed, seeing nothing but dense forest. Fortunately, it seemed the sun wasn't going down any time soon. The last thing he wanted was to be travelling through a forest at night, especially when there was now the very real threat of wild beasts with magic powers.
"Well, how about we walk and talk? No point sticking around here waiting for the sun to set. Lead the way, little dude." Damien stood with a groan, holding his arm out in invitation for Elgyem to walk ahead.
The light-blue Pokemon nodded his head and began to march ahead into the dense forest.
Damien fell in behind, forced to slow his usually quick pace so as not to walk too far ahead.
'Maybe it would be quicker to just carry him. Though, I have a feeling he'd probably reject the idea…' He scratched his chin in thought, watching the little blue man turn his head from side to side as if he were scanning the forest ahead.
"So, I probably should have asked this before but, what's the deal? Did you belong to a trainer before?"
Elgyem halted for a moment, shaking his head, before quickly marching on once more.
"Alright, then I guess you'll be my partner for the time being. Seems like you've already got your own thing going on anyways."
Vrr-zz. Elgyem produced a familiar yet strange droning noise, which Damien could only assume was affirmative.
"Great. Hopefully, we can avoid any trouble and get out of this forest unscathed. Wouldn't that be nice?" Damien said, humming a small tune as he marched.
Vrr-vrRvr. Elgyem gave his own opinion, though who knew what that opinion was?
"So true, Elgyem. So true. If we do run into anything, I'm trusting you to deal with it, cause let's be honest, if it's any bigger than a patrat I'm probably gonna struggle."
Elgyem curtly nodded its head as it produced a short flat tone, seemingly tired of Damien's constant talking.
The forest seemed to stretch on forever, with no actual path in sight. Damien was continuously forced to look down at his feet to avoid any jutting roots or large stones. Fortunately, the trees were particularly tall in this area, allowing Damien to walk on without the fear of a tree branch taking him out.
'Thinking about it properly, if I am in the Pokemon universe, I must be in Unova: judging by the Patrats and little Elgyem over there. At least I'm fairly familiar with it… though that begs the question of whether people like N and Ghetsis are strolling about…' Damien hopped over another root, increasing his pace to catch up with Elgyem who seemed to be moving through the underbrush with little issue.
Once he had caught up, however, Elgyem quickly halted. Elgyem turned his head to the left and seemed to stare at something within the trees. It wasn't long before Damien spotted what Elgyem was looking at.
A white, sloth-like Pokémon with a teardrop-shaped tuft of red fur on its forehead jumped out of the canopy above - landing with a thud only a few feet away from Elgyem. It snorted and visible steam erupted from its nostrils as it stood up to its full height in an attempt to intimidate its newfound opponents.
'Is that a fucking Vigoroth? In Unova? Shit. This isn't exactly like the game is it?' Damien was struck with a primal sort of fear. He stood completely still as he quickly understood the creature in front of him was both angry and far stronger than him.
Elgyem, on the other hand, seemed visibly unfazed - though it was hard to tell due to the lack of actual facial features other than his glassy eyes.
ROOOOTHHH!
The Vigoroth let out a booming roar which resounded across the forest, disturbing a pair of nesting Pidoves which quickly flew off to safety. It didn't hesitate for long before rushing at Elgyem with its arms raised: claws poised for action.
Its claws glowed white with what Damien quickly assumed to be some sort of type-energy.
"Elgyem! Move buddy!" Damien shouted, unable to do much else.
The Vigoroth quickly swiped downwards.
Elgyem's eyes glazed over with a purple hue.
Crunch.
Something invisible to the eye struck Vigoroth's temple, sending its head spinning.
It lost its balance and fell to the ground with a thud. A small cloud of dust billowed from beneath its form.
Elgyem took the opportunity to retreat a few paces, placing himself between Damien and the attacker.
"You ok buddy? What did you do to him?" Damien asked, not expecting a response.
Elgyem hummed, before raising his arms towards the now stumbling Vigoroth.
The sloth-like Pokemon had managed to get back to its feet, though barely. Its eyes span around restlessly without focus. Confused, it began to spin its arms and body around in the hopes of hitting something.
Elgyem, his arms raised, launched another invisible attack. The same concealed force struck at the Vigoroth's leg, knocking it completely off balance. It spiralled violently on one leg before its face met the dirt. It lay on the ground, it's breathing ragged. It seemed to have been knocked unconscious from the fall.
Elgyem lowered its arms, seemingly content with its victory.
"Uhh, you sure it's over?" Damien asked worriedly.
Elgyem nodded his head, beginning its march once more: casually stepping on top of the Vigoroth that blocked its path.
Damien followed suit, trusting in Elgyem's confidence. He politely stepped around the Vigoroth's unconscious body, whispering an apology under his breath. He continued to look back every so often as he followed Elgyem, worried that it might suddenly come back to life and charge at him.
Luckily, no such thing happened.
After another thirty minutes of walking, the pair finally breached the treeline. Elgyem had, as promised, led them to the beginnings of civilization. A worn dirt road stretched out into the distance, where Damien could just faintly see several buildings bordering the horizon. He turned his head to look down the other way, where a cold wind blew in from. Far in the distance, he could see the faint glistening of water - likely to be the coast or perhaps some river.
Elgyem tugged at Damien's trousers to grab his attention. He looked down, giving the little guy a quick smile.
"Good job, bud. I assume the town is that way?" He asked, pointing back up the road towards the buildings he had seen.
Elgyem nodded, loosening his grip on Damien's trousers. He began to march forward once more, expecting Damien to follow.
Damien folded his arms behind his back and walked beside Elgyem: content to simply enjoy his current situation.
His worries and fears tugged at the back of his mind, but such problems could be dealt with in time.
Right now, he was just happy to be living out every kid's dream.
End Prologue.