I do not own Pokemon
The next morning, scree on the south side of mount Moon
Parker felt a lot better, but there was something… off about him. He felt stronger, somehow, but he could tell something had changed. The skin of his hands looked like it had gained a bit of a yellow-purplish tint, with his nails now pitch black and curving like claws. His teeth also felt a bit different, as if his canines had suddenly grown a few millimeters. He unsheathed his sword, using the blade as an impromptu mirror. Yes, his canines had definitely grown, now looking a bit like fangs. He took a step back when he saw his eyes, turned from his usual brown into a rich purple.
Did the Venonat's poison changed him? Had he… evolved? Since when did humans evolve? And what about these changes, was… was he now a poison type? He knew some pokemons had to fulfill some very unusual conditions to evolve, and few had weirder conditions than Malamar or Runerigus, but… could humans evolve? If he had evolved, was he still human?
Suddenly, he noticed the sleeping pokemons next to him. He gently caressed them, silently thanking them for their help on the previous night. When caressing Pan, he purposefully moved his hand on her stinger, feeling the familiar pricking of the stinger piercing his flesh, but not the burning sensation of the poison spreading. Poison immunity… that would mean he was either a Steel or a Poison type, but he was fairly certain he had done nothing that would even remotely related to Steel, so that option was highly unlikely. For better or worse it seemed like he truly had evolved into a poison type.
Now what? It wasn't like this changed anything in his plan. He was still a wanted man. Maybe not a man anymore, but he was still wanted, that was for sure. Maybe his new look could help hide a bit more easily, the new eye color would certainly throw people off, but it wasn't like his appearance changed that much.
No, this evolution might have made his journey a bit easier, but at the end of the day it changed nothing.
He got up, stretching. Did he gain a few centimeters as well? Not the issue right now. After his horrendous night, he needed to drink and to fill up his stomach again. On his way to the wellspring, he spotted a purple creature slithering on the rock face, lapping up the water. Parker smirked, readying his sword.
He struck fast, barely giving the Ekans time to react, with a powerful blow against the wild pokemon that caused blood to spurt out its side. The Ekans turned around, biting at Parker's arm, only to be decapitated by Parker's second strike. He looked at the bite mark on his arm, not feeling any poison from it. He cleaned the wound using the wellspring's water, drank his fill and grabbed the corpse of the Ekans, taking a small detour near the trees to gather a few extra twigs and a handful of crumpled leaves to start the fire again.
This time, it only took a few minutes for the fire to start and without the need to burn away the fur, their meal started to smell rather nicely. The smell was good enough to wake up his pokemons, both of which tackled Parker in a show of affection.
"Thank you guys" he muttered, hugging back the two. After what appeared to be an eternity, he let his pokemons go and grabbed the roaster Ekans for everyone to eat.
After a hearty meal, they decided to explore the area a bit more, fighting the occasional pokemon. To their surprise, every time they met a Sandshrew, the pokemon started to flee in fear almost immediately. After the third time, Parker tried to put away the Sandslash-inspired shirt he used to camouflage the backpack and, as expected, the Sandshrews stopped running away from them. After a few more hours of exploration, Pan spotted the entrance of a cave half buried under a pile of sand and gravel.
"Once you pass the gravel, the tunnel is big enough for me to walk."
Pan nodded in agreement.
"And the walls are solid stone."
Pan nodded in agreement
"And you can see a light."
Pan nodded in agreement
"Are you sure I can cross that gravel area without getting buried?"
Pan nodded in agreement.
Parker sighed. He didn't like the idea of crawling through a narrow tunnel, he didn't like it one bit. But unlike Vike, Pan didn't have a sonar that granted her the ability to see in total darkness: if she could see in there, then it only meant that after that tunnel there was an opening on the other side, which meant he would cut his travel across mount Moon by at least a few days. This was huge, but didn't make it any more pleasant for him. With a deep frown, he removed his backpack and pushed it into the narrow opening. After a few seconds, he felt Pan on the other side pulling on it, dragging it on the other side. He then sent forward the gym bag and the sword, before taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. Would being buried alive give him the ground type? Maybe he would learn Dig just so he could save himself. He chuckled, trying to calm his nerves. There was no point in dwelling on what if scenarios. He pushed his hands forward, dragging his body across the gravel as the ground itself seemed to swallow him. He began moving, using his feet to push himself forward for a few centimeters at a time. His hands were reaching for something, grasping at nothing until he felt the familiar texture of Pan's skin. He grabbed onto her as she started to pull, dragging his body across the narrow opening and into the cave. After a few seconds, he heard the familiar flapping of Vike's wings.
Parker reached for the backpack and bag, then followed Vike's sound until he turned a corner and spotted a light illuminating the end of the tunnel. There was something off about that light, and he decided to approach with caution and quietly. His quiet steps, however, were more than enough to wake a couple of Zubats that were happily sleeping on the ceiling, forcing the trio to battle them. Parker was half tempted to take their corpses for lunch, but it felt wrong to feed Zubats to Vike, so he left them as is. Besides, they didn't even have the firewood necessary to cook them.
After reaching the end of the tunnel and turning another corner, Parker realized why the light felt wrong. This wasn't sunlight coming through an opening. This was a neon light. A somewhat old one, at least judging by the mold that started to grow near it.
If he remembered correctly, his cousin had once told him about a failed project team Rocket had started in mount Moon, something about… resurrecting pokemons? It honestly sounded like some kind of prank for new hires, but… what if those rumors were true? The resurrection part was probably a pile of Tauros shit, but perhaps team Rocket really did have some kind of laboratory here. He smiled. Perhaps there was something salvageable that could be useful. A small camping stove? A pot? Hell, maybe he'd even find a few potions or antidotes. Actually, why would he need antidotes? All of them were poison types. Ice Heal maybe? Burn Heals? Honestly, he'f be happy if he found a simple bottle of Fresh Water.
He looked at the electric cable and started to follow it. For some reason, the only wild pokemon to tolerate the illuminated areas were Paras, and in quite the large quantity at that. Thankfully, the pokemons were rather slow, allowing Vike, Pan and Parker to strike immediately, granting them a rather easy win against these pests. Pan had even learned Fury Swipes, which she had promptly demonstrated by completely missing her first attempt. Given the similarities with Parker's Comet Punch, the man had given her a few tips on how to properly use multiple hit techniques without leaving themselves open, or rather too open, to a possible counterattack.
Parker had gathered a couple of the defeated Paras's claws: from what he remembered, Krabby and Kingler claws were a rather popular food in the Sevii islands and he figured that Paras claws would be the same. Claws were claws, after all. To round up his food gathering, he also picked up a handful of mushrooms growing along the corridor. He was pretty sure that he could eat almost anything with no side effects. Man, being a poison type was awesome.
Notes
Hold your horses. I know, human evolution is not exactly the most popular of pokemon fanfiction tropes, but it was something i REALLY wanted to touch on during my story, if nothing because the subject is ripe for speculation and opens up a lot of possibilities. Possibilities that I most likely won't touch in this fiction: this is not a story about the difference between human and pokemon, this is a story about Parker, and Parker is not a scientist.
In case you're wondering, the evolution condition for human to *name pending, Vishkanya seems the most fitting but I'm not convinced* is: survive poison without using items, visiting the pokemon centre or fainting for 3 times in a row
I'd love to have a discussion about the topic, but I feel like it deserves a fanfiction of its own. Maybe my next work? We'll see.
Next chapter we'll get back some good old fashioned combat, but I tried to include a bit more of an atmosphere this time around, we'll see how that'll turn out
