Bold text indicates telepathy, unless in the beginning or end of the chapter.
Chapter 2)
Cruelty
Though Leo found his augmented senses a buff to the bleak situation, he still knew he was out of place in the new environment. The trees, the grass, the odd species of flora that his scientific persona couldn't stop touching. It was nothing like Earth, but that only made him more curious.
He'd barely gotten ten minutes into his journey when he'd met his first sign of foreign life other than Abaxa on the expedition. He couldn't quite make out what was making the bushes rustle, so he edged nearer, cautious to make a path out in case the situation went south. He pushed aside another dense thicket of shrubbery and marveled at the new creature before his eyes.
Butterfree, a bug and flying type.
As Leo drew closer, his curiosity now clawing at him even more, the butterfly ascended into the air and dropped a viscous emerald-green powder on Leo. He attempted to rack his mind on what the substance was, but he was quickly answered by a lethargic spell.
Butterfree put sleep powder on me? You can't be serious.
He knew that he didn't have long before he was out cold, once again racking his memory, this time for solutions to the problem. The soporific substance he kept breathing lulled him further into drowsiness, hindering his thoughts as he scavenged for any ideas.
He attempted to attack the Butterfree, trying to solve his new problem with violence. Instead, his forearm grazed the leather satchel he had equipped.
That's right, the berries. Didn't Abaxa give me a Chesto berry?
A momentary respite settled across Leo only to be followed with an equally potent, revitalized panic.
Wait, which berry is the Chesto berry?
He rummaged through the stock searching for clues. In a tired and drowsy panic, he quickly consumed one of every type of berry, slowly whirling into a spiral of sleep. Just as his energy took its last gasp, he suddenly regained the energy to fight once more. He drew back his paw, ready to strike, and...
Where did that damn Butterfree go?
Leo vented his frustration with a defeated growl. He took the opportunity to reevaluate his surroundings, finding nothing to make his situation less treacherous. In fact, he didn't even know if he was traveling the right direction, thanks to a lack of a compass. He knew better than to trust the sun in this place now, guessing that since it was a completely different world, the old east-west rule no longer applied. He needed to travel north north-east to reach Vemine, and he kept track of his path by leaving behind various slashes in the dirt behind him.
Leo now regretted not asking more questions before he left as the realization set in that he was on his own to successfully navigate a foreign planet, one that as far as he knew was dangerous ONLY to his new species. Abaxa's warning made Leo wary of any company, so his heart skipped a beat when he heard a noise originating from high in the trees. Specifically, a chattering noise, which made Leo back down from his paranoia-induced fighting stance in relief. He gazed into the tree, where he spotted a small woodpecker.
It's just a bird, I can definitely take it in a fight… maybe.
Leo started back on his way, but one look at himself reminded him he was no longer on Earth, and the birds are Pokémon. He did a double take of the bird, now realizing there was multiple. He couldn't quite remember the name of the woodpecker from the games, but he did recognize one of the other birds accompanying it.
Toucannon? Can the birds talk like Abaxa?
He got his answer when he exclaimed the bird's species, a test that concluded when the birds fled. Leo didn't know whether it was good or bad that they didn't respond, but guessed they would probably have been of no help anyways, they were far too small to be able to talk. He rolled his eyes and continued along the mapped-out path.
"Lucario! Lucario! Yeah, it's annoying, isn't it?"
The Toucannon hadn't fled; it flew behind him, and mocked him with a scratchy, high-pitched tone, frightening him in the process.
"You didn't have to sneak up on me like that!" Leo shouted back at the bird. The Toucannon and him stared each other down for a few long, dreadful seconds before Leo gathered the guts to apologize. "I'm sorry for scaring you, I just-"
"Name's Bagowl. I thought Lucario were supposed to be civilized! You could've asked for my name, not shouted my species!" The scratchy voice hurt Leo's more sensitive ears, but he tried his best not to let it show.
I'm not even an hour into being a Lucario, dumb bird.
Leo worked hard to suppress the thought from becoming his reply, as much as he wanted to with his bottled frustration towards everything.
"Sorry, Bagowl. Would you happen to know which way north is?"
Bagowl cocked his head to the side and leapt to a closer, higher branch in the treeline.
"Thought you could sense stuff like that with your aura or whatever you call it. You're not a Zoroark, right?"
Leo sighed. Yet another assumption that he knew what he was doing, like he hadn't just had his entire body overhauled by the whim of a higher power. He would've spent his time correcting the bird if the thought of throwing time away didn't grate away at him; besides, he didn't really want to tell the bird he was a Lucario with what Abaxa had warned him about.
He once again eyed the bird for a few seconds, as if to challenge it. "Does it matter? I just need to know where to be headed, please." Leo picked up an exasperated attitude, one that Bagowl didn't appreciate.
"You must be a Zoroark what with your bad manners and all. You may figure it out yourself."
With that, the bird flew off. Leo sighed, and his internal monologue cursed him out for taking out his anger on Bagowl. He decided not to give chase to the bird but instead continue, hoping that he was indeed correct on his assumption.
Leo trekked on, eventually venturing out of the tropical wetland and merging into a drier, less dense forest. After a while longer, he noted that he woke up when the sun was far on one side. The sun was now high in the sky, indicating he had used a little less than half his remaining daylight hours. During the trek, he found his thoughts drifting towards the university he attended, his cashier position in the gas station, and his favorite hobby that he had to pause for work and school, woodworking. None appeared more though than his sister, and he shivered every time the thought resurfaced. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened to his sister; was she okay, or even alive?
Whoever took her didn't look like they just wanted to kill her though, they looked way too... professional.
The intruders had known his name, so he surmised that he had either been targeted or watched for a long time. He didn't rule out the possibility that it could be a government agency, for which reason he was targeted was a complete mystery to him, but that part didn't matter; what mattered now is that he gets home, without being killed.
His mind kept racing with worse and worse thoughts, and before long Leo paused his hike and decided to take a mental break before he bloodied his other paw. He found a low-lying log and brushed the dirt off it, sitting down to meditate like his father had taught him to do when he was under too much stress.
I'll figure this all out, and there's still a good chance that this is a cruel dream still…
He attempted to meditate as well as he could, but his meditation session ended abruptly when a small blue streak perforated his vision, closely followed by a sudden, strong gust of wind after a full day of still air.
Leo could've sworn his eyes were closed, yet the light persisted, flashing brighter and brighter. His braids of hair picked up with the wind as the light intensified, homing in on a particular spot in his vision. He tried to focus on the dot but he suddenly opened his eyes, out of breath, gasping for air; he hadn't known how much energy it took him, or why he didn't notice. The radiant blue orb still appeared in the peripheral of his vision and Leo made the split-second decision to veer off course, slashing the dirt slightly more to mark his deviation. After a couple minutes of walking, the blue light growing in intensity, it peaked as he found a Weedle on a tree branch, reaching for some berries at the top. The Weedle had the same familiar blue glow to it, even when Leo closed his eyes.
"Hey, do you need help picking those berries?" Leo asked.
The Weedle didn't bother answering, or talking for that matter. Instead, it jumped down while spraying a purple liquid onto Leo.
He merely stood in a mix of shock and disgust, but he was prompted to run when the Weedle made its way towards him with its razor-sharp barb at the end of its body. Leo sprinted as quickly as he could, afraid to turn back and check if he was being followed.
He ran erratically, weaving through trees and cutting through bushes on multiple occasions. His adrenaline-fueled sprint didn't last forever, but he certainly lasted longer than he would have before he was cast into this world, which was another welcome upgrade. He collapsed onto the forest bed, gasping for air again. He found the sprint to be effective at losing the Pokémon, but he couldn't shake off the nasty purple liquid it had sprayed on him.
On the positive side, I'm getting used to using my new "legs".
Leo felt nothing from the liquid, and since it was purple, he had a good guess as to why. He almost felt thankful to having been given a steel typing, but his dwelling on the subject raised a question he was scared to answer.
Does this mean my bones are now metal?
He gave his left arm a couple smacks with his right paw, but no conclusive evidence was drawn, other than pain. Leo gathered his senses, and-
Wait, where am I exactly?
He took a look around and realized what he had done.
You idiot. You ran a random direction away from the path you were supposed to take to run from a bug? You deserve to be lost.
Leo sat down on a medium-sized rock and attempted to salvage his mistake.
I ran to my right... if I am traveling north like I am supposed to, that would mean I traveled east.
Leo hadn't ran long, but it was long enough to throw him off his slashed-dirt trail and leave him truly isolated from any nearby towns. Despite the setback, he was determined to keep going, fueled by his need to get back home at all costs and, well, he hadn't really thought further than that. Despite the near limitless activity throughout the day to ponder, he inevitably grew bored again, and scarfed down some of the berries he had bitten into earlier in an effort to stay awake.
The berries Leo chose happened to be salty, and he found himself in need of water. He sat adjacent to a small spring, but he didn't want to risk drinking unfiltered water, even if he was in a completely different world and body. Fortunately, he didn't have to contemplate the pros and cons of trying, as he remembered the strange green water Abaxa had given him earlier. He took a few short, probing sips, and found it to be similar in taste to lemonade if it were carbonated.
He restarted his journey shortly thereafter, walking for what felt like an eternity with no end in sight. Normally he would fill the void with a call to his friend Dexter, or play some mobile game on his phone, but he settled with making up games on his trip to distract from the trauma still fresh in his mind.
If only Dexter knew that this world was real when we traded cards in the third grade.
Leo stared at the ground and shook his head. It had been a while walking, and he wondered whether his friend had realized he was missing yet. Dexter, besides his sister, was his only ally after his aunt refused to take them in. He almost cried at the thought of losing his only two allies in life, and laid down to prevent himself from doing so, when his emotions suddenly shifted again, this time for the better.
The hill marked on the map is here, I can finally take a break; maybe I'll get there before sundown.
Leo looked up at the sun to verify, but the diagnosis was not good. The sun was already beginning to set, and the wear on his paws was slowing him down. Leo tried to focus on the positives; he was making significant progress, and he got unexpectedly far without fatigue for basically walking on his tiptoes. Despite his temptation and intent to take a break, he knew that to have a chance to make it to the city before night, he needed to move quickly, and eventually decided against it.
It took more than half an hour to climb the top of the hill, which was just slightly off-pace for avoiding a night on the forest floor. Leo decided that the battle to race the sun was decided in his defeat, and ceased his hike to Vemine to take some well-deserved respite.
The sunset glow of the world he found himself in proved to be even more entrancing than anything he had ever seen on Earth. He would've argued for hours about his hometown of Great Springs, Montana having the best sunsets, but they came nothing close to the sheer sparkle of the dawning sun he was entranced in. He knew he had to begin some form of bedding as to not freeze during the night, but his fixation on the vast array of colors decayed his willpower.
That was, until he heard a short yell towards the bottom of the hill followed by a strong and fast fire erupting from the treeline.
I'm weak to fire as a steel type… I need to get out of here.
Leo retreated from the direction of the fire, but the blue streaks of light he had seen once before now began to nag at him again. Despite what it had led him to before, he decided to give it another chance, hoping to use it to spot what exactly caused the fire. Instead, the light changed color from blue to red, and the blue migrated to the engulfed trees around it, subsuming the red. He could not see what it was, but he could feel its pain as if he replaced the creature.
And so Leo did what he considered dumb, irrational, but altruistic: he ran down the hill, careful not to fall with his still delicate balance in his new body, and rushed over to what he assumed was a gravely injured Pokémon.
His hasty decent earned him a few scratches and dirtied his already unkempt fur. He pushed through the dense forest foliage until he came across a scorched clearing where he spotted a metallic red and black Pokémon through the brush line. It had woke up, but it being in no condition to move, it merely laid in the scorched grass. Being even in proximity of the blast began to heat Leo to a sweltering temperature, and he backed up a bit from the ground zero.
"Excuse me, do you need help?" Leo called out to the Pokémon; one he recognized as a Bisharp quite quickly. He immediately recognized how dumb his question was, but he hoped the Bisharp would at least respond, which it did not, instead raising its white metal arm in a defensive posture and dragging himself backwards.
"I'm not going to hurt you... what happened down here? I mean, I can try to help-"
"Yveltal…" the Bisharp muttered through painful winces. The Bisharp tried to speak again, but the red light around it flared up, winding the Bisharp in the process.
Leo quickly fished for the red spray Abaxa had given him in the morning and crept over to the scorched grass the Bisharp laid in, applying it whenever the metal had burn marks.
"I appreciate the help…" the Bisharp muttered in between more winces as the spray made contact with the burns. "…but it's too late. If the burns don't kill me, Yveltal will. Overheat is meant to kill, not disable."
He ignored the Bisharp's pessimism and insisted on treating him anyways. The fire had dissipated very quickly, but the red light emitted from the Bisharp remained in the air, suffocating Leo with a sense of pure dread and evil. However, as he continued to treat the Bisharp, a blue light identical to the one he witnessed the Weedle earlier surrounded with began to flow from the metal spikes in his paws and chest, slowly subsuming the red.
"I'm going to leave my supplies here." the Bisharp watched Leo very carefully, yet laid as still as a statue. "I'm not sure which, but one of these berries is supposed to cure a burn or something, maybe it can help."
Leo left in haste, disallowing the Bisharp to protest his help. Axel muttered something as Leo left, but even with his enhanced hearing, he couldn't quite make out what he said. The sky now dimmed from the once beautiful pink and red rays into a more nighttime solid blue. Leo would be concerned with crafting a place to sleep, but his mind was clouded with a chilling worry.
I'm just as weak to fire as Axel was... what if that thing finds me? How would I escape when I know nothing about how to fight?
As Leo was scouting for a place to stay for the night, another blue streak pierced through the dusk atmosphere, now amplified by the darker contrast. Unlike the Weedle, the blue streak was markedly agile, floating above trees and circling around him, although from far away.
He froze in place, closely monitoring the light, well aware of the precedent that befell him.
It was a Pokémon he was tracking.
The trees shook windlessly as the creature slowly homed in on Leo. He desperately prayed he would not experience the same fate Axel did not too long before, but prepared to defend himself if push came to shove. He adopted a cautious stance, but as the Pokémon's blue trail grew more profound, he chose to take refuge by backing himself up against a boulder and inside a light bush.
His follower stopped atop a tree and Leo was able to get a glimpse of its silhouette. Through the ever-darkening night, a feature on the avian's tail made it crystal clear what he was dealing with.
Charizard… So this is what lit up dozens of trees in a single attack...
Before he could mount a sufficient defense, the Charizard swooped down and attacked him with a lightning-fast claw to the head, lacerating his ear. Adrenaline began pumping through Leo's system, nulling the pain and heightening the glow of the Charizard. He sprinted after the lizard in a counterattack, removing himself from the cover of his tree in a blind rage. The Charizard calmly perched itself back on a tree, eyeing Leo with a deep sense of suspicion, which threw him off.
"Who are you?" the Charizard called out to him. "You're no Lucario, hiding under a tree like a Shedinja against a Chandelure."
Despite being on the verge of a total mental breakdown out of absolute fear and his heart racing faster than a turbo-charged cheetah, Leo's new strategy was to tempt a fight, hopefully convincing the Charizard that a duel was not worth attempting.
"My name is Leo." He shouted to the Charizard after taking up an offensive stance. "If you wanna go, I'd be more than happy to-"
The Charizard began chuckling.
"Alright Leo, I don't care for your name, nor do I care to fight you. I want to know what a ditto is doing on the border to Vemine disguising themselves as a Lucario."
Leo was thrown off guard. "I'm not a ditto though-"
The Charizard leapt off the tree it had perched on and began towards him. Leo shivered despite the warm, humid night, in fear that he may have answered wrong. To his relief, the Charizard stopped right in front of him, and the vibe the Charizard had about him was enough to allow Leo to drop his guard.
"Where are you headed?" The Charizard inquired.
"Well, I was trying to get to Vemine-"
"Great." The Charizard turned his back towards him. "Hop on, I'll fly you over."
More than ever now, Leo prayed he was back home, studying for his next exam. Instead, whatever power decided to throw him in a completely new dimension had now decided to push his biggest fear to its absolute limit: his fear of heights.
He carefully stepped around the tail flame and climbed upon the Charizard's back. Under its instructions, Leo strapped himself onto what he guessed was a type of strap-on saddle. The Charizard took off from the ground in a particularly awkward way, which he commented was due to the added weight Leo put on him.
Leo closed his eyes and tried to focus not on being hundreds of feet in the air, but on what he will do when he gets back home, and how he will even get there in the first place. That soon became too stressful, and he opted instead to meditate.
It's a bit difficult to breathe going so fast, and I don't even wanna know how high we are...
On cue, as if the Charizard heard him, he slowed to a more manageable speed.
"You should focus more when you use telepathy, I could barely make out what you were saying. Anyhow, my name is Xaliz, but you can call me Xal.
Great, what a useful feature about my species, I just randomly let people know my thoughts.
"Bit confused as to how you didn't know that." Xaliz commented. "How have you lived to evolve into a Lucario without knowing they could do that?"
Leo rolled his eyes. "I'll explain everything when we're on the ground, but long story short, I'm not exactly supposed to be a Lucario..."
Xaliz began descending, which prompted Leo to breathe a heavy sigh of relief and open his eyes.
"Here we are." Xaliz gestured to the building he landed in front of. "The folks in here probably are getting ready to sleep, so don't be too loud."
Xaliz opened the awkwardly high door to the building for Leo. He understood why, of course; Xaliz was multiple feet taller than him, and there was likely Pokémon even taller. The inside of the building resembled one of a New York skyscraper first floor, with a central office staffed by a Jolteon. Most of the room was dark to the night, say for the few light bulbs in key areas of the building.
"Hey Xal, need any..." The Jolteon trailed off as it saw Leo. "Well, can't say I was expecting to see a Lucario tonight." It muttered while leaping from the office counter to approach them.
"His name is Leo." Xaliz informed the Jolteon before turning to face Leo. "And this is Moxia."
"What happened to his ear?" Moxia asked Xaliz.
Leo remembered the attack and reached up to touch the wound, wincing at the pain from stimulating the cut.
"Oh, I got his ear pretty good while testing to see if he was a Zoroark. Sorry 'bout that, Leo."
Moxia brought Xaliz into a separate room in the building which left Leo on his own. He studied the building for adequate lounging, eventually settling for a chair slightly too small for him but with a perfectly sized cutout for his tail.
Is it bad that I'm starting to forget what it was like being in a human body already?
He sat in wait, passing time by testing the sharpness of his spikes. He quickly concluded that activity when he cut through a small part of his paw with butter-like consistency, wincing and clutching his paw. Fortunately, he didn't have to come up with a new activity to quell the boredom; the door opened soon thereafter with Moxia trotting out of the room.
"We talked to the mayor, and he set you up in a hotel room for the night." Moxia gestured her head towards Xaliz. "Xal's got some questions for you though before we escort you there."
"I'll give you a chance to explain your story." Xaliz said.
"I woke up somewhere outside in a forest sometime this morning, I met an Espeon who directed me here, and well, here I am?"
Xaliz seemed unsatisfied. "No, I meant like, before that, you know... where you're from, or something."
Leo was unsure what to answer to that. If he told the truth, he might sound absolutely insane, but if he lied, he might have to dig himself in to a trench full of them.
"I'm from a place called Earth, if you've heard of it?"
"Hmm..." Xaliz huffed in defeat. "Can't say I have. What side of the mountains is this Earth place from?"
"About that. I'm trying to get back to Earth, but it's, well, not really a place in this world... I came here through a rift, or at least I think, and I'm trying to travel through it to get back to my original world..."
"I've heard about these rifts." Moxia piped up. "But it's never been someone from another planet coming here, it's always been someone from our planet going there. Something about the other world having a lack of aura makes it impossible to open wormholes from their planet."
"Hey, queen of useless facts actually helps out for a change." Xaliz sarcastically remarked. "But we don't have any rifts in Vemine, at least not to my knowledge-"
"I was just stopping by here." Leo clarified. "I'm meant to go to Horma to find someone who knows about them."
"On the other side of the mountains?" Xaliz chuckled sardonically. "And you're a Lucario. Yveltal's minions will skin you alive out there. These mountains are a barrier between the Rebirth-controlled towns and the Hyclonic Alliance's towns. Vemine can offer you a safehaven here; I would advise you took it."
Leo tried to protest, but Xaliz motioned him outside the door and began escorting him to his hotel room.
"I hope you just see that we're doing this in your best interest."
The streets of the city Xaliz paraded him through resembled those of an old empire. No paved roads, just dirt trail snaking through mostly normal-looking buildings and houses, though the architecture was vastly different to accommodate the several hundreds of species that inhabited the place.
The hotel was very close to the office building, and as he entered it, Leo felt a wave of exhaustion take over. The building was nearly identical in terms of dimension: tall and long, clearly built to accommodate any species, with a massive door opened by a lever.
Xaliz talked to the hotel clerk, which Leo recognized as an Alakazam. After a quick discussion with Xaliz, the Alakazam got up and lead Leo towards the back of the building, and into a room with an average-sized door, one Xaliz could hardly even duck under.
"Since you're not exactly from this planet- or so you claim- if you've got any questions ask Garano at the front desk. We've set up a meeting with the mayor tomorrow, so I expect you to wake up early in anticipation."
Xaliz shut the door to the hotel, and Leo immediately began taking in his new space.
There's no bed here, just a couch and one pillow... and how am I meant to sleep without stabbing the couch with my spikes?
Leo grumbled as he turned to the door to bring up the issue with Garano, but he instead saw a desk with equipment he missed, including a basket full of assorted berries (though he could not tell which was what), three Velcro straps to shield his spikes, and a bitter piece of cold irony.
Donuts? They have wheat and sugar here?
He took a bite out of one of them to see, and despite the taste being quite a far away from the one he was used to from his local donut bakery, he found it satisfactory.
Hell, I could get used to not eating processed garbage day after day.
Above the desk was a clock, except it didn't label the time in a 24-hour cycle but instead a moving pictogram of where the sun and moons were in the sky.
Wait, two moons? I guess I'm on a different planet, after all…
The clock showed the moons about an eighth across the sky, which he guessed meant he had spent an eighth of the night awake thus far. Realizing that gave him a wave of sleepiness, which he pushed back just long enough to fit the Velcro covers across his spikes. He retired to the couch, but found it difficult to get comfortable with the changes he had undergone.
Despite his plight, he drifted to sleep faster than he'd prepared for.
Ow.
Leo's face felt the stinging sear of several black pebbles across his face and arms. He rolled over onto his side and instantly recognized the asphalt road as one he had played on for years with his childhood friend Dexter, next to his old suburban home.
He glanced over his body, no longer riddled with blue and black fur and metal spikes; he was his ordinary self once more.
Was it all just some convoluted dream? Thank God.
He groggily wandered into his old house, his mother making him waffles in her pajamas.
What? But I thought she-
He tried to look at the time, but the blurred clocks didn't portray a valid time. He raced to his sister's room and saw her sleeping. His heart skipped a beat and he shook her awake to verify it was her. She turned over and mumbled incoherently, but Leo almost broke down crying.
Don't ever leave me again, Anna, I was so worried about you...
He went to hug Anna, but he was flung away, and then began getting dragged out of the home. He tried to fight the mysterious force by punching the air around him, but his resistance grew even more fierce when he saw a fire not unlike that of Xaliz's engulfing the kitchen area of his home.
NO! LET ME GO! This can't be happening...
He yelled out and pled for the mysterious force to release him, but he could only watch in horror as he saw two figures escape moments before the house turned into a fireball; his sister, covered in ash and her leg charred red and black, and a silhouette of himself, escaping with a nasty smoke inhalation case.
"Mom, Dad! No, come on, get out please…"
Leo's fight for release finished and he was let go, but instead of hitting the floor and saving his parents, he woke up panting, heart beating through his chest, vibrating his ribcage so violently he feared a heart attack.
His nightmare had only halfway registered in his brain, but it started to grow on him as he calmed down. He laid back down and silently cried to himself.
I can't stop remembering that day... why does everything seem to always go wrong for me? Why do you hate me in particular, God? Give me a break, I can't take this any longer.
Leo tried to fall back asleep, but the stress of his nightmare wouldn't dissipate no matter how hard he tried to meditate to suppress it. He got out of bed and snuck out of the back of the hotel, careful to navigate out of the supervision of any hotel staff.
The hotel had no back door exit, but he made use with a window and merged onto the dirt road. Leo began walking down the road in a bid to relax, but the architecture of the city made him unable to clear his thinking.
The buildings came in all shapes and sizes, some looked polished and brand new and others were abandoned and riddled with scorch and blast marks. Despite it being in the middle of the night, there were still a small amount of Pokémon awake and wandering around, and a select few shops were open; of course, he strayed away from the sight of any of them, as he didn't feel like explaining himself a third time.
He walked in a circle around the block where his hotel was, sometimes detouring to avoid a group or a shop. The risk of being found began to get too high, and he quickly retraced his path back towards the hotel, however the bleak lighting in the city that he had been using to navigate in the first place began to flicker. He tried to move as fast as possible without making any noise, afraid that the lights would turn off completely, but with one last flicker, he was too late.
His poor sense of sight in the dark - one of his senses that wasn't buffed by the new form, he bitterly realized - led him into a slow creep. He walked the remainder of the way guessing the amount of steps until the next turn, and to his surprise, he didn't turn straight into a concrete wall. He continued carefully placing each step, slowly nearing his hotel.
Despite his improvised safety measure, he felt the ground suddenly buckle from beneath him and he was send tumbling into the ground below him. He caught himself but crushed his paw under his body weight, causing him to loudly wince in pain as he sat up to gather what he could about what had just happened.
The new room was somehow darker than before, leaving Leo blinder than a Noibat. He felt the walls behind him with his uncrushed paw, feeling a more jagged and rocky stone than the previous concrete he walked on. He stumbled back up on his paws, dazed and sluggish from his lack of sleep. Leo made out a blue streak straight ahead of him, which he wasn't sure whether to be worried or not about.
"Hey! Is anyone there? I fell down here by accident and-"
Leo recoiled against the jagged wall as the creature the blue light belonged to approached him in a shadowy flash, throwing him back down on his back. Leo prepared to strike back, but found himself too weary and injured to muster up a powerful attack. Even so, the swing he did throw seemed to phase through the creature as if it was an incorporeal anomaly.
He tried to reposition himself against the wall again and mount a defense, but instead the area was quickly illuminated by a flood of lights. Leo looked up at the creature which had attacked him, and everything made sense.
"Dragapult?"