Hello! For those of you who know me from my other story, Mistaken Destiny (which I'll guess is not a lot of of you), this is more or less what Mistaken Destiny would've been if I decided to write in the "opposite direction" during my remaster.
I don't know if I will continue this, and if I do it might be another month before chapter 2 is released. I don't have time to write Mistaken Destiny and this while keeping my quality standards. With that being said, please enjoy and leave a review if you liked it or have an idea of how I could've written this better.
Chapter 1)
Awakened
The metronomic sound of chirping birds gnawed away at Alex's unconscious mind, slowly lulling him awake with every next chirp. The wind picked up a slight breeze as Alex rendered his consciousness, irritating him just as much as the act of waking itself.
Wh-where am I?
His nerves woke with him after some seconds, but the grainy texture of the grassy forest bed was all he felt, bar the breeze. Alex rolled to his side and tried to rub his eyes open, but the action felt off. He had trouble adjusting to the blinding light of the sun, but as he got used to the new brightness, an unexpected shade of dull blue mixed with black filled his vision, one that managed to purge any grogginess he once had instantly as he jolted up in surprise.
What? What's happening? Am I dreaming?
He briefly considered laying back down and trying to stop the dream, but the idea of a consequence-free dreamy adventure was too exciting to ignore. Now in a better state of mind, he attempted to lift himself off the forest bed, only to stumble backwards and hit his head on a tree.
Ow… there's no way I'm in a dream if I didn't wake up from that, so what is going on?
Alex tried to clear his mind from emotion and approach his problem logically.
Ok… I got here by… by… uh…
He kept rewinding time in his head as far back as he could go, to no avail. All he could remember was that he was named Alex.
Great, so I have amnesia, and I'm in the middle of nowhere.
He reached back to soothe his head injury, but the same weird feeling he got when rubbing his eyes reappeared, and he recalled his hand to find out what the issue is.
A paw?
As he looked himself over, it quickly became apparent that his hand wasn't the only thing off about him.
Okay, I may have amnesia, but I know I'm supposed to be a human, not a Riolu.
His first order of business was to make sure he could still walk. The fact that he was still able to think and speak in English was a good sign, and with the help of a nearby tree he clutched, he was able to verify that he could, albeit with a slight, awkward limp.
Am I really struggling to walk? Or is it just because I'm not… human?
He carefully planned each step, bracing the tree as he tumultuously practiced the rhythm of walking with his new feet. He completed one full circuit of the tree before noticing something he should've seen long before.
A trail? Well, at least I didn't end up in the middle of the amazon.
Alex used the fact that he could remember the amazon exists to give himself a flash quiz of his skills of geography, and then branched off to all other subjects.
I can remember differential equations but not where I live? I was such a nerd…
He managed to deduce he lived in a dominantly English speaking country before reminding himself what was more important to consider. In doubt of his forest survivability, he began down the dirt road, hoping to find someone who could help.
Actually, this is a stupid idea, what if I get what I'm looking for and someone catches me in a pokeball?
Alex shivered at the mere consideration of such a happening, but figured it was at least a better alternative to starving in the middle of nowhere.
His walking was far from steady, and he nearly tripped and fell multiple times. The coarse dirt didn't make walking any easier, especially given his lack of footwear. The distance he was able to cover was remarkably small, which he guessed was likely due to his size downgrade. He considered running to make it up but immediately shot that down when he nearly tripped again just walking.
After a bit of time, Alex managed to become slightly more consistent at walking, but a new problem befell him shortly thereafter.
Speaking of starving out in the middle of nowhere, I've really got to find something to eat…
The peckish feeling he had slowed him down quite drastically, but he was determined to get somewhere. He began to see pidgey flying overhead, which meant that he wasn't quite the anomaly in this place after all. After a few more minutes of aimlessly walking the trail, his attention was diverted by a rustling sound in the bushes. He couldn't quite determine what it was, but he was glad it happened.
Looks like there's some kind of fruit growing on the tree just behind these bushes.
Alex veered off the path and pushed through the bushes to get a closer look. He stayed concealed within the bush as he watched a pidgey peck berries off the tree and into the hands of a pokemon he couldn't quite remember off the top of his head.
A.. penguin of some kind?
He decided to sit in the bush and wait for them to leave before taking a few for himself. He made an attempt to stay still and quiet, but his right leg grazed a hidden thorn and he had to stifle any exclamation. Despite his best efforts, the penguin had been alerted through the rustling noise he had made.
"Someone there?" The penguin called out. "I am the almighty Prinplup of the four seas, I will tear you limb from limb!"
"Oh really, Peckou?" The pidgey said, giving the prinplup a side eye. "You literally ran from a Kakuna yesterday because you're scared of bugs-"
"They're gross, leave me alone!" Peckou angrily shouted back.
It soon became clear that the duo was going to pick the tree clean if Alex didn't do something sooner rather than later. He pushed himself out of the bushes and walked towards them as they began to pick the last of the berries, however they didn't seem particularly happy about company.
"Wait, someone's actually here?" Peckou asked the pidgey. "Jupi, can you see who it is from there?"
"Yeah…" The pidgey replied. "It looks like a Riolu."
"A Riolu?!" Peckou lurched back, dropping a few of the berries in the process. "We have to tell the guild!"
Alex pushed through the remaining bushes to find the duo once picking berries had begun to flee, leaving a sizable stash of them behind on the ground. He felt a little offended by their sudden departure and regretted scaring them away, as he desperately needed to find civilization again- whatever it meant in this new place.
He picked up one of the cleaner-looking fruits and brushed it off a little more before taking a bite. His mouth tingled at the bitter taste of the berry, but his hunger overpowered and forced him to scarf it down anyways. Only after did he eat the fruit did he consider whether or not it was even safe to eat.
Well, if it isn't, at least there's pokemon out here that might help.
He figured eating another mystery fruit would only push his luck further, and decided to carry one and eat it later if it had no ill effects on his health.
As he walked on, the trail began to widen and the wind picked up, and before long, the trail split in two. Alex didn't notice it at first, but as he began to make his decision, he saw a wooden sign designating the two paths.
Left: Pryl MD, L3; Right: The Guild of Avalan
Alex rolled his eyes.
Guilds? What is this, the medieval times?
He shrugged and began towards the right, but a sharp contrast of white on brown caught his eye. He reached down to pick up a piece of paper that had seemingly fallen down from the gust of wind just minutes ago and read it.
Avalan is now recruiting amateur explorers!
That's as far as he could read before he grumbled in frustration and fed the paper to the ever hungry wind.
Really? They have ads in the medieval times?
Having no idea what the left meant, he opted to go right.
If it really is medieval times, nobody would be carrying pokeballs, right?
His logic was sound, but he didn't want to test his luck. He thought about what he would do if he did encounter one, and figured he might as well practice running in case he had to sometime soon. He gave it a quick go but immediately regretted it when he faceplanted into the dirt, dropping and dirtying his fruit in the process.
Alright, no more running for now.
He made the executive decision to leave it behind, especially now that he had the promise of finding civilization soon. As he walked on, the sun began to bear down on his skin, and the heat soon gave him an excuse to veer off the trail into shade.
It's like 90 degrees, I really have to find this guild soon and get in some shelter.
Of course, there was probably no air conditioning, but he was hopeful nonetheless. He spent a little longer in the shade, getting comfortable and putting his back against the tree he had sought refuge under, when a shrill scream pierced the otherwise calm woods and jolted him to his feet.
Okay, maybe it's not a good idea to sit around here after all.
He pushed through the few bushes blocking his way back to the trail and jogged down the trail, hoping to evade whatever elicited the cry for help. He ran for about 30 seconds before an eevee came running out of the forest and onto the trail, nearly hitting him head on in a panic.
Alex lurched backwards to avoid the careless animal. "Whoa, watch out-"
"I'm sorry!" The eevee cried out in response. "Please help me, that Makuhita is trying to steal my pendant!"
He turned around to see a massive yellow marshmallow man clambering through the foliage, and the eevee grew more anxious.
Don't be a hero, you don't even remember where or who you are-
The makuhita was faster than Alex had anticipated, and before he could react, he received a punch to the gut, winding him and knocking him over. The attacker turned their focus to the eevee, but Alex was able to recover quickly.
"Give it back!" The eevee shouted as the makuhita ripped it off of her neck. "Our guild is going to get you!"
"Oh yeah?" The makuhita chuckled. "Your guild is corrupt and poor, they won't do a thing-"
Alex rammed into the makuhita from the side, causing him to topple over and lose the pendant. The makuhita tried to throw a punch from the ground, but Alex deflected it with his left arm before swinging his right arm into his face with such force that it kicked up dust around the impact. Once the dust settled, the makuhita was revealed to be out cold.
Did I just do that?
"Oh, thank you!" The eevee exclaimed as she picked her pendant off from the ground and pawed the dust off. "I've never seen a pokemon like you before, what are you?"
"I'm a Riolu, I think…" Alex replied. "Hey, can you show me the way to the guild? That's where I'm headed."
"Sure!"
The eevee took off back the way she had come from. Alex tried to pursue, but the eevee was much more nimble amongst the dense forest environment.
"Wow, you Riolus are slow!" The eevee taunted.
Alex rolled his eyes. "I have to push away foliage, you're half my height."
"And twice your width. Hurry, I can't be late for lunch!"
Late for lunch? That's your biggest worry? Like you didn't just get mugged a minute ago?
The eevee eventually slowed her pace to match Alex's. The heat wasn't quite as intense under the tree shade, but it was still unpleasant enough to greatly irritate the journey, especially since he couldn't sweat through the fur he had acquired.
The short trek through the forest suddenly ended to reveal an expanse of masonry buildings with the occasional concrete mixed in. The eevee led him through a narrow sub-trail in the forest which led to a small brick outbuilding adjacent to a much bigger, taller building similar to an apartment building or a hotel. Surrounding it stood a pikachu and an abra, whom the eevee seemed to be friends with.
"Marna!" The pikachu called out to the eevee. "Where were you, we've been worried sick-"
The pikachu stopped abruptly after seeing Alex and rushed to wake up the abra. Marna ran over to the pikachu, but when Alex followed her, the pikachu's cheeks began to spark.
"Stay away, Riolu!" The pikachu demanded. "Marna, what are you doing, you've brought home a thief!"
A thief? Is he talking to me?
"Sparz, quit it!" Marna slapped the pikachu with her tail, causing the cheek sparks to cease. "I got lost and someone tried to rob my pendant, but this Riolu saved me-"
"Shut up!" Sparz retorted while facing Alex in a striking pose. "You are so naïve, he just followed you here to steal more!"
The pikachu lunged at Alex with lightning fast precision, sending him flying to the floor. Unlike his battle with the makuhita, the pikachu was much quicker and precise than he was, and before he was able to counterattack, the pikachu had begun charging a thunderbolt attack directed straight at him.
Keep rolling, deflect the bolt into the ground.
He rolled around in a circle in an effort to dodge the attack, but after 15 seconds of aimlessly dirtying himself, nothing happened. He cautiously lifted his head off the floor just enough to see the abra from before had teleported the pikachu away and began scolding him.
"Zav, if you teleport me away one more time I'm going to thundershock you instead!" Sparz scolded the abra. "Let me finish what I started."
"If you do that, you're no better than the evildoers you claim to hate so much." Zav calmly replied. "There's no evidence he did anything wrong, except be a Riolu. Do you wish to dissuade yet another pokemon from acting in good faith?"
"Well now I have electric energy built up and no one to shock." Sparz huffed. "Maybe I should just shock you anyways."
"Jirachi would sooner stop by than you hit that on me."
Alex couldn't help chuckle at that.
"One more smile and I'll electrocute that off your face." Sparz lashed at Alex. "I already almost did once before!"
Sparz scampered off towards the main building. Alex searched for the abra to thank him, but jumped when he realized he had teleported right behind him.
"I'm sorry for my friend's actions. What is your name?" Zav asked.
"Alex." He replied.
"You should know your kind are disallowed from here." Zav frowned, seemingly disappointed. "Lucario, and Riolu by proxy, are subject to harsh stereotypes, and are seen as evil thieves and bad luck. I'm sure you're the exception to that stereotype, but the townspeople won't feel the same way; especially the guildmaster. He has his own uniquely strong dislike for your kind, and no one could blame him after hearing his story."
"Well, to tell you the truth, I woke up just up the trail." Alex admitted. "I don't remember who I am, besides my name, nor where I live or any of my relatives. I have nowhere to stay, and I was hoping I could begin here."
"I would begin with telling them you are here to join an exploration team, even if you don't want to. That's your best shot of being welcomed here; they're in desperate need of explorers and they may be willing to overlook your species to utilize your power."
"Power?" Alex scoffed. "I couldn't even hit that pikachu-"
"If Riolu were weak, they wouldn't be feared. " Zav interrupted. "And it's not raw physical prowess that determines that conclusion, though your species is known to boast far above average of it. It's your auric manipulation in conjunction with that, that allows you to defeat even the most legendary pokemon."
"Over here!" Sparz shouted from a distance.
The eevee and pikachu had returned, except now followed by three bigger pokemon: a raichu, a breloom, and a flareon. The breloom led them towards Alex, but the bickering wasn't isolated to just the eevee and the pikachu anymore, but seemingly the flareon and the raichu as well.
"Will you PLEASE shut up for a moment while I get to the bottom of this?" The breloom boomed, finally silencing them.
The breloom approached Alex, stopping within just a few feet of him wearing a stern look.
"What happened, and why are you here, Riolu?" The breloom asked.
"My name is Alex." He replied. "I woke up a few miles away, I don't know how I got here, where I live, or even who I am besides my name. I was hoping to find refuge in this… guild-"
Oh yeah, Zav told me to say I came to join an exploration team.
"…and to join an exploration team?"
The breloom looked skeptical, but accepted the explanation.
"Alright, come with me."
The breloom led him down back through the trail, this time alone, as the other pokemon accompanying the breloom stayed near the outhouse. They passed the main building and a few others before arriving at a worn-down brick building. The lack of windows made it feel ominous, but the breloom ushered him inside regardless. The breloom gestured for him to sit on a nearby chair and walked around a corner before opening and closing a door.
He didn't seem too thrilled about me… what will I do if I'm denied residency here? Where should I even go?
Alex sat in wait for several minutes, unsure of whether or not to do anything besides sit. He heard footsteps and doors opening and closing ever so often, but tried not to think about the worst case scenario for the time being.
Is this whole place run by pokemon? Are there even any humans at all?
He noticed the building was, infact, air conditioned, which he did not expect would've been an invention made in this time period.
I guess electric type pokemon like that pikachu could power things; wait, is this even the medieval times? Or am I just on a completely different planet?
He could verify neither or, so he just left it for now. Shortly thereafter, the breloom re-entered the room holding a clipboard.
"Okay…" The breloom said, flicking through some papers in his hands. "I've got some good news and bad news. Good news is, the town officials voted five to four in favor of keeping you here. Bad news is, there's quite a few conditions attached."
The breloom handed Alex a piece of paper as he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh yeah, my name is Sleer. I'm the deputy marshal in this guild, so if you have a problem my office is three buildings down, to your left. We're quite swamped with issues at the moment, so please consider whether or not it's urgent before stopping by."
"Will do, thank you."
Sleer waved him out of the building, but Alex had no clue what to do next.
"Where should I go?"
"Read the paper, it tells you everything you'll need."
Sleer shut the door as Alex flipped over the hand-written paper and began to read it.
Conditions for residency:
1) You must join the Avalan explorers as a novice recruit and stay for your time in this guild.
2) You must stay within the confines of the guild unless given permission to do otherwise.
3) You must listen to any instructions given by guild officials, no exceptions.
4) You must leave the guild immediately upon evolving into a Lucario.
"Well, at least they gave me residency…" Alex muttered to himself.
He couldn't stop thinking about the fourth clause. He had no clue how close he was to evolving into a Lucario, it could be tomorrow for all he knew. He began to aimlessly wander around the guild, but his better judgement kicked in and he decided to instead read the rest like the breloom had instructed. He noticed a piece of paper seemingly glued onto the one where his conditions were written and began to read it.
Welcome to the Avalan guild explorers division! As a novice, you will only learn the basics and do the easier mystery dungeons, but as you rank up you will be able to do harder mystery dungeons and crimestopper tasks! To begin your training and get with an explorer team, talk to Lonver the Espurr in the brick building immediately right of the guild tavern. Good luck, explorer!
Alex looked up and immediately recognized the guild tavern by the giant obvious sign that read "tavern". The sun beat down on him even harder than before as he walked to the center described on the note, and the inside provided little refuge from the overbearing heat.
The old door creaked open to an espurr and a braixen speaking amongst each other. The espurr glanced over their shoulder after he entered and seemingly decided to cut the conversation short after it spotted him.
"I haven't seen you here before." The espurr said. "Are you a part of the guild?"
"I just got residency," Alex replied, "I was told my condition for staying in the guild was to join an exploration team, so, here I am."
The espurr beckoned the braixen over, who had been eying Alex with a deep glare. "This fella's name is Frasy, she's the team leader of one of our novice divisions. You'll be joining her squad."
The braixen grumbled. "You're going to put this Riolu on my squad, Mylux?"
"Indeed." Mylux replied. "Don't forget your promise: any pokemon, regardless of size, species or power."
Frasy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, under the impression the guild wouldn't let in a Riolu… fine."
She led Alex down the hall and down a flight of stairs before turning right and opening a door labelled "Novice 3". Inside there were five beds with two currently occupied, one by a clefable and the other a pidgeotto. Each bed was different, with the pidgeotto's being more akin to a round dog bed and the clefable using just a worn-down mattress, while the braixen had a fully furnished bed. There was one other mattress and one other bed similar to the pidgeotto's, except smaller.
"'Sup, Frasy?" The pidgeotto called out. "That better not be our fifth-"
"It is." Frasy replied with a hint of irritation. "I don't even know why he was allowed in the guild, but here we are."
"C'mon guys, relax!" The clefable exclaimed. "He's a fighting type, which is what we requested as our fifth, which means we have a counter to ice, rock, steel-"
"If he decides to fight the enemies and not us." The pidgeotto clapped back before looking towards Alex. "You try anything, and I mean anything, I'll send you flying into orbit."
"Oh, he won't." Frasy grinned before twirling her stick in the air. "Look, Riolu, whatever your name is-"
"Alex."
"Okay, Alex, I'm the team leader here. You may be powerful and able to manipulate aura, but you are not team leader, and you are not calling the shots. You may be used to that, but not here."
Alex nodded.
I'm not here by choice, I'm not going to any more than I have to.
Right as Alex settled on his mattress, a loud clinging noise echoed through the building, which prompted the squad members to jump out of bed.
"Let's go, dinnertime!" The clefable shouted.
Alex was the last one out of the room, and trailed behind them as all the other rooms around him emptied out as well. He got a lot of weird and suspicious looks, which made him extremely uncomfortable.
"Riolu, which poor sucker did you bribe to be let in?" Someone from within the crowd behind him said.
Alex immediately turned around to find the culprit, but besides the snickering from within the crowd, no one fessed up. Alex's group leader kept her head down, trying to disassociate from him. Following the mass of pokemon, Alex eventually was led to the mess hall where he followed his group leader to their designated seating.
"Where's the food?" Frasy grumbled.
"There's one chef for thirty pokemon." Mylux replied from behind, startling the braixen. "It'll be ready in a few minutes. Oh, and be ready for your first day of training tomorrow now that your team is full."
Frasy rolled her eyes and sat down with Alex. He knew she was actively trying to avoid him, and he figured he'd aid in that by moving a few seats down.
"Fra-sy!" A voice snickered from behind her. "You let a Riolu on your squad?"
Frasy kept staring off, not moving a muscle. "Wasn't my choice, Mylux forced it."
"Ooh!" Alex turned around to investigate the voice, and realized it was coming from a wartortle. "Better write your obituary now while you're still alive-"
"Why don't you shut up before I faint you and tie your lips together?" Frasy lashed back, still unmoving.
The wartortle opened his mouth to speak more but decided against it as the espurr came back with their food.
"Where's the rest of your team?" The espurr questioned Frasy.
"I dunno?" Frasy shrugged. "I can only control them so much, they should maybe use their brains for once."
Alex stared at the food, trying to figure out what it is.
Some kind of sandwich but with toasted bread, yellow "jam", cabbage and no meat?
Alex took a bite and found it surprisingly likeable.
What do you know, mystery jam isn't all that bad.
He managed to wolf it all down before the much bigger braixen, before unseating himself and trying to figure out what to do next. He wandered around the cafeteria for a little while looking for the clefable who had defended him earlier, but couldn't find him and decided to just go back to his squad's room. He stepped outside of the cafeteria to find the clefable and the pikachu who attacked him earlier cornered by a grovyle and a houndour as well as the wartortle from earlier.
"You've got the wrong idea!" The pikachu cried out. "I don't want the Riolu in my squad either, he's evil!"
"But you refuse to kick him out." The wartortle replied with a smirk. "And I don't want to have to do it myself. You drive him out of this guild, and we won't have a problem. Capiche?"
The clefable rolled his eyes. "Who says capiche anymore-"
The wartortle spat a torrent of water at the clefable. Alex decided that he'd watched enough and pushed aside the other two pokemon before launching a punch in the wartortle's face, sending him flying to the ground. The houndour quickly pounced in retaliation, and Alex and the houndour began to wrestle on the ground.
"Are you trying to make this easy?" The wartortle grunted out while sitting up. "Now we have a perfectly valid reason to get you kicked out of the guild."
Alex threw the houndour off of him, and it scampered away along with the wartortle and the grovyle.
"You alright?" Sparz asked Alex as he checked himself for any scratches.
"Since when did you care?"
He kept his head down as he slowly walked back to the empty squad room. He opened the door and flopped on his mattress, stressed out of his mind.
Forcing me to join an exploration team that nobody wants me in… what a great idea.
The door opened after a few minutes, and Sparz and the clefable both walked in, entranced within their own conversation; however the presence of Alex seemed to shatter it.
"Oh, hi Riolu", Sparz stared at him curiously, "what's your name again?"
The clefable rolled his eyes. "I said to treat him with a clean slate, not to act like you've never seen him before."
"Alex," He said before pointing towards the clefable, "I still don't know what your name is though."
"Oh, me? I'm Asifour."
Sparz scampered over to Alex's bed, stopping just short of him. "Asifour told me to apologize for the way I treated you so that we could be a coherent squad. I agreed, so, I'm sorry for the way I treated you."
Alex nodded. "It's fine, but, if that wartortle gets me kicked out-"
"Oh, don't worry." The clefable chuckled. "The most he can do is ask his dad to recommend you for guild expulsion, which would surely be vetoed if you were already accepted into the guild. Worst comes to worst, it's a said vs said scenario, and my mother is part of the guild nine."
At least someone is on my side, here.
"Well, now that's settled…" Sparz made a break for the door. "Why don't we go train some moves?"
The intense beauty of the starry night sent shivers down Alex's spine. The three moons aligned perfectly with each other, and although he swore there was only one, he didn't trust his own memory enough to call it out.
He was a little disappointed in the training session, especially because he couldn't figure out how to use any of his moves, and had to resort to basic hand to hand combat. The amount of electricity that coursed through his body was more than he thought he'd ever feel in a lifetime, but Sparz promised to teach him the basics once they were done with their first day of training.
They eventually made it back to the dormitory to find Frasy, and the pidgeotto- which Sparz had informed Alex that her name was Calyn- playing a game of cards.
"You trained all day?" Frasy said, shaking her head. "You all take this way too seriously."
"Or maybe you don't take this seriously enough!" Sparz replied. "We're supposed to be looting dungeons and helping people, not versing each other in cards-"
"And so what if I play cards? I beat you four to one in scrimmages, I don't need to train."
Sparz sighed. "Alright, just finish your game so we can get some sleep, we have to wake up early tomorrow."
"Fine." Frasy said before forfeiting the game and turning off the lights. "I'm tired as well, good night."
Alex turned over to try and get some sleep himself. He was not afforded a blanket or a pillow, so he tossed and turned for a little bit trying to find a comfortable spot, before finally settling on one. He tried to turn his mind off, but one question loomed in the background, no matter how many times he tried to push it away.
Who am I?