It's a Pokemon world - Coming in Hot
"Speech"
'Thought'
A/N: As a warning possible dark aspects depending on your personal tolerance, no trauma or character death, its more attempted traumatic experiences. But I'm not giving anything away to avoid spoilers before the chapter.
Area unknown
"Oh-no... what?" A male voice sounded out.
It came from an orange-furred and black-striped quadrupedal creature that slowly blinked their gray eyes open, which was quickly followed with them jumping to their paws in panic at their surroundings, and revealing a cream-colored belly that matched a thick fluffy tail in color.
It was a Growlithe, currently looking himself over in shock.
"Ok, don't freak out, calm down, deep breaths," Said Growlithe, who was attempting to prevent his own mental breakdown, did exactly that, taking deep measured breaths in an effort to calm himself.
"AHH, FIRE!" Unfortunately, deep breaths with a creature that breathes flame, not a good idea.
"Ahhh, stop! Drop! Roll!" The now panicking fire-type fell to the floor, engulfed in flames.
This had the unfortunate side effect of setting fire to the grass the puppy-like Pokemon had woken up on.
"Why fire!? Why is fire happening!?" If this poor creature took but a moment to think, it would have realized that it wasn't in any pain.
"Why god, why!?" As it is, this may take a while.
"AHHHH!"
20 minutes later.
Growlithe panted and finally dropped to the now cindered floor, still aflame, it was an... odd sight.
"Ok, so, not dead yet... dream? No, too real. Calm down, ignore the fire, it's not hurting you... somehow," The orange-furred pup finally began to calm, talking himself down.
Though whether that was because of exhaustion or because he had realized he wasn't currently in danger of burning to death is up in the air, probably both.
"Ok, so, Pokemon, Growlithe, fire type, what is going on?" Growlithe stumbled back onto his paws, shaking his head.
On the bright side, in his panic he had instinctively learned to run, and was too mentally drained at current to think about the intricacy of suddenly going from biped to quadruped.
The new Growlithe felt a chill as the flames around him, HIS flames he finally realized, extinguished, "Finally," He sighed in relief.
"Right, ok," He reassured himself, taking in his surroundings.
He was in a forest, a very green, very healthy forest, aside from the burnt clearing he was currently standing in at any rate.
The Growlithe flinched slightly, 'Well, that could have been bad, a forest fire's the last thing I want to start.'
"Focus," He admonished himself out loud, standing and walking toward the lush trees away from the scorched earth he had made.
Right now, he wanted to know what was going on, and unfortunately, he had a good idea of what that was.
'I'm likely in another world, the question is, which? Considering I'm a Pokemon, that narrows it down,' On the one hand... err paw, he could be in the main series, and on the other, he could be in the Mystery Dungeon spin-off. One or the other, 'coz this sure as heck wasn't Pokemon pinball.
'And why AM I a Pokemon?' He froze at the thought, 'Oh no, I am NOT taking orders from a ten-year-old kid, least of all Ash Ketchum. I'm not fighting Lugia, or Entei, or Groudon and Kyogre, or goodness knows what else.'
An involuntary whine escaped his maw, 'This had better be the Mystery Dungeon universe.'
He sighed, hoping wouldn't help, he needed information, he needed to know where he was, and how he'd gotten here, everything was... fuzzy.
The last thing he remembered was going to sleep, as a human, and then this.
He shook his head again, 'Questions for later, survive now.'
It was strange that nothing had come to see what was going on, he hadn't exactly been quiet for the past, err... who knows how long.
'Maybe I could climb a tree for a better view?' He looked at his paws, 'Scratch that, I'm not climbing a tree anytime soon, so I'd best pick a direction.'
"Eenie miney- Ah, screw it," He had already been moving in one direction, best to trust your instincts in times such as this, maybe, probably.
The forest was eerily quiet, save for the wind and rustling foliage, but no matter which world he'd ended up in, there should still be other Pokemon around.
Right?
"This better not be one of those Pokemon in another world things, or I'm gonna pitch a fit," He grumbled to himself, continuing on his chosen path.
Unknown Forest
Hours later, without spotting a single other creature, the lone Growlithe now stood in front of a small brook.
It was maybe a foot and a half in width, and only an inch or two deep, but it was more than enough to show his reflection clearly.
It was shocking to see a Growlithe's face instead of a human one, and honestly, he just took the time to stare, processing his new form.
A few minutes later, after checking over his new form in the water's reflection, he quickly snapped back to his new reality. He didn't have a way to store any water, he realized, and this was a clean water source, so it was now or never, "Ok, I got this."
He then proceeded to nearly drown himself by sticking his entire muzzle into the water, "Blak, hack, dammit, how do cats and dogs do this?"
He hissed slightly as he backed away from the water, the cool water stinging his nose and snout, "Ahhh, right fire type, good to know. Dammit, what kind of God makes a creature weak to water, NEED water, looking at you Arceus."
He sighed and lowered his head once more, this time sticking his tongue out toward the water first, and successfully began to lap up water as instinct took over.
"Finally," He sighed happily, having quenched his thirst, pleased that at least that hadn't stung.
He automatically wiped his maw with the back of his paw, as he would have as a human, the back of his paw began to sting as the water made contact.
He ignored the stinging sensation.
'If I'm stuck in this forest much longer, I'll need some food, and shelter too,' And there lay the problem. While he was a Growlithe now, he really didn't like the thought of either tearing a creature apart with his new fangs or burning something to death.
That's assuming he could even figure out how to use his newly acquired flames, or even hunt something at all, and let's not forget that it might be another sapient creature, like himself.
'Yeah, not liking that idea,' He grimaced at the thought.
Well, Growlithe's are canines, so contrary to popular belief, that would make him an omnivore if his new body was anything like an actual dog.
He could work with that, fruit and veg were easy, and Pokemon in the Mystery Dungeon games practically subsisted off of berries and apples without suffering malnutrition, hopefully that applies here.
'I could smell the water easily enough, so fruit should be doable,' He nodded to himself. Still, he didn't feel any hunger at the moment and had more pressing issues to deal with in the meantime.
Namely, finding a town of some sort, there was no way he could build a shelter at present.
That, and as he had just discovered, water stung. Not badly, but it was like getting a tiny, mild static shock. It didn't hurt per se, only really surprising him. But still, that had only been a bit of water on his muzzle, he didn't want to know what would happen if it rained.
The fire puppy sighed again, then used his new hind legs, to jump the small brook, "Nailed it."
He smiled slightly, it was the small things that would keep him sane right now... you know, assuming he hadn't already gone off the deep end.
His eye twitched at the thought, 'Well at least I'm still sane enough to know this is insane.'
Nearly an hour later, and the poor human-turned Growlithe was starting to let his worries catch back up with him.
'Don't think about it, focus on survival,' He paused to smell the air and listen to his surroundings, as he had taken to doing every few minutes now.
To be fair, it was a good way to become accustomed to his new body, but at current he was simply trying to distract himself from, well, everything.
It was strange though, he couldn't hear or smell anything resembling another creature or Pokemon, granted he had no idea what another Pokemon would smell like, still points for trying.
"This is ridiculous, I know I'm smaller now, but I've covered a lot of ground, I should have found... something," Yeah, keep talking to yourself that's a good indication of sanity.
He groaned loudly, 'I know forests can theoretically take days or even weeks to traverse, but knowing and experiencing are two different things. There's something up with this forest though, it's to... quiet.'
Stopping to smell and listen again, he caught something, something on the wind, it was faint, but different to his surroundings.
A possible lead? Answers as to where he was or maybe how and why he was here?
Or maybe it was nothing.
Regardless, he immediately bolted toward the anomaly out of desperation because let's be honest , if it was something, it's likely to be a Human or Pokemon, considering his situation. If it's a Human he'll know which world he's in, if it's another Pokemon, he could hopefully get some answers. Even if it wasn't likely to be all of them, it would be something.
Either way, it couldn't be worse than wandering alone and lost in this massive forest, right?
As small as he was in his current form, 4 legs were proving to be better than 2 in this case. The puppy Pokemon going faster than any Human would be capable of, speeding through the forest floor even at a jog.
'Stronger, faster, more powerful, this is amazing. Never mind the fact that I can breathe fire now,' The human-turned Pokemon marveled internally at his new body as he continued.
"Ha-ha!" He grinned at the ease that he moved, distracted from his lingering thoughts.
After a good ten minutes of running, however, the Growlithe came to a screeching halt, "Gaahh, oh, what is that smell?"
He lowered his head and placed his paws onto his snout, 'It smells like rancid milk.'
As the Growlithe gagged and sputtered, his new brain supplied the information he needed, the scent was known, fear.
His fur stood on end and his body reacted to the fear in the air appropriately, with a flood of adrenaline, "HELLO, is someone there!?"
His call went unanswered as another smell came in on the breeze, one he recognized, one he PERSONALLY recognized from earlier today, fire.
It was close, taking a second to judge the direction he was off, once more on the move.
"Help," A distant voice reached his new ears as he closed the distance.
That was a kid's voice, a child was in danger.
That thought alone spurred him forward faster than anything else.
Racing through foliage and across dirt, he zeroed in on the commotion that stood out from the sounds of the forest.
As the forest became less clustered and trees began to grow further apart, he saw movement.
There in the distance, but closing, that wasn't a child... it was a Mareep?
Yes a Mareep, an actual Pokemon... well, disregarding his current form.
"HELP!" The young sheep-looking Pokemon cried in a child's voice as it ran, it was the same voice that had led him here, he realized.
Surprised at the situation he found himself in, the Growlithe came to a stop, almost hitting a tree, as he stared. He'd expected talking Pokemon, but it was still surreal to experience.
The Mareep was covered in thick creamy-colored wool, with a tuft going over its head. Its head and feet were all blue in color, and it had big black eyes, with a black and yellow striped cone-shaped horns on either side of its head followed with a tail in the same color that stuck up with a yellow orb at the end.
The electric sheep was panting, slowing down, and missing patches of its wool.
The cause of its distress was easy to see, as two Houndour chased it down, with said missing wool in their maw.
They were a short black furred canine Pokémon, with a red underbelly and muzzle. White band ridges wrapped around the ankle of each paw, with two rib-like ridges from its back, and a skull-like plate on its head.
The Growlithe remained hidden from sight, courtesy of the tree he'd almost hit, as he observed the rapidly approaching Pokemon, 'Should I do something? It wasn't Human and this might be normal here depending on the world...'
Two fire/dark types with hunting experience vs a lone fire type that doesn't know how to fight in their current form, isn't a good match-up.
"Ahhh!" The Pokemon fell, and a Houndour went for the kill.
He hesitated, 'It was just animals being animals, wasn't it? But it wasn't an animal, was it? Animals don't talk.'
"MUMMY!" The CHILD begged.
And any hesitation died an ugly death.
"BACK OFF MUTT!" The Growlithe's war cry could use some work, but it got the point across. He accelerated from nothing to nearly 30mph in a second, slamming head-first into the pouncing Doberman knockoff.
His new body proved its strength as the other Pokemon hit a nearby tree hard enough to splinter it.
Unfortunately, it too was a Pokemon and landed on its feet with a wince, as its partner hesitated at the new factor.
The Growlithe growled, long and deep, stood protectively in front of the child.
Human or not, he couldn't, wouldn't watch a child die.
"Well, I'm waiting," The striped puppy class Pokemon's voice was hard, and said with far more confidence than he felt.
They snarled, and one of them spoke up in a female voice, "This is our territory Growlithe, but I'll tell you what, leave now, and we'll wait until we're done eating to tell Houndoom."
The one he'd, tackled? Headbutted? Wrinkled its snout, "Or we could have one for each of us."
That one had a deeper male voice.
"Careful idiot, this one's a fighter," The female snapped at her packmate.
He growled but relented.
The Mareep whimpered fearfully.
Fortunately for the youngling, Growlithe's are stubborn and protective, and it showed even if he had been Human once, maybe because of who he had been as a Human.
"How about you leave, and I don't break you," He snarled back with a righteous fury, subconsciously baring his teeth.
And though the skull-accented Pokemon wouldn't admit it, the fact there was a fighter here that wouldn't be cowed, more so would even threaten them, intimidated them.
Though they quickly shook it off, that image of the Growlithe snarling at them would remain in the back of their heads for this fight.
"Well, that's that," The female laughed as the male grinned but hesitated just a second before he pounced, fangs first.
The Growlithe wasn't dumb enough to stay static and was given enough time to move to the side, as the Pokemon had telegraphed its pounce.
Now both Pokemon were in front of him, and he wouldn't need to guard his back.
Putting old martial arts lessons from his past to use, and adapting them as well as he could to this body, he lashed out with a paw like punch, like a human would, rather than a bite.
This had the added effect of surprising the Houndour long enough for the pawed punch to connect to his face. As Growlithe followed through with the momentum, he rotated on one of his front paw's, turning it into a spinning back kick which momentarily brought the fire puppy to his full height on his rear paws. He followed through and brought his full weight down through his front paws, right onto the male Houndour's back.
It whined in pain when it hit the ground, as the female charged in, "Die!"
Growlithe held his paws out reflexively as she struck at him, which kept her teeth from his flesh. But no longer human, he couldn't remain balanced and fell backward. As he fell, he raised his paws up, slamming the female into the dirt muzzle first over his shoulder, then bled the momentum into a roll over her, which put both Houndour in front of him once again.
Pokemon instinct had met human knowledge.
And while he may not have realized it, he had performed his first Pokemon moves, a sloppy and false form of Close Combat, followed by Reversal. Both moves that a Growlithe can learn, but in this case, they were brought on by human fighting knowledge.
The male was back up but hurt, his leg twitching, while the female scrambled back in far better condition.
'They might have experience hunting but not fighting, they don't have the training, I CAN do this,' The Growlithe's thoughts bolstered him as he growled at them again, instinctively.
"I told you," The female barked at the male.
Growlithe hesitated, 'The child's still behind me, and moving could open a path for these mutts.'
"Had enough?" The orange and black striped puppy class Pokemon mocked them, hoping to look stronger and make them reconsider.
"YOU!" The male barked and charged, which wasn't the intended effect, but it had split them up.
"Stop," The obviously more experienced female yelled after him, to no avail.
It threw itself low this time with a Bite, and Growlithe responded with a pawed uppercut under the male's open jaw, slamming it closed and lifting him. This was followed with his second paw to the enemy's gut and finally bringing his first paw back down onto his head.
Slam, crack.
And as the male hit the ground, he stayed down this time.
Thud.
"Ah," Growlithe, so focused on the aggressive male, had been tackled down again by the female, who now had him pinned on his back.
Crunch
"Hmmmmm!" His scream was muffled and more like a growl. Her Bite attack slammed down over his own maw, which he'd barely gotten down enough to protect his neck.
Even after inadvertently Intimidating his two foes, two Close Combats, even false ones, had the adverse effect of lowering his defense somewhat. Needless to say, her STAB dark type Bite attack had HURT.
As she ripped at his muzzle with her glowing fangs, he brought his back paws together between their stomachs, and slammed them both into her belly, the Double Kick launching her off of him.
Though, it also ripped flesh from bone.
He bit back his scream, instead focusing on the fight, 'You lose, you both die,' He rolled off of his back.
'I nearly had him, but maybe?' The Female hound watched as the stubborn Growlithe raised back up again, bloody but not even close to done.
"Say, Growlithe, you're pretty strong. I bet you'd do well in the pack. I could get the boss to let in another fire type, we'll even share our meal with you, how does that sound?" She grinned. Yes, she liked this idea, and the boss liked having actual muscle under his control. They were the most powerful pack in the area for a reason, and he had the guts to stand up to them. Even better, she could use him to raise up the ranks herself.
Plus, as a bonus, he was hot. She mentally scolded herself for that pun.
He gave a bloody grin.
Yes.
"I'd say bite me, but you already did that, so get lost," The Growlithe HATED bullies, and was NOT about to start eating a sapient creature.
She growled, "Guess I'll just have to drag you there myself, you'll see, it's what's best for a Mon like you."
'Okay, am I seriously getting the villainous, join me, monolog? Damn that hurts,' The Growlithe's muzzle stung, but he knew it would be worse when the adrenaline wore off.
'This needs to end now. Fire probably won't work, it's why I haven't been trying to use it, never mind that I don't know how to use it. At best, it'll do minimal damage, but having a ranged attack would be really useful right now,' The puppy class Pokemon was running out of options.
He checked on the kid from the corner of his eye, 'Dammit, why hasn't the kid run yet, they're just laying there watching.'
"Don't worry, I'll keep you safe till you can get in good with the boss, I need a new nest warmer after all, you just broke my old one," She grinned, in what his new brain processed as a flirtatious look.
'Wait, WHAT!' The Human mind in the Pokemon balked at the idea. Unfortunately, the new Pokemon part of his brain that did find her rather attractive was at odds with that.
The result was a Growlithe, blue-screened in pure shock, Human mind vs Pokemon instinct.
Growlithe.exe has stopped working.
Please restart.
Then a fireball hit him, knocking the sense back into him, "Gah!"
That did it.
'Okay don't have Flash Fire, good to know, at least it didn't hurt too much,' His thoughts were interrupted as the female hound jumped him before the fire fully cleared.
He grunted as she landed on top of him, yet again, and he was now painfully aware that she was basically straddling him. He put his paw up to stop her attack, which was unfortunate because now she was fighting to disable him.
Crunch.
"Dammit," The tooth grit exclamation was appropriate as she latched onto his paw and pulled, dragging his front half up and toward her, folding him over himself.
Right up until she had cleared his lower half, and his double-kick hit her in the face, ripping her off.
"Ha-ha-ha, I was right, you ARE a fighter," She stumbled back bloody-nosed.
"Sorry lady, I'm not into murders, and you're way too clingy," The Growlithe forced himself up, wincing as his bloody paw hit the ground.
A plan began forming, 'This needs to end, my mobility's shot now,' Thinking of his fire he had an all-or-nothing gambit left.
"Too bad," She launched herself at him again, fangs aglow with energy once more.
The Growlithe raised his bloody paw again, as bait, and she bit down as expected.
"Ahhhh!" He didn't wince back and instead moved forward, raising his damaged paw, with her included, as his jaws launched forward, igniting.
Hey if she can make her teeth glow, he saw no reason he couldn't at least try, and fire was the only thing he had ANY experience with.
Her eyes widened in surprise as his unexpected Fire Fang snapped down on her throat, but not to tear it out. His jaw tightened, cutting off her air supply. Even as she struggled, and her vision turned black, he remained latched onto her neck. Even so, she engraved the image of the focused and bloody, but victorious Growlithe in her mind, as she went limp.
"Oh, finally," Growlithe panted out, as he released her throat, glad she hadn't had Flash Fire herself.
He felt the fire in his maw dissipate as the female hit the ground, 'So glad that worked.'
Turning and limping toward the wide-eyed child, the tired Mon spoke,"You okay, kid?"
"Wow, Mister Growlithe, are you part of a Rescue Team?" The child asked in wonder, marveling at the bloody but victorious Mon in front of him.
"Ah, no, but I couldn't just ignore the... situation, you know," The black striped Pokemon sighed and sat on his haunches, 'Well, that answers the question of what world I'm in. At least the kid wasn't crying.'
Mareep was slightly disappointed at not having met a REAL Rescue Team member, but was still struck with a child like wander at the, what had to be to him, a serious battler.
"That's okay Mister Growlithe I bet you could join any team you wanted!" The child grinned happily, obviously distracted from his situation.
'Doubtful those Houndour weren't very strong and they nearly killed me, or worse in HER case,' He bit back a shudder, and kept THAT to himself.
"Err, sure kid, can you walk?" He visibly checked the child for anything worse than a few burns and missing wool.
"Oh, yes! Umm, can you take me home, Mister Growlithe?" The kid asked nervously looking around, now reminded of the situation he was in.
"Yeah kid, I need somewhere to rest myself, you came from that direction, right?" The Growlithe inclined his head with a wince.
"Yeah!" The boy smiled in relief, now he wouldn't be alone.
The two began exiting the clearing as a thought came to the canines mind, he shot a look at his two downed opponents their chest's still raising, 'I should put them down, I should, but...'
He continued on, escorting the young Mareep out of the forest, he wasn't a murderer, nor an executioner.
And then little Mareep started talking, "Come on Mister I'll show you my house, my sister, and her friend tried making a Rescue Team you know, but they weren't old enough, I'll show you their badge and..."
The Growlithe sighed.
A/N: Okay so this is my third story on the sight, but it is my first time trying my hand at a third person perspective, so I'm hoping it came out well. This is a more traditional story, I guess, compared to my first Pokemon story which involves magic, and has a large learning curve on my part.
I know the story has what many might consider dark themes, AKA the eating of sapient creatures, and the Houndour trying to force the Growlithe to do things. But I'm also trying to avoid going into much detail in the more mature themes to diel it back a little, and this is more to show the limit of how dark I will go, attempted, not succeeding. There will be deaths going forward, but thats more a 'bad guy' thing.
I want this to be light hearted with darker aspects, but I have a dark sence of humor, and have read Berserk as an example, so hopefully I can pull that off.
As a note, any possible future ships/relationships that might occur will be M/F, so you know if that isn't of interest to you, though I'm not sure quite how far I'm willing to go with the main character in that regard. To be clear I do NOT write smut, so no lemons, etc.
The main character is a human mind in a Growlithe's body, wheather thats his body transformed or his mind placed in another body is up in the air, but I'm trying toshow the major differences in the human vs pokemon instinct and mind, and how they can come into conflict. The human mind has no idea how to work or operate this body, but it is already hardwired with pokemon instincts.
As an aside I'm trying to avoid going into detail with his human past, other than some small pieces, to give him more of a blank slate like the games, and because it isn't overly important in this world.
For those not aware Growlithe are mono fire type pokemon.