Alex was alone.
Alone and drifting in darkness. Her eyes were open, but she couldn't see anything besides her own body. Yet even that didn't seem correct.
Her proportions were all wrong, and she didn't have any fur. Her skin was pale, and as she started to take notice, she felt less and less real, as if her body was weightless. She held up a paw to examine it, and found five fingers instead of three. Her head felt wrong too. She reached up to touch her face, and her nose and mouth were short, more flush against her face. Her ears were on the side of her head, and her aura-sensing appendages were absent. She tried to wiggle her tail, but didn't feel anything. She reached back, and sure enough, it was gone.
What's happening to me? she thought.
A wind seemed to blow by her as if she were moving, but she had no sense of direction. It felt like falling, but slowly.
As Alex drifted, some sort of opaque, wavering blue object, much larger than her, and roughly circular, came into view. The surface seemed to shimmer. As it approached, she suddenly felt gravity asserting itself and realized she was falling head-first. She instinctively tried to right herself in mid-air, and slowly touched down on whatever it was.
The object was wet underfoot, as if she was standing in a very shallow puddle, and the surface rippled as she took a few cautious steps. She looked around, trying to find any landmark in the space, but couldn't see anything through the inky blackness besides the platform below her. There appeared to be some kind of pattern under the water, but she couldn't see it clearly.
She should reach a state of minimal consciousness soon.
"Who's there?" asked Alex. She looked around, and held her hands up defensively.
And her heart?
We'll have to monitor her very closely. During her recovery, she should avoid any strenuous physical activity and focus on resting. This coma was unexpected, and as she's been out for several weeks, it will take time for her to rehabilitate.
"Who said that?" she asked again. She shut her eyes and tried reaching out with her aura, but didn't detect anything besides her own.
Suddenly, the wet surface she stood on collapsed beneath her, and she started plummeting through the void.
Once again, the world went black. This time, however, she couldn't see anything at all, not even herself. She felt something soft around her, as if she were laying in a bed. Her body still felt wrong though.
"What…" she tried, but her voice seemed ragged, and her throat burned. Something was blocking her mouth and stopping her from closing, but she couldn't tell what. Everything was too hazy.
"Hh, eiyho," came a gentle voice from her left. Alex felt a hand grasp hers gently. " hre lfg eoa owenyiu?"
What's going on? Where am I? She kept trying to make sense of the nothing she was surrounded by. And why can't I see clearly? She didn't feel anything on her face that might be covering her eyes. She knew they were open, but couldn't make sense of what she was "seeing." Everything was a blur. Less dark, but still difficult.
Defaulting to her usual solution in dark dungeons, she tried reaching out with her aura. The room lit up in front of her, and she finally got a grasp of her surroundings, as difficult to perceive compared to her eyes, as usual, but better than nothing.
Alex appeared to be laying in a bed with railings on the side. She was in a room with a counter top on the far end, and a window to her right. Something flat was mounted to the wall ahead of her, almost like a large picture frame, but it didn't seem like anything was in it.
Someone stood over her to her left, and she could see they were whoever held her hand. At the foot of the bed was another, and to her right, doing something with their hands in front of a machine, was another.
She scanned around the room, trying to rotate her head, but finding even that task surprisingly difficult. Everything felt heavy, and she could barely squeeze the hand holding hers. One thing was certain, however.
She didn't recognize any of the auras around her. As she tried extending her reach further, she realized she was on an upper floor somewhere. She could pick up more beings moving around above and beneath her.
A wave of exhaustion crashed over her out of nowhere, and she lost her focus on the aura. Alex tried to worry. She tried to concentrate and figure out what was happening, but every time she tried to pay attention to her senses, she felt like she would fall asleep.
Maybe that's what this is, she thought. Maybe this is just another strange dream, and if I go back to sleep, I'll wake up in my bed next to Splash. Something about that thought gave her strength, and helped her focus.
There were more unintelligible noises from around. It sounded like people speaking, and every now and again, she would catch a word she recognized.
"Meh ysa not be awake alu. Oy'tc lrl escp wnieatemr tests and wtu elo kyno. Fo hta, ssis ir normal foe eicmvoo nfraomrren sgro e coma."
Not awake? Coma? Is that what happened to me during our expedition? Was I hurt? Holding onto consciousness, she tried to focus more on the sounds she was hearing. They didn't sound like the pokemon she knew, yet there was definitely a pattern to them. Some kind of language. As she tried hard to refocus, the easier things rapidly became.
"We'll let you know gyra heafr ih wit condition changes. For wno, dhs luuyoo get some rest yourself."
I need to get their attention, she reasoned. Even if I can't understand them completely, maybe these pokemon know what happened to me. I've got to reach them!
Summoning her strength, she tried to channel her aura into her right hand. Even though it felt like a wailord was holding her down, she managed to rotate her right hand, and force a thumbs-up.
"Ynu oac hear us, Alex?" came the voice of whoever stood to her right. It sounded feminine.
Alex tried to speak again, but couldn't get the words out. She was becoming more aware of whatever was blocking her mouth, but still couldn't talk around it.
"I need to ksa you oo da t few things for me. Can you blink your eyes?"
That made more sense. Alex blinked once. Still blurry.
"Good. Can you squeeze my hand?" She felt something rest in her right hand, and she tried again to channel her aura, managing to grip the figure's hand, just barely.
One by one, the figure asked her to perform simple tasks, or respond to different things, and despite how tiring it was, Alex was able to comply with almost everything. She still couldn't speak, and over what felt like minutes (she would later find days), she started to understand where she was, though memories of those early waking events faded completely.
She was in a hospital, and the first voice she heard was apparently her father, though she didn't recognize it. He had come to visit a few times, but she still couldn't speak to him. The person testing her was a nurse, and eventually, the tube in her throat was removed, and she could breathe on her own.
After about a week, she finally "woke up," and realized she was truly conscious, even somewhat in control. This was also when she finally realized why everything felt so frighteningly alien to her. She wasn't a riolu anymore.
Alex was human again.
It was like a jolt of lightning shot up her spine. Despite the past week being a complete haze in her memory, she was fully aware now. At first, she started to panic.
What? How? Why?!
A beeping sound started getting slightly more frequent from the machine next to her, something she vaguely recalled the nurse telling her was an "EKG," though she didn't remember ever asking, or the rest of the explanation.
Oh, who cares? Something medical, I don't know. She could raise her hands now, and clapped her cheeks. Focus, Alex. Just… breath, and focus. She shut her eyes, steadied her breathing, and extended her aura again. It was definitely harder to channel than before, and her awareness was about as good as when she first woke up as a riolu, but it was enough to check her surroundings.
No one else was in the room with her, and she could make out basic shapes around her. The closer, the clearer. Though she could properly see at this point, the room was usually dark, so aura was still her best bet.
She focused on the rise and fall of her chest with each deep breath, the feeling of the sheets against her arms and legs. She stretched her fingers and flexed her toes, still feeling some numbness, but even that was beginning to ebb as she tried to relax. The sound got slower, and she thought she heard footsteps in the hall outside of her room, but those too faded.
Okay, you don't actually know where you are. Also, you're not a riolu anymore. Also also, you can't really speak yet. You can understand what people say, but can't reply coherently. At least, not verbally. Triple-also, you've barely moved from this bed since you woke up. Probably. Hard to tell.
So think. What can you DO?
First thing's first; I need to keep extending my aura. The longer I can keep it up, the easier it will be later. I just need to relearn it, or how to do it properly as a human. No big deal.
She wasn't quite looking forward to the inevitable headaches that would come with trying to focus on reading aura for so long, but it had to be done.
Second thing; how do I get out of here? I'm not going to find my way home by sitting in bed all day. I need to get up and move, or I'm going to go soft. She had spent too much time training and fighting to let herself waste away.
Maybe I can try standing up. That shouldn't be hard, right? She noticed the rails on her bed were gone, so she tried to move. She could sit up, and though it took some effort, she dragged the sheets away from herself. It took longer to swing her legs over the edge, and before she tried to stand, a thought crossed her mind.
I'm not about to do something incredibly stupid, am I?
Usually, Splash was there to reign her in from literally jumping into a dangerous situation before preparing.
But he isn't here, she thought sadly. Not this time. I have to trust my instincts. I can do this.
Alex felt pumped. She felt hyped. She felt strong! The weakness in her legs? That was definitely something she imagined. She just had to focus.
She took a deep breath, focused on the ground in front of her, then pushed off as hard as she could.
Only to immediately collapse to the ground. She let out a shallow "Oof" as she landed, but managed to stand by bracing herself against the bed. When she felt like she could stand up straight, she took a few shaky steps towards the window. Balancing without her tail was difficult at first, but as she moved, she grew more confident.
The curtains were closed, but she could see light streaming in from around the edges. Reaching one trembling hand up, she took hold and pulled one side back. The sunlight was blinding at first, so she shielded her eyes, then slowly pulled her arm away to try and look outside.
There was a road of some kind stretching to the left and right, and metal wagons (cars corrected a voice in her head) were lined up along the edge. Despite the sun not facing that side of the building, a bright, lush, green forest extended across her view, and a smaller, brown building sat across the road, though she couldn't read the sign out front.
Just where am I, really?