Chapter 13: A life stolen away

A black and red fox nimbly ran through the crowd flooding the streets of Darkhold. Behind her, a duo consisting of a krokorok and a cacturne carrying navy blue scarves were giving chase. However, unlike the nimble fox, the pair had a much harder time navigating the crowded street. The fox planned to use her illusions to shape-shift as soon as she was able to get out of view, and blend into the crowd. It's not like those two morons could start using wide area attack in the middle of the crowd in hopes of striking her out of it.

That plan however, had to be abandoned, as she saw a mightyena carrying the same scarf cutting her off from the other side. What a nuisance. That guy could easily detect her by scent. Not like she didn't have a backup plan, but it wasn't a pleasant one. She used her illusion to make it look like she continued the same direction, while the real her was heading straight for a side-alley. She knew it wouldn't buy her much time, but she would make do.

Within the alleys she didn't have the same speed advantage, so she had to shake them off soon. Like everywhere in Darkhold, there were a few shady characters in the alleys, but none of the paid her any mind as she darted past. Though she heard her pursuers were not far behind, the backside of old Magmortar & Emboar's Resturant came into view. With everything on their menu, whatever was left in the dumpster afterwards made a cacophony of smells that could mask just about any scent. As she got closer, she bit a tuft of her fur off, stuck it in a can, and rolled it in the direction leading back to the main street. This would surely let her shake off those pesky guards, she thought as she slipped into the dumpster.

Something was wrong though. The smell was as expected, but she landed on something soft. It felt like whatever it was, it had both fur and feather, and was big enough to fill most of the dumpster. Not just that, but when she landed on it, it stirred.

"What… where?" a deep, but somewhat muffled voice mumbled from the darkness. "Why is my head so heavy?"

"Shhh!" the zorua hissed, but it fell on deaf ears, as she felt the creature shift under her, and lifted it's large head with a strained motion.

CLANG!

The creature seemed to recoil in surprise as it's head struck the lid, and laid back down.

"Be quiet before…" she started hissing, before she was interrupted by the lid being opened.

"Gotcha!" The cacturne said, as he lifted the Zorua by the scruff of her neck. She flashed her teeth at him, but there was little she could do against the larger pokèmon.

"You better wash yourself before returning to duty after touching that." The mightyena, who had refused to get close to the garbage, growled at the cacturne.

"You bet!" The cacturne answered. "But at least we finally caught this troublemaker."

"Oy! What about this guy?" The krokorok yelled to his colleagues. "Never seen one of 'em before."

All of them, expect the mightyena who still refused to get close, looked at the weird amalgamation lying in the trash. Its front legs had vicious talons on them, with a crest of feathers on it's chest. But the rest of it's body was covered in short, black fur, and the tail looked more like a fin. Finally, it's head was entirely covered by a bulky helmet.

"Citizen. Your ID?" the cacturne told the amalgamation in a stern tone.

"ID, what ID?" it said, as it swiped it's back thigh with it's talons.

"All right. You're coming with us too." the cacturne said sternly.

The creature was still acting completely confused, and seemed to have a hard time even moving. The guards had to call for backup to even move his bulky frame, and eventually a large pangoro came to help transport it. It was confused the entire way, as the fox kept glaring at the guards, as the were all lead into the large keep at the center of the city.

Darkhold

Darkhold is a city on the eastern coast of Oldega. It, and the surrounding area, is a safe area for all kinds of villains and lawbreakers from the entire continent. However, even if its ruler cares little of crimes in the outside world, breaking the laws of his turf leads to harsh punishments. This, ironically, leads to Darkhold having the lowest crime-rates on the entire continent.

"I'm dreaming. This has to be a dream. There is no other explanation." the chimera repeated to himself.

The guards had stuck him in a cell with that fox-thing, and left them there. Not that it mattered whenever he woke up back at home, and probably not remember any of this. After all, even his entire body felt wrong. His head was heavy to lift, and his field of vision was obstructed. Though he hadn't bothered to look down at his body anyway, as a small act of defiance against this ridiculous dream.

Though suddenly he felt a sharp pain shoot through his shoulder, and he turned as fast as his clunky head allowed him to, just to see the fox jumping off him. The little devil had bitten him in the shoulder.

"Guess what. You're awake, as much as I wish this was just a dream as well." The pesky thing said to him.

"Really, because as far as I know, foxes don't talk." he told it.

"How hard did you hit your head to get a concussion through that helmet?" the fox asked in a snarky tone. "I'm a Zorua, not a fox or whatever you said."

"That's impossible... This has to be a trick of some kind." he muttered. As much as he didn't want to admit it, this was starting to feel way too real.

"Don't blame me. I'm stuck here because of you." she shot back, giving him a glare.

"But… Pokèmon are not real. I haven't touched those games in over a decade either… Why am I suddenly seeing this of all things." he kept muttering, completely ignoring her.

"HEY!" the fox yelled at him, and he snapped to attention. "I don't know what you are, or how you got here. But you better get you brain unscrambled and find out soon, cause we're both in real trouble here."

"I know that. I am human of course." he answered her.

She only gave him a deadpan look in return.

"My name is Nathan Fairfield, and I'm supposed to be back in my college dorm." He countinued.

The deadpan look didn't stop.

"Is this even in America?" he finally asked.

"None of what you just said made any sense." she said. "Except maybe your name."

Nathan just sat down, and looked at what was supposed to be his hand. Instead he saw a wicked talon, with what looked like an exoskeleton covering it.

"No, no, no WHAT IS HAPPENING?" he yelled.

"What is happening is that we are waiting in this cell until The Emperor decides to pass judgment on us. So if you want to keep your skin on, your better remember why you're here in Darkhold to begin with, because he runs a tight ship around here." the fox told him, seemingly getting annoyed with his constant breakdowns.

"I don't know!" he yelled at her. "I don't know how I got here. I don't know how I got into this body. Nothing is making sense!"

She was honestly pretty unsure what to do with this guy. She had heard of nut-jobs and attention-seekers claiming to be human before, but none of them stupid enough to still keep lying about it while in the emperors dungeon. But if he was telling the truth, what could she possibly say to calm him down.

'Why do I even care?' she thought to herself. 'He is the reason I'm stuck here in the first place.'

"Are there even any other humans around here." Nathan asked her, interrupting her train of thought.

"I always thought they were just a myth." she answered him. "I guess others have claimed to be transformed humans in the past, but the few somewhat credible ones where not able to remember much anyway."

"You mean this has happened before?" Nathan asked, now staring at her fully focused. "Where can I find them?"

"Hey, I said it's a myth. The ones I talked about are long dead if they ever existed." She answered him.

At this, a dejected look replaced the previous, focused one. If this was a ruse, he was most certainly pulling a convincing act. But why would he though? What would he achieve by lying at this point?

'And why do I care. We're both dead anyway.' she kept wondering.

A guard, which Nathan recognized as a bisharp, rounded the corner. He had a group of six pawniard behind him, and when he reached their cell, he banged at the bars.

"Get up! The Emperor will see you now."

The castle, which was carved in dark stone towered over the rest of the gloomy city. And the sparse lighting, with dark-red and golden decorations, didn't make the inside more welcoming than the outside. The trek from the dungeon through the castle took them past plenty of guards, most of the dark-types, before they arrived at a large door guarded by another two bisharp. The guard escorting them shared a now with the two sentries, and they opened the door.

They were pushed in, and tossed to the floor in front a pokèmon Nathan didn't recognize. As he was tossed off balance, his heavy helmet hit the floor with a loud clank. It shared a resemblance with the bisharp, though he was larger, had facial hair, and a much larger blade on his head. With the extravagant throne he was sitting in, and more bisharp-guards along the walls, Nathan guessed this was the emperor everyone were talking about. Looking to the side, his cellmate was looking at the floor, seemingly scared to meet the emperor's gaze.

"Law and order. Within an empire built upon the underworld, such things are hard fought for. You both stand accused of disrupting this order." The Emperor stated coldly. His voice was deep, with a metallic tone. Even when looking down, it was like Nathan could feel his gaze piercing him. "My inquisitor will now read your minds to give me a good read of the events, before I pass judgment. Should you put up mental barriers, or any other means of resistance, I will assume the worst and judge thereafter. Inquisitor, you may begin!"

"Yes, my liege!" a hypno answered, as he suddenly appeared in front of both convicts. The hypno started with the zorua, conjuring a spectral eye before putting his hand on her head.

"Name: Serra. Born in Darkhold. Orphan. Never knew her parents." The hypno stated. "After leaving the orphanage, she got involved with Raticate's gang."

"Raticate! His skin should hang his skin up as an example, but that rotten hide isn't even worthy of the latrine floor." The emperor fumed upon hearing that.

"Has never seen a permanent base of operations. Has completed seven acts of thievery for him, caught during the eight. No new useful information about the organization." The hypno finished, unfazed by the emperor's outburst.

"Very well. She won't be of much use to us. Let's see if the godslayer has something more interesting in store." the Emperor said. Though he hadn't said much about his judgment, Nathan saw Serra, as he heard was her name, look into the floor in pure terror.

The hypno moved over to Nathan, and placed a hand upon his helmet. He felt a mild headache, as the inquisitor searched through his memories. Though this time he didn't summarize out loud, but instead made some curious hums as he searched.

"Very interesting indeed." he finally said.

"What is it?" the emperor asked, now leaning slightly forward.

"Unless this is the most elaborate psychic defense I have ever seen, we have found ourselves a human." the hypno answered in an almost excited tone.

Silence followed. Nathan didn't say anything, but he felt the inquisitor still searching through his mind. Serra looked at him, with a look of disbelief. Even the emperor was left speechless for a moment, before he broke the silence.

"And how could he possibly have gotten here?"

"That part is just gone. I have never seen anything like it. Between waking up here, and memories from another world, everything is just gone." the inquisitor said enthusiastically. "If this is fabricated, I don't know a psychic on the continent capable of this."

A look of contemplation appeared on the emperors face. Nathan didn't know what significance his humanity had to these creatures, but judging from the reactions, it might save his skin. Serra hadn't believed the human story, but after the inquisitor had confirmed it, a lot of questions arose. Fortunately, it seemed like it had turned a certain death into an uncertain fate.

"Whatever a human is doing here, I want none of it on my soil!" the emperor finally decided, to Nathan and Serra's horror. "Inquisitor, take a couple of scholars, and get any knowledge about humans out of this one. After that, both prisoners will be banished from Darkhold. Any attempt to escape their escort, or return here will be punished by death."

Both Nathan and Serra sighed in relief. Nathan wasn't too keen on getting his mind studied, but banishment wouldn't be an issue. It wasn't like he ever wanted to be there in the first place. Serra seemed a bit more conflicted, but at least relieved to avoid a death penalty.

"Now, get them out of my sight." the emperor commanded.

Four bisharp surrounded Nathan and Serra. They pulled them up roughly and let them out of the room. None of them looked back, as the door closed behind them. A pregnant pause filled the room afterwards.

"My liege. Why spare the simple thief?" the inquisitor finally asked his ruler.

"Superstition." the kingambit answered coldly. "Finding a human is supposed to mean something according to the legends. Maybe it's just a silly legends, and we could execute both with no consequences. But none of us understand the forces that brought a human here. So whatever it is, I won't mess with it, and I want them off my soil."

The hypno had served the emperor for a long time, and knew he was anything but merciful to those who disturbed law and order in Darkhold. He didn't do this out of the kindness of his heart, he genuinely didn't want to risk messing with the old legends. The hypno knew better than to mention this out loud though. The mon who conquered the entire continents underworld would not take any accusation of him being scared lightly. So the inquisitor simply bowed, and teleported away to get those scholars.

Authors notes:

So, our final protagonist has finally been introduced. I have to admit, splitting the attention like this is ambitious, and this is after abandoning ideas I wasn't quite happy with. Anyhow, I hope making a protagonist with actual memories will make him a lot more proactive than the last two, who were just tossed into the world knowing nothing.

I hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter.