Sometimes you just randomly turn into a pokemon for no reason. It happens.
A Bolt out of the Blue
By CalexTheNeko
After a week of traveling our hero finally makes it to Saffron City. The promise in the letter that had started Kody’s travels through the Kanto region was about to finally pay off. As soon as he reached Silph Co he’d get the experimental pokeball prototype, as well as be rented a pokemon companion to help him test the ball in the wild. All that was left was to climb the front steps and enter the building and-
Suddenly, a blue bolt of light shot out of the sky striking Kody exactly where he stood. His backpack fell to the ground as his clothes grew and threatened to swallow him up. Dark yellow fur began to grow in over most of his body and brown patches grew in on his hands, as well as a couple of stripes along his back. His ears became larger, more curved and wildly shaped while an extremely long and flexible tail that ended in a thunderbolt shape. Two light yellow patches formed on his cheeks while he his body became more round in shape as he stopped shrinking somewhere around two and a half feet.
“Rai?” Kody asked in confused. The freshy transformed raichu sat buried in the clothes he had been wearing completely disoriented. What had just happened? Why was he a raichu? This was completely out of nowhere!
A few minutes earlier in an unrelated plot.
On the top floor of the tallest building in Saffron City. Suddenly, the front door to a large apartment was kicked open, flying off its hinges. On the other side of the door was a slowpoke standing on two legs and wearing a hat.
“Oh, come on!” A man known as Professor Kookynut exclaimed. “That’s the third one this week! Do you know how expensive it is to keep replacing those? You know you could have just tried the doorknob I left it unlocked.”
“Poke…” The slowpoke stared at Professor Kookynut blankly.
“Well, since you’re here… You might as well lend a hand!” Professor Kookynut grabbed a remote from his lab coat and pressed a button. A giant hand in a white glove popped of the floor grabbing the slowpoke and holding him in place. “Ha! Get it! Lend a hand! And then I trapped you with a giant hand trap!”
“Poke…” The slowpoke continued to stare.
“You know you should really learn to have a sense of humor. It’s not healthy not being able to laugh at these things.” Professor Kookynut crossed his arms. “Anyway, I guess Chief Commissioner Jenny sent you after getting word of my evil scheme. And I know you’re dying to know what it is. So behold! THE POKEMONIZER!” The professor paused. “It’s actually out on the balcony. Give me a moment… There’s not really a good angle for you to see it from there.” He walked over to the balcony entrance and slid the door open. He disappeared as a loud scraping noise would be heard as he slowly pushed what looked like a giant ray gun mounted on a miniature radio tower into view. “Alright there we go. As I was saying… BEHOLED! THE POKEMONIZER!”
“Slow…” The slowpoke continued to stare blankly.
“You could sound a little more excited. This thing can turn any human into a pokemon.” Professor Kookynut sounded upset. “Anyway, you may be asking yourself, but Professor Kookynut what do you need a Pokeminizer to make pokemon for? Don’t you know you can just catch one! Well… I’ll have you know that’s exactly what I plan to do! I mean the catching!”
“Slow…” The slowpoke provided the same contribution to the conversation as earlier.
“Are you even listening Speedy? I’m really starting to question your active listening skills as well as your basic manners.” Professor Kookynut shot him a glare. “I mean a mad scientist goes through all the trouble of setting up an elaborate scheme and trapping you and putting on a grand display. You can at least try to show some interest.”
“Poke?” Speedy the slowpoke tried.
“I think that’s better?” Professor Kookynut seemed unsure. “Either way! Ever since I was a child whenever I would try to get work done I was constantly hounded by my older brother and his obsession with rock and roll! He had the volume turned up so loud that no matter where I went in the house it drowned out everything else and I couldn’t focus on my work! I even tried building a treehouse only for him to install a stereo system in it. All I wanted was a quiet place to work! That’s part of why I live on the top floor of a skyscraper. Completely away from all the noise of the city below Or at least I was. Until they started having the Rooftop Rock n’ Roll fest on the building next to mine! Every night it starts up at sundown and doesn’t stop until morning! I can’t work, I can’t sleep! So, I concocted a genius plan to fix the problem.”
“Slowpoke.” Speedy suggested.
“What? No. I’m not going to turn the musicians into pokemon. They could still play their instruments, some would even be louder.” Professor Kookynut rubbed hands. “Instead… I’ll be turning the mayor into a pokemon! Then I can catch him in a pokeball and become his trainer! Once I have the mayor as my personal pokemon he’ll be forced to follow every command I’ll make him pass a noise ordinance of no loud music after 7 PM! Any second now he’ll be stepping out of his office for his usual lunch break, and the ray is already set to fire! So you might as well sit this one out because I’ve already won.” As Dr. Kookynut spoke the Pokemonizer began to hum as it lit up with energy.
“Slowpoke….” Speedy began to move the tip of his tail, rubbing it against the pole the hand holding him was connected to. The hand began to tremble as he did and suddenly it let go freeing the slowpoke as the hand spasmed and fell to the ground.
“What? My Hand trap is ticklish? How is that even possible? It’s not even ali- OW!” Professoy Kookynut didn’t get far before he was supposed headbutted in the face by Speedy. “Hey, no fair I wasn’t ready yet!”
“Slowwwwwww.” Speedy ran across the room on all four while Professor Kookynut was busy. Seeing the Pokemonizer about to go off he leaped onto the ray gun, shifting the weight so that it pointed up at the sky and fired a blue beam into the heavens.
“NOOOOO!” Professor Kookynut shouted. “Now I’ll have to wait a whole thirty minutes for him to get back from his lunch to try again.” He then paused and looked at Speedy. “Also, I’ll have you know that was very irresponsible Speedy the Slowpoke. You can’t just fire ray guns off in any direction with reckless abandon. Who knows what you might hit! I mean… It went up into the sky, so it’s probably fine. But you never know when it’s going to bounce off a satellite or something come back down and strike someone else just out of the blue! You could really ruin someone’s life like that. For shame Speedy the Slowpoke I thought you better than that.”
“Slowpoke.” Speedy rolled his eyes.
“And now I have to recharge it too!” Professor Kookynut continued. “Luckily, I installed a button to activate recharge mode right next to the self-destruct button.”
“Slow?” Speedy the Slowpoke looked up, seeing two buttons on the side of the device. One labeled ‘Charge’ and the other ‘Self-Destruct.’ He reached out a paw.
“Oh you’re going to charge it for me that’s so thoughtful.” Professor Kookynut started then stopped as he realized which button Speedy was pressing. “Wait no not that one!” He ran for the balcony as Speedy pressed the button. The slowpoke then leaped from the balcony as a parachute sprouted from a backpack he hadn’t been wearing until moments ago as he floated safely to the city streets below. As for Professor Kookynut, he reached the Pokemonizer just in time to be caught in the explosion as the entire device was destroyed. “CURSE YOU SPEEDY THE SLOWPOKE!” And as Professor Kookynut was thrown backwards into a wall by the explosions he heard the sounds of rock and roll music beginning to play.
Meanwhile back at the actual plot that matters.
Kody looked around trying to find the source of what had caused his sudden transformation. But no matter where he looked he didn’t see anything. The raichu slowly stood up, shaking the oversized clothes off him that no longer fit. Best bet he could tell the blue energy had come from space or something. For what reason he couldn’t even begin to fathom why. His new raichu ears, which had better hearing did pick up the sound of music coming from a nearby rooftop, but it was highly doubtful that had anything to do with this.
“Chuuuuuu.” Kody considered his options. Sitting around just staring at himself wasn’t going to accomplish anything. He could try to go into Silph Co and make his meeting. They wouldn’t recognize him at first but even if he couldn’t speak he could try to write a message to explain things. They had all kinds of science stuff maybe they could help. It might be worth a shot. Kody climbed the stairs, pushed against the front door to open it and stepped into the lobby and then remembered a very important fact.
Silph Co was the leading creator of pokeballs. Pokeballs that could capture wild pokemon. Which he technically was now. Kody became hyper aware of the fact it was very quiet within the lobby. Several of the humans were looking at him as he wondered in. They were silent, moving very slowly and reaching a hand towards their belts.
Mistakes may have been made.
“RAI!” Kody broke into a sprint just in time to avoid the first pokeball that had been on a collision course with his head. Several more were thrown arcing at home from above and he ran beneath a coffee table in the waiting area to get shelter from them. There wasn’t much room to hide here. Kody stood up and pushed the coffee table on its side forming a wall that blocked most of the pokeballs, but now the ones being lobbed above him were a danger again. He darted left and right as the balls landed on the ground around him, a few times having a ball come within inches of actually hitting him. When there was a break from the onslaught he ran for the front counter and leaped onto it. There was a pin and a sign in sheet! Perfect! He could use that to write something!
Except a person in a business suit had just tossed another ball at him. Kody tried to grab the pen and run but discovered it was chained to the counter. He lost his grip as he fell down from the counter, losing the pen as well but at least avoiding capture. He really was certain if he could just write a message down and explain what happened people might actually make themselves helpful. The problem was he couldn’t get a spare second to attempt to even write a single letter.
“Well, well.” A strange almost hypnotic voice spoke up. It was weird. Kody didn’t actually hear the voice as words. They were a series of sounds that should have been gibberish, but somehow had meaning. Kody realized what was happening when he saw the source of the voice. It was a pokemon, a yellow one with a white mane around its neck and holding a coin on the end of a string. It wasn’t speaking actual words, just making normal pokemon sounds, much like what Kody made now. But somehow Kody understood it. He supposed whatever turned him into a pokemon made him understand their form of communicate. “You’ve caused quite a stir. Don’t worry, you just need a nice nap to help you calm down.”
“Hang on a minute!” Kody gave a shout. If he could understand this pokemon there was a very good chance it could understand him as well. “I’m not a pokemon! I mean I am but I wasn’t. I’m a human! Just, literally a bolt out of the blue, and suddenly I looked like this.”
“Huh.” Hypno tilted his head. “Usually, people don’t start saying crazy things until after I hypnotize them.”
“Hypno what are you hesitating for!” A man in a suit shouted. “Put him to sleep already.”
“Well, you heard the man.” Hypno began to swing the coin he held back and forth like a pendulum.
“Ugggh.” Kody could feel his strength being sapped. He quickly shut his eyes to blind himself to the hypnosis attempt. The problem was he couldn’t exactly fight back if he couldn’t see his enemy. He had no way to know where to throw a kick or punch or-
Wait… A kick and a punch? He was still thinking like a human. Which was good for the sake of knowing that he was still himself, but if it came to a fight he should start thinking like a pokemon. Raichu was an electric type. He had a general idea of what direction the Hypno was in… And if he flooded the entire room with electricity. Well… That might hurt some of the humans in here. Which was unfortunate, and they’d all likely have massive headaches after being knocked out by the shock. But maybe don’t throw pokeballs at a raichu who is trying to ask for help.
“RAICHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!” Kody shouted as sparks flew from his cheeks. He felt voltage increase in his body as a blast of electricity was sent in every direction. There were lots of screams from people shouting to get down, and a few sounds of people who weren’t fast enough to get away making a thud noise when they hit the ground. Kody paused for a moment after unleashing his attack. Considering no pokeballs slammed into his face it seemed people had stopped throwing them at him. He opened one of his eyes narrowly to take a peak and see if Hypno was still standing. He was able to see Hypno just moments before he delivered a Zen Headbutt straight into Kody’s head. “Ugggh.” Kody was knocked back and rolled across the ground.
“Sorry, but you decided to make this difficult. Would have been a lot easier if you just went to sleep.” Hypno gave a weary sigh. “I do hate resorting to violence. It’s just so… Time consuming.”
“Well, you’re free to you know, not try to murder me.” Kody growled as he got back up onto his feet. “I didn’t want a fight.”
“I’m not going to kill you just knock you unconscious.” Hypno gave a weary sigh. “After a bit of time in a pokeball you’ll come around.”
“Like heck am I getting captured like that!” Kody climbed to his feet. “I don’t want anything to do! If you really hate fighting then just back off and I’ll leave.”
“Ah, but my trainer has ordered me to attack so that he might capture you.” Hypno sounded annoyed. “What kind of pokemon would I be if I ignored his commands?”
“One capable of making his own decisions?” Kody suggested.
“These are my decisions!” Hypo growled, as he held the coin up and a beam of psychic energy fired straight for Kody. Thankfully, Kody had his eyes open and saw this one so quickly dove out of the way. He had the sneaking suspicion he might have just touched a nerve.
“Ugh. So we’re really doing this?” Kody groaned. “I’ve barely learned how to walk properly in the body and now I have to fight?”
“What does that even mean? Did I hit you on the head too hard?” Hypno asked grumpily.
“Fine.” Kody felt his cheeks spark as his temper began to rise. “I didn’t want to do this… But don’t think for a second I won’t floor you in a fight.”
“I doubt a wild pokemon understands the refined strategy that comes with training.” Hypno held up the coin and fired another beam. Kody was ready now though and was in a completely different part of the lobby before the beam hit the floor.
“What strategy? Get angry and shoot beams at people? I’m sure that took you weeks to think up.” Kody taunted Hypno. If the other pokemon lost his cool he was more likely to make mistakes. But, Hypno had a point. Kody was probably capable of forming more complex plans and strategies than most wild pokemon, but the problem was that he wasn’t a pokemon to begin with. Or not originally at least. He knew how to throw a punch if he had to, but that wasn’t going to cut it in a pokemon battle. Well maybe it would have if he had gotten turned into a fighting type. But instead he was an electric rat. He had no idea what moves his body was currently capable of. He had only discovered one so far, Discharge. Until he figured out what else his body could do he didn’t have a ton of options for dealing with Hypno. With no other options for now, he fell back on unleashing another Discharge. This time since he could see Hypno he was able to aim arc the electricity in his direction instead of just blasting it everywhere.
“Argggh.” Hypo let out a grunt. A direct hit! This guy talked a big game but it looked like he wasn’t quite the fighter he built himself up to be. “Well, that was about exactly as I expected.”
Or was he?
“Really?” Kody tilted his head. “Because it looks to be like I just put you through the wringer.”
“A minor setback.” Hyno’s eyes lit up and suddenly Kody felt a very intense but brief pain go through his entire body. And then just like that in a moment it was over.
“Argh… What was that!?” Kody shook his head, still blind from the pain.
“Me winning the fight.” Hypo replied smugly before firing another Psybeam at Kody.
“Yeah right!” Kody ran out of the way. “Even if you are more experienced in battles than me you’re just too slow to get a proper hit.” Kody leaped up onto a light fixture, charged up again and unleashed another Discharge.
Except not a single spark of electricity left his body.
“What?” Kody tried again. But he didn’t seem to be able to generate any electricity at all.
“I’ll admit you did a fair bit of damage.” Hypno’s voice was full of smug self-satisfaction. “But you walked right into my trap. I’ve Disabled your Discharge. You won’t be able to rely on that to strike from a distance.” As Hypno spoke he fired another psybeam at the lighting fixture. Kody was still stunned from his flow of electricity being turned off that he didn’t have time to move. The attack didn’t hit him, but it did destroy the lights he was sitting on and send him falling to the ground.
Hypno wasted no time charging Kody directly with another Zen Headbutt. Kody quickly jumped over Hypno, but wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t know what other attacks, if any, he had! Could he escape out the door?
Not likely… It was heavy, and had to be pulled open from this side. Kody could open the door, but it would give Hypno an opening to hit him with the attack of his choice. He wasn’t getting out of here until he either talked Hypno down or knocked him out. And so far, talking didn’t really seem to be much of an option. The pokemon was loyal to his master who wanted Kody caught. And it seemed like there was no getting away from that.
“Just go to sleep. It’ll be easier.” Hypno spun around and swung his coin like a pendulum again.
“SHOOT!” Kody closed his eyes to avoid the hypnotic effect, and was rewarded with a Psybeam to the chest that lifted him off his feet and threw him against a wall. This was bad. He had to figure out how to fight back.
One silver lining. He at least knew what Hypno’s attacks were at this point. Hypnosis, Psybeam, Zen Headbutt, and based on Kody’s current lack of electricity his last one had to be Disable. That must have been the intense pain Kody felt earlier. That meant that Hypno didn’t have anymore surprises left. And if Kody understood how pokemon moves worked Hypno couldn’t use Disable again on a second attack if Kody could figure one out without releasing the lock on his Discharge.
Still, even if Kody knew what other attacks he had at the point this was a rough spot. The Hypnosis was a real problem. If he didn’t avert his eyes in time he’d fall asleep right there on the spot. And that was game over. But every time he closed his eyes to try to avoid it he just gave Hypno an opportunity to literally blindside him. Too many more hits like the ones he had taken and he’d wind up unconscious anyway.
For now, he decided to focus on trying to make it impossible for Hypno to hypnotize him. It looked like Hypno had to stop and swing his coin around in order to do it, so if he never had that chance then at least that attack would be out of play. Kody charged Hypno directly, not sure what his plan was. But as he ran, he felt his body pick up speed. He was moving faster. Agility! He knew Agility! He leaped behind Hypno, and before Hypno could even turn to face him leaped in a completely different direction. He was already faster to start, now he could literally run circles around Hypno.
But running in circles didn’t exactly win the fight. And Kody could only do it for so long before exhaustion became a factor. He had Discharge and Agility. From his understanding he most likely had two other attacks if he could figure out what they were.
“So is your grand strategy to run in circles and hope I get dizzy?” Hypno tried firing a few psybeams ahead of Kody’s path. But he was far too slow and Kody could easily change directions. Dodging the Psybeams wasn’t going to be a problem it seemed. With him constantly moving Hypo couldn’t focus on him for Hypnosis. And of course, Zen Headbutt wasn’t a threat if Hypno couldn’t physically keep up with him. Now if only he had an attack.
“I grow weary of these games.” Hypno growled and fired a beam at the floor instead of Kody tearing a hole through it. Kody barely managed to spin to a stop before running straight into it. This gave Hypno the opportunity to charge Kody for another Zen Headbutt. Kody dove backwards trying to avoid it. This bought him time but it looked like the attack would still connect. By instinct, he flicked his flexible tail like a whip and suddenly the lightning bolt tip shape had a silver shine to it. He whipped his tail at Hypno, striking him with the glowing thunderbolt shaped part and staggering the pokemon, forcing him to take a few steps back. Kody took the chance to jump backwards away from Hypno as his tail arched behind him, ready to strike again.
“Iron Tail.” Kody grinned. “Alright, now we’re getting somewhere.” He had found his third move. That still left one mystery move to figure out, but at least now he could strike back. It was time to get a little payback.
“Why do you sound so surprised by your own moves?” Hypno groaned. “You can’t possibly be as stupid as to have forgotten your oqn set of moves.” He swung his coin around trying to hypnotize Kody again now that both of them were still for a moment.
“I told you!” Kody whipped his tail around, striking again, this time severing the string from the coin. It clattered to the floor with a hollow ring. “I’m a human! Or was up until a few minutes ago! So how would I know what this body was capable of.” He grinned. “And despite that. I’m pretty sure I just won. Without that little coin you don’t really have a lot you can do.”
“This battle is far from over!” Hypno shouted and lunged for Kody. It was a purely melee battle now. Hypno’s Zen Headbutt against Kody’s Iron Tail.
The advantage was Kody’s now. Not only was he faster. But his long flexible tail gave him superior range to Hypno’s headbutt. At this point Hypno was basically charging straight into Kody’s attacks. Kody didn’t really like this guy, but he would give Hypno one thing. He was a stubborn one. At this point he had taken a licking and still kept coming back for more. Kody was shocked he had not been knocked unconscious yet.
“You know it’s not too late to backdown right?” Kody asked as he easily evaded another and struck back with his tail. “I mean, it’s pretty obvious you lost this. So much for the strategy of a trained pokemon.”
“You think this a game?” Hypno roared. He had finally lost his temper completely. “It is my pride to serve as the crown jewel of my trainer’s team. The strongest and most brilliant pokemon at his service.”
“You are aware just talking more doesn’t make you the smartest right?” Kody at this point was intentionally trying to get under Hypno’s skin. The angrier he got, the sloppier his movements, and the less effort it was for Kody to evade and counter everything he did. It was only a matter of time before it was over.
“ENOUGH!” Hypno screamed as his eyes flashed. Suddenly, Kody felt a very familiar pain and just as he raised his tail to strike he suddenly felt lose its strength and go limp. Hypno headbutted him again. He was too close, there wasn’t time to move.
“ARRRGH!” Kody was slammed into the ground by Hypno. He was going to admit, that hurt, a lot. But if his Iron Tail was disabled it meant his Discharge should be back. He built up energy as his cheeks began to spark.
And let out a gasp of pain as Hypno slammed into him again, losing the charge he had built up.
“You know nothing of what it takes to fight in the leagues!” Hypno screamed. He was slamming into Kody repeatably, not giving him the chance to get up across the ground. “You have no idea how many battles I’ve been in. How many gym badges I’ve earned my trainer. Each one, won through superior strength and wits. Do you really think an untrained ignorant pokemon out of the wilds really stands a chance against me!?”
“Maybe?” Kody groaned. Maybe making the Hypno angry was a mistake. He couldn’t get up. He couldn’t generate the energy for a Discharge Hypno’s attacks were just coming too fast and too hard. He felt like he was going to be beaten right down through the floor. There was nothing he could do. He was starting to get a little woozy and his vision was blurring.
“I am destined to be a champion!” Hypno was still screaming in rage. “And maybe if you learn some proper respect I’ll let you ride to the top with me! But first! I am going to make! Sure! You! Understand! How! Outclassed! You! Are!” The last hit was critical and Kody let out a scream of pain.
Kody wouldn’t last much longer.
“Now are you ready to cooperate?” Hypno ceased his attacks for the moment. But he stood directly over Kody. There was no possible way for Kody to try to escape, or to generate electricity for a Discharge without Hypno having the chance to beat him down again.
“Man, your egotistical.” Kody groaned but didn’t attempt to get up. “Guys like you really get under my skin. I really can’t stand someone who looks down on others, especially when they’re stooped so low.”
“I am going to enjoy helping our trainer whip you into shape.” Hypno growled. He was going to strike Kody again.
Kody had exactly one hope left. He had to do something that would catch Hypno off guard. That was the only way he was going to interrupt his attack. But what could he do? There was still his fourth move to figure out. But he had no idea what it was! This was hardly the ideal situation to try testing different things and see what might work. He had a few seconds at most before Hypno was done with his tirade and struck another blow. Kody was fairly certain he was at his limit. Another severe hit and he’d be completely out.
“Now do you understand the difference in level between us?” Hypno demanded.
“Yeah…” Kody tried to focus, gather any kind of energy he could. He wasn’t sure how pokemon performed all their attacks, but he was pretty sure it involved some form of energy inside their body. For his discharge, that energy had been electricity building up inside him. For agility, it was kinetic energy from moving that allowed him to unleash it. Iron Tail, likewise was based off Kinetic Energy, swinging his tail with all his might. Was there any other source of energy inside him he could call on? Anything at all that could get him out of this situation.
He felt something. He wasn’t sure what. But he didn’t have many other options. He let it fill his body.
“Mostly, you’re on a level I’ll never be able to sink too.” Kody coughed. And then he unleashed the energy he had built up. He opened his mouth as Hypno rushed forward. And then a massive beam of energy fired from Kody’s open mouth.
“WHAT!?” Hypno having been attempting to headbutt Kody again was caught in the blast of a massive beam. It carried him upward, through the ceiling leaving a large hole in it. And then Kody could no longer see what had happened to Hypno.
“Oh cool.” Kody breathed heavily trying to recover. “My last move was Hyper Beam. That’s useful.”
There was a thud, and Hypno fell back out of the sky, through the hole and landed on the ground next to Kody.
“I refuse….” Hypno tried to push himself up off the ground. “I refuse to lose… To some savage…” He didn’t finish the rest of his sentence before collapsing. He was unconscious.
“Ugggg.” Kody stood up on two feet. “The battles on TV never looked like they got they got this rough.” He paused as he looked around. What humans were left in the area were staring at him in awe. Most of the lobby had been destroyed. Only one human, a stern man in a business suit seemed ready to react to Kody.
It was Hypno’s trainer. He pulled another pokeball from his belt. That was right. An injured pokemon was easier to capture. And right now Kody was definitely injured. Kody stood up and looked the trainer in the eyes. On one hand, taking on the pokemon league as an actual pokemon. There was a certain appeal to that. Kody had planned to be a trainer, but it might be fun to fight his own battles.
On the other hand, if Hypno’s attitude was anything to go by, this was not a trainer Kody would want in charge of him.
The trainer through the ball, Kody broke into a sprint, speeding up as he used Agility. These little bursts of speed were quickly turning into his favorite new ability. Sure, it didn’t wreck things like the others, but it was good at getting him out of the way. The pokeball slammed into the wall behind him as Kody ran to the door, curled his tail around the handle and pulled. He pulled the door open just wide enough to let him slip through. And then he ran.
And he continued to run for as long as he could. He got out of the city. Out into the wild. Only once he was surrounded completely by grass and trees did he slow down. And then he collapsed where he was. He had never been so exhausted in his life. He would just rest here for a moment… And once he recovered figure out what to do next.
And with that Kody nodded off. His body needed the rest to recover. Pokemon were tougher than humans but even they had their limits. He had no idea how long he slept… But when he woke up, he found a pink and white face staring at him inches away.
“GAH!?” Kody jumped back. Then he realized it was just a slowpoke. Why had it been staring at him while he was asleep? Except… It was still staring at where he had been. Was it just staring out into space? Kody wasn’t sure. Looking around the area, he noticed there were fresh berries on the ground. Were those there earlier? He couldn’t recall. “Did you bring these?” Kody asked. Slowpoke was still staring at the spot he had been in. “Right… You just… Do whatever it is you’re doing.”
However long Kody had been out for, it was long enough that he was famished. He didn’t care what types of berries they were. As long as they weren’t poisonous they were lunch. Or probably dinner at this point. Either way he chowed down greedily on them. As he did the wounds on his body began to heal and mend themselves. Cuts were sealed, scrapes faded, and bruises disappeared. After about the fourth berry Kody didn’t have a single wound. It wasn’t just his appearance. He felt a million times better. It was like he had never been in a fight at all!
Now he remembered. There were berries with healing properties. Some trainers gave them to their pokemon to hang onto and use in battle. It looked like Kody had lucked out coming across them. After his little nap and this snack he was now back to 100%. He had really lucked out finding these. Was it luck? He looked at the slowpoke.
“So… Did you bring those here?” He paused. “Were you going to eat them? Sorry if you were. I guess I lost control. It’s been a rough day.” He paused waiting for a response from slowpoke. “Um… Maybe I should be saying thanks? If you did bring them here to help me heal?” There was more staring. “Uh huh. Um… I’m kind of lost, in more ways than one. Not really sure where I should be going or what I should be doing.” He considered. “I mean… I was human until just a little before noon. Then well, this happened.”
“Poke.” Slowpoke replied. Kody didn’t know if slowpoke had achieved some state of zen and said something incredibly profound. Or if the slowpoke was even aware that Kody was there right now.
“Right so… Um… This is a really one sided conversation.” Kody sat down on his haunches. “I don’t know if you know of anyplace safe I could hang out for a bit. Someplace trainers don’t visit I can lay low while I try to figure out what to do from here.”
“Slow.” Slowpoke gave the slightest of movements. It might have been a nod. Or it might have been a yawn. It was impossible to tell.
“Right…” Kody rubbed the back of his head. “You’re a slowpoke. You don’t do much.” It looked like he had to figure out what to do from here on his own. “Um… Well. It’s been nice… Chatting. Or… Doing whatever this is. But… I want to put some more distance between me and the city. So, I’m gonna… Go ahead and get going now.” Kody walked past the slowpoke. He looked back at it. It was still staring into space. “Good luck with… Whatever you’ve got going on.” With that Kody moved on. This whole awkward conversation was just too one sided for him.
After Kody was well out of sight. The slowpoke blinked. Then it stood up on two legs and looked in the direction that Kody had walked off into. He wore a guilty grimace on his face as he put together the pieces of what had happened to the raichu today. Then he slowly backed up into a tree. As he did, the tree’s trunk opened up revealing a tunnel leading beneath the Earth. The slowpoke stepped into it, and disappeared as the trunk closed, and the tree looked like nothing more than a normal tree.
“Ok… What do I do now…” Kody wondered as he walked. Being a trainer seemed to be out of the question right now. Should he try to find a trainer? Maybe someone who was younger and would be less cruel than Hypno’s trainer must have been? Or was he better off just trying to live out his life in the wilds from here on out. Maybe another bolt of energy would fly out of the sky and randomly change him back into a human.
He looked up.
Nope. Nothing. He was going to have to make this raichu thing work. He could still write, if he could get anyone to stop trying to catch him long enough to write out a full message. He supposed if he let himself get caught that might be easier, but there was no telling how long he’d be kept inside the ball, and if he’d actually be released from it or just sent to a virtual world in the PC to roam.
What was he supposed to do?
“H-heeeeeelp!” Kody was roused from his thoughts when he heard a scream. By instinct he ran in the direction the scream had come from. Only after he started running did his brain process that it hadn’t actually been words again. Instead, it had been a series of noises that his brain somehow processed into meaning. Pokemon speak. It was a pokemon calling for help.
Kody arrived on the scene, to find a trail cutting through the wilderness. On the edge of the trail was a vulpix. She looked severely injured. Standing across from her was a human with a stern expression. One Kody recognized and had seen earlier today. It was a completely different person. This human was female for starters. It was hard to say, but they had the same energy. In an instant he could understand this women possessed the same level of cruelty that Hypno’s trainer would have.
And standing before the woman was a poliwrath. It was glowering down at the vulpix who was injured. The vulpix herself was limping, her right front paw seemed to be seriously injured she wasn’t escaping this.
“Hit her again.” The trainer spoke. “She’s broken out of two balls, I’m not taking any chances this time.” Neither the trainer or her poliwrath had noticed Kody yet. A line of bushes hid him from the two.
What he was seeing was something that was perfectly normal. Humans caught pokemon all the time. There was no reason that he had to intervene. But… The menacing aura coming from that woman and her pokemon. The pained cry of the vulpix. It wasn’t like he could walk away from that. As poliwrath prepared for an attack Kody leaped out from the bushes placing himself between poliwrath and vulpix.
“A raichu?” The woman sounded surprised. “They’re not normally found on this route. Well, guess we get a two for one.”
“You should take your trainer and leave.” Kody firmly addressed the poliwrath. He knew there was no point trying to talk to the trainer. All she would here was a series of rais and chus. “You didn’t have to injure her this badly if your goal was to capture her.”
“She’s the one being stubborn.” Poliwrath replied gruffly. “If she hadn’t broken free from the first pokeball I wouldn’t have had to hurt her so badly. But she just doesn’t seem to be able to accept that she’s lost. Now she has a trainer to report to.”
“Did you at any point think that maybe she doesn’t want a trainer?” Kody asked. “Or at least not one as callous as yours. I’m asking you one more time. Leave.”
“What? And whose going to make me? You?” The poliwrath laughed. “Don’t think a type advantage is enough for you to take me. I’ve been training against things you can’t even imagine.”
“You know, I’m starting to get really tired of hearing things like that.” Kody growled. “Last warning. Leave.” Sparks began to erupt from his cheeks.
“And just what is this? What are you supposed to be?” The poliwrath demanded. “Some kind of guardian hero. Rushing in to save the poor defenseless pokemon?”
“You know what, sure.” Kody replied. It was as good a purpose as any other. “This vulpix is now under my protection. If you want her, you’ll have to go through me.”
“With pleasure.” The poliwrath approached Kody, preparing to attack.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this twice in one day.” Kody sighed. At least he knew what his moves were at this point. “Well… Let’s get this over with.”
There were flashes of electricity and blasts of water and several shouts as the fight broke out. Then, almost as quickly as it had started it was over. The poliwrath lay face down on the ground.
“Wow… That fast. That’s just embarrassing.” Kody then turned his attention to the trainer. He couldn’t talk to her, but he was pretty sure he still had a reliable way to tell her to get lost. His cheeks began to spark as he shot her a glare.
“Ugh… These pokemon aren’t worth my time.” The woman sounded nervous. She quickly pulled out a pokeball pointed it at poliwrath and a beam of light shot out returning the fainted pokemon to its ball. “I don’t have time for this.” And with that she quickly moved in the opposite direction away from Kody.
“Some people.” Kody gave a weary sigh and looked to Vulpix. “Alright… Let’s take a look at that leg. I saw some berries earlier that might help.”
“Who… Who are you?” Vulpix asked?”
“Me?” Kody thought for a moment. Most trainers he had met in his life were good people that cared deeply for their pokemon. But that didn’t mean there weren’t some bad eggs among them. Today he had encountered two. Any pokemon captured by one of those was bound to spend the rest of their life miserable, or be twisted into a creature of cruelty of themselves. Unless someone stood up to those types of trainers. “I guess you could call me some kind of guardian.” Kody make his decision. “I protect people from bullies, rather they be pokemon or human. Now, come on. Slowly, don’t strain your leg. Let’s find you some berries to get you patched up.” With a new purpose found, Kody found himself feeling strangely lighter. This wasn’t the life he was chosen, but it was one with a certain nobility.
For as long as he could. He would protect the weak, and do everything in his power to rescue innocent pokemon from cruel trainers.