Pokemon: The Paldea Project [Pokemon/SI]
The salty water filled my lungs. The blow to the head made my every thought an excruciating experience. My arms flailed slowly, the weight of my water-soaked clothes dragging me down. If not for my feet touching the sandy bottom and my desperate fumbling for the coastline, I would have drowned.
Had these been the open seas, I'd have drowned. Still, I kept trudging forward, drinking salt water that probably shouldn't be drunk, coughing and spewing as finally the waters receded beneath my mouth's level, then my chest, and then finally I collapsed forward, dragging my limbs across wet sand to the drier area.
That was where I collapsed, coughing and whimpering, as the harsh light of the sun nearly blinded me.
I didn't remember getting on a ship; and sure as hell I didn't remember falling from one.
The sky was the clearest, most crystal blue I could fathom, with fluffy white clouds that were interspersed with flying birds. Some birds had strange shapes, but my vision was blurry enough that I could barely see their wings.
I exhaled a long, half-shuddering breath and whispered, mostly to myself, "Alive."
Then, as the pulsing headache in my head began to slowly recede, I slowly crawled on my arms, and then managed to stumble one leg in position to stand up. Once that was done, I knew then next step was obvious; find a police officer and explain my situation.
To do that, I'd need to find a house and someone with a phone. In that situation, luck seemed to turn in my direction. There was a villa overlooking a cliff, and what looked like a sharp ascent on a mixture of sand and dirt.
As I caught my breath in preparation for the imminent walk uphill, something red and white caught my attention.
"Eh," I chuckled, "A kid lost their toy," I knelt near the white and red sphere that clearly had to be a pokéball of sorts. As I grabbed and held it up, I pushed the button. The sphere opened with a satisfying click, going as far as making the typical sound that a pokéball would do.
I laughed at that. "The batteries must still be working," I said as I pocketed the thing. I was talking to myself. It was a good sign; it meant I was nervous, but being nervous also meant that I was starting to rev the metaphysical engine of my brain.
"Find help," I muttered as I started to walk towards the village. "Phone the cops. Give the details. Hello, officer, my name's..." I balked at that, and hastily my hands went to my jacket. I was wearing a light, sleeveless blue one that wouldn't have been remiss on someone roaming the seas on a boat, and while I unzipped the pockets, all that emerged from them was a small rectangular card and some manner of crimson...pokedex?
The card had a picture of my face. "Shade," it read. "Shade Night." There were five golden stars emblazoned on the upper right corner of the sleek black card, "Good," I exhaled. "I have documents. That's good."
But the pokedex-toy, why did I have it?
"Maybe it ended up in my pocket?" I muttered. "When I dragged myself onto the beach?" No, that wasn't possible. The pockets were zipped up, and I had opened them to get the contents out.
As I walked my way to the villa, I began to put into focus other things. There was a large blue mat on the sandy beach, which clearly meant that whoever owned this beach had an absolute love for all things pokémon. I mean, who was I to judge other's tastes, but a fighting mat?
I chuckled. And then I came face to face with a green cat. The cat's eyes were as big as my fists. This wasn't a cat. This couldn't be a cat. If this was a cat, it belonged to some manner of breed I did not recognize, could not possibly have existed, and if it did, then I clearly had to be in the house of some manner of geneticist with a penchant for crafting monstrosities.
The cat noticed me, and meowed. Or well, it emitted something similar to a meow, but which wasn't a meow to begin with.
I aptly ignored it, and began to walk around it.
I had read somewhere that cats actually head for the people that tend to actively ignore them, but on my end, I just didn't want to have anything to do with this creature, and was actually way more interested in meeting its owner-then again, if they were a mad scientist and this was their secret retreat, was I going to be experimented upon?
Was someone going to transform me into some manner of monstrous creature like they had turned a cat into this-well, this strange thing that was now meowing slightly louder and following me with even more conviction than before?
Honestly, the gates of the house's garden were open, and I was pretty sure I'd be able to find another house that didn't have a mad doctor in it. Hence, I opted for walking right out. I could see another house at the end of the dirt path, and I was sure if I took it, I'd reach civilization shortly after-
A weight landed on my back. It wasn't light by any stretch of the term. It felt like carrying half a pack of water bottles, and as the weight moved and climbed I emitted a most manly scream and tried to jump away, only for the thing to hold fast against me.
I spun around, watching with the corner of my eye as the green monster-cat attempted to valiantly hold on to me, shrieking and meowing in turn. "Let go! Let go!" I yelled at it.
The creature, of course, refused. It clung on, emitting a verse that wasn't quite a meow, but held all of the firm determination of a cat determining to stick to their spot, or die trying.
"I'm a dog person!" I snapped angrily, "Let go! I'd rather hit a man than an animal, but you're not making life easy!" I grumbled as I relented my jacket, watching the cat hiss at being deprived of my back, and then rub itself against one of the few articles of clothing to my name.
"Could you let go of my jacket, please?" I asked it. At this point, I had to diplomatically trade with the creature of hell. The thing meowed again, stood primly up puffing its chest, and then began to rub its paws together, looking up at me as it now had my undivided attention.
Slowly, I neared a hand towards the top of its head and gingerly placed two fingers on it, starting to rub up and down. "Here...nice kitty, soft kitty, little ball of fur," I whispered, "Could I have my jacket back now that you're petted? Eh? How about it?"
A pleasant smell had meanwhile started to spread in the air, but the cat seemed content enough to hop away from my jacket, now that I had petted it, and then keep looking at me.
Surprisingly, my jacket hadn't been torn by the cat's claws, and was still in a functional shape. "You aren't a bad giant cat, are you now?" I mused to the creature, before rubbing its head a bit more as I made my way to the gates. I still wasn't going to talk with whoever had bio-engineered such a thing, but I did feel considerably more at ease.
And then a stocky crimson crocodile on two legs shrieked and started to rush towards me, fire spewing out of its mouth and head in a show of flaring emotions, its tiny hands raised up.
I yelped in fear, grabbed hold of the cat to safeguard it from the dangers of a flaming crocodile, and dashed out of the place faster than anyone could attempt to stop me. The crocodile's cries ceased after a bit, and I was sure I had left it behind only when around me I noticed that tall grass, sturdy trees and bushes were all that surrounded me.
I was in a forest.
Well, I was in a small forest, admittedly, but still it was a forest. There were small birds with crimson puffy chests chirping, giant-ass tarantulas crawling with-wait, did they have webbing on their backs- and were those miniature boars trudging about the tall grass?
"Lechonk! Lechonk!" a tiny piglet grunted, coming to a halt in front of me and then looking up, its nose sniffing strongly the air around me, and the cat that was in my arms.
"You're not a boar," I said to the pig. "Are you a hog?"
"Lechonk!" the thing grumbled back, nose held high, sniffing the cat in my arms who was having a field day, judging by how happy and pleased with itself it looked.
"...I'm not in Kansas anymore, am I?" I muttered to the giant cat.
But it didn't click.
It didn't click until a Hoppip, of all pokémon, gingerly floated in front of me and smiled brightly, making its pokémon verse as it slowly landed on the ground a short distance away, looking visibly affronted at the lack of wind to keep it afloat.
"That's a pokémon," I said.
"Lechonk!" the hog exclaimed.
"Spri!" the cat meowed.
"Spri?" I said, lifting the cat up to my face. "What are you? Wait- don't answer-" I fumbled for my right pocket, where the 'toy' pokédex was supposed to be. Only, I was now doubting it was a toy. With a flick of the wrist the pokédex opened up, and beeped.
"Sprigatito! Its fluffy fur is similar in composition to plants. This Pokémon frequently washes its face to keep it from drying out. The sweet scent its body gives off mesmerizes those around it. The scent grows stronger when this Pokémon is in the sun!" as the Pokédex aptly spoke, the pokémon meowed with its typical 'Spri' sound, and then snuggled closer into my chest.
"Okay," I muttered.
Then, I blinked.
"Did I just steal someone else's pokémon?" I asked.
"Spri."
The cat, most aptly, did not care. Truly, few were as loyal as dogs.
"Lechonk!" the...well, it had to be a Lechonk, since it was all the hog thing was saying, grunted out.
"Are you an eater of Sprigatitos?" I grumbled, pointing the pokédex at it.
"It searches for food all day. It possesses a keen sense of smell but doesn't use it for anything other than foraging. This Pokémon spurns all but the finest of foods. Its body gives off an herblike scent that bug Pokémon detest." the Pokédex aptly supplied an answer.
"Oh," I said. I pondered. It was probably smelling the pleasant smell of the Sprigatito, but wasn't probably going to eat it. On the other hand, this guy was also a natural bug-pokemon repellent. I had one pokéball, two pokémon...and well, Sprigatito looked unique enough.
"So," I said, "My name is Shade. And I can promise you, if you follow my orders and do as I say in battle, we'll become the strongest," I raised the found pokéball in front of Sprigatito, who looked at it, while its ears however perked in hearing my words, "and knowing how Pokémon games go," I continued, "We shall end up challenging the very Gods, the fundamental forces of nature, or something equally insane or bizarre...so, I'm going to need all the help I can get. If not, I understand-I'll let you go back home and continue with Lechonk here."
Sprigatito's ears twitched a bit.
"Spri?" it asked, lifting its chin as if asking if chin-rubs were a part of the deal.
"Sure," I said with a dry chuckle. "I can promise head-pats and warm hugs too, if that's what you want."
It was enough. The Sprigatito's forehead bumped into the pokéball, and with a satisfying clunk, a beam of red light caught my first pokémon of this strange, new place that I knew nothing about.
Well, but as with all Pokémon games, there was but one thing to do.
"Sprigatito," I called the Pokémon out of its pokéball. "First, we murder everything in the surrounding areas for experience, claim every lost object in this forest, and capture any and all pokémon to complement our squad weaknesses..." I clenched my left fist up in the air, "And then, we beat the living hell out of weaker trainers for their money and try to get as far as possible from where I stole you."
...
Wait a moment.
...are all Pokémon players Team Rocket grunts in disguise!?
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