[Cypher]

What did I do last night?

This wasn't the first time this week I'd been graced with a wonderfully head-splitting headache upon waking up. Admittedly, I'd picked up the horrible habit of binge drinking near the end of my time with that mafia organization. In my defense, it helped. It really did. I still hadn't gotten around to sobering up now that I was home for good and I planned on stopping soon, but I just couldn't quit drinking all at once. I needed time.

I lifted my hands from the comfort of my bed and stretched out my- something didn't feel right. I felt restricted somehow, like my body just wouldn't stretch out completely. Looking back on it, my bed normally feels more... fluffy. It felt like I was lying on the ground, but I know I remember going inside...

Stop thinking Cy, just open your eyes.

I was indeed outside. I found myself in the shade at the border of a clearing in what appeared to be a jungle of sorts. Oh Arceus, that fragrance! I sniffed lightly in the air and I smelled it all. I could smell the musky scent of old, fallen leaves of the surrounding trees combined with the damp earth where the leaves sat, gradually decomposing over time. I could smell the fresh air from a nearby source of running water and the rich, dark soil giving life to the trees surrounding me. It was all so beautiful, even the fresh droppings somewhere in the vicinity. Never before had I been so overwhelmed. This wasn’t normal… I needed to get up and find my way back to my house.

I went to shield my eyes from the sun that filtered through the canopy overhead so I could try to find some sort of a landmark I could remember, and that's when I saw it. Fur?! Paw! Why is there a paw?!

I rolled to my feet only to fall back down on my four paws. Think fast Cy, what's got orange and black fur and walks on four paws?

"Growlithe?!" That was... oddly comforting. At least I was a type I already had experience with. Fire.

"C'mon Lola, I believe in you!"

I looked my starter in the eyes. I knew she wanted this as bad as I did but she was still unsure of her abilities. All she needed to do was make fire. A basic ember attack. She made fire all the time, whether or not she realized it. If she could do it involuntarily, she could do it voluntarily as well; It was just a matter of teaching her how. All she needed to do now was direct her inner fire outward through her mouth. How do I know that at my young age? Let's say I was so excited about getting a Pokemon that I researched... a lot.

"Lola, just relax, and breathe the fire outward. You just have to think what you want it to do and direct it. Trying to force it out only makes it harder."

She snapped back at me with what was probably a sassy, 'What does it look like I'm doing?'

I watched intently as she composed herself. She took a gentle breath in and she expelled a steady light flame for a couple seconds before she stopped, her excitement showing on her face. The moment the flame disappeared I scooped her up in my arms to celebrate our small victory.

"You did it! Awesome job!"

I was snapped out of my brief trip down memory lane by a rather loud growl.

"Don't make me repeat myself young one," a rather gruff voice came from behind me, "What are you doing on my master's property?"

I turned to face the speaker to see the only other creature in the clearing. "Deme?"

Despite the sun’s invasive rays bringing light through the canopy above me he was still mostly shrouded in darkness. His glowing red eyes shone eerily through the shadows just a few meters beyond the border of the clearing. Since I had spent most of my life with the canine so his appearance didn’t unnerve me, but what came out of his mouth did. His unexpected threat did more than just frighten me. I was questioning my sanity and scuttling backwards away from him in a mixture of surprise, fear and confusion. Since when could I understand Pokemon?! He advanced towards me, leaving the cover of the shadows behind him.

"You know the name my master gave me," Deme asked in shock but quickly replaced it with a more menacing tone bordering on a growl, "How?"

"Deme, it's me. Cypher." I started scuttling back away from him, unsure of what he would do. As far as he knew I was an imposter! It's not like I still look like me. How could I even explain it to him?

"That's impossible, you look like a mere Growlithe in every way," he scoffed at me in disbelief, "there's no way you are my master."

I looked the battle scarred Houndoom in the eyes and pleaded with him. I told him what I knew of the situation. I told him how yesterday I had gone inside with Mia and the rest was a blur. I had woken up just now as a Growlithe and ran into him and I had just as much of an idea of what was going on as he did. I prayed to Arceus that was enough to convince him to trust me.

“The simple explanation is that you spied on us and now you're trying to infiltrate our ranks." He coughed out some smoke and pawed at the earth, growing more furious the longer our argument persisted. "I know your type."

“Just hear me out for Arceus sake! This isn’t Team Rocket anymore, Deme. The branch of the Rockets we were in was defeated a couple months ago!” I felt something behind me and a quick glance back confirmed my fears. I’d backed myself into a corner.

"Please. I've spent enough time working undercover with my master to recognize a trap," he towered over me with malice in his eyes, "and there is no way I'll ever fall for one of your stupid tricks again."

"Deme, this isn't some sort of sick convoluted plot to get you to gain my trust like something one of the admins would pull on hostages. I need you to-"

"Enough!" he barked out in rage. He was getting more and more violent and I feared that he would go off on me with every attack he knew, that he would never trust me again and that he would leave me here alone, but most of all I feared I would lose him forever.

"Demetrius," I started calmly, "how can I prove to you that it's me?"

"If you insist," he grumbled before going into deep thought. Alright, at least I had a chance to prove my identity. “I'll ask you three questions. If you get any of them wrong, I end you right here with no hesitation."

I winced. "Fair enough."

“What is your brother’s name and age?”

“Cole Richter, 15 years old.” I can understand that question. I never told anyone that I have a brother, not like I’d ever had anyone to tell. If anyone was trying to impersonate me, they would have to have my memories.

“Why do you care about your brother so much?”

“I care because I’m the only family he’s got left. He didn’t remember them and I had to make sure he grew up right.” Why did he ask me that question? I don't think he even knew the answer to that one.

"Alright. Last question: where was I hatched?"

“That's a trick question because I wouldn't know. I got you as a gift from my dad when I came back from traveling and spent my 12th birthday at home- and damn you Deme! You know that's a touchy subject you prick!”

"Cypher?" He paused his advances toward me and glanced up at the sky meaningfully for a second before closing the distance between us. He practically pounced on top of me with how hard he began nuzzling me and asking for my forgiveness.

"Deme, Deme it's okay buddy," I returned his affection from my position beneath him, my eyes watering, "I trained you well, it's okay."

"No, master..." he got up off of me and looked away in shame. "I failed you. I should have known it was you from the beginning."

"Deme, it's not your fault..." I trailed off, unsure how to comfort him. I'd never even had a two way conversation with him before and now look at me. I chuckled to myself and changed the topic, "and anyways, we shouldn't even be playing the blame game right now. We should be figuring out why I'm a Growlithe."

He looked down at me, baring his teeth in what I recognized was a smile. He hadn't smiled since... yeah. This would take some getting used to. Normally I'd be looking down at him...

"Do you hear... is that running water?" Deme looked around in panic. Now that my life wasn't on the line, I realized I could hear it too. "Since when did we have a river anywhere near the house?"

“Since never. We should probably investigate.” I got up and followed him out of the clearing.

The roaring torrent of water was nearly deafening and it was only getting worse the closer we got to it. Even though we had to have been right next to it for it to be so impossibly loud, we still couldn’t see it through the thick forest. We were nearing the hill’s crest on the slanted path we had chanced upon. At the time we had hoped to find a better vantage point but now I think it was just so we had something to do. If not for this meaningless quest for uncovering the mysteries of the wilderness that so encompassed us, surely we’d be back in that clearing still trying to make heads or tails out of this situation, as if one of us knew what in Arceus’ name was going on.

I already missed my human body. Sure, I always wanted to see things from the eyes of my Pokemon, but actually becoming one wasn’t what I had in mind. It might have been alright if I knew how to change back, but since I had no idea where I was or who did this to me I was kind of freaking out. I couldn't shake this feeling of being trapped, but at the same time I'd never felt so free.

I guess I had always been trapped in one way or another in the 22 years of my life, from joining Team Rocket to trying to live up to my father's expectations, and even practically raising Cole by myself.

We walked without speaking to one another, as I’m sure we both had the same infinite amount of questions flooding our minds. Where are we? How did I change into a Growlithe? How did we get here? Where’s the rest of my team? Lola? Corona? Mage? Shane? Mia? Were they here too? Why us? Why now? The questions just kept coming and coming, some even coming back for return visits to the back of my mind as I wandered through this strange uncharted forest with Deme, my only anchor to what once was and hopefully still is our home.

After a certain point I knew that we had both realized we weren’t in the woods beyond my backyard at all and that somehow we had been transported an impossibly far distance away. How far exactly? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to grasp it in this lifetime, or the next, or the one after than and so on. I just had this awareness, whether or not it was my new heightened senses is up for debate, that the trees around us weren’t the ones I had grown up with. They were unfamiliar to the both of us and the breeze even felt different. The most worrying revelation was that the smells were off. Sure, there was the smell of other Pokemon in the area, but that wasn’t what had me so uptight. The environment around us didn’t smell of Pokemon. When I asked Deme later on in the day, he told me that if we were back home, the trees, grass, rocks and dirt would all have a distinct residual scent that would reveal what types of Pokemon were in the area, because they had been there recently. Deme said that he couldn’t pick up on any traces of other Pokemon from earlier in the day, but we weren’t sure exactly what that meant.

The raging water just had to be past the tree line ahead. Both of us took a deep breath and pushed on through the light layer of foliage, unsure of what to expect on the other side.

Somewhere in the shrubbery I got caught up on a branch and stumbled the rest of the way out only to land on my face. I scrambled up to a seated position and wiped my tongue on my paws in an attempt to get the dirt out of my mouth but I only succeeded in putting more dirt in. I was too focused on my plight to see the jewel that the forest had kept shrouded this entire time.

“Cy…”

“Deme, what is-”

It was beautiful. We were on small hill adjacent to the thunderous waterfall gushing over the edge of a broad, steep cliff. The water foamed as it cascaded down the otherwise perilous drop to the large pool waiting below and the consequent river that went on past the horizon towards a mountainous spire that glowed in the early morning light. The breathtaking sight before us kept us in relative silence for what felt like an eternity. I finally regained my composure before speaking to Deme, not daring to take my eyes off of the watery curtain.

“Deme, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kanto anymore.”

Author's Note

I was having trouble with the second half of this chapter (I love you Trixie, but you're almost as hard to write as a good Zecora or Pinkie Pie) and I didn't want to rush the chapter or for people to think I was dead, so I played ~~Pokemon X~~ it safe and split the chapter. Hopefully I can finish ~~Pokemon X~~ tonight and I'll have part two done by tomorrow afternoon. It'll still be the same chapter, just split down the middle more or less. Hope you enjoyed!

Houndoom
Growlithe