A New World, A New Journey

Rick exited the building, ignoring his shiny new Feather Badge, instead assisting his partner Zephyr limp towards the nearest Pokemon Center.

"Iv'e already told you, I don't need any help."

"And Iv'e already told you, It's my fault you got hit with that aerial ace attack. Iv'e gotta do something to make it up."

"Slowing me down like this isn't what I have in mind."

"I already told you, you're going to get fat if you eat any more pokepuffs a day."

"It's a special occasion."

The boy sighed, his sceptile was always a stubborn one, he seemed to think of nothing but food. "How about this, you can have three, if you do more training today. We need to work on your attack, that rock tomb should have taken her swellow out in one hit."

"I would have done better if I was battling on a full stomach."

"Oh shut up."

They arricved at the center, conveniently located just on the other side of a small patch of trees from the gym.

"Hello and welcome to the Foretree Pokemon Center, how can I help you." Greeted Nurse Joy.

"I need three of my Pokemon healed please."

"I would be happy to help, are the others in their pokeballs?"

"Yeah here." He handed over the other two.

"Chancey please help this Sceptile to room 14."

The poke-assistant complied happily, helping support Zephyr as he limped through the doorway.

"He doesn't look to be in too bad of shape, it should only be an hour, I hope you can wait. We have a bit of a waiting list. Some group of trainers though it would be smart to attack a herd of tropius with mostly water types." She added with a roll of her eyes.

"Sure thing, and also while I'm up here can I rent a room?"

"I'm sorry but we're booked, you could try the Center on the East side of town. They tend to get less traffic."

"Kay, thanks for the suggestion." Rick took a glance out the window, noticing it was already beginning to get dark.

After taking a seat, he took out his buzznav, and took a look at the latest news. "Why does it always seem like half of these stories are about me?" He whispered to himself. He didn't even remember seeing anyone around when he caught his zubat, how are there people who saw nickname it? He was beginning to believe he may have a stalker who works at the buzznav station in Mauville.

After some time Nurse Joy came back out and handed him his pokeballs back. "Your sceptile will be out in a minute. I must say, he's a beatiful specimen, I don't think Iv'e ever seen a shiny of his kind before."

"Oh yeah thanks."

He always became rather uncomfortable whenever someone mentioned Zephyrs rare pigmentation. He knew about the whole process by which he was bred, and it was horrifying. He wondered if he had ever unknowingly passed by one of Zephyrs one hundred twenty six siblings and cousins. He popped the pokeballs back into his belt and sat up. He was a bit sore still from the hike to the city all the way from Mauville. It had taken a whole week, and much of it was rather hilly and rocky. He groaned as his muscles begged for more rest. "I should have waited longer before challenging Winona. Uuuuggghhh."

He looked to his right and noticed Zephyr passing through the doorway into the main lobby. "Hey Rick, didja get us a room?"

"No, they're booked, were gonna have to go even farther to the Center on the other side of town. Or, we could head over to Robinsons base and camp out there for the night," He smirked, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind, after all, we already took his flag."

The forest pokemon smiled too, "Sounds good, cmon, I'll give you a ride."

They exited the center, and Rick climbed onto his pokemon's back. Zephyr made good time to the base on route 119 just outside of town. Just as they were entering, they stopped, hearing a voice in their head.

“Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.”

Suddenly everything went dark.

___

Rick woke suddenly. The first thing he noticed was the woods surrounding him. At first he thought it was the trees near Foretree, but then he noticed something off about them. Then it hit him, These aren't the kind of trees that you can find near Foretree, or anywhere in Hoenn.

He attempted to stand up and find out just what was going on, but a strange weight fixed to the bottom of his back caused him to fall over, and he found himself laying on something large and firm, that he could feel through. He turned his head around and saw a large green mass behind him. Upon further investigation he realized it was a treeko tail!

Rick screamed and tried to get up again, this time falling forward, and throwing his hands out in front of him. It was then he saw that his hands had become green, and each only had three fingers, each ending in a rounded nub without a fingernail. They reminded him of... Oh arceus no.

He stood for a third time, this time succeeding, even if he still felt wobbly. He looked around and saw a large electric blue mass just next to him. That must be Zephyr, well at least he doesn't seem to have changed. He wobbled over to the grass type, fall forward just in time to land his hands on the now giant to him pokemons back. He pushed on it a few times, and when there was no response, attempted to climb over to get to Zephyrs face. He found it much easier than expected, his fingers mysteriously sticking where he put them. He made it to his partners head, and poked him a few times between his two crests. When there was no response, he took his new sticky fingers and pried open one of the giants eyelids.

The reaction was... less than instantaneous. Zephyr moved his head away from Rick and groaned. He pushed his weight off the ground and looked down at the new treeko. The grass type yawned, holding one clawed hand up to his beak, and finally opened his eyes on his own. He looked around, then glanced down. He was met with the sight of a small terrified treeko staring up at him. "Well hey there little guy, you have a trainer, or parents?"

"Zephyr! It's me! Rick! I just woke up like this. We've gotta go find someone to fix this fast! What if it's permanent?!"

"Huh?" The sceptile tilted his head and blinked confusedly. "No that's not possible, I've never heard of someone becoming a pokemon, where are your parents?"

"No Zephyr! It's really me! Cmon, ask me something only I would know."

The larger grass starter was getting annoyed and suspicious at the same time. "Fine, who is my sisters trainer?"

"Ha! That's a trick question! You were separated from your siblings in a pokemon ranger rescue raid. You don't know any of your siblings."

"Geez, you don't have to be so cold about it. Okay I believe you. But who would we go find to fix this?"

"Um... That's a good question. How about the professor? No... to far away... Maybe the people at the weather station could help! They're scientists."

"I doubt a meteorologist would have the know-how to turn a human turned pokemon back into a human, Professor Birch too."

"Oh... Yeah. Well I think Birch would be our best shot wouldn't he? I mean, he's the most prominent pokemon professor in Hoenn."

"Yeah, but how would we get there?"

"I know! Now that I have the Feather Badge we can fly there! Just let me get..." He looked down, and to his horror noticed his belt, and thus all of his pokeballs were missing. The only item left being the key stone on his wrist. "B-but, where are they? What..."

They looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and horror, they were now stranded in a strange forest, one of them transformed, and all of their friends were missing. What a special occasion indeed.

_______

"Okay... Let's see, four pounds to a bucket, a maximum of one hundred pounds to a cart, sixty bits per pound, two carts, total profits should be..." Luster Red scrunched her eyes, she had always been bad at doing math in her head, she usually needed paper to work it on, however, the middle of a cherry farm was not  the most hospitable location for working math. "Okay, each cart has twenty five buckets, and thus..." she was cut off suddenly by the sound of screaming and what sounded like trees cracking and falling. She looked around, and saw that all of the other cherry pickers nearby had also heard it. After a brief pause, they all at once rushed towards the noise, including Luster.

They all began to crowd around what appeared to be a large clearing in the trees, where a large blue four legged creature and a tall green lizard-like creature were standing in the center. Both looking rather fearful and confused.

"All right everyone whats goin' on?" Luster heard the familiar voice of Cherry Jubilee right behind her. She turned to face her. The familiar large maned mare wore a confused and mildly irritated look. The cherry bucking season was one where even a slight bit of slacking could throw off the whole schedule, and it was important that workers stay at their posts at all times.

"Um, I'm not sure ma'am, from what I can tell those two... things over there just destroyed all of those trees."

Cherry Jubillee's eyes bugged out suddenly when she got a glimpse of the large clear space on the other side of the crowd. "Come with me Luster, I think I might need help of that city brain o' yer's."

Luster's face fell. All the ponies out here had a tendency to underestimate their own intelligence. They always seemed to think "Luster is from the city, she must know all about that stuff," when that was almost the opposite of the case. She had always slacked in school and by city standards was probably about the same as a country bumpkin. But that didn't stop them from asking her for help. When Cherry Jubilee had learned of this she had begun to ask her for help too, less in a genuine way but more to mock the fact that they all went to her for their "educated" problems.

As they cut through the crowd Luster got a better look at the wreckage. About ten trees had all been knocked down and mutilated, and appeared to be entangled in some strange thorny vine. The vine already seemed to be withering and dying as she walked through, and when she bumped one is snapped off the rest and turned to dust when it hit the ground.

Once her boss had surveyed the damage, she turned around and called out a brusque order. "Everyone back to their duties we have a quota to meet!"

Once the crowd had scattered she turned around to face the taller green creature. "Explain yourself or I swear to Celestia I will have you both thrown in the stocks for weeks even if we have to make a custom one for the big guy."

The lizard thing's eyes widened even further. He waved his hands defensively, "Scep scep, tile, sceptile, sceptile, tile scep tile tile..." he was cut off suddenly by Jubilee.

"I must apologize but I can't understand... whatever it is you're saying."

The tall ones eyes grew even larger, now seeming to reach their breaking point. He turned around to the metal thing, and uttered a few words to it quickly. It shifted it's torso up and down in a fashion similar to a nod, and it's eyes began to glow for a few seconds before fading away. The lizard turned back to Cherry and said in plain Equish, "I'm sorry, didn't realize you couldn't understand Pokespeak. My name is Gordon. I must apologize for the damages, I must assure you it was purely accidental. Surely we can come to some sort of compromise seeing as I don't have any Yen on me."

"I don't know whatever money you just mentioned is, but round here we use bits. I think the only way someone of your apparently destructive nature could repay is to pull some carts to a delivery point and guard in on the way there since you seem to be so apparently powerful."

The creature, now known to be Gordon, sank a little at the news. "I suppose that's better than the stocks. Will that cover it all?"

Cherry's eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid not, you've caused about five thousand bits worth of damage, and the guard and escort service together will usually pay the employee around four thousand depending on the quality given on the job. But we can't stand to have you causing any more damage on my farm. You will be accompanying Luster Red here, seeing as she has already finished pickin' her zone. You leave in three hours, help her get the carts together. She then looked to Luster, "And please Luster, keep a close eye on these folks."