A New World, A New Journey

Due to his inability to walk properly because of his tail, Rick had to ride on Zephyrs back. This wasn't anything unusual as they often did this, however it was humiliating this time. He wished he could walk on his own, but they both agreed that time should not be wasted teaching him to walk with a tail. The entire dash through the new territory was spent watching carefully for trainers, after all, the last thing he wanted was to be caught.

They flew threw the strange terrain for about a half hour without any sort of event. This gave Rick plenty of time to think of the implications of his new form. Was he the only one? Now that the initial shock was over he was left to contemplate the meaning of the words in his mind. "A whole new world shall be your home?” he muttered to himself. "What on Earth could that mean?"

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud roar, and a large number of terrified squeaks. Zephyr stopped on a tree branch to survey the event unfolding. A pair of pichu and two pikachu were cowering up against a fairly small cliff of about twenty feet in height. It didn't take long to deduce the source of the more aggressive noise. A large mustard yellow creature was cornering them, looking slightly singed and very angry. It was probably about ten feet tall and fifteen long, it seemed similar to a male pyroar, with a large red skorupi tail and matching zubat wings. It slowly advanced, obviously wary of the shockingly powerful pokemon. Zephyr began to whisper, "Stay in this tree, I'll handle this. Don't get involved you're even weaker than before."

Rick clambered off of Zephyrs back as quietly as he could. Once Zephyr was sure he was steady on the tree branch he hopped down to the ground, making a soft thud. The strange creature heard it, and turned to challenge the grass type. "I don't know what you are but you need to leave them alone."

The beast showed no signs of understanding, instead crouching low as though it were preparing to strike. "Okay then..." was Zephyrs muted reply.

The yellow monster charged, Zephyr easily dodging out of the way, crashing into a bush full of thorns. Once it carefully extricated itself it turned and growled threateningly, obviously not ready to give up. Zephyrs tail began to glow, and before the beast could react he leaped from the tree smashing it into it's face yelling "leaf blade." The creature roared in pain and swiped at the forest pokemon, who easily dodged, now grabbing on a tree limb above the battle ground, holding it with his clawed feet, he then exclaimed x-scissor, jumping down and slashing the anomalies face with his glowing arm leaves. The creature struck with it's tail, not managing to stab him, but instead slamming him sideways after a close dodge to the right. Zephyr flew through the trees before hitting a rock, the pods on his back painfully stretching to accommodate the force applied.

He got up slowly, the beast was swishing his tail back and forth in front of him in an obviously mocking gesture. The sceptile grinned, well let's see if that mega stone of yours can work when you're a treeko" he yelled to Rick, who quickly raised up his arm and tapped the stone on the bracelet, which began to glow, as did Zephyr. After the light faded Zephyr stood in place, now changed. The creature was unfazed by the sudden transformation, and charged again. The sceptile waited against the rock up until the creature was almost upon him, he then suddenly grabbed two of the pods from his back and threw them at the beast, exploding on contact as he leaped of the way with greatly increased speed.

After he landed he surveyed the damage. The monster was out cold, in a large patch of scorched earth and plants. He circled around it back to the clearing where the battle began. Finding Rick and the rescued pichus and pikachu up on the cliff out of harms way. He grinned, "Don't worry little guys Zephyr has saved the day once again, that big meanie won't be bothering us again."

Suddenly the expressions of the smaller pokemon above changed suddenly to horror. Before he could turn around the creature had pounced on him, pinning him to the ground, it's front paws resting on his arms and one of his back on his dangerous tail. He couldn't get it off of him. Suddenly he heard a rumble and a loud wham! The giant fell to his right, luckily not landing on him, and to his left a large stone hit the ground with a thud. He looked up to find the pikachu and Rick both standing over a small indentation in the cliff, where a rock might have been rolled off.

"I need to learn to shut my mouth."

_____

After moving a distance from the unconscious behemoth, the groups introduced themselves. They learned that the pikachu was named Mila, and she was traveling with her younger brother Brom. They were both transformed into a pikachu and pichu respectively. The rest of their teams and gear was missing too. They agreed to travel together to the nearest town, to see if there were even more humans turned pokemon, and possibly going further to find someone who could help them.

They set out, Zephyr easily accommodating all five of the passengers. They didn't go much farther before coming across the edge of the woods. But unfortunately, instead of finding a town, they were instead met with a large expanse of rolling hills to the left, and a deep foreboding gorge to the right. The choice was obvious.

As began walking through the fields to what appeared to be mountains in the far distance, they kept up a casual conversation. Rick and Zephyr detailing their journey starting in Petalburg, with a rough outline of the events up to them receiving the feather badge, and Ricks mysterious transformation. Mila and Brom were both from the Sinnoh Region, beginning their journey in Jubilife city. They weren't collecting badges, instead both simply exploring the many wonders of Sinnoh. Mila had begun her journey four years before Brom, and came back to continue her journey with him. They both received their starters courtesy of their uncle who was a prominent breeder in the Jubilife area. They had been in the middle of watching a contest in Veilstone when they found themselves here in the strange forest.

"I bet you were shocked when you first heard Zephyr talking huh?" Brom asked giving Rick a knowing look.

Rick smirked, he and Zephyr had been able to communicate verbally since he was six years old, it came as part of being shunned by the other kids at school for not having a dad, they acted as though it was so unusual. When they saw him talking to his treeko and carrying on conversation, it just got worse. "You would be surprised about whether or not I was surprised."

"Well whats that supposed to mean?"

Rick explained about the special circumstances between him and his partner, the new pichu's eyes widening at every word.

"Wow I wish I could talk with my pichu. Before now I mean."

Mila piped up, "So how long have you been traveling in that story of yours?"

"About four years."

Brom made a cocky grunt, "Ha! What kind of trainer takes four years to get six badges? What did you leave out of that story?"

"Private things," was the brusque reply.

Truth was, Rick never liked to talk about his father. He had been a ranger for some time before being disgraced when he was accused of stealing evidence to a case of excessive pokemon breeding. The case had been over for some time, and he had decided to add Zephyr, then a treeko, to his team so he could still have a "normal" life for a pokemon. His commanding officer had disagreed, wanting the shiny treeko for himself, and made a full inquiry into the matter. Although it was decided by the Rager Union Council Rick's father had a right to the treeko, by that time the case had been made public and many felt he shouldn't get Zephyr. In order to save themselves from negative publicity they gave him a dishonorable discharge, but still allowing him to keep the rescued pokemon.

Now disgraced and openly despised by the majority of Hoenn, he left the pokemon to his son and left home. Rick had spent the majority of the past four years searching for his father. But he hadn't had any fresh news since two years after he began, learning that he had apparently been traveling with concert crews, using his once noble crime fighting team to work security in large stadiums and amphitheaters. It made Zephyr even happier he had been left with Rick.

After they had walked a few miles away from the woods, they finally came upon the first sign of civilization, a run down dirt road. "Well then, it's time to make an important decision. Right, or left."

Mila spoke up, "Oh I wish I had my coin flip app on my Poketch so badly!"

___

Despite the lack of a coin toss app, it was decided to go away from the spooky canyon, and head to the left. They traveled several more hours along the road, and as they traveled the greenery slowly seemed to fade, becoming more desert-like. The ground seemed cracked and dry in most places, which was more like what he had heard the desert in Kalos was like, the ones in Unova and Hoenn being much more sand based. They noticed some desert pokemon around them, all seeming to be confused. Some nesting pokemon like trapinch were building new homes.

"Hey, guys," began Mila, "Is it just me or are those tall cactus looking pokemon in the distance following us?"

Rick, Zephyr and Brom all squinted into the direction Mila pointed. There were indeed a group of four or five cacturne, all standing still a fair distance away. "Oh no, thats not good," muttered Zephyr.

"What?" asked Brom, "What are those pokemon?"

"Those are cacturne. They're notorious for attacking desert travelers at night. We need to do something to get rid of them."

"Like what?" questioned Mila, "They're so far away they would get away before we could attack them."

"We're just gonna have to shake em'. Get on my back again."

"Do we have to? It's not very comfortable." asked Mila's pichu.

"We do not want to be ambushed by a group of cacturne," Rick answered in a serious tone "cmon, lets go."

They all clambered back onto Zephyrs back and rode about eighteen miles like that, once Zephyr began to tire they decided they should make camp. The pichu and Pikachu both worked together to find dried out wood nearby while Mila and Brom dug a fire pit, so as not to attract more cacturne. Once it became dark they lit the fire, and huddled around it for warmth in the cold desert night. They exchanged stories about their pokemon journeys, Mila talking about the strange circumstances through which she had obtained her sneasel, who had previously been stealing bungee cords from hikers to make a hanging nest over a canyon. After having some of her tent materials seized she tracked it down and tried to get it back, but had instead ended up dangling over the deep crevice from said hanging nest. The pokemon saved her, and agreed to join her team under the condition that she would buy him a hammock that he could sleep in on their journey. Brom described what he believed to be with the rare pokemon, rotom, in the manor near Eterna city. He had tried to catch it but after several nights of spooks and pranks he gave up and left with his sister.

In the spirit of the campfire circle Rick told of his first pokemon catch, a wingull on route 102. It was far from an easy catch do to it's agility and aptness for flying away. He had to track it down five times before getting it with a pokeball. He had named it Ace, due to the fact that two out of the five encounters had ended with Zephyr being badly injured by an aerial ace attack. The wingull was now a pelipper, and he hoped he was doing okay, wherever it is he ended up.

Despite the happy atmosphere, they were all unable to conceal their hunger from one another or themselves. They needed food. "Hey Zephyr, you know that thing we agreed never to do again?" asked Rick.

"Cmon' dude, we aren't that desperate yet are we?"

"We don't know how long this desert could go on, and we can't afford to turn around after the progress we've made."

Mila interjected, "What are you talking about?"

Zephyr shifted uncomfortably. "You know the pods on my back?" he asked with a grimace.

"Yeah, what about em?"

"They're full of extra nutrients Iv'e stored up over time, good for an extra boost during battle usually. I can feed off of them for a few weeks before I run out. They can also be... picked, and... eaten," he added with a shudder.

"So? What's wrong with that?" questioned Brom.

"They taste foul." Rick answered in a flat tone. "But they could be our only option if it came down to it.

"Oooooohhh. I think I'd rather wait a bit longer before we resort to something like that." Mila said with a strong blush.

"We're going to need our strength though." and then quickly added: "I'm not saying right now but it may have to be fairly soon. Who knows how well our new bodies can cope with no food?"

"I don't know, but I think it's longer than one night."

"I know, but after most pokemon evolve, they need lots of food to make up for the loss of energy occurring during the transformation, what if it's the same thing with us?"

Pichu blanched, "You guys aren't gonna starve are you?"

Zephyr quickly interrupted, "Look, you aren't going to starve in the first night, let's just use that as a last resort, okay?"

After sitting around for a while longer, they decided it would be best if they got some rest. Zephyr offered to take the first watch.

As Rick drifted slowly to sleep, he was wracked with terrible nightmares, all showing strange and horrifying events. First he was hatched from an egg, the breeder said no, and sent him to the wild. He was then captured by a trainer, he was happy, but unhappy. The trainer worked hard and had the best of intentions, but wasn't too bright. He decided to match him up in a battle against Groudon, he was going to die, this was it... Suddenly, the dream was gone. The whole landscape of burning magma disappeared and was replaced by a cool forest glade, the same one he used to train with Zephyr in at the Petalburg Woods. It was calm, a soothing female voice whispered to him, and told him it would be alright. His dreams then took a turn, instead to nicer things, like training, battling, winning, with him, not Zephyr doing it. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.