The sound of rain pelting the windows and walls of the building obscured the silence of the dark room with no illumination. The air reeked of dried bloodstains and an unknown substance on the floor, reality distorting a little around the substance. A certain Pokémon was lying on the floor, a Ceruledge as seen from the flames that emanated from its ghostly body, battered but still alive (technically speaking).
A thunderstrike flashed the entire room for a second, probably the last considering the dissipating state of the rain. From the light, the dark room showed a stone statue of what seemed to be a big round Pokémon with six disembodied stone hands on the floor. A maskless and withered-looking Meowscarada was panting with a paw on the statue, heavy breaths being drawn out as blackish blood leaked from her body.
Alice removed her paw from MissingNo.’s stony body as the dark purplish mist around her arm dissipated. She stepped back once, the Dark Matter stains on her body slowly dissolving as she returned to her normal form. “You were quite a bothersome Pokémon, weren’t you? Eh, nothing I couldn’t handle.” She said as she flickered her paw, her mask appearing on it. ‘Still, that pesky bug had some tricks hidden in his web… eh, whatever, I’ll just track him down and get him later. Not like some evolution is gonna be enough to resist me and my power.’
“Mistress…” As Alice put on her mask again, she looked at the ceruledge lying on the floor. Ah, how could she forget about Zerone? If it wasn’t for him, the fight with that glitchy mess of a Pokémon would’ve taken way more of her precious time. Speaking of which, she needed to shift her priorities over retrieving that little skittish runaway human… “I have come to inform you…” The Ceruledge grunted as he slowly got up, getting to a knee. “About Hoopa… they have been absent while you were busy…”
“Ah, taking advantage while I was a bit distracted, I see.” The meowscarada chuckled a little. “Are they going to attempt to summon another human? Please, this joke has grown old, when are they going to learn that whenever they attempt to summon a human I’ll know-” She interrupted herself when a small realization struck her mind. “Unless…” She grinned a bit. “Oh, Hoopa, you mischievous little demon…”
As the meowscarada started to walk away, Zerone decided to ask while clutching its arm which leaked hazy ectoplasm. “Have you figured something out, Mistress?”
“Yes, but I’m afraid it’s a little late for that.” Alice turned her head to the ceruledge. “I’m going to fetch Hoopa with the Prison Bottle, meanwhile, call some Pokémon to remove this statue from here. Also, try to find Cass, that robot is going to shift his priorities towards finding that missing human.”
“But Mistress, I thought that he would be the first one to be sent to the human world to deal with the potential wild Pokémon that may appear there because of the merge…” Zerone argued, shedding light on the issue of what slowly merging two worlds together would cause. Not like she didn’t know of that and wasn’t prepared for it.
“I can send Gabriel if he fails to capture John as I ordered him to do when fighting MissingNo. But if he did, that’s a nice bonus treat for me.” She turned away and started leaving the room. “But for now, I have to call Hoopa, they have some explanation to do and some punishment to receive for this small hassle…”
“It shall be done, Mistress.” With a nod, the ceruledge faded through the floor with a ghostly dark portal.
As the Meowscarada walked down the hall, she smirked to herself as she muttered. “Try to help your little hero all you want, Hoopa. Just like the others you attempted to summon, the true hero will strike him down, hehehehe…”
----------------------------------------
The mountains almost fully covered the afternoon sun in the distance, their only light source fading away. The area around them was peaceful and quiet, the chirp of birds and the crunch of twigs and fallen leaves beneath their feet being the only sounds that accompanied them on their trek through the forest to get to the nearby city. Nobody spoke anything, why would they after all the chaos that happened?
Stranded, lost, and alone, in a world where nobody would help them because of their appearance. After all, who wouldn’t be afraid of a 1 meter-tall tarantula with giant hands coming out of his ass?
John was tired, hungry, and exhausted. It felt like he could collapse at any moment and just let his worries fade away right as he slept on the grassy ground, covered by his own webbings to keep him safe-
No!
He was so stressed, and it didn’t help that a specific memory he didn’t want to think of right now was so fresh in his mind. He and Claire had endured so much, and for what? What was supposed to be a simple school trip turned into a fight for survival. Hell, Claire still had her bandages from that fight with that Ceruledge…
What was worse was the guy they were stuck with…
Not to say that Cassidy was bad company, no, but whenever the Galvantula looked at the robot, he just couldn’t help but be reminded of that whole fiasco with Mark and… Reino…
Dammit, the stress was getting to him. John already knew that Cassidy had no fault in those events, he was just as much a victim as Mark and Reino were. And now… his other friends were stuck in that other world with Alice potentially hunting them down just to get to him.
In the back of the monochrome tarantula’s mind, a thought was forming as he rubbed his new pedipalps together. What if he had taken Alice’s offer…? ‘No, fucking no. I’d never submit to her world of subjugation and straight-up totalitarianism. We already had enough of that in the past, not gonna let it happen worldwide!’
Yet… how is he going to stop someone who has absolute control over the entire situation?
“So… Johnny, right?” Finally, someone had spoken up and it was Cassidy. John turned to him, taking in the metallic and segmented body that the robot had and seeing him with his arms behind his head. Suddenly, a question popped up in his mind. Does he eat? Or does he need to recharge somehow?
“It’s John.” The Galvantula corrected.
“Ah, John. Okay, now that we’re… let’s say, safer right now, howsabout I ask something about you. Since when I look at ya more and more, boy does my curiosity peak even more.” He leaned a bit closer to John as his tri-colored eyes analyzed his body. “Black and white fur, horns, spikes, freaky hands, and those little bubbly bits giving ya this unstable aura around you… question is… you think it’s safe to hang around you?”
I tilted my head a bit confused. “Huh? What do you mean by that? Of course it’s safe.”
Claire decided to add her own two cents to the conversation. “Yeah, it’s a bit fuzzy to touch him along with those black and white bubbly things but like… he’s not that hazardous-” As Claire turned her head to face John, she interrupted herself and gasped as she stopped walking. “Holy Arceus, John! You’re phasing through the floor!”
“Huh?” The Galvantula turned his head down and saw that his pointy feet were phasing through the floor with a puddle of static enveloping them. John’s beady eyes widened. “HUH!?”
“And that’s why I truly asked!” The metallic Weavile responded while putting his claws on his waist. “Cuz that’s freaky and crazy.”
John tried to get out of the strange unstable substance that was forming beneath his feet, but that was proving to be a bit useless. He didn’t need to shout for help when Claire pushed John off his feet and rolled him out of the puddles and onto his back where he wiggled his legs like a dying bug. He didn’t feel like he was sinking anymore after realizing he was doing some weird glitch shit.
As John panted a bit and stopped moving his legs, Claire asked with a frown on her face. “A-are you okay, John…?”
The black and white tarantula turned to the Vulpix, his black and blue eyes showing distress after what happened. “I… I think so…” He looked up in the sky, stars were already appearing on the sunset orange-filled sky. “This has to be a damn nightmare…”
The purple-eyed Vulpix let out a whine as she grimaced. “John…”
“Gee, all this moping around… you’re all a bunch of softies.” The tarantula and the fox turned to the robot who looked at his claws, his red grin flashing as he continued speaking. “Sure, we’re in hella shit right now, your friends are in trouble in another world, and there’s a furry with a few screws loose in her head hunting for you.” He lifted a finger. “But, here’s the thing. If we wanna do the hero thing later by saving your friends and whooping the furry’s ass, we gotta continue, recharge our juice THEN prepare, got it?”
The duo just stared at Cassidy a bit in surprise, not expecting him to have such an insightful response to their hopelessness. Even if he had some funny remarks and definitely didn’t know the bigger picture, he was right… they couldn’t lose hope at a time like this. They knew what Alice was planning to do with both worlds, and John got the power of a forgotten god to aid him… as unreal as that sounded.
Claire raised her head a bit more, her ears perking up. “You’re… you’re right. I can’t let the situation get to me. I’m not about to get my family and my world to get controlled by someone so cold and evil as Alice!” The fox turned to the arachnid, her fan of tails wagging behind me. “Right, John?”
The Galvantula looked aside, considering his options. Their chances were slim, so slim in fact that if he told anyone about their plans, they’d definitely tell them they were on a damn suicide mission and they had a death wish. However… ‘What if we do have a chance…? There might be a way to stop all of this madness if we play our cards right…’ John slowly rolled onto his underside and got up again, his arachnid legs supporting his body weight. “Yeah, we can’t just sit here and cry in defeat. We need to try our best to come back from this moment…” He then looked around. “As soon as we get out of this world…”
“And as soon as you get the hang of your freaky eldritch horror powers as well.” Cassidy added as he pointed a finger at John’s legs.
The Galvantula looked at his legs again and he noticed that he was sinking on the ground once again with that glitch energy liquid. “Gah!” John tried to struggle out of the liquid before he decided to bolt towards the trunk of a tree next to him, gripping the bark of wood tightly as he panted. “Okay, what the hell dude!? Why am I doing that right now?”
“I don’t know… I thought you knew how to use them since your powers saved us… most of the time.” Claire smiled sheepishly as she looked aside, remembering the time they almost crashed into a wall after John used that strange teleportation magic on a whim.
“Of course I don’t! If I knew, I wouldn’t be sinking into the ground right now!” He said before he looked at his legs again. Fortunately, he wasn’t phasing through the tree… however… the tree itself was beginning to spazz out of reality, just random bits of it blinking in and out of reality as it morphed and shifted shape. “And I definitely wouldn’t be doing whatever the fuck this is!”
The robot clicked his fingers. “Oh, I get it! You’re just hungry, aren’t ya?”
Claire and John looked at Cassidy with a confused look on their faces. Claire asked. “Huh? How do you know what the problem is?”
The metallic Weavile responded with a shrug. “When I was still made out of flesh and bones, my body was always cold to the touch whenever I didn’t eat anything. Thought it was just some external cold spilling out of my body and shit occasionally, but nope, just hunger.”
“How do you know-” John’s abdomen then let out a rumbling noise… yep, he was definitely hungry. “It has been some time since we last ate… we didn’t even eat a snack during the trip’s break…”
“Now that you say that…” As Claire sat on the ground, she looked down, feeling her stomach rumble as well. She sheepishly laughed as she rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah… we didn’t, did we?”
The Galvantula sighed as one of his backhands facepalmed him. “Of course… always keep forgetting the most essential.” He then looked around the place, realizing that there was no food source around them. They were stranded in a forest in the evening, with no food given to eat. “But still… there’s nothing to eat out here… I’m not seeing any fruits-”
“Fruits? Forget about ‘em!” Cassidy said before putting his claws on his side, his grin flashing a bit brighter. “Don’t Pokémon normally eat wild Pokémon? All you gotta do is just hunt for the little scrappers!”
“Oh, you’re right!” Claire piped up before turning to John. “You said all the creatures here are wild except for humans, right? So there’s no problem in eating the creatures here!” She then sighed. “Unfortunately, no good spices accompanied-”
“WHAT!?” John blurted out loud before turning his head to the robot weavile. “You’re crazy, right? I’m not about to lower myself to hunting and shit just to stave off my hunger! And why are you even suggesting that? Weren’t you human before?”
“I was, until I wasn’t!” Cassidy responded with enthusiasm. “Geez, you’re just a little princess aren’t ya?” He pointed a finger at John. “Did you forget that you’re a 4-feet tarantula with electric and chaotic powers? You’re literally far from a human right now!” He crossed his arms, bending his torso a bit forward. “Tell me, you weren’t expecting to go to that city and get recognized as a human just for speaking the same language as them, right?”
“I-... I… of course not! If I was just a small little tick for them that looked innocent and had just small bites, I’d probably-”
Cassidy interrupted the monochrome Galvantula by imitating a buzzer sound. “Wrong! I could hear the hesitation there!” He narrowed his eyes. “Despite turning into a Pokémon, you still don’t want to admit you’re not fully human anymore, ain’t that right spider boy?”
“I know I left my old life behind! I can’t go back no matter how much I try, I already accepted that!” John shouted back, a hiss entering his voice.
“Guys, can you two please calm down…?” Claire requested a nervous frown on her face. “No need to be so heated about this.”
“Yeah, Johnny. Why be so heated? It’s just a small little snack. The wilds do be like that!” Cassidy said with a small wink. “Unless you still only eat human food because you’re stuck with a human mindset forever…”
“Fine! I’ll prove to you that I moved on!” As John said that, the tree he stood on completely disappeared with a dematerializing effect, only leaving the roots of it on the ground. John fell on the ground on his back, his abdomen spikes puncturing the ground a little. He frowned as his limbs went limp. “I really need to keep this power in check anyways…”
Claire blinked in utter shock after seeing an entire tree disappear before her eyes. “Did… did you just erase…”
The robot didn’t mind it that much, probably having seen worse things in his life. “Sweet! Fortunately for you, since becoming a robot gave me lots of benefits, I can detect heat signatures! And fortunately for you guys…” Cassidy pointed with a thumb to another tree, looking at it intimidatingly. “There seems to be some prey nearby…”
They couldn’t really see it but from the Weavile’s perspective, there seemed to be an animal behind the tree, either a squirrel or an opossum was John’s guess.
Claire shook her head, seemingly trying to get the memory of her friend deleting an entire tree from existence casually. “Yeah! Let’s go get it! Come on, John!”
John flipped himself upright with the help of his backhands, hoping that he wouldn’t go back to phasing through the floor again. He needed to be quick about this and not think too much about the occasion. Don’t stay too much on the trees or else he’ll make them disappear… oh god, he just made an entire fucking tree disappear with his glitch energy, what the FUCK!?
Without realizing it, the fire-breathing fox already went to the tree to go after her target, her fan of tails swaying side to side behind her. Cassidy gave him a small glance before skating towards the tree while saying. “Come on Johnny, don’t want Foxy getting all the good parts, do ya?”
The horned tarantula groaned a bit annoyedly before hopping onto a tree, leaving a small trail of glitch energy as he stepped on the wood. He looked like a predator stalking his prey, the only thing in his body visible was his bioluminescent blue eyes darting from place to place as he jumped from tree to other trees. He hoped that he wasn’t accidentally deleting everything he touched or else he’d fear touching literally anything else that wasn’t the air. Fortunately for the Galvantula, he wasn’t.
He reached the tree that Claire had been pawing, seeing Cassidy observe her prey with his arms crossed. John looked up the tree to see a squirrel eyeing them from a branch. It just stood there like a statue. The Vulpix looked at the monochrome tarantula and asked. “John, what’s that? Looks a bit like a Skwovet.”
“That’s a squirrel…” John commented, making another confirmation that they were back in the world. “Oh my God, I’m really about to eat a squirrel raw…”
“Don’t worry, if they taste as much as a raw Skwovet, then it’s all worth it!” Cassidy stated while looking at John. “And before you ask, it’s exactly what I mean. It was delicious!”
Without even looking, the metal Weavile aimed a finger at the squirrel and shot a Flash Bullet at it, piercing the rodent’s torso and making it fall off the tree and land on the ground. The squirrel twitched a bit, its limbs flailing for a second before its body seized any movements. John stared a bit in disgust as he saw blood leaking from below the corpse, the squirrel’s insides being visible. The Galvantula looked back at Cassidy with a scowl. “How do you live like this…?”
The robot’s finger closed up as he put a claw on his side. “When you’re thrown into the wilds of another world with no memories of yourself and no one to help you, you gotta help yourself and yourself only by surviving. You gotta embrace your instincts if you wanna live to see another day…” He said as he looked to the side, even though with that still grin of his, there could be seen a hint of regret in his robotic eyes. “Anyway, dinner’s served. I can’t eat, so enjoy yourselves.”
Claire was staring at Cassidy for a bit with a worried frown before she focused on the dead squirrel a bit. She then looked at John, who was still standing in a slowly corrupting tree, with a soft smile. “Hey John, I think you should eat this first to take care of your… um…” She eyed the tree slowly becoming unstable, glitchy particles making the tree morph in ways she couldn’t even describe. “Your problem…”
John looked at the tree he was standing on, seeing it get more unstable and corrupted by his power. He cringed a bit before jumping off the tree, instead of sinking into the ground, his feet were releasing the unstable substance from their tips the grass and dirt starting to bubble in unexplainable ways. “Al-... alright… can you uh… at least heat up one of the parts?”
“I can do that.” Claire responded softly before ripping a meat part from the squirrel with her jaws. John cringed and looked away as he left Claire to prepare his snack for him. He eyed Cassidy, seeing the metal Weavile staring at him while chuckling very lowly, judging from the minor flashes of his red grin. The tarantula scowled at him as his pedipalps crossed, hearing the sound of flames afterwards. He turned back to see the Vulpix roasting the meat piece with a controlled jet of flames. After a small bit, the Vulpix finished roasting the piece to an acceptable degree and looked at John with a concerned frown. “So… are you sure you still want to eat it? Maybe you can hold on for longer…”
John looked below himself, seeing himself standing on a puddle of glitch energy. “And probably fuck up the forest with this as I walk? No chance.” He approached the cooked meat, staring at it with a bit of hesitation as his mandibles twitched. “I need to man up…”
“Or should you… spider up?” Cassidy suggested before giggling. John hoped that Cassidy wouldn’t be this annoying during their entire stay in the human world…
The Galvantula hesitated, just staring at his food as the puddle of liquid-like static just grew larger from his pointy feet. John felt like he was about to commit a taboo, he shouldn’t do this, or else what remained of his conscience would slip away without a moment’s notice. But at the same time… who knows what would happen to him if he remained hungry? Not only the restraint of his new chaotic powers might slip… he might do things while hungry he’ll regret a lot. ‘Fine… let’s get this over with…’
With a heavy breath, the monochrome tarantula leaned down and bit on the roasted meat of the squirrel, his mandibles tearing the piece apart as he ate the piece slowly. His new mandibles felt so awkward to munch, it wasn’t as bad while speaking but using those tiny sharp teeth to munch was another story. The taste wasn’t as bad as he thought, it just felt like munching on a piece of bread with no butter or cheese… as strange as that sounded. Even though he wasn’t disgusted at the taste, the thought of him eating like that just made him disgusted by the whole scenario-
… was Cassidy right? No, he couldn’t be…
John finished his meal, he felt his stomach tone down in intensity a bit. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to suffice for him. The monochrome Galvantula looked down and saw the glitch energy retreat back to him. He then grunted from a bit of soreness in his legs almost making him tumble down and fall on his underside. “Goodness…”
Claire approached him and put a paw on his abdomen. “Are you alright, John?”
“I… I guess so.” He then looked down. “At least I’m not sinking or deleting anything from space again… Cassidy was right.”
“I’m right MOST of the time! But hey, it worked!” Cassidy approached the duo, putting his claws on his side. “See? It wasn’t that bad! No need to complain all that much about a wild animal!”
The Vulpix tilted her head. “From what you said earlier and your being nonchalant about all of this means you’ve lived like this before?”
“Yep! Not my best time. Went to sleep starving for some nights since I wasn’t used to hunting in my new body. But hey, that’s when I decided to just embrace my instincts and then I did much better while hunting and scavenging! And also, for your reassurance, Johnny.” He tapped the side of his head. “I still retained my brain after all that time.”
John stared at the metal Weavile with a frown, questioning in his head everything he believed. Was he just… overthinking all of it? Would he not lose his mind to become wild? How could he be so sure…
The horned tarantula sighed and looked aside. “Claire, don’t forget to eat as well, alright?”
“Alright, I won’t.” Claire said before shooting another controlled flamethrower at the rodent.
After the two organic Pokémon had their fills, the trio continued walking towards the city. It was already dark and to compensate for Claire’s low visibility in the darkness, Cassidy was kind enough to activate his… flashlight purple gem thing on his forehead…?
John was a bit confused about how many functions fit the metal Weavile’s body. Not only did he have extendable limbs, gun fingers, an arm cannon, wheels below his feet, a rocket propeller on his back, and now a flashlight on his forehead? What’s left, his belly opens up to reveal a laser canon?
… Honestly, after everything the Galvantula went through, he wouldn’t doubt anything else.
“Hey, Cassidy?” The robot faced John, his flashlight almost blinding him before he lowered the intensity. “So, now I’m curious about your own body. How much stuff does your body have? Like, you can do a lot of stuff with it if I remember correctly…”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Cassidy crossed his arms. “Oh, what’s that? You jelly or something?”
“No, dude. I’m just curious about how much stuff your body fits because of the amount of stuff you can do.” John said as he tilted his head.
The metal Weavile looked up. “Heh, to be honest. I feared robots before becoming one. Once I did become one, I noticed it wasn’t all that bad and I gained all sorts of cool gizmos. But to answer your question…” He shrugged. “A lot. Since I don’t need to eat or drink stuff, and don’t have a reproduction system, more stuff can fit.” He turned both of his arms into small cannons and aimed them around. “And hey, I don’t mind it since all these things are pretty awesome!”
John then thought about something a bit concerning. “Uh… but what if you want a girlfriend…?”
Cassidy made his claws appear again, his frozen grin carrying a smug tone to it. “And who says I want a partner at all?” He flexed his claws. “Nah, dude, I’m a free spirit. Turning into a Pokémon may be the best thing that has happened to me! … until the furry came and made me her puppet for… I don’t remember how long.”
Claire grimaced at hearing that. However, she looked at the metal Weavile in determination, her eyes emanating a soft hue. “That means we’re just gonna avenge your free spirit by giving that tyrannical meowscarada what she deserves!”
Cassidy flicked his claws at the Vulpix. “I like your funny words, fox girl! We’re gonna beat her ass so hard she won’t even know what hit her!”
“Long way until that point though…” John stated, adding the realism that the other two missed. “We still need to figure out how to go back to the Pokémon world since we’re kinda stuck here without Hoopa or Popo and Nana’s help.”
“Wait, are those the little rats? They can make portals to our world as well?” Cassidy asked in curiosity.
Claire confirmed. “Uh, long story short, yes… they can.”
“Interesting. Sad they got captured though.” The metal Weavile replied with a shrug as John and Claire looked down with a grimace. “Oh well, we’ll just bust them out later, once we eventually get out of this world.”
The fire fox added as she looked at the Galvantula. “Also, remember what Hoopa said? You need to get better at using your powers to even have a chance against Alice. She must be really powerful to have even subjugated the god of space to do her bidding…”
John sighed, the glitchy particles around him bubbling a bit quicker. “Don’t even remind me… I just wanna get to the city faster so we find a good place to rest for the night. I’m already stressed out as it is from everything that happened…”
“No need to speed up anymore because…” Cassidy pointed in front of them, a tall wired fence stopping them from progressing forward. However, on the other side of the fence, they could see an illuminated road that led to some buildings that were some kilometers away. “We technically reached the city!”
Claire’s tails wagged in excitement as she saw the light of the city a bit away, seeing some cars pass by the road as her eyes glimmered in excitement. “We’re here!”
John scratched his head with one of his backhands, groaning in tiredness. “Well, hopefully, we can find a good place to rest…”
“Yeah, today has been tiring…” The Vulpix admitted as her ears flattened against her head, a sigh escaping her mouth.
“Don’t rest just yet!” Cassidy said before jumping over the fence with a single hop while doing a front flip. After landing on the other side, he spun to face the other two Pokémon as a car passed behind him. “Come on, the fence is not electrified, y’all can climb over it just fine!”
One of Claire’s ears rose as she looked at John inquisitively. “Wait, has your world put electricity on some fences?”
“Yeah.” John admitted as he started climbing over the fence rather easily with his nubs. “The crime rate is so high in some places that they decided to implement some of them to stop criminals from infiltrating places. Before it was barbed wires on these things to stop them.” He turned to Claire and extended his backhands to the Vulpix. “Anyway, want me to carry you?”
The fox still grimaced over the reason why those kinds of fences existed, however, she just decided to shrug it off for now. “Yes, it’d be appreciated.”
John grabbed the fox and started climbing the rest of the fence, with Claire held in his large backhands like a puppy dog. He then jumped down the fence, releasing the six-tailed fox after landing. The monochrome Galvantula eyed the area, seeing some cars passing by them with some of them ruffling his fur as they drove by. He wondered if the passengers in one of them had spotted them, even in the darkness. Probably. “Shall we go?”
“No need to even ask, Johnny.” The robot said while flashing a thumbs up. He then looked at the buildings ahead. “To be honest, I’m kinda itching to see how humans react to seeing us in general. Oh, the looks of horror on their faces are gonna be priceless!”
“Yeah, no, you said it yourself. If they see any of us… or well, just you and me, they’re gonna freak out on the spot and we’re definitely going be in deep shit.” John stated as he crossed his backhands. “Do you seriously want to get thrown in a lab so they can dissect you?”
Claire cringed as she took a step back. “Huh!? What do you mean, dissect!? The humans will do that to us!?”
Cassidy laughed, putting a claw on his side. “Oh Johnny, what a comedian! You’re seeing too many movies! Let’s be real here, the most they’ll do to us is keep us under heavy surveillance in a prison cell and ask us questions. We can talk to them, after all.”
John was about to argue before he shut his mandibles, looking aside as he thought it over. He… really had been seeing too many movies when he was a human… “I… sure, you have a point, maybe I went too far. But still, you don’t want to be locked in a cage, right?”
“Nope… IF you think I’m actually getting caught! I want to see them even try!” With that, Cassidy started skating towards the buildings. “Come on, we stalled for long enough out here!”
John and Claire looked at each other before following the robot, trying to keep pace with him. As the two jogged, Claire commented. “For a guy that was getting mind-controlled the same day, he sure has a lot of energy going for him…”
“Agreed, maybe a bit TOO much energy…” John added, watching another car pass by them closely.
The trio continued their small trek to the urban life ahead of them as cars continued to pass by them. Luckily, none of them were authorities cars, or else they’d definitely stop on the side of the road and identify what kind of “animals” they were.
While still walking, the glitchy Galvantula wondered in his head what he should do in the next few days. It was clear to him that they weren’t going back to the Pokémon world anytime soon, leaving them stranded here for a long while unless some kind of divine miracle happened (which he heavily doubted would happen). Maybe… if Hoopa dropped them next to his house then he could salvage what little of his old life and continue his IT job to give them the income they needed to-
No… who was he kidding? He definitely didn’t recognize these buildings or the entire city he saw in the distance. He definitely was nowhere near his house, and besides, he was considered dead for like… two weeks or so? Who was to say that the landlord hadn’t already sold all his stuff and rented his house to another person?
After all, a teensy tiny insect couldn’t tell that guy he was a human and that he still lived in that house.
John rubbed his pedipalps, trying to think of the best solution to this problem. His head hurt a bit, probably from the lingering effects of sudden evolution and the stress that the day provided, like, he couldn’t think of another stressful day such as this.
He needed rest, at least to find a place to lay low for a while and get a source of food. He was not about to become an alleyway rat to scavenge for food in trashcans and steal food!
… but what if there is no other way to keep his powers in check?
The horned tarantula stopped thinking about that once they reached the buildings, seeing Cassidy stare at one of the buildings in front of him. The buildings around the area were smaller than he had expected. John remembered from the hill they appeared back that the city that they saw had large buildings, but they were probably further from here. All he could see right now were commercial area buildings along with a gas station.
Lights from the buildings and streetlamps were illuminating the area and some humans walked around the place. They were mostly hidden from view, hiding behind a fence some meters away from the sidewalk away from any person’s eyes.
The metal Weavile turned to the duo and crossed his arms. “Ah, there you two are! Thought you guys were gonna take up an entire day to reach here!”
Claire ignored his sarcastic comment and looked at the people walking by, her fan of tails starting to wag a little bit as she eyed the humans. She then shook her head a bit before looking at John with an inquisitive look. “Okay, so what now?”
John hummed in thought as he glanced around. He then noticed how the gas station was mostly empty, with just a car in sight. “Hm…” He pointed at the gas station. “How about we rest over there? I know it’s early night and all, but we gotta wake up early to not be seen by people.”
“You know that I don’t need to sleep, right?” Cassidy commented before leaning down towards John. “If it makes you feel more safe, I can be awake all night to keep watch for you two while you rest!”
“How do you even… uh… recharge batteries?” John asked a bit curious. Now putting into question… yeah, if Cassidy doesn’t rest, then how does he get the energy to move that much?
“Simple, Johnny boy!” Cassidy tapped the red panels on the top of his head and said with a hint of satire. “These are called solar panels if you haven’t learned of them yet. You know what they do? Let me break them down-”
“I get it, I get it, no need to explain.” John said a bit annoyedly, huffing to the side afterwards. “Geez, you’re so obnoxious sometimes-”
“WHAT THE FUCK!?”
The Galvantula and the other Pokémon quickly turned around, seeing a young man looking frozen as he stared at them. In an instant reaction without thinking, John shot a web of silk at the man, constricting his limbs and a bit of his legs. The human grunted and fell on his back before John finally realized what he had done with a gasp. “Shit, that was on accident, I got startled!”
As the human started screaming for help, Cassidy laughed a bit. “Why the web John? Don’t tell me you’re gonna eat the guy like the spider you are, are ya?”
Claire groaned and stomped a paw on the ground. “Shut it, Cass! We need to get out of here before other humans realize what’s wrong!”
The metal Weavile wrapped an arm around the fox as John started taking steps back. “That’s what I was planning to do in case you didn’t notice, foxy!” Cassidy extended his other free arm to the roof of the building they were standing beside. “Come on Johnny, you don’t wanna get dissected by the people of the city, do you?”
As Cassidy grappled away, John shouted at him. “Yeah, yeah, very funny!” The Galvantula then shot a strand of silk at the top of the building, zipping away to the wall and crawling the rest of the way to the roof. He saw the robot putting Claire on the ground, patting her on the head afterwards. Claire then stared at John a bit worried. “What? It’s just the stress of today, nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah… we might need to rest soon.” Claire declared before going to the edge of the flat roof. She looked down at where the man from before was still calling for help, starting to get surrounded by other humans. “Hm… that place you mentioned for us to sleep… looks like the Varoom and Revavroom’s resting stations… they look deserted.”
Cassidy approached the Vulpix and put his claws on the side. “That right there is called a gas station. Since living engines like in your world do not control our cars, these things need something, a funny juice called gas. Comes in many funny tastes! Like gasoline, ethanol, diesel, heck, even electricity!” A tone of sarcasm entered his voice. “Hehe, you should totally drink those, they smell amazing!”
John’s pedipalps limped as he looked at the robot weavile disappointedly. “Cassidy…”
Claire frowned. “Nope, hard pass for me on that one.” She then eyed the gas station again, tilting her head. “How do we get to the other side without being seen, though? That human that spotted us called too much attention…”
“Well, I can cross no issue!” Cassidy commented before pointing a thumb towards John. “You can probably hitch a hide on Spiderman’s giant hands as he zips around like a superhero.” He turned his head towards the Galvantula. “You can hold her while you do that crazy web grappling hook of yours, right?”
“Hm… wait, how about that messy teleportation you did while we were escaping Alice’s guards?” Claire suggested.
John glanced at the Vulpix. “Listen, that was done out of desperation, and we almost crashed into a wall the last time I did that. Who’s to say we just don’t appear inside a wall? Especially when I’m not in the best possible mindset to do this glitchy stuff…”
“Oh, sorry, right.” Claire apologized, her tails lowering a little bit.
John looked down at the street and the building next to the gas station. The distance between the roof they were standing on and the other side of the street was large, probably some meters in length. Now thinking about it, John never really shot a web that far away before… maybe… maybe he could do it in his new evolved body.
He just hoped that people wouldn’t mind a giant silk strand above the street. “I think I can zip away with Claire.” He said as his black hands extended a bit more from his abdomen. He turned away from the Vulpix and offered his clawed appendages for Claire to hop on. “Hop on, but don’t forget to hold still.”
Claire nodded and grabbed onto the hands, curling her body in their grip.
With the Vulpix tucked in, John looked back at the other building and took a big breath. He steeled himself and jumped off the building, shooting a large and thick silk strand to the different building as gravity started doing its job. He then pulled the string and flew towards the targeted construction.
The Galvantula landed on the wall, his pointy and sticky feet scratching the wood of the building before he started climbing to the roof. He looked behind him, seeing that none of the humans nearby were looking at him while feeling Claire in his hold as well. Once John got on the roof, he sighed in relief and looked at Cassidy.
For a moment, he wondered how the metal Weavile would cross the street, but of course, he should’ve guessed the loudest and flashiest way possible. Cassidy backed up a bit before, his jet booster activated, giving him a large impulse in speed as he jumped. While in the air, he did a small twirl and posed by flicking his fingers between his legs and the others behind him. That pose reminded John of something, but he wasn’t in the right state to remember what it was.
The robot landed on the ground gracefully and turned to John who only stared blinkingly at him. “Heh, no need for claps, I know I’m so cool and awesome!”
The horned tarantula stared at Cassidy unamused. “I’m almost scared of going to sleep and you’re the only one awake from the three of us.”
Cassidy waved a claw in dismissal. “Hehe, don’t worry, Spiderman! I ain’t gonna cause chaos. Just because I like a lil’ bit of fun doesn’t mean I’m gonna be that reckless about it!”
John sighed. “I sure hope so…”
“Hey, can I get off now?” Claire asked from John’s hands, her fan of tails swaying from side to side.
“Just hold on a bit, we just need to descend the building.” The monochrome Galvantula said before eyeing the gas station below. Thankfully, the car from before was gone, only leaving the small shop at the back of the place being their only source of worry. Maybe they could rest in the backrooms of the shop.
With a small breath, John slowly crawled down the building while Cassidy simply jumped down with a twirl. Cassidy looked at the street before nodding his head and looking back at John. “Welp, the coast is clear.” He waved his claw dismissively at the Galvantula who let Claire out of his hold. “Y’all can find your lil’ nests or something. I’ll keep watch for you.”
Claire tilted her head at the robot, a bit concerned. “But what if a human spots you…?”
“I blast ‘em!” The Galvantula and the Vulpix just stared at Cassidy unblinkingly. He just laughed. “Oh, the look on your faces is so precious! But anyway, what I’m actually gonna do is…” He then shrugged while winking. “I’ll figure out when it happens.”
John rubbed his pedipalps and sighed. “Just don’t do anything stupid, alright?” He turned towards the shop and motioned for the fire-breathing fox to follow. “Come on, Claire, I’m so tired…”
Claire nodded before following John. She looked at Cassidy as she walked and spoke. “Goodnight, Cassidy, see you tomorrow.”
Cassidy did a single wave. “See ya, foxy. Don’t let Johnny bite ya in his sleep. Evolution makes some very weird quirks emerge-”
“Shut up… goodnight.” John shouted a bit lowly, hoping that no one inside the store would hear him and his companions. Once they reached the back, John looked around and saw a small shack beside the back of some buildings, definitely filled with some tools or storage. “Alright, that seems like a good place to sleep in.”
Claire's ears flattened against her head as she looked at the shop itself. “Are you sure it’s alright if we sleep here for the night? Like, won’t a human check that shack at some point?”
“We just have to hope they don’t. But if they do, we just bolt out of there and make them seem crazy to other people.” John said before opening the door to the shack that was… surprisingly unlocked for some reason. He then entered the narrow shack, seeing that it was some kind of storage for miscellaneous store items. “This should do it for now…”
Claire approached a box and sniffed it, noticing the smell was of chocolate. “Ooh, they got some good stuff here!” She sniffed a bit more, her mouth starting to water a little at so many delicious smells stored away in boxes. “I wonder if we can have some of them.”
“I might not be human anymore, but I still don’t want to steal from people…” John inevitably sniffed a bit of the food, his mind wanting to satiate his hunger a bit more. However, the Galvantula shook his head. “As tempting as that sounds.”
John started expelling strands of silk around him next to a wall, making a small silk bed for him. Since Claire was used to doing that whenever he slept back on her home’s couch or her bed, she didn’t comment on the Galvantula’s behavior. She instead walked to John and waited for him to finish his temporary bed while asking. “Not even a tiny candy bar? Come on, will they even miss it?”
As the big arachnid adjusted his silk with his backhands, instinctively shaping them up, he looked at Vulpix, seeing her pleading puppy eyes. After a small moment of consideration, John sighed and spoke. “Sure, fine, just one candy, or… something, alright?”
Claire nodded with a small wag of her tails. “Yes!” The purple-eyed Vulpix said excitedly before grabbing a KitKat bar from the box and walking over to John’s web. She sat beside it, not wanting to get stuck on the sticky silk, and ripped the package. She then bit on it and munched on a piece before her tails started to wag even more. “Holy shit! This is so good!” She turned her head to John. “What is this thing made of besides chocolate?”
John settled on his temporary silk-made bed and eyed the candy bar the fox chose. “Oh, that’s just made with peanuts to add that extra crunch and a bunch of other stuff to have a taste like that.”
“Damn, humans must have the tastiest sweets ever!” Claire said before taking another large bite out of the candy. “Amy told me she’s a sweet’s lover, so she’d probably love this-” At the realization of what she just said, Claire’s tails stopped wagging and lowered, a frown appearing on the Vulpix’s face. “Oh yeah…”
John’s mandibles twitched as he looked aside, thinking about the last time he saw Taro, Amy, and the Tandemaus twins. He wondered if they were still alright, despite how he last saw them. “I hope they’re still okay…” John glanced back at the fox. “Is… is Hoopa powerful enough to get them out of that mess?”
“Yeah, they normally are. But…” Claire whined after gulping the piece of candy. “I don’t know if it’s enough to get them out of there…” John noticed the Vulpix’s eyes starting to water a little, she must’ve been letting anxiety get to her. “I’m… I’m worried…”
John grimaced for a moment before laying one of his pointy feet on Claire’s back. “Listen, Claire, I’m worried as hell too. But still, we need to keep moving forward and hope that they get out of that mess safe and sound.”
The fox stared at John’s face for a moment, seeing his soft expression despite his six-eyed arachnid appearance. She sniffled a bit before sighing, calming down a little. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, John.”
“No problem. As much as I want justice to be served and our friends saved, we need to save energy and rest for now to come up with something later down the line. I still need to learn how to control my powers…”
“Yeah, and we still need to even find a way to go back… somehow.” Claire added, looking aside while thinking.
“But well, that’s a stress for another day.” The Galvantula adjusted his body in his new web, the silk material feeling like wool from a net on his body. The stress from the day and his exhaustion combined to make it feel that his temporary silk nest looked like a piece of the softest material known to men. He felt all of his six eyes slowly closing. “Goodnight, Claire…”
“Goodnight John.”
With that, the Galvantula closed his eyes and finally fell asleep.
----------------------------------------
Cassidy never felt so free like this.
The robot Weavile, instead of watching the two little softies having their beauty sleep, was flying over the city he was in with his jet booster on the back. He flew some meters above the buildings, watching humans walking and some cars driving below him. They didn’t know there was a feline robot flying through the city above them, all they could probably think that passed above them with Cassidy’s jet booster was perhaps a small rocket or something.
Hehe, oh they didn’t know a thing!
The metal Weavile did loops and twirls as he flew away to wherever his thrill took him, feeling free like a bird bound by cages or wind currents. So that’s what those shit machines felt whenever they flew around, eh? He might not have wings, but he didn’t care, what mattered was that he flew to his heart’s content!
While growing up, Cassidy always thought robots in movies were terrifying, seeing a specific Terminator movie as a child left him scarred of robots and AI being the future of humanity. Once he grew up, he still feared robots, seeing that they would replace humans in every way, first the jobs, then their lives. Sure, that would be a very irrational fear to be had with 17 years, but sometimes childhood trauma still lingered on him. But after becoming a machine, however…
What was he so scared of? He loved being a robot!
He couldn’t get tired anymore, no more hunger for anything! He had all the energy flowing throughout his veins- or wires non-stop! No need to sleep, no need to eat, nothing of that! And to recharge his batteries, just take a quick sunbath and it’s all good! Sure, the only bad thing is that he wouldn’t be able to taste delicious stuff like grilled steak and pizzas anymore, but hey, the pros outweighed the cons!
He could fly, he had built-in weapons, heat sensors, extendable limbs, night vision, and much more! Hell, even if he got hit, some nano-repair bots installed in his body would fix the damages for him! Hell, speaking of his metal skin, no more itches, no more mosquitoes biting his body and so much more!
As much as he hated Alice for taking away his freedom, he had to thank her for giving him this awesome body and getting rid of his fear for good. When he gets back to the furry, he will think about giving her a slight beating or not, maybe a bit of memes about her are in order… for humiliation. Maybe a callout post on Twitter whenever he gets access to that again.
Actually, speaking of getting stuff back…
Cassidy stopped flying and landed on the tiled roof of a building, standing on the edge of it before sitting down. He let his legs dangle from the edge as he watched the humans walk around the sidewalk, the city just moving along normally in the illuminated night. While he watched the movement, he supported his head on his claws and started thinking. ‘Hm… I wonder how Mom’s gonna react seeing me now. Been five years since last I saw her and my siblings…’
It’s been a while since the metal Weavile started thinking of his family like this. He already had accepted his new life as a Pokémon away from his family. They would grieve, sure, but all he could think about was one less mouth to feed for his mom. But never would’ve imagined that he would be back in this world in the body of a Pokémon… it would be funny getting a reaction out of her in this form, but he should visit her and his siblings when he has the chance. And hey, they might like his new body, it is pretty awesome after all.
“Okay, enough imagining scenarios for tonight!” Cassidy said before jumping up and stretching a bit, even though he didn’t need to. “Time to look for more fun!”
Cassidy was about to start flying again when the sound of struggling and groaning registered into his microphone ears. He turned to the source of the noises and saw a small deserted street, noticing the sources of the sound coming from further down the street. Cassidy hummed before jumping down from the roof of the building and landing on the sidewalk. Since there was no human on the streets after scanning around, he decided to be on the ground for a moment.
The metal Weavile skated further down the street and saw five humans. Four of them were beating up another guy who looked defenseless. He noticed that all of them looked like teenagers and that the male human getting beat up was trying to hold on to something.
Oh, why need to look for the fun? It was right there! It came right to him!
Cassidy felt himself grin (internally, since he was always grinning) as he approached the group while muttering. “This should be fun!”
It wouldn’t be as much fun as fighting other Pokémon though, hell, he shouldn’t even fight them. Humans are hella weak and they could die if he used one of his moves against them. But well, one thing that would make it fun is their reactions.
One of the humans noticed the metal Weavile approaching and flinched. He then blurted out loud. “What the-” The other teenagers looked back and noticed Cassidy as well, shock and surprised reactions present on all of their faces.
“Yo, guys, what’s happenin’ over here? Some kind of party? And y’all didn’t even invite me? Awww, such a shame!” Cassidy said, sarcasm filling his voice.
“Who the hell are you?” A human with a beanie asked in a confused and frightened tone. “W-what are you wearing? Some kind of robotic costume???”
As the beaten-up teen started looking up, Cassidy replied. “Oh, lil’ old me? The name’s Cassidy and I’m a guy who LOVES fun! And what are you doing here? Fun things without me? I’m so sad you guys didn’t invite me!”
“It’s none of your business you dwarf cosplayer, get the hell outta here before we beat your ass too!” A guy with a larger belly and a jacket threatened, taking a step forward in defiance.
“Oh, really?” Cassidy turned his head away, his eyes still locked on the group of teenagers. He spoke a bit menacingly. “What if this IS my body?”
A blonde-haired teen approached Cassidy. “Then let’s see if you can handle this, dumbass!” The human kicked Cassidy between his legs, hoping to cause some damage. However, the metal Weavile didn’t even flinch, staying motionless as a statue as he stared at the blonde teen. The human screamed in pain as he fell on his rear, clutching his feet. “GAH! Fuck! What the hell!? Why did that-”
“And just as I said…” Cassidy slowly walked towards the blonde teen, the shading on his face making his expression look more menacing as his grinning mouth flashed his words. “What if this IS my body?”
Fear started creeping up on the group of humans, and the blonde human quickly started to crawl back with aching feet. Horrified grunts started to come out of them as they started to run. “L-let’s get the hell out of here! Robot monster!”
The beaten-up human, who Cassidy noted was a teenager with glasses and curly hair, called out to the others. “G-guys, d-don’t leave me here, please!”
Meanwhile, the robot laughed as all the bullies ran away, he hoped that those human screams wouldn’t make people come out of their homes to check what it was. After all, it was just a prank, bro! “Hehehehehahahaha! Ah, just the fun I was wanting!”
As Cassidy approached the beaten-up boy, the human turned to look at him while still holding something in his arms. He crawled a bit back with tears leaking out of his eyes, judging from the bruises on his body, he wouldn’t be moving that much. “D-don’t kill me… please…”
The metal Weavile tilted his head after getting close to the human. “Kill ya? Bitch, I don’t kill, I am here only to have fun!” He looked at where the boys ran. “And I did have my fun, hehehe.” He extended a metallic claw to the boy, the human cringing a little as he saw the claw get closer to him. Once he realized that he wasn’t getting slashed, he looked back at Cassidy a little confused and still a bit scared. “So, can you still stand?”
The curly-haired boy started at the robot for a small moment, still a bit scared, however, hesitantly, he grabbed Cassidy’s claw and the metal feline pulled him up. Hastily, the curly-haired boy retracted his hand away and meekly asked while adjusting his cracked glasses. “Wh-who are you…? And… what… what are you?”
“Well, like I told your very good friends before. My name’s Cassidy, and-”
“WHAT AM I LOOKING AT!?”
Cassidy and the boy looked at the source of the noise and saw an elderly man coming out of his house, mouth agape as he looked at the two of them.
“And… that’s my cue to bounce!” The metal Weavile finished before doing a backflip away from the boy and releasing his jet booster. “See ya sometime, nerd!” With that, Cassidy flew away from the boy. He giggled a bit before saying to himself as he flew over the city. “Ah, it’d be exhausting to be this awesome if I was anything else but metal and wires!”
Being completely honest with himself, his latest action felt… satisfying. When was the last time he got beaten up by brats who thought they were better than him? Ah, right, 6th grade. He was a defenseless little guy back then. He was the odd one out of every group because nobody thought like him, being seen as a weirdo everywhere he went… no friends and nothing.
But all that changed when he became a Pokémon and finally decided what he wanted to do with his life.
So this moment felt satisfying to do so… anyway, enough reminiscing, time to find more fun before the sun rises once again!