~Fuck, my head…~
The only thing Harper could feel was pain, and it was all over his body. His head throbbed with agony as he stirred out of consciousness. Trying to breathe was difficult, the burned skin on his chest stretched with each inhale. Even taking slow breaths was a daunting task. His eyes felt raw from the blinding effects of the bomb and unless he wanted a flood of tears running down his face, he had to do with keeping them closed. A deafening tinnitus rang in his ears, completely overwhelming any other noise in the vicinity. Harper was unable to move any of his extremities, as his muscles were too sore due to the impact.
But even without moving his arms or legs, he could tell that something was off.
~That's odd,~ Harper thought. ~We're in the middle of the desert, so why do I feel fresh grass?~
The grass wasn't the only peculiarity he noticed, as the ambient noise changed as well. The familiar desert wind was now gone, instead replaced by trees rustling with faint bird chirpings in the distance. Straining himself, he slowly sat up on the grass. His head felt heavier on each side, Harper assumed that he had a mild concussion right now. After taking a minute to breathe, he gave a shot at standing up. What should have been an easy task, even through his injuries, was much harder, as the moment he put pressure on his right leg to lift himself up, he fell.
~The hell? Why can't I stand?~ Harper tried again, failing each time, his reward being a faceplant into the earthy soil. Something about his legs felt wrong like they were bending the wrong way. They can't be broken because if they were, then he'd have been screaming in pain the whole time. Still unable to open his eyes properly, he blindly yelled into his surroundings.
"Hey guys?! Is everyone okay?!" Was it just him, or was his voice higher pitched? His voice felt sore and scratchy, did the explosion do something to his throat? Harper tried to ignore it, it wasn't the most important thing to worry about right now. "I'm okay! I'm not dead!"
Nobody responded.
"Guys, I know you're out there! Mr. Reagan?" Harper yelled in a random direction before entering a coughing fit. Regaining his composure, he shouted again. "Your ass is lucky I'm alive, get ready for a lawsuit of a lifetime!"
Still no response.
His eyes were beginning to adjust and Harper tried to speed it up by rubbing them, removing the tears being accumulated. The moment he placed his hand on his eyelid, something was very, very wrong. Instead of skin that was rubbing his eyes, why did he feel FUR?
"What the fuck?" Harper muttered to himself as he began rubbing harder, desperate to see what the hell was going on. The fur tickled his face but it didn't matter, whatever was wrong his body was far more concerning. Once his eyes stopped watering, he could finally see what was wrong with him.
And his synopsis?
EVERYTHING.
He couldn't see his skin because blue fur covered his entire arm. Looking further up his arms and to his body, he noticed the fur covered his entire body, his chest was different due to the black fur. Two metal plates were stuck on top of his hands.
Hands?
He turned his "hands" over and saw two paws before his face. His fingers were replaced with three large nubs, each one able to move independently from the other.
~Oh god, oh fuck, please don't tell me. Oh nonononono,~ Harper tried to stand up but again tripped over his foot. When he looked back, he saw that they were also paws. Every body feature that was on Harper's body was looking scaringly similar to something from his childhood memory.
"Oh shit, please don't tell me I'm a…" he trailed off and saw a nearby pond. His legs were refusing to listen to him, so Harper compromised by crawling to the edge of the water like an army soldier during training. If anyone was watching nearby, he didn't care about how embarrassing it looked. Once he reached the edge, the reflection in the water confirmed his beliefs.
He wasn't greeted with a reflection of his face.
What instead looked back at him was a riolu.
"Hah, this is a dream," Harper laughed hysterically before coughing again, falling on his back onto the lush grass. "Heheheh, yeah, this is just a dream. I'm probably in a hospital bed over in LA. Mr. Reagan is probably paying the medical fee right now since he's so nice, right?"
Using a nearby tree standing next to the pond as support, Harper slowly stood up, placing his hands on the bark. His tail was instinctually counterbalancing his weight and he hated how relieving that felt, having a new extremity he couldn't control was reality shattering to him enough. Harper then remembered that riolus had those weird things dangling on his head where his ears should be. Guess that answered why his head felt heavier than usual.
"If this is a dream, it's been going on for too long now, c'mon braaaiiiiin wake me uuuuuup," Harper sang as he slightly hit his head, trying to force himself out of this nightmare.
His brain refused to wake up.
"Alright, that's it," He swiftly slapped his left cheek, and his right cheek followed. He was still stuck in this body.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
As much as he didn't want to admit it, he had to.
This was reality.
"Okay… I'm stuck in the middle of goddamn nowhere, no one around to help, and in a body of a fucking pokémon," Harper emphasized the last part to himself. His attempts to ground himself were failing. The amount of internal questions continued to pile in his head until one shattered every other.
Did that bomb kill him?
It probably did, as he wasn't even in the middle of the Californian desert, but that didn't explain why he was in this body. Harper wasn't a religious person but he definitely knew that this isn't what happens after people die. In what world would someone be taken to the Pokémon games after they die? At the revelation that he was an inch away from death's doors, he began hyperventilating.
~WhyamIstillalivewhyamIstillalivewhyamIstillalivewhyamIstillalivewhyamIstillalive…~
The pent-up stress caused Harper's nerves to shake even harder and his legs soon gave out, causing him to slump onto the ground. Breathing still hurt but the sheer panic that he was feeling overrode the pain.
~Shit shit shit, I'm having a panic attack; what's that thing people do to calm down? Oh, right, name things around me,~ Harper tried to take deeper breaths as he identified his surroundings.
"Okay, there's a tree, another tree, the pond, a pile of leaves, a fallen log." As Harper looked around the environment, his heartbeat steadied, and his breathing slowed. Ignoring how he dodged death and why he was in a new body calmed him down considerably. "I see some fern, umm, some mud…" Eventually, Harper ran out of things to spot, but at that point, he had complete control over his mental state. With a clear conscience, he was finally able to see just where he actually was.
He was in the middle of some forest with no sign of any human activity, not even a dirt path was available to set a trail. This forest was an extreme contrast to where Harper was before the explosion. He had no idea how he got here and how he got a completely new body. His injuries were still holding him back from walking around efficiently, causing him to limp and lean from one tree to the next. Harper was slowly adjusting to his new body, walking was becoming easier if only by a minuscule amount. After a few minutes of pained navigation through the forest, he heard a rustling from a nearby bush, causing him to freeze.
"I swear I heard someone her—" What looked like a yorkshire terrier emerged from the foliage, turning her head side to side before locking her eyes on Harper. "-Oh my goodness! You're covered in injuries!"
~Is that a herdier?~ Harper stared at the pokémon in silent bewilderment. He expected to see other pokémon in the future since he was now, somehow, a pokémon himself. He just didn't expect to see one so soon.
"Don't force yourself to stand up!" She directed to him before turning her head to the further end of the forest. "Honey! Get over here! A child needs saving!"
~Me? A child?~ Harper thought as he heard another herdier rapidly approaching. He knew that his voice sounded higher pitched and he was much shorter than usual, but did he really look like some kid?
When the other herdier arrived, he winced at the sight of Harper's injuries. "Oh goodness, you need some rawst right now. Riolu, can you walk?"
"S-somewhat," Harper grunted out, the pain on his chest beginning to resurface.
"Okay, good; now hold onto mine and my husband's backs," The two herdiers stood on Harper's left and right. "We'll walk you to the ranch."
~Ranch?~ He quickly dismissed the thought and did as the herdier told. He placed his arm on each of them and held his body up like walking crutches. Having support from the Herdiers helped walking to be much easier, as less weight was being displaced in his new feet.
"I know walking will hurt, but our trainers aren't far away. Just bear with the pain a little more, son," said the second herdier. Harper grunted in response, and they began their trek to the herdier's trainers.
During the hike to the border of the forest, Harper regained his thoughts and started to think to himself. He was a pokémon now, he couldn't deny it or reverse it. There was also no way he was able to contact the old world. He absolutely died from the explosion, the aches on his body reminded him with every passing second. The two herdiers finding him was a blessing, but where had they come from? He needed proof as to the broad scope of where he was, so he turned to one of the herdiers and asked.
"Do…Do you know where we are?"
Both of them tilted their heads in confusion as they looked at him. "My boy," one of them replied. "Did your injuries also hurt your head? We're on the outskirts of Route 20."
Route 20? Harper began to connect the dots. He was a riolu and he found himself in a forest that was near some ranch. Two herdiers find him injured, both are a male and a female. The most progress he made when he played his emulated copy of Pokémon Black 2 was when he completed the side quest of helping the farmers with…
~Holy shit.~
The proof was irrefutable now; Harper was in the Unova Region.
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The streets of Virbank were thick with fog, and the smell of chemicals permeated in the air. White smoke emanated from the columns of the nearby Virbank Complex, the main cause of the city's iconic haziness. Roxie O'Connor ran through the fog, trying to catch up with her father, who was stupidly throwing his life away for some asinine dream.
"Pop!" Moxie shouted through the fog. "Pop! Just listen to me for once!"
Her father, Liam O'Connor, halted his brisk walk. He exuded unbridled optimism, almost to a fault, unable to hear a single argument she had.
"Don't stop me, my daughter!" he exclaimed as he turned around fashionably, his captain's suit barely holding on. "Living here in this clammy port city has drained me of my true potential!" Mr. O'Connor then pointed over to the brightly lit horizon of the Pokéstar Studios. "Only Pokéstar Studios can help me reach my goal! I have reached my goal of becoming a sea captain, but now I must also become a star!"
Roxie couldn't help but groan as she slid her hands on her cheeks downward. "Pop," she said in a cheery and sarcastic tone. "If your ship doesn't leave the port any time soon," Roxie snapped. "The entire port is going to be in utter chaos because of your MIDLIFE CRISIS!"
"Oh, my daughter, it'll be completely fine," Mr. O'Connor adjusted the brim of his captain's hat. "If you can split the responsibilities of your role as a gym leader and being the leader of a band, why can't I do the same?"
Before Roxie could refute his belief, O'Connor quickly turned around and dashed to the gate connecting Virbank and Pokéstar Studios. Roxie stood there, caught off-guard by her father's sudden departure and abandonment of his duties. She crouched into a ball, hands over her head. After a few seconds of incoherent mumbling, she snapped.
"AAAAAAAAH!" She stomped to a nearby alleyway and began kicking over garbage and trash cans. "You dim-witted…dense…dumb…daft…dippy… dolty…doltish…DOOFUS!"
She ran out of the alleyway and shouted at the city gate. "I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU! I'LL BE IN THE GYM!" She walked back to her gym, trying her best to not think of the consequences her dense father's actions would eventually bring. Despite her efforts, however, thoughts lingered in her mind, to her, only the sensation of playing music could deafen it.
Someone at Pokéstar better put some sense into her idiot of a father.