Chapter 1: Rebirth

A Weavile was dashing through a town at night hour, jumping from roof to roof as he panted for breath.

Cassidy was starting to get tired of this cat-and-mouse chase. Out of nowhere, some rando decided to stalk him, and once he decided to face his stalker, it appeared that he had beef with him and wanted to kidnap him. Just when he thought that all the Pokémon he had beefed with in the past had resolved, apparently not… 

The bipedal weasel Pokémon decided that he had ran for long enough. He jumped from a roof and landed in a dark alley between two buildings, sticking the landing as he fell on the floor. Since he could see well in the dark, he wouldn’t have any issues confronting that armored bitch 1-to-1. 

Speaking of the armored bitch…

As he could hear the crackling and swooshing of flames and a bit of the violet light that they emitted, Cassidy turned around to find none other than Ceruledge who had been following him since he left the bar, his crimson red flaming eyes making him look a tad bit more menacing than others of his species. Still, the ice and dark type Pokémon wasn’t intimidated by that little extra factor alone. He grinned as he put a claw on his waist. “So hothead, what’s your deal? You wanna kidnap me just ’cause I’m too hot?” He waved a claw in dismissal. “I appreciate the compliment, but pass.”

The Ceruledge raised one of his sword hands and spoke. “Your efforts of taunting me are admirable, human, but futile nonetheless.” Shadowy tendrils started coming out of the armored Pokémon’s feet, leaving the ground and pointing at the Weavile menacingly. “My mistress has ordered me to deliver you to her, and I shall fulfill her wishes.”

The Weavile’s expression suddenly twitched at the realization of being called out like that, however, he didn’t waver. Or else, he was pretty sure that he’d be able to smell his weakness or something. That’s how most horror movies went, right? “Oh, you’re a simp? Why didn’t you tell me sooner!” He taunted as he brandished his claws. “Whatever you are…” He did a backflip and got into a battle position. “You ain’t taking me anywhere!”

“That’s what we shall see, human…” The Ceruledge said nothing more as the tendrils went towards Cassidy.

The Weavile grinned jumped away from the tendrils and clung to a wall. “Please, ask for consent before attacking with something like that!” He then started wall-jumping to get a higher position. Once he was high enough, he created a small platform made of ice with spiky icicles on the bottom half of the temporary ground. Cassidy then jumped away from the platform and kicked it directly towards the violet-armored Pokémon, the half with icicles aimed directly at the Ceruledge.

The Ceruledge’s blade burnt brightly, slashing the ice in half as the projectile, the two halves splashing on the ground behind him. However, he didn’t stop there, with a lot of speed, he dashed and jumped to Cassidy, the Weavile was taken a bit by surprise by the speed of the Pokémon. He barely had time to block the slash attack with his claws in the air, sparks flying from the clash of claw and sword. The two Pokémon jumped back from the collision, staying a safe distance from each other. 

“Heh, not half-bad for an edge lord!” Cassidy grinned as he crossed his arms. Suddenly, he felt his eyelids become a bit heavy, making him blink a bit. “What the…” He said as he put a claw on his head, feeling a bit of dizziness.

“I’m afraid your struggle ends here…” The Ceruledge said as he slowly approached the Weavile, shadow tendrils starting to come off from his feet. “Cease your efforts of resistance. There is nowhere to go…”

“Yeah, yeah, “You can’t run and you can’t hide”, saw that on the internet a lot!” Cassidy said as he tried to get into position again, his head becoming a bit light. “Keep underestimating me and I’ll kick your flaming ass outta this town!” The bipedal weasel said as he rushed in again, his claws glowing a purple aura that looked like an extension of his normal claws. He jumped in and tried slamming a Shadow Claw down on the Ceruledge, however, he simply weaved the attack with almost no effort at all.

“Too slow…” A shadow tendril wrapped around Cassidy’s waist and slammed him on the floor on his back, forcing the air out of the Weavile’s lungs and making his Shadow Claw disappear. As the Weavile started to get up, the Ceruledge was already on him, his blade burning as he slashed the Weavile across the chest and launched him backwards.

“Gaah!” Cassidy fell on the ground, battered, bleeding, and with an ugly slash wound across the chest. Normally, he was resistant to these sorts of wounds, having gotten used to them throughout his time in this world. However, he couldn’t get up again, it was as if his strength was sapped away from his body, making him immobile. “Wha-what the fuck… is this…?”

The grey-furred weasel looked up and saw the Ceruledge slowly approaching him. “You don’t need to fear death, she wants you alive after all.” The armored Pokémon then grabbed Cassidy with one of his tendrils, lifting him up to eye level. “You’ll become a valuable asset for her plans…”

With that, the violet-armored Pokémon sank through the floor, dragging Cassidy along with him to the darkness.

---

A human soul, drifting in an endless void, was wondering about the previous life choices that led him into this situation in the first place. Was it really worth it? Was it worth giving his life to save them? … Hell yes it was. Even if it got him a bullet to the chest, at least he didn’t die in vain, he went out like a champ… but still a virgin… he hoped that his friends would tell stories about him to their kids as the one who saved them in the first place.

Well, it wasn’t really that big of a deal actually, he actually died because of his stupidity.

John could’ve never believed that he would die this soon (well, death is unpredictable after all). Now here he was, seeing nothing, breathing nothing, feeling nothing… 

He was truly dead.

It felt weird not having a body, it was like he was in a dream, having awareness but nothing to control, not even his own body. Is this how it felt being dead? Would he be stuck like this forever? Were heaven and hell actually fake? Well, honestly, he kinda preferred that way instead of being trapped in an eternal torture chamber for eternity. But still, this would get boring fast, so it would’ve been nice if something happened now!

…

Nothing. Nothing happened, nothing could happen, and nothing would happen. This was his destiny, to be stuck in whatever this endless black limbo is, doing nothing and thinking about nothing. It was better to just sleep forever it seemed…

The soul closed his eyes (even though he didn’t have a body anymore), and drifted away more. Until a pink blinding light surrounded the void he was currently in. Even with the light, he did not open his eyes. A voice rang out in his mind, the echo bouncing throughout his whole soul.

Human… it’s not your time yet.

He tried speaking, even if he felt that no words were coming out of his mouth. “Huh? Who is this…?”

He tried opening his eyes but to no avail. Who was he kidding? He had no eyes.

The time in your world is over, but we need your help to save ours and possibly even yours as well! Please, you are our only hope!

“What the hell are you talking about? Who are you?”

I’ll give you a new body, so you can overcome all of the problems and hardships you must overcome. You need to defeat her at all costs!

The soul of the human started glowing. “Wait! Who are you!? What do you mean new body!? Who is her!?”

I am running out of time, she’s coming for me. I’m sorry that I can’t answer all your questions. Good luck and stay safe, human!

“Wait!”

Suddenly, instead of feeling freedom, John felt two things… one, he was absolutely cold and the other feeling was like he was constrained, the feeling of being stuck in an awful sleeping position and not being able to change it. He opened his eyes and looked around, it was still dark. He couldn’t see any light. But something changed… he could actually feel his limbs and eyes. “Where… am I…? Wait… what happened to my voice!?” His voice was now a high-pitched male voice. He sounded like a tiny rat squeak but lower. “Is this… the afterlife? Am I gonna feel like shit forever…?”

Suddenly, an instinct he never felt before took over all of his body. It felt feral, a feeling to break out of something… to be free… he needed to be free!

He thrashed around the darkness, trying to break whatever was holding him imprisoned, he felt that he was almost losing oxygen at that moment. He kept digging until-

CRACK!

A small crack in the darkness, he could finally see some light, he needed to see more light!

He kept thrashing and clawing his way out of his prison. After some seconds, there was a hole big enough with some light coming out of it. “Finally… get me out of this place…” After some struggle, he got out of his small confinement, immediately falling on the ground on his chin.

“Ugh… ow… the heck was that?” He tried standing up, but he immediately fell on his back. “What? What happened to my limbs?”

He took a look at his hands- wait a second, where the hell were his hands? “What the fuck is this!? Where are my hands!?” His hands were replaced by two little blue pointy nubs that were covered with some kind of green fur. “What… am I…? And where am I…?”

John stopped looking at his new nubs and decided to get back up, after flailing his limbs around for some seconds and trying to get an impulse to get back on his feet… or whatever it was that replaced his feet. He looked around for a bit, he was in some kind of wooden area. There was a semicircular hole that was the source of the light from before, probably sunlight by the warmth it was giving. He suddenly remembered that he was trapped, so he decided to look at the cause of his confinement. “Alright then… just turn around nice and slowly…”

He moved each of his limbs slowly with precision, trying not to get tangled, making him fall again. After successfully turning around, he mentally patted himself on the back and looked at his own cell. “That shape… an egg…?” He moved closer to it slowly, carefully trying not to fall on his face again. He inspected it, touching it with one of his nubs and running along the egg, feeling its touch. “Holy shit… it is an egg… wait… no, nononono, I-I can’t be one of… those… right? I need some kind of reflection right now!”

He turned back around quicker this time, feeling a little bit more used to it. He walked towards the hole that was the exit. He sighed deeply. “Alright… let’s figure this out…” He left the area where he was supposedly reborn. He looked around and saw that he was in some kind of forest with some gigantic trees. He looked back to see the place he came out of was a hole in one of those said gigantic trees. He suddenly got a bit more uneasy than before. “… What kind of small hellhole am I? No sense in dwelling on these questions… I need to find out what I am. If my suspicions are right… no… I must be wrong… surely… no, I’ll think about something else, I need to see it first before I come to conclusions.”

He shook his head and walked away from his new birthplace. He needed to keep going, he was in an unknown place and in a new body that he didn’t know how to defend himself. He needed to find shelter, because, who knows what’ll come for him he waits, a predator, or his… mom? If he spends too much time with her, she might get suspicious, if the creature she was had any kind of sentience. Wait, would he even understand her? Too many questions in his head.

He decided to ignore them for now and decided to explore around for some time. It was quite some time since he had been in a natural environment like this since he has been spending a lot of time on a computer doing his job. IT isn’t an easy job, but for him, he had to sit back at home and relax while he was doing all the work. He was an introverted person, hence why he hadn’t had so many friends. It felt quite refreshing being in nature again, the last time he was in a big forest like this was seven years ago.

John’s mental ramblings were suddenly interrupted, when he heard leaves from a bush bigger than his size start rustling. As the noise came in, he noticed that his hearing had gone sharper, and immediately turned around to the source of the noise. ‘Shit, something is coming, I gotta find somewhere to hide!’

He immediately scanned his surroundings, and to his luck, he found a cut trunk of a tree, being supported by a rock on his right.

‘Yes!’

He tried walking faster to the rock, but to his bad luck, he tripped on his own feet.

‘NO!’

The rustling was becoming louder, John turned around to see what was causing all of that rustling. He was straight-up “fucked” as anyone would say in that situation. He expected any kind of predator that would hunt for food (him), and with a hungry look in its eyes like some kind of big lion or a terrifying beast. But instead… it was the most terrifying thing John had ever seen… a green caterpillar with giant black bulbous eyes. There were circular yellow rings throughout its body, and red horns on the middle of its face… it was hideous! Worse of all… it was his size! “Holy shit… it’s… it’s… why is it so fucking huge!?”

Suddenly, the one thing that surprised John the most was… it could talk. “What is so huge?! Is there a flying type around here!?” It asked while looking around in panic.

“What the!? You can talk!?”

The caterpillar looked back at John a bit confused. “… Huh…? What do you mean I can talk? Do I still look like a hatchling to you?”

“You’re a freaking talking caterpillar! That’s not normal!”

“I’m a Caterpie! What are you talking about…? You’re weird… are you okay?” The bug started approaching him, crawling with that disgusting-looking body. John backed away slowly.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” He shouted, his expression morphing to fear as he took some steps back.

The caterpillar narrowed its bulbous eyes (wait, they could blink?) as it whispered. “Quiet down will you? Or else a predator might hear us.”

John continued shouting, fuck it if he was the size of a disgusting bug, he needed to get that worm away from him. “I don’t fucking care, as long as you don’t touch me with your disgusting-looking body!”

“Wait, what’s wrong with you?! I’m just trying to help!

Suddenly, John shifted his tone. He didn’t want to immediately cause trouble by being rude, to a sentient bug nonetheless! “It would um… really help if you… stayed the hell away from me. Because I um… I have a curse!”

The Caterpie tilted his head. “What kind of curse?”

“It’s uh… everyone that touches me… dies!” He said energetically, trying to get the point across. ‘Dammit, I haven’t lied in a while because of the lack of social interaction skills…’

“Never… heard about that curse. I don’t think my mom told me about that one.”

“It’s because… it’s a new one that I discovered that only I have! … Yep… anyways… I gotta go… bye!” He quickly walks out of there and starts mumbling to himself. “Talking bugs the same size as me? Where the fuck am I? What is this crazy world?” Speed walking out of there he felt tired and started to pant. “Man… I haven’t run like that in a long time… was that even running… I don’t even know!”

He leaned on a fuzzy-looking rock, he was so tired from walking and running that he didn’t even want to see what the rock looked like. ‘What a comfortable rock… I wonder what kind of moss is this.’

At that, he began to feel some slight but hard-to-notice movements coming from the rock- ‘Wait a damn second, this is not a rock…’

As he turned to look at what was making the movements, he saw that the “moss” was actually a red coloration instead of the typical moss. He then inspected the supposed rock up and down and made a valuable and kind of late discovery… it was a paw… he then looked up to see a giant red fox with purple eyes looking down at him. For some reason, this fox had some hair and a fluffy-looking tail that seemed to divide itself on the tip.

John backed away and stared at the majestic-looking creature in awe and also fear… he was shaking in fear. With a female voice, the orange fox started speaking.

“Well… aren’t you a weird Joltik… you’re shiny as well which is rare…”

The creature leaned closer to him slowly.

“… H- hi…” ‘… I’m so dead…’