Chapter 2: The Fox and The Spiderling

Before he died, he wasn’t scared of the pain he was about to feel, he knew the pain of a gun very well. Since he already felt that same pain as a teen. So he would brace for it again like it was nothing. But why was he shaking at the mere presence of a giant fox with curly fur then? It was a simple answer that John already knew… the fear of the unknown. He never was in front of a wild animal like this before. Sure he had seen some close to him before, like wolves and whatnot, but never was in a situation of predator and prey before. Unlike in those situations, in this one, he felt outmatched in every possible way.

He has a way smaller body than before, this creature was centimeters bigger than him. And unlike the Jurassic Park movies he’d seen, outsmarting this creature with his human intelligence would be way harder than it might look. It is confirmed that the creatures in this world could talk and had some sapience kind of intelligence, but how smart were these animals (including the fucking bugs…)? John didn’t know…

So what was he about to do in this situation? That fox with curly fur was already inspecting him by sniffing him, he had nowhere to run. As he would try to get out of there, the creature might rip him to shreds with either their (or her, guessing by the voice) mouth or claws. So… there’s one thing left that might get him out of this situation…

John suddenly lowered the front half of his body as best he could, and that caught the creature by surprise since she tilted her head to the side. He was trying to bow. “Look, I know that I may look like a delicious little snack to you, but please! Don’t eat me, I taste bad, and there are clearly better things to do to me! Like uh… making me your slave and getting me to do whatever you desire! Please, anything that doesn’t make me a meal!”

“. . .” The fox let out a chuckle that quickly evolved into a hard laugh. She was laughing so much that she even fell on her back full of laughter. John was completely speechless, why was she laughing? Was she enjoying seeing the helplessness of her prey that it begged for its life? That’s kinda sadistic if you ask him.

“U- um… what is so funny…?”

She laughed for a couple more seconds before calming down and wiping a tear off her face with her paw. “Hehehe, you’re so funny!” The fox got up and sat on the ground. “Wow, that was a funny joke!”

John just stared at her without saying a word. “…”

“Wait… you actually thought that I was gonna eat you?” John slowly nodded and the fox giggled to herself. “Ah… man, with this kind of thinking, you’re like a hatchling Joltik, always thinking everything bigger than them is their predator.”

“…”

“… Wait… you’re actually a hatchling?”

John decided to break his silence. “Well… since I kinda came out of an egg today… I guess you could say that…”

The fox was suddenly surprised as her eyes widened. Did John mess up? Was it the wrong idea to reveal he was basically a newborn? He couldn’t have known these animals undergo a learning process before speaking! “… H-how?”

“Uh… oh wow, you took that seriously? I-I meant it as a joke! I’m actually um… 10 years old.”

“…” The fox got up from her sitting position and slowly approached John, while he was slowly backing away. “Don’t try to fool me, little bug.”

At that, John flinched a little but was more occupied trying to get away from this situation.

“I may look like a dumb little teenager, but I’m way smarter than I look. I dedicated my studies to becoming the best explorer that ever existed, so I know when red flags appear. And I can see a lot of them covering your whole body.”

John was feeling surrounded and completely out of options. For some reason, he felt like he was sweating, but whatever he was couldn’t sweat, but it had the same feeling.

The multi-tailed fox continued. “Your lie doesn’t match because… your body is way smaller than an average Joltik, meaning you were born recently, and that smell that I felt around you… egg fluids…”

‘So outsmarting is clearly not an option in this world because I fucking suck at it…’ John thought.

“So the only conclusion that I have for all of that is…” Suddenly she stopped walking. Then her eyes started glimmering as she slowly gasped. “No… WAY!!!”

“Huh? S- something wrong-“

She then pounced at John, grabbing him in her paws as she fell to the ground. She rolled onto her back and lifted him in the air like a small plushy. “You’re a human! I can’t believe it!”

“W-wha? H-human? How did you know ab- … what’s a human…?”

“I know you’re pretending! You can stop lying now.”

John dropped the act with a sigh and stuttered. “O-okay! First of all, how the fuck do you know about humans? Are there any in this world?”

“Oh, there are humans here! Well… they were at least.”

“Wait… they all turned into like… creatures like me?”

“Well not exactly LIKE you, but other Pokémon.”

That word… it feels familiar… and with that word, John always associated it with another word that he would hear throughout his whole life. “Pokémon… like… Pikachu?”

“Yeah! One of them even turned into a Pikachu at some point in the past!” She explained.

Oh god… at all the worlds he wound up in… it had to be from a franchise that he never got into! Now John regrets not getting into that fandom… he basically knows shit about this world except for… oh no…

The human-turned-Pokémon felt hesitant to ask this certain question. But… he didn’t know what species of Pokémon this fox was, so he couldn’t even know what their abilities were. Either way, he asked anyway. “If… if you’re a Pokémon… do you have some kind of magical ability?”

The fox giggled. “What kind of silly question is that? I thought all humans knew what every Pokémon could do.”

“Well, I don’t, so please tell me before I become even more suspicious of you.”

The fox placed John on her belly and put a paw on her cheek. “Hm… well, in some stories I heard about them… some humans didn’t know what some Legendaries were… then this made sense.” She relaxed her paws on her chest. Now that he could see more of her body, he could fully confirm that she was indeed female, and damn was she warm. “Well if you don’t know, I’m a Vulpix, and I’m a fire type, so that means I can shoot flames!”

John’s face went pale, she could instantly roast him and he would burn to death. Now he made sure to not accidentally get to her bad side… “Aha… wow… that’s um… really cool…”

“But now that you’re more informed now.”

She instantly scooped him up with her paws and brought him down to her face and started nuzzling him in her furry cheeks. “You don’t know how happy I am to finally meet a human in person! I have so many questions!”

“But like… why are you fangirling about me since I’m not even that special, I’m just basically in another body!?”

She stopped nuzzling John and looked at him.”Well, that’s because every time a human comes to this world, they always save the world from a big threat!”

“WHAT!?” John wiggled himself out of her grasp and fell on the grass, getting some distance from the fox. “You can’t be serious, right!? Like, saving the world? I can’t be the protagonist of some stupid fairy tale.”

She rolls on her stomach and she starts wagging her tail back and forth while supporting her head with her paws. “And what makes you say that?”

“Well for starters… HOW THE HELL CAN A NORMAL HUMAN WHO JUST WOKE UP IN A NEW BODY JUST Uh, I DUNNO… SHOOT FIRE OUT OF THEIR GODDAMN ASS!?”

She laughed again. “Well, I didn’t say they saved the world immediately.”

“But how did they do it? If so, do you have any historical proof?”

“The library exists, you know…”

‘They have libraries…? Ugh, this shit is so confusing…’ John thought as he pouted. “Fine, even if they somehow saved the world, how did they do it?”

“Of course, they didn’t achieve that alone, you know? They had help from the friends they made along their way, and also mysterious powers they got once their bodies were changed.”

“… That sounds like the plot of every RPG game…”

“Now that you say that… it kinda does hehe.”

Instead of John thinking to himself, he blurted out loud. “You guys have video games!?”

The fox smiled. “Yes we do, thanks to the humans that showed us computers and technology!”

‘Of course, they fucking did… I need to explore more of this world before coming to conclusions.’

“Oh yeah, I completely forgot! I forgot to ask your name!”

“Wait… you don’t call yourselves by species name?

“No, we don’t you silly.” She quietly chuckled to herself.

“Then first, so I can trust you… could you tell me your name?”

The fox- or now Vulpix, got up to a sitting position and put her paw on her upper torso.

“My name is Claire, pronounced by some Pokémon, Clair. What is yours, little human?”

He didn’t know if he should reveal his name or not, but a thought occurred to him. He needed allies, and what’s a good start than a fire-breathing fox? He needed her to trust him no matter what to survive in this world. “… My name is John…”

“John? That’s a nice name!” She gasped again. “I definitely need to introduce you to my family! They won’t believe what I found all the way in the forest! Now sis will definitely eat her words that research was a bad idea!”

“Um… is your family the same species as you?”

“Yeah, but my sister and my dad can shoot ice rather than fire and their fur is as white as snow!”

John had to think if going with her was a good idea or not. If her family are foxes with the ability to freeze or burn anything they wanted, then if he angers them, that means certain death. But of course, he wouldn’t do that, he knew better when to annoy someone. In fact, all of his clients left one hundred percent satisfaction reviews every (most of the) time, and his friends liked him, even if they teased them a little.

He also knew that he had no other options, he had nowhere to go, and he couldn’t risk going back to what essentially is a Pokémon’s nest that was probably something that he wouldn’t want to anger. With a heavy sigh, he looked towards the Vulpix once again.

“Alright then, I’m excited to meet your family.” He lied with a fake grin. He was instead mentally shitting himself.

“Great, climb on then since my home is a bit far away from someone small like you.”

“I don’t think I’m that used to my body that I can climb on your back without falling.”

“No worries!” She got up from her sitting position and approached John. John let out a small shout of fear when Claire opened her mouth to grab John, she then placed him on her back to John’s relief, as his heartbeat managed to calm down a little. “And away we go!”

She started walking from the spot where they met, John was a bit on edge trying to not fall. But he managed to keep his position like he was stuck on her like a damn bug-

Suddenly, he remembered something that Claire had called him before. “Little bug” … was he…? “Claire… can I ask you something?” John started hesitantly, mentally sweating from absolute fear of the possible answer.

“Sure, what do you want to ask?”

“… What did you mean when you called me… little bug…?”

“Well because that’s what you are, a bug type. That means you’re small and have… I think it’s called chitin surrounding your body. And you’re a Joltik, that means you can make webs!”

“…” At that, the human turned bug, couldn’t handle anymore, and fainted.