Chapter 1: Road Trip Gone Wrong

Rain fell as I looked out the window of a still car with my head supported by the palm of my hand, just watching my neighborhood after checking the usual messages.

“Nathan, are they coming?”

I glanced at my younger sister, seeing the eyes behind her glasses look at me expectantly. I sighed and responded calmly. “As I said before, they will come when they’re ready, understood?”

She pouted a little bit before looking away and continuing to mess with her Rubix cube. “Geez, you’re so cold. Could’ve just told me nicely.” She complained.

I rolled my eyes and continued staring out the window. “And you’re such a light feather, taking anything I say off-tone as either an insult or just being mean.” 

With that, we both stayed silent as we focused on our things, Alexa not even trying to reply.

My sister and I were sitting in the back seats of our parent’s car, waiting for them to arrive. We were about to go on a trip to visit our grandparents, specifically dad’s parents. We would spend the summer break in their house as usual. In my opinion, I always preferred if we spent the vacation in our home or our uncle’s house. Probably because in my grandparents’ house, there’s no internet so I couldn’t talk with my online or IRL friends because it was far away from my town. 

However, since they were the closest to death I might as well visit them a little bit. After all, I actually did quite like them since I had such memories of them when I was a kid.

I sometimes wished I could go back to that time. My life was much simpler those days and teenage life wasn’t really the best. Well, to some degree at least. It was just more stressful these days.

As the sights of the neighborhood started to bore me, I subtly looked at my sister for a moment. Alexa Greylocke, or as I’d like to call her secretly, Amazon Alexa was a smart girl. She’s kinda the nerd of the family and is the top student in her class… which is the 6th grade. She had long brown hair with a fringe and gray eyes that matched our dad. Probably the reason they might be a bit alike in personality; AKA, making a fuss about almost anything.

It seemed she already solved the Rubix cube and was about to solve it again. Seriously, how is she not in high school by this point? Her grades are near perfect.

Suddenly, the two front doors of the car opened and there entered our mom and our dad, our mom entering the driver’s seat. Our mom, Samantha Greylocke, had black short hair and brown eyes while our dad, Richard Greylocke, had black hair, a beard, and gray eyes. 

Mom looked at us and asked. “So, you both ready for the trip? Brought everything you wanted and went to the bathroom already?”

“Yes, mom!” Alexa and I answered, me speaking in a more monotonous tone. 

“Alright, you guys are already familiar with the rules, right?” Dad asked as Mom already started turning on the engine. “Or do I need to explain them again?”

I look at my dad with an unamused face. “You don’t need to explain that stuff every time we go on a trip, Dad.”

The middle-aged man sighed and adjusted himself on his seat, slumping his back on it. “What? Can’t I check at least if my kids have good memory sometimes?”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. “I thought that you’d have already grasped by now that we don’t have a memory issue. Like, it’s already getting annoying.” My dad had that attitude of everything wanting to go his way. It kinda pissed me off sometimes. 

“You get annoyed fast, Nathan, admit it,” Alexa said with a smirk, adjusting her fringe to the side.

“Shut up, no I don’t.” I said while shooting an annoyed glance at my sister. 

“Come on, the car hasn’t even started moving and you’re already bickering.” She then pressed the gas pedal and the car started moving. “Well, now it started moving, but still don’t fight each other early or, ya know, at all.”

“Okay, Mom!” Alexa responded before putting the cube away. She then pulled out her phone and started messing with it. “With this, it’s 100% sibling-fighting proof, hehehe…”

I glanced at her curiously and asked. “What are you gonna do with it? Math equations?”

“Oi, just because I’m a bit smarter than others, doesn’t mean I love math, dummy.” She said before opening the TikTok app. “Just gonna watch some stuff on the trip of course.”

I could already see that this was about to be a long trip when the cringe app was opened…

After an hour on the trip, we were already out of the city and on the highway that led to Idaho, where our grandparents lived. Nothing interesting happened in that hour since I had just been listening to music with Bluetooth headphones, just like other times. 

“Nate?”

I pause the song and look at my mom, the only other sounds are from the rain and the videos from Alexa’s phone. “Yeah?” 

Without looking at me, my mom spoke as she drove. “Me and your father noticed that you’ve been a bit eh…”

My dad just answered for her. “You’ve been avoiding us a lot lately, almost like you’re hiding something from us.” He looked back at me. “You got something to say about that?”

I hummed in slight annoyance. “Why do you always think I’m hiding something shady or illegal? I ain’t a thug and you know that full well.”

“Who knows, you could be doing drugs behind our backs.” Alexa giggled as she continued watching that annoying-ass video…

I groan in tiredness. My sister always tried to make these jokes, but honestly, they weren’t funny. She might be a nerd but she fuckin’ needs to grow up… “Anyway, I’m fine, it’s just… stress, you know? Social life and school life have been taking a toll on me…” I told them a half-truth. They didn’t need to know…

“You sure that’s the case? You’re usually more open about your problems with us.” Mom said while frowning. “Are there more problems you’re not telling us, Nate?”

My mind thought back on a certain event that happened a few weeks ago… my friends and I going to a shadier place than our usual hangout places because of a dare, us getting ambushed, and then…

“Gabriel!!!”

“Just fucking run guys!!!”

I flinched after those agonizing screams echoed in my head, making me grit my teeth and suppress tears from rolling out from my eyes. To forget about the thought a bit further, I pulled out my handheld Nintendo Switch and turned it on. Video games were always the best medicine to forget things like that… “No… I don’t have any problems, don’t worry.” I lied.

My dad sighed as he relaxed back in his seat. “Just remember to tell us if you have something. Back in my age, my dad used a belt to force my problems out of me.”

I snorted. “Old.”

Even though I couldn’t see his face, I could tell my dad was smirking. “Be glad that I didn’t inherit that trait from your gramps. After all, kids these days have it easy.”

I rolled my eyes as the home screen of the Switch appeared. “I guess…”

I booted up Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX and started playing it as the trip progressed in silence. Well, for me, that is, since my parents were doing their usual adult talk, their voices being muffled by the music. And so, the trip stayed like this for a while… I thought the trip would be like that until the end, however… something unexpected happened.

I was playing PMD normally, going through a hard post-game dungeon to get some good gummies before I felt the car make a slight turn left before turning to the same part of the highway. I looked up from my game and put the headphones around my neck, asking my parents. “What was that?”

“Sorry, I was just trying to bypass a car but it kept switching to the same tracks as I did.” She sighed before focusing a bit more. She then managed to turn left again and bypass the car. “Finally, took long enough-”

Suddenly, the entire car trembled as I felt something ram into it on the back. It was then that mom lost control of the car as I saw her trying to balance the steering wheel but failing to do so. I could only hear the sounds of screaming and tires screeching as mom tried to hold the brake, however, it only made the situation worsen I saw the world spin.

The glass shattered and I could feel pain as something sharp pierced my clothes along with my skin from every side, making me scream. However, before I closed my eyes, I thought I saw my family start to glow white as my consciousness started to fade away. And with that… the world became nothing but black…

---

Pain reverberated through my head like a pinball, bouncing from every edge of my head as it kept getting weaker and weaker. My body felt weak, it felt like every limb I had was not even there. My thoughts were scattered, I couldn’t make sense of anything happening around me. 

My senses slowly returned to me as one single alien thought appeared in my head.

“Open your eyes.”

Answering the thought, I slowly opened my eyes, feeling all my senses return to my body. As my awareness returned to me, my vision adjusted itself, letting me see rays of sunlight peeking through the foliage of trees. I could hear the chirping of birds as well along with the passage of the wind. I could also feel the touch of something finicky poking back. Well, that at least meant that I didn’t lose my senses, fortunately.

I looked around, seeing nothing but green everywhere. It seemed like I was in some kind of forest, but… what forest? What was I even doing there? “W-what…?”

I tilted my head to the side to get a better angle at exactly where I was but immediately got startled once I saw what was next to me. A dark brown and beige feline, with a red tuft of fur acting like a fringe that covered its left eye, was lying down in a patch of grass and dirt unconscious. 

In reaction to seeing the big cat, I tried standing up to back away from the creature, however, I immediately fell on my back once I was back on two feet. “W-what?” I looked down at my body and immediately froze at what I saw. My body was completely different than before. I had blue and black fur while having patches of yellow fur in my forelegs, blue-furred paws, and a black tail that ended with a four-pointed star-shaped tip. “W-what the actual fuck…!?” I muttered shakily as I inspected my new body.

Wait a moment… the fur patterns and the body shape… did I…?

“What kind of twisted joke is this?” I whispered to myself, trying to keep myself from having a mental breakdown. Rolling onto my belly and feeling the grass poke through my fur, I looked around me once again to get a full view of the situation. My eyes went wide at what I saw also lying on the ground unconsciously. Next to each other, there were realistic-looking female luxray and male pyroar, their gender being distinguished by their manes.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Two real Pokémon were right in front of me! “What’s going on…?” I then looked at my paws, realizing what I had become. “I turned into a damn shinx… or a luxio? Just what the actual hell, man?”

“Ngh…”

My eyes darted back to the feline with the red tuft of fur, now realizing that it was a litleo, who was slowly but surely opening their eyes. After taking in their surroundings, they spoke with a very familiar female voice. “Where… where am I…?”

That voice… was the same voice that I had heard so many times when I was being annoyed, being corrected, and receiving some vague compliments in the form of compliments. There was no doubt that the voice was… “A-Alexa…?”

The female litleo looked at me and flinched once her eyes locked with mine. She yelped a bit loudly before trying to take some steps back. “Nathan-!? Ack!” She fell on her back before looking at her own body in horror, her eyes widening and her mouth opening wide. “W-what’s… what is this!?” 

Noticing my sister’s panic, I get up and try to slowly walk up to her, trying my best not to trip on my own leg and fall on the ground. When I eventually reached up to her, I put a hand- paw… on her torso as I tried my best to calm her down. “Hey, Alexa! Calm down, it’s me, Nathan. You okay…?”

The litleo (who for some reason is my fucking sister) looked at me with a scared look in her eyes. “N-Nathan… it’s… it’s really you?”

I nodded. I don’t know if my face was more menacing because of my new body, but I sure hope it wasn’t. “It’s me, don’t worry, I’m here.”

Beneath my paw, I could feel her shaky breaths calm down a little, getting steady as she continued to look at my eyes. It seemed that I was succeeding in soothing her. After some seconds, she finally asked. “What’s… what’s going on? Why are we here?” She then looked at her own body. “Why did we turn into… whatever these are?”

“I… don’t know.” I looked away with a frown before inspecting my own body, touching my torso with a paw. “From what I saw, these are Pokémon bodies…”

Alexa looked at me in confusion. “Pokémon…? Like, Pokémon, the anime?”

“I guess you could say that… but uh… it kinda goes more deep than just an anime…” I said while looking aside. “But I can explain that later, but right now we need to figure out what the hell’s going on.” I thought to myself if everything I saw was a dream, but after everything, I felt and saw so far… this was too detailed to be a normal dream, even a lucid one.

I ignored the urge to hit myself just to be sure.

Alexa frowned as she sat up, looking around. “Where’s Mom and Dad?”

My eyes lit up in the realization of something that I had forgotten during all of this drug trip of a situation. Before I appeared in this forest, I was in the car along with my family, and the car… did we…?

More grunts made me snap my head to the source of the sounds, my ears twitching along with the noise. I looked at the luxray and pyroar who were waking-… wait a minute. If my sister was there with me, my entire family was in the car before appearing here, and if Alexa and I were Pokémon of the shinx and litleo line then that meant…

Oh fuck…

The two lion Pokémon opened their eyes while looking around. Before they looked at me and my sister, I called out to them. “Mom… Dad…?”

“Nate? Where are we-” The luxray, who had the voice of my mom, looked at me and Alexa and froze in shock. 

The pyroar looked at Mom, tilting his head before his expression turned into a flabbergasted look. He then blurted out with Dad’s voice. “W-WHAT THE FUCK!?”

I could hear the sounds of birds flying away from the trees because of the loud and potent shout. Meanwhile, Mom’s head snapped back at Dad before she screamed in horror, jerking her own body back to get away from the pyroar. “A- A LION!?”

Since I knew things would go to shit quickly, I walked to them a bit faster than before, almost tripping over my legs before shouting. “Wait, Mom, Dad!” 

Both fully-evolved feline Pokémon looked at me, staring in silence with terrified expressions. The pyroar was the first one to break the silence. “That-… that voice… N-Nathan…?”

The luxray’s eyes went wide. “Nate…? Is… is that you…?”

I looked at Mom and Dad before nodding. “Yes, it’s me, guys.” I then shook my head before they could ask anything. “And before you ask, no, this is not a dream nor a prank, everything here is real. ”

By their feline expressions, they didn’t want to believe shit, however, from all the evidence around them, they would slowly but surely believe the reality of the situation. After a moment of staring, Dad asked. “W-what the hell happened to you? Why are you this… cat… lion thing?”

Before I could respond, Mom turned to the pyroar. “That voice… R-Richard!?”

Dad turned to the luxray with a shocked expression. “Samantha!? That’s you!?”

They both looked confused before looking down at their bodies, the two lion Pokémon screaming once again. “US TOO!?” Mom was the first one to speak first. 

Alexa, having gotten up, walked to my side and said. “All of us got transformed…” Everyone looked at her, the litleo throwing her fringe a bit to the side. “Mom… I’m scared…”

The luxray grimaced as she slowly got up. “Oh Alexa, not you too…”

Dad groaned (which sounded a bit like a small roar) as he looked around a bit angry. “What’s the damn meaning of this!? Why are we here and why did we become freakin’ weird animals!?”

“Not animals…” I muttered a bit loudly, making my family’s attention turn to me. As I felt their eyes lock onto me, I felt pressured to explain, so I did. “I know these species… we became Pokémon…”

Everyone stayed silent for a moment, even Alexa who already heard that information, to process what they just heard. Suddenly, a low chuckle could be heard from my dad before that chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh. He looked at me with a furious face. “Is this some kind of twisted joke!?” He got up on all fours, managing to stand up straight. “What in the right mind makes you think that we are some kind of magical creatures from a damn company made to entertain children!?”

I could see his mane starting to flare up, sparking a bit of flames. “Uh… Dad-?”

“Nathan, for God’s sake! Are you realizing the shit you’re saying right now!?” The flare on his mane only got stronger as he spoke. “Like, do we look that magical to you!? Sure, you and your mom have some weird fur color and weird tails but are you even sure we can do magic!? Can I release some kind of fire magic!?”

“Richard!” Mom shouted, making Dad’s attention turn to her. “Y-your hair-I mean, mane! It’s on fire!”

My dad’s rage ceased as he looked at the edges of his vision, seeing a bit of fire around him. “What the!?”

I could feel Alexa hiding behind me as she peeked to take a look at Dad. She said in a rather shaky voice. “A-are you done… shouting?”

Dad stared at Alexa with a grimace before looking aside, the flames around his mane dissipating. “Yes… I’m sorry.”

Mom frowned. “Nate is right… we… we became those… Pokémon creatures… God, they were actually real all along…?” She looked a bit ill, judging by her expression.

I slowly approached her, getting used to being on four legs. I stopped beside her and put a paw on her back. “It’s okay Mom. I know it’s a lot to take in but… we’ll get through it.”

My dad groaned in annoyance as he slumped on the ground. “How though? We’re in the middle of God-knows-where in different bodies with no idea what happened to us!”

My eyes darted to the side, a grimace creeping onto my face. I debated with myself if I should remind them of what happened in the car. I decided not to since everyone here was already stressed enough because of the situation, so it was best to remind them when everyone calmed down. “Well, we should just focus on our survival for now. We’re gonna need to stick together so we have better chances in… wherever we are.” 

Alexa tilted her head. “Nathan, aren’t you the Pokémon nerd here? You should know about what we could do in these bodies, right?”

I stayed silent for a moment before realizing something. I would have to guide them around the way of Pokémon, didn’t I? Ooh, boy, I had a long way ahead of me before this nightmare ended… “I guess so…” My family looked at me expectantly and I sighed. “Alright, let’s start with the basics.” I sat on the ground and put a paw on my chest. “I’m a-…” I ran a paw on the side of my hair, feeling a rather long mane. “Okay. I’m a luxio and…” I pointed at Mom. “Mom is a luxray. We’re on the same line of species, mom being the evolved form of my form. We can both use electric magic. You guys following?” 

Mom admitted with a sigh. “I’m trying so hard to follow while also not having a mental breakdown but… I’m following, Nate.”

The others nodded as well, motioning for me to continue. “Alright then.” I turned to my dad and my sister, pointing at the latter. “Alexa is a litleo and…” I pointed at my dad. “Dad is a pyroar. Both Pokémon have fire magic since they’re part of the same species.”

My dad tilted his head, being a bit confused. “So… from what I get… we’re basically all lions but Samantha and you control electricity while Alexa and I control fire?”

I shrugged my shoulders as I looked aside. “Pretty much the gist of it.”

The pyroar sighed as he muttered. “I hope I wake up from this crazy nightmare soon…”

“Well, could’ve been worse-”

Before I had the chance to hypothesize a worse scenario, our ears twitched when we heard the sound of rustling leaves of bushes. We turned to the source of the noise and saw the foliage shaking a bit violently. Mom tensed as she started backing away. “W-what is that?”

As Alexa went to hide behind Mom, I looked at my dad a bit panicked. “Dad, quick! Get in front of us so they are intimidated by you!”

A little distraught by everything happening at the moment, the pyroar stuttered while he walked in front of the group; “Uh…! Al-alright!” He almost tripped but managed to stand up straight. Although, in my honest opinion, he didn’t look that mighty since his legs were a bit shaken.

However, we just had to hope that whatever came out of that bush was sentient and not feral. Wait a minute, if we were Pokémon… were we in a Pokémon world with humans? If so… fate had been cruel to us. I then started to hope that whatever came out of that bush was a Pokémon.

The universe decided to mock me because, while yes, a Pokémon did come from the bush, it was a Pokémon that I was not expecting at all. A damn dragonite came out of the bush in all of its scaly glory. Vibrant orange scales reflected a bit of sunlight because of how polished they were, large claws that could cut trees by themselves, and wings smaller than what their body would suggest they had. Overall an actual IRL dragonite that would be fearsome to look at if it wasn’t for its docile-looking face. However, something I wasn’t expecting was that it was wearing a leather bag wrapped around its shoulder and a blue scarf with a badge around its neck.

Wait a second… no fucking way-

“Ah! What the hell is that thing!? A dragon!?” My dad shouted, just by his voice, I could tell he was pissing his pants (of course subjectively, not like we had any clothes with us). 

However, to make my family even more confused, the dragon spoke. “Uh… I’m a dragon type? Is that what you meant, sir?”

Mom gasped as she flinched. “Did it just speak English!?” 

Alexa analyzed it quickly in distress. “Wait, it’s sentient!? It’s wearing a bag and all that…”

The dragonite frowned as it-no, she spoke. “Geez, why are you guys acting like this? Just because I’m a dragon type, doesn’t mean I’m a hot-headed savage…”

I spoke while taking a few steps forward. I needed to do something before the first contact went south terribly fast. “I-I apologize for my family’s rudeness! They’re just… uh, not familiar with Pokémon.”

The orange dragon tilted her head in confusion. “Not familiar with Pokémon? What does that mean?”

I looked aside while ignoring the stares that my family was giving me. Should I tell her the truth? Was it the smart thing to do in a situation like this? Well… we needed all the help we could get, and this dragonite screamed civilization from the way she acted and from what she wore. 

And if that meant what I thought it meant, then we were lucky…

“So uh… this may sound impossible to believe but… we are- or were, humans.” The dragonite’s eyes widened. Bingo. “I suppose… you haven’t heard about that species before?” 

My dad turned to me and asked with an angry tone. “Why would you reveal that to it-?”

The female dragonite waved her arms in front of her. “No, no! I heard of your species before! In fact, your species are quite famous around the world.” Her eyes widened as a realization seemingly struck her. “Oh my… now I see why would a pyroar react that scared when you saw a dragon type… you’re all humans, aren’t you?”

My family shot confused glances at each other before Mom asked while looking at the dragon. “How… how did you know about humans? And what do you mean we’re famous?”

A smile crept up on the dragonite’s maw. “I suppose I should explain it. Although, not here, who knows if a feral appears out of nowhere. Follow me, I’ll take you guys to a town.”

Alexa walked from behind Mom and asked a question the pyroar was about to ask first, making him look away. “How should we trust you? What if you’re trying to lead us back to your den to eat us?”

The dragonite scowled. “Well, little girl, for starters-” 

“Are you guys hearing that?” My dad suddenly spoke up, making us turn to him before turning to the direction he was looking at. The tree foliage shook heavily and we could hear the sounds of what seemed to be angry hisses and noises. “Are there monkeys around here?”

The dragonite grimace. “Oh no… those are-!”

From the trees, round cream-colored fur balls with arms, legs, ears, and a tail fell to the ground. I immediately recognized what those were and I couldn’t help but mutter out loud with a sour look. “Mankey…”

My family and I took some steps back, the luxray falling to the ground after tripping on her legs. She, along with Dad and Alexa had a terrified look on their faces. I could tell that there were maybe ten of them if not more. However, before they could attack us, the dragonite flew in front of us and lifted an arm to the side as her wings extended. “Stay back! I’ll handle this…”

Before the thrill of the situation could get me and I offered to help without knowing how to battle, my dad shouted, his mane sparking a little flame. “Yeah, dragon lady, kick their asses!”

A few mankey tried to pounce at the dragon type, however, she was fast. With a flap of her wings, a strong gust of wind was released and blew the mankey away. Me and my family shielded their eyes from the wind as Alexa shouted. “Guys, come on, let’s run!”

I opened my eyes and objected. “Wait! She can take them all! Dragon types are strong as hell, so she’ll win!”

I was right, since any mankey that got close to the dragonite either got blown away by a gust of wind that knocked them into a tree, slashed in the face by her claws, or blasted away by a beam of draconic energy. Even if they kept coming at her, the explorer (or rescuer) dragonite swatted them away like flies. 

After a while, the mankey stopped coming at her, some of them were knocked out while others retreated, leaving members of their group behind. A moment of silence passed and everyone could hear each other’s breathing. The dragonite sighed before turning to our family with a smile. “See? Told y’all I could handle it.”

Alexa and I had our eyes sparkling with excitement while our parents had a dumbfounded look on their faces. My sister spoke up. “Okay, I gotta admit… that’s kinda cool.”

I nodded. “Finally, something we can both agree on…”

As my mom got up, she asked in distraught, her fangs appearing a little as she spoke a bit loudly. “What part of all of that was “kinda cool”!?” 

“Maybe some of it was…” My dad agreed in a low voice. However, once he looked at Mom, her luxray glare left him a bit frozen. He then cleared his throat, looking away. “N-not that I’d agree with such a thing, of course. Yeah, none of that was cool.”

The dragonite smirked. “Well, glad you all enjoyed the show.” She then started walking, motioning an arm. “Hope that was proof enough that I won’t betray you. So come on before another feral group appears.” 

With that, the dragon type started walking away, prompting me and my family to follow. I looked back at them and said. “Come on guys, this might be our only chance of surviving this place until we learn how to protect ourselves.”

“Are you sure about this, Nate? That dragon looked really strong…” My mom said with a frown.

I smiled back at her. “Don’t worry mom. I know what I’m doing. I’ll explain everything later once we’re alone.”

“If you say so, kiddo…” My dad said before we cautiously started to follow the dragonite, walking slowly to get used to our new legs.