Chapter 2: No Dream

It had only been some minutes since my family and I started following the explorer dragonite that supposedly was leading us to the town. It was very clear from looking at Mom and Alexa that they were still wary of everything; the new environment, the new bodies, and… everything else happening. 

I couldn’t grasp what Dad thought because he was between me and the dragonite, possibly trying to act as a shield if the dragon did something funny. Although… it was a bit uncomfortable for me because every time he took a step I could see his… Blergh, I don’t even want to say it. I kinda now wished we were transformed into something else, preferably bipedal.

To get out of the uncomfortable situation, I walked a bit faster, getting beside the huge mass of Pyroar that was my dad. To get the memories of Dad’s… things out of my mind, I asked the dragonite. “So… what’s your name, miss?”

The orange dragon perked up and looked at me with a smile. “Oh, the name’s Xenia, nice to meet you all!” She said with a single wave. “So, do you have names as well?”

I responded first. “Well, my name’s Nathan.”

Dad sighed before I heard him grumbling to himself. “This isn’t real… just hope I don’t have to deal with this soon…” He then spoke loudly with a fake enthusiasm present in his voice. “My name is Richard, Nathan’s dad!” He looked behind him to Mom and Alexa. “This beautiful lione- erm, I mean, luxray is my wife, Samantha!”

Mom tilted her head. “What’s gotten into-”

“And this pyroar… erm… litleo?” He paused for a second. “Yes, this litleo is my daughter Alexa!” He then looked back at Xenia. “I apologize for our first impressions, we were just caught by surprise, that’s all.”

The dragonite blinked before she laughed a bit sheepishly. “Nah, don’t worry about it. It’s expected for humans to react that way. I take it that I was your first encounter with a Pokémon that’s not from your family?”

Ignoring my dad’s sudden change of attitude, I nodded. “Yeah… but… how did you find us in the first place?” I asked. I thought that if the dragonite found us that quickly after our appearance in this world, that meant something must’ve alerted not only her but also undesired Pokémon to our location. 

“Oh, uh… I was just going around doing my usual patrol when I heard a loud roaring. That probably was your father if I’m not mistaken. After all, pyroar have loud roars.” Xenia explained with a shrug. “Thank goodness I found you first before those mankey did.”

Alexa rolled her eyes. “Congrats Dad, you almost got us dead because of your temper.” 

Mom frowned as she asked. “Is that new body making your temper worse than it already is…?”

The pyroar argued back with a stern look, some sparks could be seen coming out of his mane. “I don’t have a temper, alright!?”

Yep, he definitely does, even when he’s trying to fake his attitude.

Dad was always like this. Once he’s alone with his family, he becomes the stereotypical grumpy middle-aged man who is a bit hard with his sons and daughters but deep inside only wants the best for them. However, once he’s interacting with strangers… holy, does he become a different person. It’s like he’s putting on a friendly mask because he’s afraid of people judging his attitude. 

Oh yeah, did I forget to say he is insecure?

Ignoring his insecure and blatantly obvious lie, I turned to the dragonite explorer and asked, feeling my tail flicking from side to side (why was it doing that?). “So… are we close to the town?”

Xenia responded while looking forward. “Oh, don’t worry, we’re close. Just a few- oh, we’re already here!”

My family and I looked at the dragonite a bit confused before we looked in the direction where she was looking. My eyes widened a little as I saw the vision before me. We could see a town in the distance. It was as I expected it to be. Like the games, the streets were made of paved dirt, wooden and cobblestone buildings were spaced out from each other, and a river flowed around the town, having a little wooden bridge to cross the river to enter the town. They could also see in the back an elevated part of the town on the edge of a cliff where they could see a lift going up with some boxes and a Pokémon.

It had that nice cozy feeling of that small rural town that PMD games’ towns had. Wherever we looked we saw various species of Pokémon. A vibrava and a pidgeotto flew over some houses to get to the top of the cliff, a marshtomp was carrying a box with a servine helping them carry another box, a riolu with a weird tail ran around the town accompanied by an archen, and a nidoking with a blue scarf looked around the place with a watchful glare; probably a cop.

It was hard to suppress the urge to jump in excitement for a dream fantasy coming true, but I managed. I looked over to my family and they seemed to take the sights… relatively well. I could see Dad’s eyes twitch a little, probably from the absurdity of everything. Mom looked a bit shocked, but it was expected. Alexa, however, had an excited grin on her face, probably for the same reasons as I would’ve. 

After all, any kid would want a chance to escape the mundane life on Earth to live in a fantasy, even if it was dangerous as hell. 

Xenia looked back at us with a grin on her face, probably a proud one. “Welcome to Mani Town!”

Alexa’s tail shot up from excitement as she spoke. “This place looks awesome! So many Pokémon too!”

Dad sighed as he looked down. “Of course, it had to be archaic. Literally zero tech…” He muttered disappointedly.

“I… wow… I didn’t expect this place to be so… coordinated… or to be an actual town at all…” Mom admitted as she looked aside. “Sorry if we still sound like we’re saying Pokémon are savages.” She said quickly.

The dragonite giggled a bit. “It’s alright. After all, your species must be intellectuals to keep getting famous in this world.”

I coughed a little to disguise a snicker as I looked away. “Yeah… intelectuals, sure…”

I couldn’t keep a straight face after hearing that. Like seriously, humans in general being intellectuals? If that were the case, dumb wars, internal conflicts, and silly internet drama wouldn’t happen if humans were actually intellectuals. 

“Anyway, I’m sure my boss wouldn’t mind if I took a few minutes off patrol to give a tour.” Xenia said before turning around and motioning for us to follow her. “C’mon, I’ll show you around town so that you feel familiar with the place. And hey, maybe that’ll show you we aren’t as savage as you think.”

“Heck yeah! Tour around town! I’ll be in front-” Alexa said before interrupting herself when a black paw landed on her head. 

“What she meant to say is… “thank you for the tour, Miss Xenia!” Isn’t that right, Alexa?” My mom said with a fake smile on her face.

Mom removed her paw from my sister’s head as she groaned. “Ugh… yes Mom. Thank you for the tour…”

The dragonite chuckled before she started walking forward. We began to follow her as Dad turned to look at me and Alexa, whispering to us. “Alright, we’re about to enter a town full of magical talking creatures and I want you two to behave yourselves to not mess this up. And if one of them walks up to us, I do the talking. Is that clear?”

“But Dad, don’t you think I’m more suited to talk to them? I’m the Pokémon guy after all.” I argued.

“Nate’s right, dear.” Mom backed up as she walked up to Dad. “I think we have more chances of staying out of trouble if we let him handle most of the talking, especially when it comes to topics we don’t know.”

“After all, who knows if someone won’t mistake Dad’s loud voice for a threat again?” Alexa whispered to my ear before chuckling, making me chuckle a bit as well. Yeah, sometimes my sister can be funny when she’s not having Tiktok brain rot, impressive, I know.

Dad glared at us, probably hearing my sister’s funny comment. He then sighed before accepting. “Fine… I guess he can. Although, watch your tongue when you speak to others. You don’t wanna make powerful enemies here, alright?”

“Alright, alright, I get it. Geez, put more faith in me, can you?” I said before looking forward again.

Passing the small bridge, we finally entered Mani town, although, not before a Magikarp came out of the river and smacked Dad’s side after jumping. His scowl deepened a little as me and Alexa giggled at the scene, even Mom gave a couple of snickers.

Xenia showed a couple of important parts around the town, mainly the important shops (and just like the games, there’s a Kecleon shop with the iconic green and purple chameleons), the local guild which actually used metal as the material, the school, and the town hall. During the tour, my parents looked around the town with a tinge of nervousness, seeing the many species of Pokémon do their shores in harmony. My sister, however, was awed at the Pokémon she saw, especially going as far as calling a lilligant cute like she didn’t just walk by them.

Although, something I noticed that was odd about my parents was my father. During the trip, he looked… anxious. It wasn’t just his normal insecurities on display, I knew what it looked like and it definitely wasn’t him having a terrified look plastered on his face. I even noticed some Pokémon looking at him strangely, which only made his look worsen by the second.

We got into the wooden lift that was just a platform pulled by a gondola and a rope. There was another rope by the side of the lift that Xenia pulled. My ears flickered as I faintly heard the sound of a bell on top of the cliff before the lift slowly started being pulled upwards. I saw Mom’s claws instinctively going out as she lowered her body a little. Oh boy… I forgot about her fear of heights…

“Is t-this thing safe…?” The luxray asked a little shaky.

The dragonite turned to her and waved her claw at my mom reassuringly. “Don’t worry, this lift is safe and can handle Pokémon of many weights. Well, not all of them of course, but only the five of us isn’t that big of a deal.”

While Xenia was reassuring Mom that she wouldn’t fall, I looked at my dad with a concerned look. As much as I complain a bit about my family, I really care about them, even if they are annoying at times. “Dad, are you alright?”

He slowly looked at me and just stared for a moment. It felt a bit uncomfortable just seeing this lion’s eyes stare into me like that, it was like he was searching for something in my face, like trying to detect a lie from my facial expressions or something. If that was the case, I don’t think my dad is too keen on biology to know every feline’s facial features to detect lies.

After a moment, I could hear him mutter something to himself that I couldn’t hear well, even with my new augmented ears. He then stuttered something out. “I-it’s fine, Nathan… I…” He looked away. “Be-better to just speak of this when we’re… alone…”

I could tell something was troubling him a lot, and judging from our situation, I knew somewhat what to expect. I sighed and just let it go for now. “Alright then…”

It was bound to happen, if my parents didn’t have it once they woke up, they are gonna have it now. After all, it’s been long enough to not consider this entire situation as a dream. You know, I don’t really find this situation as bad as my parents make it out to be for a few reasons. 1: The internet. 2: I got to leave school which was getting more boring than hard. 3: From the looks of things, I get to live a simple life without worrying about college, future life goals, taxes, and a shit healthcare system that I’m already in debt to. And 4: Slight depression. Sure, I was gonna miss some stuff from my old life, especially video games. But thinking about it now… I was kinda living in a video game.

Alexa would handle it well, she was still a kid so she wouldn’t miss a lot of stuff. Besides, she didn’t have friends at school, only online ones. I guess her only IRL friend was me, and since I’m with her, she doesn’t have a reason to have a breakdown in this world… unless she wants her phone back again to have more Tiktok brain rot which I totally see her missing.

It didn’t take long for the lift to reach the top of the cliff. I looked back and was mesmerized by the sights. Below us, I could see the bottom half of Mani town, the big buildings being much more visible because of their size. Beyond the town, I could see a partially big forest that expanded around it and had a beach at a certain distance and some mountains far away to my east.

“Woah…” I said silently as I felt the wind blowing against my fur. 

I looked over at Mom who quickly stepped out of the lift and trembled a little. “W-well… that was something…”

Xenia put her arms on her side and announced while looking at us. “Welp, we’ve reached the residential area of the town!” She said before she motioned to the many buildings in front of us. Like other buildings, they were made with wood, stone, and the occasional metal here and there. The houses varied in size and they were spaced out from each other, although not in a linear formation like the shopping district. They were sporadically spread out like the houses you’d see in a village or something similar.

If my family and I weren’t that tech-dependent like our grandparents are… we probably wouldn’t have problems with this style of life for now. But uh… we would have some problems later, that’s for sure.

I looked at the contraption next to the lift. I could see a bell hanging from a wooden post and beside the bell was a machoke who was lowering the lift as we stepped out of it.

When Alexa stepped out of the makeshift “elevator” she throttled to the dragonite with a smile on her face. “Hey Xenia, are you gonna introduce us to a new home!?”

The dragon type chuckled as she looked at my sister. Even if I couldn’t see it, I could feel my father growing stiff a little from the way I felt the temperature rise a little behind me. “Well a lot of Pokémon had moved out to live in the better towns in the north of the continent so… we have a lot of free space in here.” She pointed a bit to the left. “You see that stone-made house right there with the chimney? That one is free if I remember correctly.” 

As Mom sat on the ground, she raised a paw. “Um… question, do we have to pay rent? Like… do we gotta pay for the house or…”

Xenia waved a claw in reassurance. “Hehehe, nah, that’s something the big cities do. However, for you to live here, you have to do something for the community so we don’t toss you out…” The dragon then shrugged. “Although, I’ll make sure the town hall knows that you guys are humans so they’ll probably give you a week or two for you guys to adjust.”

A thought crossed my mind, making me want to voice it out. However, my dad spoke before I could. “Question…” He said before looking at the dragonite, his face having a rather anxious feel to it. “What… sort of activities do you guys mean?”

The dragonite responded. “Oh, activities like guild work, police patrol, agriculture, and food gathering.” She then smiled as she put a claw on the side. “You could serve well for the food gathering, Richard. Feral Pokémon would tremble before you. After all, pyroar are fearsome Pokémon in the eyes of the small ones.”

I looked at Dad after he stayed silent for a few seconds. He started snickering and chuckling a little bit as I tilted my head in confusion. Mom then asked a bit concernedly. “D-dear…?”

He then spoke out while looking at Xenia, his tail swishing from side to side rapidly. “Well that was a good enough tour but I sure am tired!” He turned to us with the fakest smile I’ve seen him wear. “Let’s go to our new home because I’m sure you’re all tired, ain’t that right guys?” 

Alexa tilted her head. “Wha? But I don’t even feel-”

His expression changed into something more menacing, making it even more horrifying with his lion face. “Right!?”

My sister flinched before nodding annoyedly. Mom didn’t say anything but I could tell she knew something was troubling Dad a lot. I sighed as we started following my dad, however, I looked back and waved a Xenia. “Thanks for everything, see you.”

Xenia waved back and I turned around to follow my family to my new house. However, I could hear the dragon say something unintelligible for me to understand. I just shrugged it off for now and continued on the path to my home. I would ask my questions later, but for now, I had a breakdown to endure…

We’ve arrived at our new temporary (or permanent?) home. The house only had a single floor but it made up for how spacious it looked on the outside. As Xenia had said, the house had a chimney on top of it, meaning there was a fireplace somewhere inside. There were windows around the place and a single door which was spacious enough for all of us to enter inside. Thankfully, we didn’t have a problem opening it since it was a sliding door which surprised us a little bit… except for Dad who had his mind on various other places.

We entered the house and we saw a quite… eh… empty living room. As I expected, there was a fireplace in the back of the room but besides that and only two empty shelves and unlit candles, there’s nothing more to the living room. The ground itself was also just paved dirt. But well, I just hoped that our rooms would at least have a decent bed… which would probably be made out of hay if the games are any indication.

As I closed the door behind me, I looked at Dad who walked to the middle of the room in silence. Welp…

Here it comes.

“… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! ” My dad screamed which sounded more like a roar because of his new body. It made all of us flinch a little because of the volume. I just hoped that our new neighbors were really busy to not hear the roar… “Why, why why, fucking WHY!?” He asked as his mane flared up.

Mom shouted, her fur releasing a bit of static. “Richard, calm down alright!?”

The pyroar turned to the luxray with an angry and panicked look on his face. “Calm down!?” He giggled a little bit. “How the hell can I calm down in a situation like this!? Didn’t you see out there!? Can’t you see our damn situation!? Look back at yourself, this is not. A. DREAM!!!” Mom took a step back as her eyes widened in horror. “You thought too that everything here was your imagination, right? Hahaha… wouldn’t we have woken up moments ago while we were on that stupid tour around town? Wouldn’t everything during that point become blurry memories that we would have once we woke up? Well, guess what!? NOTHING here is from our imagination!”

My mom shook a little scared. Huh, here I thought that she actually accepted it… but I guess it was just coping and now her copium was shattered. “N-no-no! This has to be just a dream, right? I-I mean… there’s no way to… I… well…” She was getting lost in her words, she even flexed her paws with a terrified expression. “I-it’s a lucid dream!”

Alexa sighed and headbutted Mom softly. The luxray looked at her daughter while blinking rapidly. Alexa then tilted her head. “In lucid dreams, you don’t feel pain, right? Do you even feel the slightest amount of pain from that headbutt?”

Mom backed away onto a wall, tears falling out of her eyes. “No, no, no, no, NO!!! You’re not my daughter, Alexa is human! I…” She looked at her paws. “I’m human too…! I-I’m gonna wake up-”

“Samantha, please, for the love of God! We’re not dreaming!” Dad said with flames coming out from the side of his muzzle, the pyroar not noticing. “This IS reality! This is the damn reality! We’ve become animals then appeared in this fantasy load of land without tech and now I’m basically forced to fucking hunt !? What now!? Do we lose our intelligence too to live in the forests!?”

Mom fell on her side and clutched her paws on her head, crying even more as she shouted. “God, please NO!”

Alexa tried to soothe everyone, standing on two legs and extending her forepaws. It was clear that she was not liking our parents losing their shit. “Please guys, calm down! Don’t be so down like that!”

I needed to do something before they went completely insane over the situation. However, if the shouting from Alexa wasn’t working, I needed to do something to call their attention… and I knew what I had to do, I just needed to figure out how to do it.

After looking back at how my dad activated the fire on his mane, I realized that he probably used a strong emotion to do it, and that emotion was anger. Although, I doubt anger is the only way to will a move out of a Pokémon’s body, or else everyone in the Pokémon world would’ve been grumpy. 

After some seconds, a thought crossed my mind after looking back on certain episodes of the Pokémon anime and some other miscellaneous games and media. I remembered that some moves are not really meant for attacking. So that probably meant… “Intentions…” I muttered to myself.

Since my sister was the only one in the house besides me not having a breakdown, she looked at me after hearing me mutter. “Huh-? Woah!” She then fell on her back.

I sighed and took a few steps forward between my old man and Mom. Alexa meanwhile, tilted her head as she looked at me. I took a deep breath as thoughts in my mind started to race. I could feel my body getting a little fuzzy from the inside like something agitated wanted to be released from me. My intentions were simple, just let it out in a manner that would be safe for everyone around me.

And with that, I closed my eyes… and screamed.

“ Mom, Dad, SHUT UP!!! ” With my voice, I could feel electricity that was built inside of me be released around my whole body, even going as far as to lick the roof of the town. 

My parents froze, both looking at me with a look of shock and horror. I opened my eyes and looked at them with a fierce look. “Are we done with this useless breakdown? Having this is NOT gonna help us!”

Mom stuttered out. “N-Nate… wh-what did you just-”

“Let me talk!” I said loudly to her. I even looked at my dad before he had the chance to open his mouth. “You too, old man! Hear me out!” I plopped my rear on the ground and glanced at both of them. “Okay, sure, this may not be a dream that we’re gonna wake up from, but that doesn’t mean that it’s time to panic and just whine in despair!” I motioned a paw. “Stop complaining about what you lost and look back at what you still have! We have ourselves still, we can stick out for each other!” I supported myself on my hind legs as I spread my forelegs. It surprised me a bit how much flexibility I had with my new feline body. “Our situation is not a complete lost cause! Remember that old motto back in our world? “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome?” We still have our human minds, our memories, we can still do all of those three things, even with alien bodies like this!”

I sighed again, feeling my mouth a bit dry after all my speech as I put my forepaws on the ground. If they still didn’t see the reason for all my points, I hate to say it but they might be oblivious. “Please, even if you don’t agree with my view on all of this, Alexa needs you, I need you. We both need you guys… so don’t give up hope even in this situation…” 

If I became a politician back in my world, I think I’d be a good one because I know how to give speeches. In high-stress moments, especially like these, my brain works faster to come up with words.

I glanced at both of my parents one last time, seeing the stunned expressions on their faces. After a long and silent moment, my father sighed. “I… you’re right, Nathan. Even if I didn’t like you shouting at us like that… we did kinda need it…” I slightly smiled at him as he looked aside. “I’m sorry for losing my composure like that. It was just the s-”

“Stress from everything…?” I predicted while interrupting him. “Yeah Dad, I get it. At least you acknowledged it.”

“I’m also sorry for that…” My mom said as we both looked at her. She looked at Alexa who had a little tear leaking from her eye. “I shouldn’t have said that to you, Alexa. I’m so sorry… just because you aren’t human anymore, you are still my daughter.” She looked away in shame as her tail flicked to the side. “Can… can you forgive me…?”

Alexa slowly got up and smiled after wiping her tears away. “Of course, Mom!” She then walked to the luxray and wrapped her forearms around her neck. “You were scared, I get it, but I promise I’m still your favorite angel!”

Okay, no need to lie THAT much Miss Hell Slap. I swear, when she was eight and nine years if she hit you with a slap on the back, that shit would sting for a solid two minutes straight. 

Maybe that’s why she became a litleo…

My dad groaned. “Thanks for the motivational speech Nathan but like… what the heck do we do now? Where do we go from here in these bodies?”

My smile dropped a little as a certain thought finally crossed my mind. Was there a way back home? I mean, there could be thanks to certain legendary Pokémon existing, but there were two glaring issues that will definitely be a problem if we tried searching for them. The first one is pretty obvious. Our chances of meeting with them are pretty slim, but going by the games’ rules, they are probably hiding in a really difficult dungeon, and if they aren’t, it’s still gonna be a bitch trying to find them. Glaring issue number two: what would happen next? If we do find them and they agree to take us back home, what will happen once we’re back? If I wasn’t tripping and the car crash was real, then we would be considered dead or missing in our world. And then what would happen if magically powered lions appeared on Earth? Either a special zoo for freaks or Area 51 test subjects.

Then there was the third issue that I was about to ask Xenia before Dad butted in…

But honestly, I decided it was best to keep all this info to myself for now. I wouldn’t want to give them false hope for having a sliver of a chance of leaving this world or another breakdown by telling them we might’ve potentially died. It was better to let them recover a little and then tell the truth.

I sighed. “I don’t know, Dad…” I looked back at him with a determined look. “But honestly, whatever we do now, we’re gonna stick together. Sure, we might not have the usual from our old life anymore, but we can work with the stuff we gained as well. For example…” I felt the fuzzy feeling inside my body building up again. And with the intent of demonstration, I covered my body with electricity again, this time managing to keep my eyes open. Wherever I looked, a bright yellow filled my vision, making me barely recognize the outlines of my family. It felt like I was holding a really agitated dog by the collar with invisible hands I didn’t know I had, however, it didn’t hurt.

I let go of the electricity and it fizzled out into the air. My eyes hurt a little, but that was to be expected, I was literally staring from inside electricity. I looked at my father who looked a bit stunned before asking. “H-how did you manage to…”

I smirked. “It’s intention. I saw the way you raged as your mane flared up. I think your intentions matched up with your emotions those times.”

Alexa tilted her head. “Wait, so I can breathe fire if I intend to? Just like that?” 

I turned to her and did the best shrug I could. “Yeah. Although, you have to know your capabilities first before you attempt your abilities. I could do it because I’m familiar with what my species can do.”

Mom sat on the ground and looked away. “So it’s gonna take more time for us to use our own abilities?” She sighed. “Well, makes sense, I guess…”

Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door and my parents froze, Mom hissed while she jumped away from being startled. Dad’s body stiffened as he asked. “Wha-who is there!?”

An unfamiliar muffled voice from the other side of the door spoke. “Uh… sorry to disturb you and all… but I heard some roars and shouting. Is everything okay in there?”

I responded hastily. “U-uh… yes! Everything is perfectly fine, we just had a… disagreement and got a bit heated, no worries, everything is fine!”

“Alright then. But please, keep it down alright? Some folks here got a bit worried and thought something happened. Stay safe, alright?”

Mom responded a little shakily and nervous. “Y-yes, we… we will…!”

I heard footsteps beyond the door getting quieter. From the sound of them, it seemed like the Pokémon on the other side was a relatively medium-sized Pokémon. I sighed as I looked back at my dad. “So… you gotta stop with the screaming loudly thing, alright?”

“Yeah Dad, you sound like an actual lion, hahaha!” My sister added with a giggle.

The pyroar sighed. “I’ll work on controlling it…”

“Well… now that we got all of our mental frustrations and breakdowns in check… what now?” Mom asked while tilting her head. “We’re gonna grow bored eventually if we stay home for the rest of the day. There doesn’t seem to be any TVs or even the internet, obviously.”

I thought about it for a moment and the first setback of getting isekaid to a world like this started settling in my mind. No internet, no video games, no shows or anime to binge, and nothing of that sort. We’re forced to touch grass, and like the introvert that I am, this is actually a huge issue… but one that I’d have to conquer unfortunately. “Well, just like cats, guess we got nothing better to do for now rather than sleeping or exploring around. Besides, we’ve got a week or two before the townsfolk start demanding that we work.”

“Well, I think we should familiarize even more with the area. I wanna meet our neighbors!” Alexa suggested, her eyes sparkling in excitement.

“No!” Mom shouted before flinching at her own voice. “I-I mean… no, I… when I thought this was a dream, I thought we were safe. But now, I don’t think it’s safe anymore for you to meet them. Who knows what kind of crazy magic these things could do to you…”

I rolled my eyes. “Mom, it’s not as bad as you think. Besides, Pokémon are sturdier than the common animal. Even if we receive a flamethrower to the face, we would heal and still live.”

“How would you know about that?” Dad asked as he tilted his head. I just looked at him with a “Seriously?” look before he sighed. “Right, I get it, the Pokémon expert. But still, this is real life, kid. Who knows what rules from your games have changed or not?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Did you forget that Xenia literally shot laser beams at those mankeys and they still lived to tell the tale?”

“Well uh… I…” The pyroar sighed. “Sure, I’ll give you that one.” He looked at Mom. “Love, you gotta let them go. They’re still young and you know how they act. They’re gonna leave home whether you like it or not, especially with the new bodies.”

“But what if-”

I interrupted Mom as I took a step to her. “If you’re that worried and still scared to go, I’ll go with Alexa to take a walk around town. After all, you’re pretty used to me leaving the house alone, right?”

She stared at me with her piercing red and yellow eyes for a moment before sighing and looking down disappointedly. “Fine, you can go. Just please, be safe you two. And be back before the sun sets because I swear to God if you don’t come back I’ll-”

“Yeah, yeah, give us an earful once you track us down and all that, I got it.” I said before turning away. “Let’s go, Alexa.”

“Heck yeah! Hope the neighbors are cool dragons or something similar!” She said before starting to follow me.

As we exited the house, I felt like I was being watched. After turning my head to the side, I only saw pink wisps of dispersing into the air. I tilted my head in confusion before my sister bumped into me while bypassing me. “Ack, hey!”

“Get your furry butt moving, bro! I want to meet everyone I can before it’s too late!” She said excitedly. 

“Geez, I don’t remember you being that enthusiastic like that.” I said before closing the door. “Did your body change actually affect your personality?”

“Duh, no! Come on already.” 

I sighed before starting to walk alongside her.