*Music(?):Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – Universe 5

At some point, he had landed in grass of some kind. But no, as consciousness returned to the former human, the tactile feeling of grass was the last thing on his mind, despite how comforting it still felt.

He couldn’t even open his eyes, for his head was throbbing in ways almost indescribable, a migraine so potent and so devastating it was impossible for him to pick even his own stout arms up from the belly flop he’d found himself in.

He still felt those uncanny sensations… that of his tail and that of the unnatural protrusions that had found its way on his body, but those mattered little in regards to the ear-splitting headache he was now forced to endure.

It was so indescribable that his entire environment right now, which appeared to consist of grass that reached up a fair ways, as much as he could tell from his sensations of touch could explain to him, was but obscured to him, not through intentional desire in wanting to hide from the world, or because he was restrained by another, but because his head demanded his attention.

It was a pressure unlike any other… reverberating through his skull with the vibrations that could kill if it weren’t for the strange durability of these strange bodies… or unless he was being saved in some other capacity. The former human couldn’t see; so anything was possible.

He writhed and wriggled on the ground, his arms at some point clutching his head in some desperate attempt to stop the rumbling that coursed through his head, and he couldn’t help but feel like it was creeping down his spine as well, with sensations that felt all too abnormal and yet normal at the same time.

As if being born again… or as if being born anew… or even just the strange sensation that one might get from a dream, that visceral shock or jolt from just before waking up from a dream, magnified by tens of thousands of possible versions of itself. Even if the only understandable thing is that headaches hurt, this was the headache to end all headaches, a migraine uncontested.

Sanvu himself had never felt such a thing in his entire life… whatever life he… might have lived?

At points, he would groan, but he would bite his lip and stifle himself. He couldn’t be entirely sure of himself being alone, because he was never alone, so there was never any instance in which he could feel comfortable expressing the pain that coursed through his body in this very moment, so despite that he’d groan, they were always soft, more like soft moans, or wheezing or panting, anything to keep the pain of this cramping sensation to himself lest anyone find out and then put him in more trouble.

He lashed and thrashed the surrounding area, using his body to make out the gestures as opposed to making too many vocalisations. It intensified and grew to the point that he wasn’t sure at several points if he was even going to stay alive, as he continued clutching the spot tightly. If this was just… what you experienced at the end of it all, it didn’t matter, it had to be done.

He continued clutching his head for what felt like hours. The darkness outside still unwavered, his eyes still squeezed shut. For a while, he remained flailing at the ground, lashing at some invisible force that none could see, for none were seeing.

Eventually, he felt himself able to breathe again, his body fatigued, as he panted and panted to find himself able to breathe, alive. It subsided, with nothing to its name other than it having happened.

~~

Except… no, that wasn’t true. He couldn’t be sure if it was because of the migraine but…

Images streamed into his mind, as he acclimated to these familiar sights… these familiar sounds.

*Music: Pokémon Sword & Shield – Encounter! Calyrex

As they filled his head, they flowed out of his eyes as he could finally pick himself up and see… in the dim night light of the plain he found himself in, he could only just make out his tiny Snivy hands, holding himself up by the front, as they began began to gather in his eyes, crowding enough to burst.

“E-Everyone…” he started, his voice soft enough that he kept it something close to a whisper through his natural volume; Sanvu realised; he hardly if ever made himself loud, almost on purpose, his voice was almost always quiet, flat, neutral or some volume that would keep himself quiet, almost on purpose, and to some extent, he liked it that way, especially given his position now.

“My mum… dad… everyone… Sm…” he started another round of tears, mourning all the while, as he bawled one of the names he wouldn’t be able to see again, “Smila!”

For the next several minutes, the Snivy continued almost silently crying and weeping over the loss of the things he had gained. His hometown, the country he lived in, his family, friends, all his old life… every last second of it was no longer obscured or hidden… as he grieved over the fact that despite that he’d gotten all this back… he would no longer get them back.

“I’m… from Abistula…” he cried to the grass, still stifling himself if only so he could remain letting it all out for just a little longer. “From Barest… that’s who I was… not… whoever I was… before…”

As his tears continued dripping onto the dirt, the revelations finally clicked into place. Things he’d said in the world he’d been in prior now either felt wrong or unintentionally correct where they otherwise might have been. For the most part; the things he said had felt like himself to some small extent, but with all that context missing, they would only be vapid, shallow implications of who he really was underneath.

Some of the things he said however… were deathly incorrect, almost horribly so, as he recalled every instance of that memory-warped state with as much a clarity as the memories that had now wormed its way back into his own head, as if having lived two whole lives unknowingly, and only just realising that fact as he could only drain himself of every last droplet he could possibly muster.

A few more gulps and hiccups later, he began to wind down, finally able to muster some form of actual rationale, for as much as he could in this mental state. It was depressing, and heartbreaking, for Sanvu, that him, a 17 year old boy had been ripped from his family and placed in the body of a strange lizard with his memories being ripped from his soul and forcing him to live in some sort of deranged simulation for the pleasure of an unknown who derived pleasure from his suffering. But in this present moment, he was but a lizard stuck in a field, and he couldn’t sit and cry forever.

As Sanvu stood up, he could take in his surroundings with much better clarity as he blinked them open as much as he could find, only to find that they were open, and it was the middle of night. Light streamed in from above, immediately catching his attention as he ignored the trees and saw the moon and stars twinkling overhead, shining down on the plain that Sanvu stood in. It was truly the only light in this place; it being the dead of night meant anything had fuzzy definition by default.

But he was mesmerised, not at the moon no, but because:

“Is this… how stars are… meant to look?” he breathed, his voice barely above a hiss in volume.

It hit him like an invisible brick. He’d never seen stars before. Not once in his life had he seen stars, and he hadn’t known exactly why that was, but he knew exactly what everyone had done in response… and the reason for why everyone had been against him.

He sat there for several moments, his eyes trained on the glowing spots in the sky. They were ordinary twinkling stars, but Sanvu had hardly seen any ordinary twinkling stars; the moon and the sun were one thing; those had been around for forever, but as far as the former human could recall, stars weren’t in the sky, at all, let alone in such a quantity. He’d seen them in books, photos, because those of his parents and their parents and all the generations before his had seen them lining the night sky. It wasn’t simply light pollution either; even if you were out in the middle of nowhere where the stars were supposed to be especially visible, there were none. Not since Sanvu was but a baby, where he never remembered seeing any because the memory capacity of an infant is particularly volatile.

That was exactly why… as the pieces fell together in his head… it made all the things he’d seen in this world all that more terrifying.

~~

*Music: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky – Temporal Pinnacle

Eventually, his gaze fell, as he took in his surroundings. He was in some kind of plain, the forest around him stretching for what seemed like forever in a rough circle, the trees feverishly tall because of the fact that he was an extremely small Pokemon. He noticed the blades of grass in particular of the field he stood in were extremely tall, every single one, as far as his eye could see were the height of something just above his head, which he sighed in gratitude for; this probably helped to obscure him while he was having that mental episode, both the headache and that of the breakdown he started having after recovering his memories, so even if a Pokemon had heard him, they wouldn’t have been able to see him, due to him basically blending in with the grass and especially including this darkness, the moon excluded, since it shone on an area close to in front of him, rather than directly over him.

He shook himself out of it, mentally verifying that he did indeed have his memories. “Abistulian, I was 17, my family consisted of a mum, dad, Smila and me… among others…” he verified, to himself, repeating the words to himself in a short whisper, realising the familiarity they had with his tongue, even if his tongue itself was foreign, the words themselves did not, the more he repeated them in his head, the more they felt comfortable, as if they were long lost friends that had reunited after so long despite meeting nobody because he was alone in the field. He smiled, despite the last few tears still finding a way to escape his eye sockets; it was still heartbreaking for him, he was still sad, but there was the thrill of the fact that he was still standing here, alive, and he could still remember everything. Especially after being told that he wouldn’t, he couldn’t help but feel elated about it.

He also tried recalling how he’d gotten himself here to be transformed into a Snivy, only to end up cold. Every other aspect of his life was completely accessible to him in the way that any human would be able to remember their fondest memories, but trying to recall how he’d ended up here… drew a blank. The only memory that existed was the one in which Pachuku had woken him up, and he’d found himself transformed, between one of a regular old night in his old world. Either he’d died, which was terrifying to think about, or he’d gotten here some other way, and it was something he was forced to be unable to remember.

But despite that little distraction, he had his memories back! All of them!

He almost jumped for joy, but his natural inclination to stifle himself resurfaced, and so his joy was kept primarily to himself as he by default, due to the influence of what he referred to as his ‘other self’ now since the version of himself prior wasn’t really him (you couldn’t get him to admit that they were actually the same person), began looking around for Pachuku, because while he couldn’t be sure in some ways that he still wasn’t ‘dead,’ he still felt his own breathing, and he could still hear the noises of the night, so something in him stirred the fact that if he was dead, the world was doing a poor job of showing it, so maybe Pachuku wouldn’t be dead either?

Except, it all came back to him again, that world was a simulation, derived of his memories, which meant Pachuku may have remained but a figment of his imagination, now that he had his memories back, Pachuku himself may have been buried amongst all the souls that had been created from the hellscape that had been that entire world. He’d used all his tears on his family, and the lump in his throat began to feel sore; he wouldn’t be able to spare any for his best friend, the only individual he probably would’ve been able to trust in such a place, especially now that he was alone.

He hung his head ashamedly at this realisation, before whispering to himself, “You know… especially because I feel like myself again… barring, y’know, the silly lizard stuff, I really could’ve used your help, buddy,” he wasn’t particularly talking to anyone but himself, but this was normal. He always talked to himself, whether in his head, or out loud, he felt no shame or embarrassment. So he continued. “If you’re no longer real… then I guess… I’ll have to continue on in your name,” he tossed his head in the direction of the moon as it glinted down upon the earth, “It really would’ve been nice if you could help with… all the other stuff I don’t know about this world.”

He looked back down at himself, assuring himself the same, yep; still a Snivy, all things considered, the same tail, the same powers, and the same diminutive frame. No badge, but that was to be expected, since it was either fake or if it had come to this world with him, provided that he had changed worlds and he wasn’t dreaming or in some other state of consciousness between dreams and reality, or something else had happened to him or it, he probably wouldn’t find it anyway. Not that he wanted to, even now as he recalled how thoroughly insane everyone was, he wouldn’t want to go back working for Mindscape in a million years.

But, well, something had to give, especially since he was almost certain that if he stayed here, something would get him, and while he still remembered that he had all these powers (which, the human side of him was practically beaming that he even had super powers to begin with, now that he knew the ramifications of all of this in regards to both sides of himself), he wasn’t invincible, and he had to find some form of civilisation, provided that was even still possible. As far as his eye could see, the conditions were clear; not a single cloud in the sky or wisp of mist on the ground was visible in any direction; nothing obscuring his line of vision save for the darkness of the night itself.

“You must be kidding,” he half-joked, again to nobody but himself, “Drop me in the middle of nowhere and all I can do is cry over the fact that I’m me again in every way but humane. You must be considering me special, or I wouldn’t be practically about to die in the middle of a forest with my last breath being stuck in this mess.”

Nobody responded, nothing moved. So he began trudging towards a random direction; closer to where the moon shone.

The ground shook.

Sanvu paused, desperate to stay in the grass for cover. It was only a light jolt, but he felt it course through his body, as if the ground itself would reverb into his very being. Being near the grass was giving him strangely soothing sensations, but he only felt comfortable insomuch that he would be able to remain hidden from anyone and anything who considered him a snack, that is, if Pokemon had relations like this in this world; he couldn’t be certain. His surroundings didn’t appear to resemble that of a dungeon’s, either.

It shook again. And again.

It was like… footsteps. It treaded the floor with each successive step that an invisible giant took, a rhythm felt with every movement it made to the ground it trembled.

Sanvu felt the sensations grow more and more intense behind him as he swerved, only to come face to face with possibly the scariest thing he could encounter in that moment.

It was extremely tall, monstrously so. It towered higher than the trees, as Sanvu had to crane his neck to see the giant hulking thing. A giant golem, illuminated by several cracks on its chest, arms and what resembled eyes, with large bulk on its legs and arms, along a large band that appeared to cover the large crack that illuminated light on its chest.

It stood metres from Sanvu, just standing there, taking in the night. The Grass-type couldn’t help but be intimidated by its sheer size and the appearance of how utterly strong this thing looked. It practically looked like it could squish him into a pancake, why would he ever want to battle it, let alone be in its presence? He prepared himself to run-

Until his eyes wandered over to its right arm, where it appeared to be holding something; something that also was illuminating it, but intermittently, and in only the singular way Sanvu could recognise;

“Pachuku-“ he lilted, watching the squirrel, whose cheeks were sparking insomuch that it looked like he was attempting to escape to no avail. “He’s… alive…!” he beamed, once again in a whispering tone so as to not alert the giant creature who appeared to be holding it, ecstatic at the realisation that his friend was alive, and living, despite his perilous situation, both for the sake of each of the smaller Pokemon, “But… I don’t wanna hurt this thing… but… he’s got him stuck… and it looks like he’s struggling… would that mean… this thing is part… Ground? That would make sense, if what he said is right…”

He ruminated on this for a second, before watching Pachuku struggle again.

“I’ve gotta get him out, this thing doesn’t look like he’s letting him go; and if there’s only one guy…” he finished the rest of that sentence in his head, mentally shoving all his baggage as far away as possible.

He would deal with all that eventually. But right now what mattered most was his friend being free.

Time to put those ‘super powers’ to use, Sanvu would ultimately muse internally.

~~

*Music: Pokémon Scarlet & Violet – Area Zero Wild Battle

He ran forward at the creature’s left leg, using his vines multiple times to slam at its leg, before slamming into it with a Leaf Blade-infused tail. The leg visibly buckled after he used this move, as he ran a fair distance into the grass so that he was sure the creature couldn’t see him; so he hoped.

The creature, however, seemed to take notice of the fact it was being attacked, and the ground began rumbling, however, it was extremely weak, and while Sanvu couldn’t keep himself standing on the ground for very long, he did resist the attack because the rumbling was weak enough that he found he could still stand. The giant thing leaned over, the fist of its free arm slamming into the ground, sending shadowy energy all around the plain. The force of the blow forced Pachuku’s eyes shut in his other arm, though Sanvu was hardly paying attention, since he was forcing himself to conjure leaves to hit it from afar with Leaf Tornado, for some reason, it was much faster and more responsive than had been prior in the other world, which made things all the more pleasant.

From Pachuku’s end, he looked about frantically, because he was sure that the Pokemon holding him captive; which he knew was a Golurk, so he had no chance of beating it or freeing himself alone, was being battled with by somebody, and he swore he thought he’d seen Grass-type attacks hit it. He was trying not to get his hopes up; after all, if what his old friend had said was true, everything wasn’t real, neither was him. Grass-type attacks didn’t automatically mean who he thought it meant, and it was hard for him to see from his particular vantage point since his head barely squeezed through the behemoth that was the fist of the Golurk that was forcing him stuck inside its grasp. He’d tried to attack it, and while he was sure it was damaged; nothing would damage it enough until a sufficiently strong Pokemon or a type-advantage would come for the poor squirrel.

As the leaves careened towards the chest of the creature, he was pretty sure of what of what he was seeing, and almost shouted in delight, but didn’t want to alert Golurk, and so he just stifled a laugh instead.

The ground rumbled again, as it did, it vibrated through Pachuku, causing him uncomfortable pain, and Sanvu at the bottom of the plain seemed to also be resisting, both the ground’s incessant tremor, and something else that the former human wouldn’t be able to articulate right now.

Sanvu stared up at it, mentally repeating to himself what he was doing.

‘I’m not trying to defeat it. There’s no way I could do that to this thing.’

‘But… I need Pachuku back… just to get him out… and get us out of here… somewhere, wherever here is.’

‘But it probably doesn’t want to reason with me… not in the state it looks like it’s in… looks like it’ll only respond to power… power it’ll get!’

He stood clutching his head as he tried straining his body to produce as many leaves as he could muster for Leaf Tornado, he felt his body actively start to give out as they swirled until they were no longer blowing around him, and aimed the torrent right at the arm where Pachuku was stuck.

The leaves each acted like miniature knives, slicing through the hand in increasing pain for the golem; some of them clipping the top of Pachuku’s head as the hand forcibly opened, the squirrel dropping to the ground in shock.

But, Pachuku had anticipated being dropped because of such an attack, because he only knew of one individual who would care enough about him to launch a Grass-type attack right at him to free him from the clutches of a Golurk. Right as he fell, his cheek scraped the large hulking beast, forcing it to remain in paralysis as it connected.

The squirrel ran towards the panting Grass-type, as he spotted him upon landing and dashed over, finding even in the dim light of the moon and the lighting of Golurk and Pachuku’s own sparkles, that it was indeed the Snivy who he’d spent the last several weeks with, alive.

“Sanvu!” the squirrel called, jumping and tackling Sanvu insomuch as they could before the roar of Golurk forced them to their feet. “You’re… not dead!” Pachuku exclaimed, practically bubbling, as he bobbed on the ground. “When’d you learn Leaf Storm, though?”

“Wasn’t it Leaf Tornado?” Sanvu panted, confused, a much louder volume so as to respond to Pachuku. “I just…”

Pachuku shook himself out of it, seemingly undisturbed. “Nah, they’re different, I’ll explain later, but… you’re not meant to be tired after using Leaf Tornado, so, uh, there’s that, for now,” he explained, as Sanvu only just noticed his exhaustion, only half-understanding, figuring it was because he’d used all his reserves, but oh well, if Pachuku had an explanation, he figured he’d listen later, when situations were more favourable. The menacing hulk still stood in front of them albeit with sparks jolting across its body.

“I want… to find somewhere… we can talk… without big and ugly getting in our way… I don’t think we can defeat it… nor do I want to… now that you’re out of it,” Sanvu heaved, to Pachuku who took in every word.

“Yup, uh huh. It’s a Golurk, by the way, Ground type, I think Ghost, too, so you’ll have an easy time, which is good, it’s probably good you used all you did. I’ve been chipping away at its hand with the old Electric attacks like you can, but,” he shrugged in the best way his anatomy allowed, “it resists them, you know?”

“You seem to have… stopped it though…” Sanvu noticed.

“I know. Nuzzle hit, but it’ll be moving after some time. You able to put it to sleep so we can at least get out of here?”

“What do you think I look like, huh?”

“Okay, alright, but we gotta knock it somehow if we want out of here, it’s not gonna hold forever, and he’s big so have you got any ideas?”

Sanvu looked around, his eyes frantically looking for anything big, his eyes settling on a small tree that was leaning lopsided, about as big as half of Golurk, to his own right side, atop a small hill. He somewhat figured if he found some way to use it as some kind of bat, he could send Golurk down. He articulated this to Pachuku quickly as it began to resist the paralysis.

“Oh, sure, while you grab that, I’ll be the distraction,” Pachuku contributed, tail swishing, his voice confident. Golurk began to shine and glint as if it were made of solid steel for a second, the coat forming a semi-transparent sheen on its body. “You’ll probably have to use another Leaf Storm, and then do that. Lemme know when I should start running,” he said, starting on all fours.

Sanvu began charging up the energy again, signalling Pachuku to leave, as the ground began to rumble weakly again, he blew out another torrent of leaves, once again, with no extra wind or spin, leaving him heaving and panting from the strain of having used two of them in a row, alongside resisting the ground’s shifting, but the attack hit its target; the extra steel covering unable to defend against the magical leaves that sliced through to the clay underneath.

The squirrel ran through the grass, calling out excessively loudly over to the giant golem, his cheeks alight. “Hey! Golurk! I’m down heeeere!” he called, extremely far across the field, to the point Sanvu almost thought he’d run outside the area the voice was so distant. The human made a mental note of how fast Pachuku was, remembering it for later.

His vines began to crawl towards the downed tree as Golurk began to turn around slowly clockwise, Pachuku’s distraction was beginning to work, and Golurk seemed oblivious to anything but Pachuku as his cheeks sparked and illuminated the grass from above with his cheeks constantly alight, while Sanvu, despite his vines making his location obvious if Golurk were to be looking in his direction; was luckily invisible because of the angle at which the giant beast was turning to match with Pachuku’s direction thanks to his various calls for attention.

Pachuku was running in a straight line away along the ground at incredible speed from Sanvu as far as he would allow until he hit the wall of the cliff nearby, his head turning back to ensure that he could call out to Golurk so he could act as the distraction, attempting to run so that Golurk would make a full 180 towards Pachuku’s position so he could ignore Sanvu.

Sanvu had the tree in his vines held almost like a giant baseball bat, and promptly, when Pachuku veered a sharp left, causing Golurk to follow the trail of the electrical light in the grass, upon its doing this, Sanvu smacked it in the head whacking it using the momentum he swung it with at its bottom, causing the big lug to fall forward.

Right on top of where Pachuku was.

Sanvu had hit as much strain as he could muster, the downed tree falling and bouncing harmlessly off the Golurk as it began to topple, as he retracted much of his vines, Pachuku still remained under its looming shadow.

The squirrel put as much energy into his running as possible, aiming for his right so that the falling golem would simply fall harmlessly to his left as he dashed as far back to Sanvu as his paws would allow. It crackled and crumbled behind him, but he forced his eyes shut as he ran as far as he would be able to push himself.

Once Sanvu saw him, it was easy enough to use his vines to pick up the squirrel and bring him closer so the two of them could make a quick getaway, so that they didn’t have to try and completely knock the Golurk out any further once it would recover. It wasn’t as if he particularly cared about that, no; he was only mad because of it holding his friend captive. Now that he was free, nothing mattered about this fight anymore.

He hardly wanted to hurt anyone, he mused as he escaped with Pachuku in tow, who ran behind him as he retracted the vines, the two of them hoping to find solace far and away from this particular location.

There was much to talk about, after all.

~~