12/27/19

7:05 am

??? B3F

Waking up from all this was weird. You can't feel anything from yourself and/or outside of you. So I still didn't know what was going on with me... For the time being.

Anyway, if I understood what just happened, did Cord just turn into a Pikachu? It sounds crazy, sure, but... That feeling I always had when he was near me came back to me again for that moment. So, it could be him, unless I figure out where he truly is.

The ground started rumbling underneath me and it finally woke me up mentally from the weird slumber. It couldn't have been an earthquake, since I lived on the East Coast. And the surface I'm lying on doesn't feel like my bed.

My eyes slowly opened to find myself seeing a rocky surface. Apparently, I was on the bottom of a hole that was placed in the middle of the room. Above me, the surface was uneven, as there were bumps of rock every so often in the distance. But wherever this was, it was definitely not my bedroom.

Pretty soon, I was fully awake, with my eyes looking around to see the rough, pointy walls of stone. "Where the heck am I now?" I said to myself. Everything was aching from my body, with the majority of all the pain coming from my upper legs and torso. Yet, I was able to stand up in a couple seconds.

Go figure.

After I somehow stood up, I began to notice a few things that didn't sit right with me. For starters, with my body aching everywhere, my sense of comfortability was completely gone—like my body was rearranged or something. All of my energy somehow came back to me, even though I was just unconscious a few moments ago. And obviously, the place I was in was in no way familiar to me.

Meanwhile, I wasn't paying attention to what was right in front of me. So I ended up getting out of the hole, walking a couple of steps forward, and immediately face-planting myself after I tripped on a rock. I don't really need to say this, but at least I didn't really feel as much pain then...

I let out a groan that echoed through the room and probably past that, since there were two pathways that exited the room.

At this point, I really wanted to know what happened to me and why I was here. As it turned out, that would be answered pretty quickly. When I pushed myself up with my arms, I glanced down to take another look at the surface. That glance suddenly turned into a stare as I was dumbfounded by what I saw below me.

Instead of human hands with skin, I found myself staring at paws with yellow fur.

"What... How do I have yellow on me?"

A Pikachu...? These things keep on getting weirder.

A noise echoed in my mind that felt familiar and confusing at the same time. I decided to turn around and was able to take a look at a creature staring right at me. The thing was a dark orange colored rodent, having a white belly from the fur it had. To go along its white paws, its large, yellow ears gave a lot of red flags on the play. The best part about it—or the worst part about it for me at the time—was that it was floating midair on top of it's huge tail.

This made me realize what it was very quickly. "An Alolan Raichu?" I said under my breath. I pinched my arm and a sharp pain came to me almost immediately. I wasn't dreaming... How's that even possible?

Meanwhile, the Alolan Raichu was still staring at me, pretty confused about what was going on. And the only idea I had with me right now wasn't too good to be called one. I stared at the Raichu—which he at least paid attention to me—and took a deep breath. "Can you describe me?" I asked it. In about three seconds, the Raichu's face changed from confused to a face that questioned my sanity. "Can you just do it?"

After a sigh of defeat, the Raichu answered, "Fine. You have yellow fur, red electrical cheeks, and a thunderbolt-shaped tail... I can't believe I'm telling this to a Pokémon." The sentence that I think came from the Raichu earlier came back to me. A Pikachu? That doesn't make any sense!

"That doesn't describe a human," I finally responded to him in pure denial. That statement right there was a enormous mistake I made.

"Human?!" the Raichu shouted. Maybe I shouldn't have said that...

I started looking at my body, and it was exactly as the Raichu described. Including the tail part—as it was shaking violently! "What happened to me?" I said out loud.

The Raichu ignored me for the moment as it was taking out something from a bag he had with him. I never got the chance to look inside it since it was over as soon as it started. The Raichu took out a light aqua orb. The specific orb had a weird... vibe to me. It made me feel weird since these items exist, happy since my instinct told me that it could help us later—which was a new one for me—and afraid of what the current situation was going on now.

The Raichu held the orb in front of my face. I hesitantly walked right in front of the orb and looked at it. This didn't come to me as a surprise with what I saw, and it probably won't be to you either.

What I saw was a Pikachu's face in front of the orb. "Is that me?"

"Yes!" The Raichu grinned. He kept it for a couple of moments before putting the orb back into the bag.

I looked at the Raichu's chubby face. "How am I a Pikachu?"

"I don't know," he said, "But, I have an errand to do right now... You want to come along?"

I thought for a moment there. It's true I have no idea where to go. And I guess going with this Pokémon wouldn't hurt. And, hopefully, I can find out why this happened to... me.

That sounded cliché-ish.

"Sure, I guess," I said with some hesitation. The Raichu floated back up to the air and started going to a pathway in the south and I followed him.

As we got through the pathways, I started to realize that there were a lot more of those than I originally thought. I was about to make a comment about direction, but I ended up saying nothing. I knew that the Raichu knew where it was going... I hope.

Eventually, we both got to a very steep cliff. Across the other side, was a very bright light—which probably led to another room. I looked down and the Raichu pulled me back immediately. "Careful! One wrong step could land you all the way back on the first floor!"

Did he just say "first floor?"

"Oh boy..." I gulped and took a step back. The gap between the two pieces of gravel wasn't that far... I believed at the time it was about thirty feet long. I took a couple of more steps back and realized the Raichu was staring at me doing this.

"What are you doing?" He asked. What came next was something I didn't expect.

I took off running using my two short legs and my two short arms.

Every two steps I took, my speed steadily increased. I reached a point where I couldn't stop myself from running so I only had one option that I had to do.

I jumped. Right then and there, I immediately closed my eyes to expect the worse. But I felt myself rolling onto something after I started my descent.

It was ground—meaning I landed. A tug from my newly acquired tail made me realize I've completely stopped moving.

"Nice job!" the Raichu cheered. It used its psychic tail to float to the other side—which probably took a lot less effort than I did. "I think the item we're looking for is just around the corner now." When we entered the room, there was only one item on the floor. It was a different colored orb, as this orb had a light-blue colored taint which made me stare at the Raichu in front of me. The Raichu hopped off its tail and picked up the orb. "Reviver Orb. Can be used to revive anyone who holds the orb..." He placed it in the bag and turned to me. "I got what I wanted. It's time to get out of here."

"But how?" The Raichu made a gesture to get closer. I went right next to him and he touched my shoulder.

Right then and there, everything went immediately dark.

***

8:00 am

???

I would have thought at that point I would have woken up from this weird dream, but that idea would soon go to waste. My eyes slowly opened to see the Raichu looking down at me in front of a blue skyline.

"You okay?" he asked me. I nodded and sat myself up. The area around me was a large plain expanding into the entire viewing distance I could see. In the south, a forest was vaguely seen in the distance.

"What was—."

"That was Teleport," the Raichu interrupted, "I can't really explain how it works, only that it does."

I wasn't going to even question how that worked, but whatever. There was one question that was still looming in my mind and so I asked the question to Raichu. "What was that place we were just in?"

The Raichu thought for a minute. "Well," he responded finally, "that was a mystery dungeon. The layout always changes every time you enter it. Now as for the name..." The Raichu looked in multiple directions, but ultimately ended up looking south. "If you go in that direction and take a left into the forest... You would eventually reach the entrance of the dungeon, called Charred Chambers."

Did he say what I thought he said? I was in disbelief. "That's the place I found in... Cord's game." I drooped my head and ears.

I didn't want to admit it, but I miss Cord. His personality was something I've never experienced before, and I believed if he could have stayed a little bit longer, I would grow from him personality wise. I just wished I knew where he was...

"Wait... Lucas?"

My ears perked up, and I shot my head to Raichu's face. I never told my name so... "How do you know my name?"

The Raichu grinned and only said five words. "Because my name is Cord."

*Game File Saved*

Fun Fact: Reviver Orb was a item used during Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red and Blue Rescue Team. This item will also be used in a later chapter.