Pokemon Madness!

DayDreamer

Badger Supreme
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Writing Levels
  1. Adaptable
It was hot. Artemis wished she hadn't worn her working boots but, when one worked with horses, it was a matter of safety. A horse just stepping on your toes could be very, very painful. Luckily her time in the stables was up for the day and she could go home and have a much needed shower. Summer time in Greece could get you drenched. Working outside with horses in summer would definitely get you soaking wet with sweat. But it didn't matter to Artemis. All she was concerned about at the moment was to reach the busstop in time.

Making sure she hadn't forgotten anything, she grabbed her backpack and shut her locker. Then she heard it. The whinnie of Apollo. Oh the irony, yes, she knows. Apollo was a white stallion that was especially fond of her and she would be the one to get him to calm down whenever he had tantrums or was scared of something. This time she turned around to see him trotting up to her and the entrance to the riding school Artemis was volunteering to in exchange for riding lessons. "Woah buddy!" Artemis said calmly as she stepped infront of the horse, holding her ground as she noticed he was dragging his guiding halter along.

Apollo neighed and stopped just a few paces away, walking up to her and pushing his head against her arms as she grabbed his halter. "I'm sorry Artemis! I was taking him to his box but he took off. Could you...?" Alex came huffing over and explained himself, causing Artemis to roll her eyes and look at her watch and groan. She was definitely going to lose that bus. "Again? Apollo you need to stop being such a baby." She scolded the horse and oblidged Alex. "I'll take care of him. The next bus won't be until another half an hour. Go deal with the others." She told him and he nodded, leaving her alone to tend to the riding arena.

Apollo followed her perfectly calm and willing, rubbing his head affectionately on her shoulder now and then only for Artemis to exhaled amused. "You're an asshole sometimes, you know that?" She talked to him as she led him into his box. Backpack still on her shoulders, Artemis closed the door of the box behind her, watching curiously as Apollo started digging the hay in a very purposeful manner. "What is it?" Artemis asked as she leaned down to see what Apollo had unearthed.

She was surprised when she saw a weird stone instead of a dead rat she was expecting. "I'll take it if it's bothering you. But no more funny business I need to be able to catch my bus next time okay?" She told the horse and patted his flanks as she took a closer look at the black and orange colors. Then, next thing she knew, the black grew larger until it engulfed her vision.
.....

The sound of krickets instead of horses and cars made Artemis stand up and gasp in surprise. She found herself sitting on the forest floor. What the hell was going on? How had she ended up here? Where was here? The weight of her backpack made its presence known to her and she quickly stood up and took in her surroundings. She could hear the sound of waves nearby. There was a lake or sea somewhere on her right. Feeling the panic rise in her, she decided to head there and try and figure out where she was as she had no recollection of how much time had passed or how she had gotten there. "What the Hell is going on?" She asked no one in particular, but the sound of her voice made her feel calmer.

She was right. After about five minutes walk, she found herself at the edge of a medium sized sandy beach. Hearing the cries of seaguls, she turned her eyes to the sky only to see.... She laughed as if she was going mad. "Winguls? What the actual fuck?" She questioned her sanity as the white and blue pokemon bird was flocking at the breeze. Was she really inside the game?

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OOC: https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/4/42/Dream_Houndoominite_Sprite.png That's the stone she found. Her speaking is in Greek, but I was bored to have translations at the end. @firejay1
 
This was it. Today was going to be the day. Maybe. Her ride home from her summer classes being held at a local college was 30 minutes away. Lizzy was going to touch the bird today. Rolling up her sleeves and adjusting her backpack on her back, she slowly approached the little bluejay she'd found near the parking lot two weeks ago.

She tried to keep her footsteps quiet, but it turned to look straight at her, and Lizzy went stiff with fear. Oh my gosh. Please don't fly at me. Please don't fly at me. She begged silently. It turned away and hopped to the side. For a second, she breathed a sigh of relief, before remembering that the goal had been to pet it, not scare it off. Gritting her teeth, she marched forward, so determined to follow it that she didn't realize that they were going down a slightly secluded alleyway between two buildings.

Out of sight of the parking lot, the bird darted into a little nook at the bottom of wall, popping its head out of the nook to roll a little stone right into her path. Kneeling down, she squinted at it. She liked rocks like these. She picked it up with the intention of inspecting it better.

It looked a bit like a marble, blue and grey swirled together in the center. The more she stared at it, though, the blue seemed to grow. Was it... growing hard to breathe?

Suddenly, Lizzy was popping her head out of water, a wave depositing her on a sandy beach. The brunette gaped around her, so stunned and confused that she couldn't do anything else. And then she saw the crocodile.

It wasn't exactly a crocodile, in fact it was kind of cute. It was small, a funny blue color with red spines, standing on two legs. Curiously, Lizzy peered forward, and then it opened its mouth wide to reveal a row of teeth and charged towards her on its two stumpy little legs. Soaking wet and covered in sand, Lizzy scrambled backwards, opened her mouth, and screamed with all her might.
 
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A shrill scream made Artemis snap her head from the sky and its Winguls to see what was going on. Instinctively she had taken a couple of steps back and debated on hiding. Then she saw another girl, wet and covered in sand trying to get away from something. The presence of another human could help her figure out where she was so, without much debate about fleeing, she trotted up to the girl, a hand grabbing her swiss army knife just in case. She didn't pull it from her pocket however. No need to appear threatening if there was no need for that.

"Είσαι καλά;" She asked the girl as she came up to her from behind and saw a Totodile charging at them on stubby legs and a large toothy smile which made Artemis sweat. Totodiles had a habbit of playful biting. She remembered that much from the series. Ash's pokemon had such a habbit. She just hoped that the scream hadn't angered or scared the pokemon, because then his bite could do some serious damage. "Ήρεμα φιλαράκο. Δεν είμαστε για δάγκωμα." She turned to the pokemon and hoped it would understand her. She was calm and confindent, much like when she was around horses and other animals. No showing fear lest they took advantage of it.

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"Είσαι καλά;" => "Are you alright?"
"Ήρεμα φιλαράκο. Δεν είμαστε για δάγκωμα." => "Easy buddy. We're not up for biting."
@firejay1
 
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A voice spoke from behind her, and Lizzy whirled around, heart thumping loudly in her chest. To her relief, it wasn't a... talking flower or whatever this fever dream wanted to give her. It was a human. She jumped up and clutched the other girl's sleeve, instinctively hiding behind her. "I- I don't know what language you're speaking. Do-do people here speak English? That's not like Elvish or anything, right? Oh my gosh, what is going on?" She jabbered. She took several deep breaths and knocked her fist against her forehead, to tell herself to get it together. Taking another large gulp of air, she spoke shakily, but a little less panicked. "What is that?" She asked. Lizzy dreamed a lot. She knew very well when she was dreaming and when she wasn't. This was no dream.
 
A chuckle escaped her without thinking. Despite the fact Artemis was back to zero, the girl clearly was on the same boat as her and didn't even know what Totodile was, she found the fact Greek could be mistaken for Elvish quite hilarious. "I don't know if people here speak English, but that was definitely not Elvish. It was Greek." She said with a greek accent as she turned slightly to look at the girl hiding behind her and hitting her forehead. She was clearly in a state of shock.

Turning her attention at the small pokemon again, Artemis' brain gears were going on overload and the girl was still clinging on her sleeve. "I don't know what is going on, but this is a pokemon called Totodile. Playful little bitters as far as I recall my game knowledge. Where are you from?" She needed to figure out whether the girl was from the real world, because clearly, there were no living breathing pokemon back in Greece or any parts of the world Artemis knew about. They needed answers and they needed to find a town or more humans. Hopefully locals this time around.
 
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Greek. Greek. This was either some version of Percy Jackson, or this was a real human. From the real human world. Lizzy almost sobbed in relief. "I- I'm an American. From LA, I mean Los Angeles. I just picked up some rock and somehow ended up here. Pokemon?" Lizzy squinted. She had heard of pokemon before, but the most she knew about it was that there was a little yellow... lightning squirrel? called Pikachu? "That's... some kind of game, right? That thing is from a game?" The longer she talked, the calmer Lizzy got. She was still just about ready to go into full-on panic mode if the monster tried to attack, but her more rational side was slowly trying to kick back into gear.

The blue crocodi- wait, the girl had called it a Totodile? Why Toto...? Well, whatever. The Totodile had stopped when she had screamed and looked up at the two girls. "Wani?" It said, curiously, tipping its head to the side. Lizzy had no idea what that was supposed to mean, and opened her mouth to ask if that was normal, but suddenly it started running around in circles in the sand, repeating the "wani" several times over as it did a strange little dance of excitement. It was actually really cute. She found herself relaxing a little more and whispered loudly at the other girl, "Is that normal?"
 
American. Okay they were on the same boat but from different sides of the ocean but hold on a minute! "You don't know pokemon? It's only one of the most popular video games and anime shows of all time!" Real smart Artemis. The logical part of her brain groaned inside her. Out of all the things that were wrong in this setting, the one that she would choose to point out first was how some girl her age didn't know about pokemon.

The Totodile speaking for the first time and going into a hype dance made Artemis chuckle. "Yes this is normal. As far as I remember Totodiles are very playful and get easily excited." She explained and lowered herself to the pokemon's height. "It's nice to meet you too. Do you know where we can find a house or more humans?" She asked the pokemon in English. She really hoped this was an English version of the world because she knew nothing when it came to japanese.
 
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"No I don't know pokemon." Lizzy hissed back at her. "I mean, the guys in my elementary school used to play it on their gameboys, but I'm not a gamer! And I thought it was a game, not an anime!" This was a dumb conversation to be having at the moment. She watched curiously as the Totodile stopped its dancing to give the girl another look. It shook its head at her. Was this girl really trying to communicate with a crocodile monster?

"Wani wani." The Totodile explained, shaking its head more vigorously, sweeping in a little circle and waving its chubby little arms back and forth to indicate that there was no such thing.

"What did it say?" She asked, thinking that the other girl maybe knew pokemon enough to decipher... whatever that was.
 
Well, she had that one coming didn't she? Yes Pokemon was popular but not everybody liked those kinds of games. And if you weren't a gamer in the first place. She shrugged and focused on the pokemon that was trying to communicate with them. "Well, I am not a pokemon whisperer, but the answer's no. Either there are no humans or houses nearby or it doesn't want to take us there." She explained and reached a tentative hand at the pokemon. She wanted to thank it, but she stopped short before touching its snout. Totodile would have to decide if it actually wanted to be touched or not.

"I'm Artemis by the way. I just got here. Woke up back in the forest a few minutes ago." She introduced herself and motioned behind her at the trees.
 
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The Totodile considered it for a bit, then bit her finger lightly and let go to head-butt her knee. It was getting to the point where even Lizzy felt somewhat comfortable with it. She still wasn't about to touch it with a six foot pole, but at least she was feeling less scared overall. She knelt down next to the two of them, though still a little behind the other girl. "Oh." They were doing introductions, huh? It was a weirdly normal sort of thing. "Right. I'm Lizzy. Elizabeth Bryne. I just got here, too. A wave tossed me onto the beach." The talk of the wave hit her with another thought. Startling, she pulled her backpack from her back and dug into it, pulling a wet electronic from it. Her phone.... It wasn't a terribly good phone, and she hadn't wanted it when she'd been forced to carry it around, but it sure would have been useful to see if they could contact friends and family. Unfortunately, it was sopping wet, and totally useless. She groaned. "Since you came by jungle, do you have a phone on you?"
 
"Opa!" Artemis laughed as the Totodile bit her and headbutted her knee, causing her to lose her balance and fall butt first on the sand. She ought to feel thankful the pokemn didn't put enough strenght to make her bleed or worse, but she was too delighted by the experience to even think about it. "Mischievous are we?" She questioned the pokemon as she attempted to scratch the pokemon under the cheen.

Sensing the other girl, Lizzy, sit down close enough but not exactly near them, Artemis leaned back on the sand to get a better look at her. She was fiddling with a wet smartphone. How come she hadn't thought of that? A phone might be helpful if they actually had signal here. "Uh, I do actually." She said and fiddled with her cargo pockets of her shorts. "Aha! Let's see." She exclaimed as she fished an old, regular buttons, rugged phone from them. She unlocked the keyboard and took a look at the signal bars.

"No signal." She said disappointed. "But at least we have a torch in case we need it. I'll turn it off to save battery. What else do you have in that backpack? And...." She paused as if something dawned on her. "Do you still have that rock?" She asked as she felt her own rock while she was grabbing her phone.
 
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The pokemon continued to play with her, letting Artemis scratch it under the chin, and clapping its hands and going "waniwani." When she pulled away to check her electronic, it leaned one arm against her leg, peering over at her to see what she was doing.

Lizzy, for her part, could not be more disappointed. A tor- that girl definitely meant a flashlight. A flashlight was good news, but without any way to communicate with the... outside world, they were not far off from where they had started. "Mostly just school supplies." She said, glumly. "Notes, that are probably totally ruined right now, pencils, pens, ruler, a calculator that I hope still works, a textbook, mini stapler, packet napkins, bandaids, chapstick, bobby pins." She called out the items as she found them snooping through her pack. "These aren't really useful, are they?" She asked with a grimace. Her family liked to go on a few camping trips, and she couldn't think of anything most of the items would be useful for except as fuel for a fire. "I think I dropped the rock when I landed on the beach, earlier. It should be right..." she looked around with her eyes, and saw it a little to the left of the Totodile, "over there." She pointed, making it clear she wasn't going anywhere near that direction any time soon.
 
Artemis listened carefully as Lizzy listed off items. "Okay, we can use them. Just need to be a bit creative. Does your calculator have batteries? Because if it does you should take them out and dry them." She asked as she moved to grab the stone from where Lizzy had pointed, wrestling the Totodile playfully as she did. Lizzy was obviously still afraid of the pokemon and Artemis couldn't really blame her. She would've been a lot more suspicious and scared if she hadn't been a pokemon fan and if she had just gotten out of the water only to be assaulted by a toothy crocodile looking creature. Even if it was meant as play.

"I should've known." Artemis mumbled as she cleaned the stone from the sand and pulled her own stone to compare them. "Those are Mega stones. But why would they pull us here? That's not what they are supposed to do. Looks like a water Type and Fire Type stone too." She spoke aloud, mostly to herself but then maybe Lizzy had an idea about this. Maybe she had additional info Artemis didn't.

"Here. You should keep this. Might be useful in the long run." She said and turned to give Lizzy the Mega Stone.
 
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Lizzy pulled out her calculator's four AA batteries and wrapped them carefully in her packet tissues. She eyed the stone as it was offered, and took it reluctantly. She flinched, but nothing happened, and she dropped it into her soggy pencil case. "Mega stones? Water Type and Fire Type? Look, Artemis, love your name by the way, if we've been dropped into a whole pokemon world or whatever, you might have to give me a bit of a rundown. Or if not a rundown, at least try to avoid getting technical, because this is all nonsense to me. Are we going to find pokeballs buried in some secret chest in the middle of the jungle or something?" It sounded dumb even to her when she said it aloud, but it wasn't completely crazy. They were here, after all.
 
Artemis rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly as she was called out for allowing her nerdy side to come out like that. "Uhm.... Sorry. I got a bit carried away." She whirled around and sat crosslegged facing Lizzy. "So, uhm, do you know at least the basic concept of what this game's about? Cause I wish we could find pokeballs lying around like that, but it won't happen unless we reach civilazation." She asked as she emptied her backpack and cargo pockets so they could have a full acount on their supplies. She needed to know how much into detail or how much from the top she would have to take her story telling of the vast pokemon Universe. She was not a walking Bulbapedia, but she did know a lot that would prove useful.... she hoped.

She pulled her half-filled glass water bottle out and placed in on the sand next to her old mp3 player and headphones. Packet of tissues, hand sanitizer, sweaty bandana, extra riding school shirt, jokey's hat, wallet, cellphone, leather working gloves and her swiss army knife. Not much to go by, but they could make it work. They would have to find fresh water and a place to sleep, but Artemis was quite confident their new pokemon friend would help them out.
 
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"Uh... no." Lizzy said. She knew there were pokemon and pokeballs, but she got the feeling that wasn't what Artemis was talking about in term of basic concept. "I hear things here and there, but just assume I know absolutely nothing at all and start from the beginning. I think an overview should be fine, though. What is the point of this game?" As they talked, she began cleaning out and drying off as many things as she could, grateful that it had been only summer school and she didn't have five school-rented textbooks and notes from the entire school year stashed in there. The Totodile seemed to sense story time was coming and trotted up next to Artemis, sitting down. Lizzy scooted backwards instinctively.
 
Laughing at the Totodile plopped on the sand next to her. "This is going to be a relatively long rundown. But I'll try to keep this as short as possible." She pointed out and eyed the textbook and notes curiously. Wasn't school like supposed to be over a while ago?

"Okay, so while this was a game it was supposed to be about a kid, who got to travel the world with their pokemon partners, discover legendary pokemon which is kind of like what we think of Unicorns and Chthulu. They get to do friendly battles between pokemon with other trainers, catch new pokemon, compete in shows and ruin the plans of evil teams that are not that dangerous because it's a kids game." She did a 'duh' face and started to organize her bag from the beginning, clipping her swiss army knife on her belt loops.

"So basically this is like our world. Only instead of having regular animals, it has pokemons, or pocket monsters. Creatures of all shapes and sizes that can use some really mean powers." She put her hat on and patted Totodile's head. "This little guy for example can use water based attack. That's why he is a Water Type pokemon for the most part. I think he gains another type as he evolves later on, but I am not entirely sure."

"There are several pokemon types based on their attacks and environment they live. Grass, Water, Fire, Ground, Electric, Steel, Dark, Psychic, Fairy, Ice, Poison, Bug, Dragon... I might be forgetting some, but the point is there are a lot. And depending on their type, they are weak against some Types and stronger compared to some other Types. Sometimes, when they evolve, they gain a second type. Like they can be Grass and Poison."

"Which brings us to evolution. Pokemon change form and gain more abilities when they have enough experience. Think of it like going from kid, to teen, to adult stages in huge transforming leaps. Totodile here, can evolve twice and he becomes larger and different in shape as well. Still keeps his crocodile shape though." Zipping up her bag and setting it aside, Artemis pulled her Mega stone up for Lizzy and Totodile to see clearly.

"And then there are these. The newer games introduced these Mega stones that allow pokemon in their final stage to evolve even further for a short amount of time and gain even more power. But it can be very draining and needs a great deal of trust between pokemon and trainer to achieve. It also needs a Key stone, which we don't seem to have right now. Basically the pokemon holds the Mega stone and then the trainer activates the Key stone so the evolution can happen. It's somewhat complicated and not really necessary to know if we want to make it here.'

"Questions?"
 
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The talk was... well, longer than Lizzy had expected. For the most part, it all made sense, though she was silent for a moment as she processed it. "So that's all good. But one. Is there anything about getting transported to pokemonland and how we're supposed to get out, so we don't have to 'make it here' for very long. And two, how exactly are you supposed to catch and train and battle and compete and evolve these things? Do we need to deal with them? Can we just... live off of coconuts or something?" Again with the ideas that sounded better in her head than in the open, especially because she hated coconuts, but this all seemed rather complicated to her. And involving too many openly dangerous animals.
 
Artemis thought for a moment. "The game always starts with the kid already having family there. They are not just transported in pokemon world. There are a few pokemons that can travel through space and time, but they are Legendary. So even if they are the cause of us ending up here I doubt it will be easy to find them. I'm guessing we will be here for a while. My parents will freak out with good reason....." The thought made her feel depressed. Her parents wouldn't discover she was missing until they came home from work later that evening, but when they did.... All Hell would break loose. And how would she be able to explain this all to them? They wouldn't believe her.

"Yes we will have to deal with them. Pokemon are more than just exotic or glorified pets in a sense. They have their own personality and intelligence. We could live off of coconuts for a little while, but to get to catch and battle and do all the stuff the game mentions we need to reach a place where there are humans and the appropriate tech. For now we would just have to rely on pokemon like Totodile here, who have taken a liking to us and can help us around. We also need to find fresh water and shelter for the night. In other words.... We need to explore." She pointed out and placed the bag on her shoulders again, preparing for a quick expedition. They definitely needed to find a source of clean water and a place to safely spend the night before they could plan their next move.

"Also..... Isn't school supposed to be over? It's summer time right?" It had been bothering her for a while now. Why did she still have school supplies in her bag? Artemis was more than glad for school to be over. She had just taken her University entry exams and was waiting to see the results, but it had been a gruesome two years of repeated cramming and studying to get to this point. Working in the stables to get her rider's license was a very joyful break from all that.
 
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Exploring. Yay....... One of Lizzy's greatest fears was getting lost, so the idea of trekking through thick jungle with no clue where they were going or what was in store for them was not one she relished. She had finished wiping most things off, but her backpack itself was still pretty wet, and being on the move meant she was going to have to put them all back inside and lug it around on her back. This was going to suck. She heaved a big sigh and began putting her things away. "You have to take a bunch of summer classes or volunteer if you want to be competitive with colleges." She said, still looking rather glum. "I've got one more year of high school left. This is my last chance to make an impression. What about you? You look... tired and sweaty. What are you doing over the summer?"