Chapter One
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Drex hated having to wake up. He loved to sleep. All he wanted to do was lie there in bed, ignore the buzzing sound of his alarm clock, pull the covers over his eyes to block out the sunlight. And he would have, but for some reason Drex couldn't find his covers or hear his alram clock. He was warm, but he couln't find the covers. And as he thought of it longer in his dreary half-asleep state, he was trying to figure out why his bed wasn't comfortable and felt cold. A shame that his need to know far outweighed his want to sleep.
He blinks one eye open, fluttering it to get accustomed to the sunlight. Things begin to get even weirder, for some reason it was so bright in his room, he knew he turned the light off. He sits up in the most awkward of ways, for some reason he couldn't sit up normally, but it wasn't uncomfortable so he didn't mind so much. He puts his hand over his face to block the brightness from his eyes and for some reason his arm felt heavier, and very different.
His vision soon adjusts and the sight shocks him. He's in some old building, like, really old. A castle from the renaissance that's crumbled away over time.
'Oh god, please don't tell me my friends snuck into my room and carried me some place where I have no clue as to where I am again.' He thinks remembering how is closest friend and roommate, and a few of his buddies dragged him to the curb of a street he didn't know the name to when he was drunk. He goes to face-palm himself, but when his hand connects with his face, something was terribly off.
His hand was warm and fuzzy, he pulled it away thinking that his friends dressed him in snow gear. But he wasn't wearing snow gear. In fact, he wasn't wearing anything. On his hand was a furry paw. It was orange and he had a black stripe, in the center of his forearm. A patch of a beige colour fur on his elbow, the same patches of fur were over his chest and kept expanding up to what he presumed went as far as his face. Before he could inspect any more of his body, he hears a scream from a connecting room and recognizes the it instantly.
"Allison?" He sprints into the next room, surprisingly easy on four paws. He was expecting to see his close friend Allison in the next room. Half of her hair blonde in it's natural color, the other half dyed black. But what he didn't expect was to see a Pokémon! He stops in his tracks and lets his mouth hang open. Drex doesn't say anything for a while, he just stares at it for, completely entranced. And the strangest thing, it stared back.
"What?" It says. That snapped Drex's attention back to reality.
"Ally?" He takes a step forward, recognizing the voice.
"Drex? Drex is that you?"
"Either that or one of us is tripping major balls right now." He replies in his idiotic fashion.
"Oh my god, Drex it is you! Where are we? And why are you a pokémon?"
That one caught his attention. "I'm a pokémon? Have you looked in the mirror lately? You're a freaking Ninetales!" It's true, in front of him was not the body of the friend Drex knew. Instead it was a fox like creature with golden fur, ruby red eyes, and nine tails. The ends of all the tails tipped in red fur instead of the regular gold. "Say, what pokémon am I?"
"Arcanine." She says plainly.
"Bitchin'!" Allison has calmed down, knowing that a friend is with her puts her slightly at ease.
"Drex, what's going on? How is it that we're pokémon and where are we? How is any of this possible?"
"Good question. Best guess is that A) We've been turned into pokemon and possibly somewhere in Ireland B) we're in the Pokémon world, given that we're both gen 1 I'd say Kanto region, or C) we are on some pretty strong drug."
"Get serious!" She barks at him.
"I am serious! Unless you have a better explanation." She didn't say anything. Anything that she thought of was either too unrealistic, or too stupid. She'd hate to admit it, but his choices were the best.
"Okay, so we're possibly in either the pokémon world seeing as though we're pokemon, or somewhere, probably half way around the world and thrown in a castle. Or we were slipped some sort of hallucinogen. So what do we do now?"
"I say we play along and figure out where we are, if this is some hallucination I want to spend every minute enjoying it!" Drex answers with a stupid looking grin and moved towards another room. "But if this is the Poké-world, well we'll find a way home. Come on, let's get out of this castle and find wherever it is we are."
"What if this is all in our heads?" She asks worried that she very well might walk through the streets on all fours, seeing things for what they aren't.
Drex stops at the doorway of the room. "Screw it, I say. I'm going to enjoy every bit of my dream. If I make a fool of myself, then a fool I am." That made Allison grin a bit. Drex wasn't an idiot, his humor just involved him acting like one and he always kew what stupid thing to say or do. Allison knew that, it was just like the time when her boyfriend broke up with her. She was depressed for days and refused to see anyone, until Drex forced his way to her room, and no matter how she acted or what she said he never left her side once. Through all the time they were together, Drex acted like the joof he would pretend to be and she forget everything about the man who broke her heart. She smiles rememebring it all and gives in, catching up to him quickly.
They walk through corridor after corridor until they come to a spiralling staircase and find their way to the main entrance hall. Two incredibly old doors stood in front of them, barely in one piece. Drex pushed one open and it creeked from old age as it is swung open. Outside was a forest, it looked both creepy and beautiful at the same time, with the lush green trees and plants, but there was an ominous dark vibe that it gave off. Only one thought came across Drex's mind.
"I don't think this is Ireland." Allison just roles her new ruby eyes and walks towards the woods. But she doesn't get far when she reaches her first obstacle.
"You have got to be joking." She says aloud as Drex catches up. In front was a large gap of earth, much too far to jump, and the only way across was a less-than supportive rope bridge. Drex looks over the edge and kicks a rock down, and they wait to hear it hit the bottom. They never hear it.
"Welp, no time like the present." Drex walks over to the bridge, oblivious to the danger.
"Wait, what?" Allison stops him. "You aren't seriously going across that bridge are you? I mean look at it, it probably can't support our weight, maybe there's another way across."
"Oh I see, Ally's chicken shit."
"Am not!" She blurts.
"Oh really? Then prove it. After all, ladies do go first." He steps aside for her, wanting to be shown that he's wrong. She slowly walks up to the bridge, hesitant at first. She puts one paw on the first wooden plank, it creeks under her weight, but doesn't break. She proceeds to another plank, and another. Her confidence slowly rising as everything went fine.
"Ha! Proved you wrong!" She shouts from the other side of the gap. Drex simply walks over calmly, not a care in the world. He finally got to the same side, a smug look over his face.
"Yeah, you sure showed me that I was right about the bridge." He said and kept walking on. Allison stood there, realizing that she was just suckered. She was still alive, safe, and on the other side; but she still felt like she had to yell at him. She got one more glance at the castle, it was in worse condition than she had thought it was. But something was familiar about it, like she's seen it before somewhere. She just threw her thoughts in the back of her mind thinking that she's just imagining it.
***
There wasn't anything else interesting along the walk, so they talked. Drex kept wondering if they were really pokémon, and by this point they were both positive that they were, then they might be able to use the moves. Drex started naming some of the ones he was really hoping to do: Agility, Roar, Take Down, Extremespeed, Flamethrower. Allison recommended that he not try that one, or any move relating to fire while they were in an easily flammable forest.
"Hey, I think we're just about out of the forest." Drex says spoting how the trees and bushes began to thin out. They could see the edge of the forest not too far off and more light shining down from the dense foliage. The trees had been so close together that they formed a thick canopy that blocked all light from seeping past them. It certainly upped the forest's creep-o-meter for the both of them. But there was always enough light for them to see what was close by, but never enough to tell what shadows were lying in the dark.
Happy to be almost be out, Drex jogs over to the border more hastely than Allison. He pulls back a bushes to get a better look, and for a second, he doesn't believe what he sees. "What is it?" Allison asks making it to border along side him. The bushes were too tall for her to see past.
"Okay, two things are certain." He begins her with a huge grin on his face. "One: we are not on earth. And two: we are not hallucinating any of this."
"How can you be sure?" She asks wondering what he saw on the other side. Thankfully her prayers were answered as Drex pulls the bushes back so she could see what he meant by that.
"Because there's no way a drug could make me imagine this!" In front of them was a town they were both familiar with. The most recognizable town that can be found in only one place ever.
"Ponyville?" They say at the same time.