Pokemon-Born Again Prologue 5

"So, where do you live again?"

"I think it's just down here. I'm not sure though."

I'm having a little talk with Emily, the Treecko girl I just found in Barry and Alex's mansion, both of whom are following behind me. Seems like today was possibly one of the strangest days of my life, besides yesterday.

As a human-turned-Pikachu in a rescue team just made yesterday, I really don't have anything to say about myself right now. Or my new teammate Andrea, or Tails. I don't even think I know any Electric moves. AND I was just in the worst torture of my life, thanks to my two new acquaintances.

"I'm getting hungry", Emily suddenly says. "Don't worry, we're almost there...I think." I reply to her. Seriously, though, I just hope we get through this forest, let alone get her home. Hopefully her mom will be there waiting, as well as Andrea, who I hope is practicing being a quadruped.

I look back at Barry, the Charmander, and Alex, the Mudkip, as I walk along the path. Barry seems to be a good guy, just a tickle freak, along with his buddy Alex. And speaking of Alex, he was saying some things that were just strange, especially when I mentioned Tails. Something about an apprentice. But really, I don't want to remember that stuff, so I'll just forget about that now.

Eventually, we reach that familiar box-shaped stone house. "We're here!" I shout out to no one in particular. One by one, we all walk in the house. Barry immediately sits on one of the boxy chairs in the back of the room, while Alex and I just stand around looking for other people. Young Emily, on the other hand, starts running through the house, probably looking for her mommy.

"Emily! My baby! Come here!" I hear a familiar voice from behind me, kind of surprising me a bit, as Nicole, the Treecko mother from before, runs in and hugs her daughter. I smile to myself at this scene. "Now, don't run off again, young lady!" Nicole scolds her child with a smile. "Or I might have to take away your Meditite Ranger dolls!"

Wait a second...I just realized something. Last time she was here, she sounded like a Beverly Hills blondie. But now she's speaking fluently. Is she...she is!

"You're not Nicole!" I suddenly blurt out. Both Treecko girls suddenly look up at me, and I get a little nervous. She couldn't be the same Nicole, could she? I mean, she was a blondie last time I saw her. Did she suddenly have speech classes?

"Oh, I'm sorry, um..." She apparently forgot my name.

"It's Johnny", I tell her.

"Johnny. I shouldn't have talked like that before. See, I'm an actor, and that was the accent of my newest role. I was in the middle of practicing, and I guess I kinda got stuck in character for a while after I found out Emily was gone."

Logical explanation, I guess. I smile and say, "Well then, I apologize for wronging you".

"No, no. No need for apologies. I do thanks instead." She walks over to a brown purse in the corner, which I didn't know Pokemon had the potential to make, and takes out a few coins. Then she hands them to me.

"Here you go. 200 PokeDollars." PokeDollars? I smile. At least this place has some sort of currency. "Thank you, Nicole", I say as I take the coins and, having no other spot to put them, place them on one of the chairs.

"Mr. Johnny?" Emily piped up. "Do you live alone? I don't see anyone else here." I look around. She's right; Tails and Andrea still aren't here. Apparently, they're not back from Andrea's training. I hope she learns how to go on all fours soon, or I might need a stronger back.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"

I jump. What was that? I look around, and I see...Barry sleeping in one of the stone chairs. Guess I must've bored him.

"Well, I guess we're overstaying our welcome. We'd better be going", Nicole said as she grabs her purse and walks to the door, Emily following her. "I hope we see you again, Johnny." She closes the door behind her.

"ZZZZzzzzzzz..."

I jump again. Barry's snoring got quite a bit softer. Weird.

Alex doesn't seem to be around. He's probably looking around the rest of the house. Hope he likes what he sees.

I sit down in a chair right across from Barry. He's got his feet propped up on one of the armrests, his head back on the other. Strange way to sleep, but if it works...

Now, I start to recap what's happened so far. I'm a normal kid who...who...who am I really? All I remember about myself is my name, my age, and my personality, as well as everything I remember from my Pokemon games. It's like most of my memory's been erased. That's weird.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. I'm a normal kid, I suddenly wake up as a Pokemon, my favorite species of Pokemon. Another girl is here and is the same thing as me, only she's an Eevee. She's really strange, always wanting to...I don't like it when she does that...do I?

Well, whenever she did, I always felt better. Not when Barry did, because he was trying to torture me.

I look over at said Charmander, whose flaming tail is just flickering away. His feet, still propped up, wiggle a little bit. His toeclaws wiggle a bit, too.

...Why am I suddenly focusing on that? I shake my head a little and try to get that out of my head.

Now I gotta find my place again. Normal, wake up, Pikachu, find Eevee, get tortured, find Tails...

Yeah, Tails seems a little weird to me. It's like he knows me from somewhere. I've never known a guy named Tails. Then again, my memory's gone, so I could've...but it's more likely I don't.

He gives me and Andrea a home. Tails attacked Andrea when she wasn't expecting it. She looked so cute when Tails made her laugh like that...then Andrea made me laugh.

Then there's my dreams. Both when I'm asleep. Those big eyes...whose are they?

"Noct a clue..."

I suddenly remember; Tails never said where he got the bed from. He has all this boxy, stone stuff, but a regular wooden bed. Said he found it in a pile after stuttering a bit more than he usually does.

Noct something...what do I know that starts with Noct? Noctowl? I dunno, on to the next thing.

Let's see, I meet Nicole, go to find her daughter, get gassed by Barry, get tortured by Barry...

Actually, wait a second. Let me think about that.

"zzzzzzz..."

Barry seems to be real asleep. The perfect time to get revenge...

Whoa, what am I thinking? I've never tickled anyone before. Why start now?

Then again, he's sitting there like he's asking for it...

And then, why do I want to tickle him back? There's worse punishments than tickling his feet...

You know what? I'm in some weird Pokemon world, I'm my favorite Pokemon, and no one's around to judge me. I might as well try it now, right?

I get out of my chair and grab a wooden stool from Tails' kitchen, and put in down by his chair. I sit down on it, facing his feet.

I never looked at Barry from this perspective, but he looks just like a Charmander should: Orange, white on his underbelly, and white on the soles of his feet.

I touch his right foot with a finger, feeling it a bit. It seems...tough. Then again, Charmanders live in the mountains without shoes. Why wouldn't he have tough feet?

He seems to twitch a little bit when I poke him. Seems sensitive to me. I start moving my furry finger up and down the bottom of his foot. He seems to twitch a bit when I get close to the middle of the sole. I think that's called his arch, but his sole looks entirely flat. Weird.

I continue moving my finger around his foot, starting to enjoy listening to him giggle lightly and move around a little. This is actually kind of-

"Johnny, what are you doing?"

"YIPE!" I think I just jumped 3 feet. Was that Barry? Uh-oh, I'm doomed.

"You're doing that all wrong. If you want to tickle him, try this." Oh, good. It's not Barry. It's Alex, now that I turn around and see him. Great, I got caught and I'm not in trouble.

I stand up and let the Mudkip guy take my place. He gets comfy on the stool and starts to drag his paws up and down Barry's feet. Now that I look, he's got some sort of claws on his fingers. Cool.

Barry immediately starts to giggle and twitch. After a minute, Alex starts focusing on the spot I found: the arch, I guess I could call it. Immediately, Barry jumped up, eyes open, and starts laughing very hard. I start to laugh, too; it's funny.

Barry rolls out of the chair and onto the floor, earning a bit more laughing from me, as Alex stops tickling.

"Whew...that was fun." He stands up and walks over to me. Now that I see, he's actually a bit taller than me, like a Charmander should. "You were trying to do that first, weren't you?" he asked me. I think I'm blushing, I'm that embarrassed. "Y-y-yeah. Are you gonna kill me for it?" I ask him. Stupid, why would he kill me for that? Then again, those claws aren't just for tickling...

"Well, maybe I should give you lessons, if you're still interested in it." he says. I'm at a loss for words. Do I actually want to learn to do something I've sort of shunned?

"I'll ask later" he tells me. "Um..." I start to say back, "Can we keep what I just experienced as a secret?" He nods, apparently understanding the fact that I'm a bit uncomfortable right now.

Suddenly, the door opens, and I see...Andrea! She's back! And she looks confident!

"Hey, Andrea!" I shout. "You look awesome!"

Her answer: running across the room and pouncing on me!

"ACK!" I cry out as I fall to the floor.

She grins. "I can do that better now!" She wags her tail with glee. Aww, she looks happy.

Tails walks in too, still seeming jittery, but now he looks tired.

"You have a lot of energy, Andrea." He manages to say, still stuttering, before he collapses into the bed.

"Hi. You must be Johnny's friends" Barry pipes up.

Andrea waves to them with a paw, then turns to me. "Did you get the girl back to Nicole?"

"She's safe and sound. And I made a few friends along the way." I point to the Charmander and Mudkip across the room.

"Pleased to meet you." Alex says, bowing his head a little.

"Well, now that we're all acquainted, can I get up now?" I ask Andrea, who's still on top of me.

"Nuh-uh, you look stressed again."

"If you're going to do that, you should at least know that Barry already too care of that". I point to him again, and he smiles and waves.

"Yeah...but I want to make you laugh!" That's what I was afraid of. She then lowers her head down to my belly, and the next thing I heard was...

"Pbbbbffffffffft!!"

I squeal and start laughing. I can't believe she's actually blowing into my belly like that. What's that called again? I can't think straight, it tickles that much!

And after she does that once, she stops and gets off me. I take a small while to get up after that. Why she does that to me all the time, I don't think I'll ever know. But...well, part of me enjoys it when she does it. I know that much. But Barry...he tickles for keeps. He doesn't play around too much, which I only think because he tortured me today.

Later that evening, Barry and Alex decide to stay for the night. They each take a chair and sit in them, and they're asleep within the hour. Tails gets his box, and Andrea and I take the bed.

When Andrea finally falls asleep, I start thinking: Is there a reason this feels like a video game? Wait...it can't be a video game. We'd have stats and leveling up and stuff. What's wrong with this place?

Andrea suddenly mumbles something and repositions herself so one of her paws is on my stomach. Is she trying to hug me or something? Maybe she's...no, I don't think so. She only tickles me because I can't take it, not because she likes me.

She starts squeezing her paw, which also squeezes my belly. Oh, no. She can tickle me in her sleep! I just try to turn over before I start to laugh and pull one of the covers over me, and eventually, she stops.

You have to admit that she does seem connected to me.

After about 15 minutes, I fall asleep. Finally, a nice sleep...