Chapter Text
I come to with blank static between my ears with blood scattered around me, sitting in what looks like a living room with a destroyed TV and wall.
A broken fish tank with a small red goldfish.
Food gone cold splat across the floor from a smashed table.
A mangled corpse holding another body, similarly sized as itself, is dangling on the remains of the wall.
Must be a couple. A pair of lovers embracing each other in death.
There's another body by me with their arms torn off. Looks elderly.
I walk on out and step over the wall, feeling led by some feeling of wrongness and confusion.
Every house as far as I can see has been demolished.
More bodies. More dead people. Some look mangled, some very pale, and some with no injuries but open glossy eyes like a dead fish.
So much blood and paint? Is that paint?
There are some large and medium-sized stuffed animals - I stop cold in my tracks.
Red blood seems to gush from within a colorful but dyed red plushie. Looks like a Mightyena. Used to be alive.
I did this.
A smug smile cuts across my face, before I numbly stare out, confused at where that feeling arose from.
"Oh…" Am I dreaming? Because I think this is Pokemon, but that can't be true.
What dream feels like this? I do some quick math in my head and draw on my forearm with my finger my calculations.
I could never get them right when I was dreaming. I'm coherent. Very coherent enough to be able to gather and think all my thoughts. Not a dream.
I'm standing in a pool of blood. What happened here? What came through here? Why am I here? I was - what was I doing before I woke up?
I walk around, feeling nothing, as I survey the damage to this little quiet town.
Nothing moves. Nothing feels alive. I taste not another soul left in the vicinity. So many people are dead.
Scorch marks. Claw marks. Mud. Wet land. Water drops dripping down from a tree. Vines. Leaves. Just an array of Pokemon moves dished out.
What took on this entire town?
Wait… There's a common pattern I'm seeing in this town…
The same 'Pokemon' attacks scattered among a variety of other Type moves like fire and water.
There's a deep purple energy emitting all over the place.
'I did this'. I thought that, didn't I?
A normal human, in the Pokemon world or not, couldn't have done this, and I have my normal hands. Human feet. Real clothes. Pokemon? Was I a Pokemon in disguise? I feel like I would…
Or I was possessed. Possession happened too. Maybe I was possessed and it left me? Dark Type? Ghost?
What could be so violent to destroy this town? People of all ages and pokeballs… Wait. There's a human with six pokeballs. Pokeballs. I should've checked them sooner.
It looks transparent but empty. Alright, what? Can one Pokemon take on a town? It's not as small as a town like the games would be. It's so, so large I haven't seen the outside yet or I was small.
A PokeCenter emitting warm night lights in the middle of day takes my attention when I see the surreal but familiar sight.
I start running over there. They have healers. No way the Pokemon got to them.
The doors don't slide open for me but I see movement inside. People.
Why aren't the doors sliding open? I almost groan at myself. It might be on lockdown. Duh. There's a violent, murderous Pokemon roaming outside. I lean in on the glass.
I could break this if I tried.
No, I couldn't? Bad intrusive thought. I peek inside.
I see what looks like Nurse Joy huddling up with a Chansey and few other people inside. One of them points out at me and yells something to the others.
Something whirls up behind me.
I turn on my heels to look up at a human wearing a red familiar - Ranger? - uniform with a device in her hands.
A spinning disc traveling light surrounds me.
I didn't hear her at all! Where did she come from?
Wait, this can't work on humans, can - This human isn't my enemy. She only wants me to calm down. Look at her. She's pleading for me to stop. She's -
Snap.
The light trail breaks apart when I touch it.
"Odor Sleuth, follow up with Power Swap!" She shouts and I feel weak. So much weaker. There's a Girafarig.
I look back. The doors are halfway open by the time I noticed and suddenly I knew there were five humans and three other Pokemon inside the Poke Center.
The Girafarig jumps outside towards me and the doors shut in.
I howl.
Ominous winds raged with me.
Immense hatred. Immense resentment. Putrid everything. I can't feel myself as something explodes out from inside me.
Give mE YOUR
My vision turns red from the madness.
Crunch. Crunch. Smash. Thud. Crash. Crunch.
Pops.
Can't hear anything else.
So dark.
Then I pull myself awake inside the PokeCenter with more remains scattered around me.
Oh. Well, look at that.
I'm the rampaging, ballistic Pokemon. Why?
When I think about it, I barely had any reactions to seeing dead people for the first time. But that could've been the shock.
It wasn't shock. What Pokemon am I? My hands look human, but I know I can't be human.
I wasn't possessed. I was the Pokemon and killed an entire town for what reason?
A Pokemon that can look human. First thought would be Zoroark or Zorua. Latios or Latias too… a Ditto? Was I a Ditto? But why would I go berserk and feel a new power awaken in me?
I don't think any of these Pokemon I thought up were rampaging, shapeshifting Pokemon.
I have to flee. I don't want to feel good. I should feel wrong for this, but I just turn to the reflective glass of the PokeCenter. What am I?
Show me yourself.
I have no reflection, until… something blips.
My reflection looks back. A large, nearly round purple Pokemon with large purple spikes and striking red eyes.
One step forward and my reflection vanishes. I am left feeling nothing.
Could a Gengar feel what I should've felt as a human?
I think I know why I am so strong. I know whose body this belongs to. It used to be a Gastly when I was starting a custom Pokemon challenge where I chose a Pokemon with a strong final evolution because I kept failing my other solo runs and went the easy route.
A solo run Nuzlocke challenge where I used no other Pokemon. I killed everything in one or two hits.
I acquired a Gengarite for my Gengar and it died challenging the Elite Four. I failed.
I don't see anything on myself resembling a Key Stone or a Mega Stone. Where did those two stones go? Do Mega Evolutions not need the bond of the trainer and Pokemon to stabilize?
What happened to me and the Gengar I used?
I coldly laugh. I became a Gengar. A monster. A rampaging, angry monster whenever I Mega Evolved. Why did I go berserk…?
The Ranger and her Capture Styler. It must've ticked me off. Did it activate with rage or…?
The friendship bonding. The bond between trainer and Pokemon…
I'm sensing an answer I naturally won't like, not as a being with thoughts, but as Gengar. This feeling threatens to bubble up inside of me.
I stamp it down inside of me. I don't know, I just shouldn't answer it before I feel filled with rage, but I don't like the idea of killing humans mindlessly like I was no different than a brute.
A body at my feet.
Did I feel bad for killing? No.
I felt bad I did it without knowing.
I'm really a Gengar, a malicious Pokemon who sucks out people's life force while hiding in their shadows.
I try to feel something more, because I can reason I should. All my memories that inform me I would've felt horrified and I cared more about the fact I wasn't in control.
I look around. People were huddled up.
A Ranger set out to challenge me.
The Ranger wasn't the reinforcement. Were they the closest…? I had to run. How long has it been? I stare into my reflection. I didn't transform into a human.
How… oh. Yes. I see. I understand it. This isn't strictly the same as the games. Anime? Manga? The pokeballs were transparent…
The Pokemon anime had a Gastly who pretended to be a woman's ghost and cast illusions. That was so weird and traumatizing. I love it. So could Pokemon talk or not here…?
I shudder.
I feel people just on the outskirts and approaching the PokeCenter, so I walk through - and hit the wall of the PokeCenter.
That explains a lot. I blink and slip through the broken doors.
No deep breaths, just a deep sinking feeling as I traverse through the earth and feel myself as a Gengar.
I want to eat. A human.
No thoughts on whenever it was right or wrong and if I wanted to lose my humanity, I just thought what a waste of lives up there.
It doesn't feel good to know how different I've become as a Gengar.
Without a nice juicy human brain inside my head… I must think more like a Gengar because I am one. Do I have a brain? Is it made of gas?
I don't like this and I don't know where I am going, but I don't want to be fought. I feel like any feeling I would've had became limp and bored. The mere thought of fighting weaklings bores me. I'll keep this thought.
Fighting is boring. I need to do more than fight. What happened to me and why am I my own Gengar from another failed solo run? This can't be… I'm not in the game. Is this actually a dream? I need to confirm it with my own senses. If I am in the game, then the region I am in would be…
I raise up from the shadow of a tree after lurking around in darkness. If I'm in a different region or anywhere else, that just narrows down the possibility I might be in my game.
I would hate to meet the people I should 'know' because I don't think any of them expected the hero of the story's Gengar to be murdering humans. I don't like being tied down to a game of all things, so I'm hoping it isn't that. I should check where I am.
The problem with seeing something drawn for a cartoon and in reality is that I can't figure out where I must be from looking at the buildings or the… forest. Pokemon. I need to - I can't sense them around.
If any of them felt two different Mega Evolutions of a berserk Gengar stomping through a good chunk of the town, they would be avoiding me.
Not good. I need to dim my presence, sinking back into the shadows, and moving further away from the human settlement behind him, and I begin to feel myself approaching life.
I slip into a Fletchling's shadow, who goes from chattering away with its friends to growing tired. Sleep. Taste the dreams. Eat.
The Fletchling dies in its sleep.
There are Fletchlings in the wild. Some Pidgeys. A Scatterbug.
Kalos, where Mega Evolutions came to be. Not the game I was playing. Okay, cool. At least I wasn't de-aged into being a child or a teen.
What grown adult wants to go back into being a kid? I would hate being looked down upon all the time for lack of perceived maturity and kept out of…
I'm a Pokemon. What life prospects or life anything could I do? What about my friends? My family? Actually, I couldn't care less. I would prefer to have another Gengar with me and need to pick a perfect human to convert - oh. Right. Gengar mind.
My old name? … Did it matter?
Is it because I became a Gengar, a Ghost/Poison type who wouldn't bother? Stop.
I'm telling myself to stop. I don't need to figure out if thinking about that will trigger another Mega Evolution.
I need to plan what to do. Get another Gengar. Going home? No, I don't miss any humans, I just want another Gengar. I should be alarmed I was thinking like a Gengar but I understood it as having a new brain. Different priorities.
I try a little test and thought up of the most beautiful women and men. All humans. Think back to how I loved listening to their music. Think back to playing their… songs on repeat. I feel nothing. Don't even care for the music. These humans don't impress me. Their songs are weak.
No, stop. I need to think about it. I thought I would've had a goal being here, but it all melts away in the mind of a Gengar. Companionship. I'll be fine with that. I need to think about what kind of Gengar I would like?
I just need to find the perfect human to turn into a Gastly.
Want to leave. This thought sinks me down. I don't need to stay in this world for long.
I'm sensing those weak humans coming for me. They're in the forest too, sweeping through it.
Need to go to the spirit world.
A Drifloon greets me which is surprising because from how unstartled it was and how it tugged on my hand, before I pulled my hand away, I have an inkling it knows me.
"How did you do that?" Drifloon asks me, sounding all floaty and cutesy.
"Mega Evolve?"
"You were supposed to look like a Gengar, child, not become one," Drifloon happily says and picks up a shoe… a child's shoe from a pile of them.
We're in a weird, purple-y and kinda flashy but dark tunnel. I don't get it, but I feel like I'm in a space that'll take me somewhere. No where in particular, just somewhere, like a balloon floating in the winds.
"Until later."
"Until later?" I should be upset from the implications of meeting this little guy, but I couldn't feel any real animosity towards it.
"A Dusclops is missing her shoes and she needs a Reaper Cloth. Take these shoes and trade this package to her for something you might like from her collection," it says as it pulls out a cloth from inside of itself and wraps up the shoes.
"I just met you and you're telling me to go off on a journey?" I stare at it, baffled at how I went from there to here or from that to this. This very adorable purple balloon with x-shaped yellow mouth.
I take the child's shoes offered to me and feel like placing it inside my mouth to hold it for later.
"A Dusknoir's role is special. She will bring us the dead. Would you not like that? To find easy prey? Or what most, if not all, Gengars want?" The Drifloon puffs itself and spins around from excitement.
"I'll choose my own companion," I say. "Where is this Dusclops?"
"Captured by a human."
"… You planned this," I slowly say. I suddenly become curious if Drifloon can find me another human… but no. I'll do it myself.
"Maybe?"
"You wanted a Gengar strong enough to face a trainer."
"I keep getting wisps more often than Pokemon. It's hard for humans spirited away to become a Pokemon like yourself." Drifloon boredly puts its hands together and then drifts upwards.
"Won't you tell me where this Dusclops is?"
"I don't know. It was a trainer… go where humans are. If the human is not strong, perhaps the human would settle down in a weak settlement or return to its weak little home," it echoes all around me.
Is this Drifloon seriously asking me to follow the Kalos gym circuit in less than five seconds of meeting each other? Memories or not, I don't know it.
But I can't get angry at it. What use is killing something I know is so terribly weak?
Just thinking about the humans and their Pokemon disappoint me further.
I would've said it would be surprising to go from the most bloodiest playground to being stuck on a fetch quest if it weren't for the fact I didn't care.
Free the Dusclops. Get a Dusknoir ally. Fight the Dusknoir for fun and get a human.
I would like a strong human to make into a Gastly.
The starting town for Kalos region should be in Vaniville Town and I don't know how to get from there and not spawning from who knows where. I should look for a Pokemon that knows where it's going. I'm most curious about its population. What would Kalos look like without being in the confines of a game for children? I smirk.
I stop myself.
I'm doing this for myself… but there's no reason for me to listen if I can find my own human. The thought of a Dusknoir capturing live humans into the spirit world does interest me.
Would she drag her trainer here for capturing her? Would she refuse to become a Dusknoir, not wanting to become further away than the human she used to be?
The pile of children's shoes…
I believe I could try to do the same as a Dusknoir as a Mega Gengar, but that's to the afterlife. The spirit world seems to be the abode where spirits who linger go to.
This must be the Drifloons' haunt.
I move further down the tunnel and pass by many more Drifloons who look more unique than the humans I saw back then. Those humans only have their colors and clothes to separate them.
I realize I would need to open my mouth and say something… I would hate this.
"Anyone knows where trainers are?!" I can't feel an ounce of shame. I glance around and find some of the other ghost Pokemon are staring at me, confused, and most of them continue to float on.
I was this close to deciding if there was a good time to rage, it would be now, when a Haunter spins all around me.
I grab the Haunter and tug it down in front of me, before releasing it.
"Boo! A Gengar? How'd you get that, fresh guy?"
"Fresh?"
"You smell newly dead," it says and laughs, sticking out its long pink tongue.
"Tell me where the trainers are. I want to get to their starting town."
"…" The Haunter tilts its head.
I stare at it, narrowing my eyes, and the Haunter laughs, raising its disembodied hands.
"Why would you want to pick on some weak humans? Actually, I got a better idea for you…"
"There's a Dusclops who would love this," I say and spit up the Reaper Cloth and pair of child's shoes into my hands.
"Oh, that's so, so evil! I love it. You're not going to get to the starting town so easily, buddy. You're a Gengar and trainers set up their ghost Pokemon to guard it from any mean guys like you, so you can't go kill them all. Some of the dead who had ghost Pokemon… like myself would keep you from it." Haunter grins.
Mean Look.
The Haunter shudders.
"It's not my job to stop you. It's my trainer's friends and let me warn you… Turn back. You want a battle with a Dusknoir? Is that it? There's nothing in Vaniville Town for you and that Dusclops trainer is likely far off. Choose a different town to haunt," the Haunter says, rotating around.
"… How about this?" I grin.
The Haunter stops and stares at me.
"I gather up all the ghost Pokemon who were ever prevented entry by you and your trainer… and once I wear your little friends down, I get all of them to spawn out on Vaniville Town, all at once?" A Shadow Ball off to the side and warps a large hole into the tunnel with it.
"Why do you need this Dusknoir?"
"I'm on my way to looking for a Gengar," I tell it. It's a lie. I don't need the Dusknoir for that.
The Haunter gains a mischievous glint it quickly stamps out.
"Very well, I'll tell them to open up the way for you, so you could peacefully look for Dusclops and leave… and you could get this Cleanse Tag? People will think you're trainer-owned. What wild Pokemon would carry this?"
What is with these ghosts and their exchanges? Though, the deal is tempting… The Haunter spits up a Cleanse Tag and I take hold of it.
The Haunter gestures down the tunnel and without anything as far as I could see me guiding my way, I freely walk into that dark space.
"You're really a young ghost…" A dead human mumbles, but their presence appearing as fast as it comes disappears when bright blue light welcomes me.
I feel like I should've asked where I would be, but I've been spit out from some small crack in the wall.
Illusions first. I can't go scaring every human off before I figure out which one has Dusclops. Or kill the Dusclops battling their trainer.
I don't know how illusions worked with ghosts, but I feel like it's likely different than a Pokemon tailored for it.
I feel like, no matter what, I cannot let people think I might be a Pokemon. I look at the Cleanse Tag and slurp it up.
It must not know I could do this.
All I had to do was accept this talisman and I could get through without needing to do some useless battles and more intimidation.
Now I need to peacefully look for Dusclops and leave.
I should be really careful though. If Pokemon aren't bound to a single medium's logic, like I am not as a Gengar, then how terrifying would they be in this reality as a part of the real world?
I need to think about what shape I took on.
I pull on my neon blue hair falling over my right eye. I seem to have short hair that cuts just above my chin. A darker blue hoodie with a kangaroo. Purple and dark cargo shorts. Crocs.
Why do I look somewhat like my player character? No. I always took on this appearance to look 'human' or…
That Drifloon. It spirited me away when I was human. Doesn't that mean I was already in the Pokemon world? Pokemon was clearly a game where I was from… Did I lose my memories becoming a Gengar?
I can't feel myself caring. Does it matter to a ghost? Yes, yes, why must I ask myself? I almost laugh. I can pinpoint all these weird little things that I know is weird…
To being a Gengar.
It feels like if I had any longing for home, for my life, my past, it feels more like a longing for a companion, but it doesn't come with an ache.
I need another Gengar. Not for mating, no… It's for the most basic reason any ghosts would have.
I want to drag a living human down with me to my personal hell.
A human who I could with me into hell. That's what I want. I feel utter satisfaction, the most intense emotion I've felt since waking up in the midst of my own massacre.
This behavior needs to be kept in check. For no real reason other than I would likely want it to be kept in check.
I walk along the long stone wall where I find myself looking over a large courtyard and it's barely walled off. I could jump over, phase through it, or float. I won't. I need to find a way to peacefully search for this Dusclops trainer or find out where the gym circuit is to follow it.