Chapter Text
After all the Pitch Black cards are placed into a masterset binder, I sigh and bite onto my swablu plush and bring it over to my bed.
A shooting star takes its time to fly across the night skies, catching my attention from the corner of my eyes. I roll onto my back, staring up at it.
"I wish... I could go visit the pokemon world and see real pokemon!" It's embarrassing to say out loud but less embarrassing than buying pokemon cards at scalper prices if I wanted any products.
The shooting star stops its journey across the night skies and starts flying towards me.
From a small twinkle, it becomes large enough to burn brightly at my window with its golden rays spilling into my room.
A creature with the resemblance of Jirachi shows up behind my window and I confusedly stare at it.
So. How do I put this? Jirachi looks like a giant metallic figurine. Its skin looks hard and glossy like the finish of these figurines including its yellow star-like protrusions but its yellow wing-like ribbons and blue wish paper strips look like it's made out of something softer. Its eyes look like it's made out of crystal.
I don't know how a creature made out of metal can move like that but I could be hallucinating this. I blink a few times and roll onto my belly, folding my legs under my body.
"Hello! It's been a while a real dreamer asked me for a real wish... Everyone asks me to speed up their time and make the future happen sooner but that isn't a wish. It's a shortcut! You want to visit the pokemon world? I can send you there!" Jirachi laughs and covers me in its energy like oil over my body.
Jirachi's voice arrives as sound wavelengths into my ears.
There's minimum interaction with its psychic energy resonating with my field of energy, its psychic sound vibrations become images, meanings, concepts, and schema in my head.
My mind quickly processes the information held within those vibrations and turns it into words in English but before I can respond to it, the energy I'm coated in erupts.
In one moment, I was biting onto a swablu plush, feeling its blue soft felt on my lips with my teeth sunk into its condensed cotton body.
In the next, I am holding onto live breathing blue bird with two hands, feeling his rapid heartbeat under his soft cotton blue feathers. Standing in the forest, full of life.
It's so overwhelming to be surrounded by nature, I quickly shut out the forest from my senses. Not a single fake tree or plant is around here.
The jirachi I was staring down is currently a floating crystalline rock that drifts down onto the grass in front of me.
I release the swablu before he thinks I might eat him.
Swablu spreads his wings, shocked, and he flies over onto a rock before laying down on it. He looks around as confused as I am.
I helplessly stare at the hibernating Jirachi.
"How was the trip?" The not-hibernating Jirachi asks and I twitch before I pick up Jirachi's rock.
"Why did you have to teleport onto me my Team Rocket cosplay?" I hiss.
"Humans aren't supposed to be naked," it replies.
I glare at the shiny purple rock, shaking my head in disappointment, before excitement starts to peak its head and I open back up my senses before closing it off.
"... The wilderness? It's been so long since I've seen this much green life since the humans took over everything." It looks so beautiful. I can't tell what I'm looking at.
The trees are all tall and healthy with green leaves trembling in the winds. I smell organic fruits in the distance. Honey. I smell morning dew at my hooves.
I can't be too mad with Jirachi. I did make a wish without clarifying its details or knowing if Jirachi would let me but Jirachi didn't twist around my wish to be horrifying like fairies would.
Still, it's the first time my wish has been heard. Shooting stars don't turn into real pokemon.
"Human? Where did you come from?" Swablu's voice sounds similar to Jirachi and I hear him speak in English.
Oh. Well. Um, that explains a question I was going to ask Jirachi. How could I hear what Jirachi was saying? Was it because it was a dual Psychic and Steel type?
Swablu sounds like he was speaking in something like telepathy but it was picked up by my sense of hearing.
I don't think it was feasible someone taught every pokemon the same language as humans in their local regions did.
There had to be a way for humans to understand pokemon and I did hope if pokemon were real, the answer wasn't as boring as humans projecting onto them.
"I came from another planet," I tell swablu and I wonder if swablu hears me like I hear them.
What does the word planet sound like to the pokemon?
"Like... the moon?" The swablu sounds confused before he looks excited, flapping his wings around, and he turns to his flock.
The flock of the other swablu and altaria begin waking up. One of the altaria covers the swablu from my view with her large cottony wingspan and takes off from them. The other two altaria flanks the swablu swarm.
The fourth altaria flies up a good few off the ground, turning in my direction. She glares at the cosplay's R symbol on my chest.
Oh. Oh no. She thinks I'm from Team Rocket.
This is what I get for making a cosplay to hang out with my friends at a con.
Dragon energy pulses up from her throat and blasts out towards my feet between me and swablu.
It wouldn't have affected me and thankfully she didn't use a fairy move, I didn't want to find out if it would work on me, but that stung.
I was rejected by the third pokemon I saw today.
I stay where I am, holding onto Jirachi's rock. I don't want to alarm her by moving a single inch from my spot.
I thought this altaria stayed behind to be distraction for the rest of the flock and gave up on rescuing the swablu from a supposed member of Team Rocket, but this altaria stayed behind to get me away from the swablu.
A fight is going to break out if I don't calm down this altaria.
Can I ask for Jirachi to teleport me away? I sigh. I don't want to put them on edge for days thinking Team Rocket was around.
"This is fake. I wear it because it looks pretty," I say, nervous about hurting the altaria if a fight broke out. "I swear on my soul."
Altaria are beautiful pokemon, it would understand the sense of fashion.
Altaria scoffs. Well, she can understand others have different fashion sense from her but she thinks my cosplay is awful due to its association with the real Team Rocket in this world instead of thinking how well-made it is.
"The other altaria don't know what it is, I know what it is. The Team Rocket are well-known among the humans!" She replies.
"Team Rocket?" Swablu sounds confused.
"I just like the fashion. If I look like Team Rocket, they won't bother me thinking I'm a member of their team." It would sound like a poor attempt at persuasion, that is, if altaria was human, but she isn't, and others can appreciate a good camouflage in nature.
Altaria and swablu blend in the skies by appearing like clouds with their white cotton wings and sky blue bodies.
Altaria takes a moment to look me over, hesitant.
"Are you a ditto? You scared away our flock. Choose something less... ugly." Altaria shrills, clearly still upset. "clouds rolling into itself, leaving streaks across the horizon return with me. We best be leaving. If a real member of Team Rocket is nearby, we need to stay away from here. Ditto don't transform if they haven't seen it recently."
What? Is altaria talking to swablu?
I couldn't process that into a single English word. I check the sound against my memory bank containing numerous other languages. It doesn't translate well anywhere.
But it's not too unexpected.
clouds rolling into itself, leaving streaks across the horizon flies off of the rock and sits on my head.
He fluffs up his cloudy wings and hugs his wings around himself like a cloak. "Hat!"
"You know where to roost." Altaria sighs and takes off, chasing after the rest of her flock.
"Why do swablu who camouflages as clouds want to be a hat?" I glance up, barely seeing swablu's round body.
"Clouds can hang low too," he says.
Swablu shifts on my head, his talons regrips my hair, and he leans down to look past his beak at me.
"Is Team Rocket that bad?" clouds rolling into itself, leaving streaks across the horizon asks, too confused to sound cautious enough.
"Super bad," Jirachi says from its crystalline rock shell. "Their wishes are so boring."
"Are you camouflaging as a rock? It's a pretty good disguise. Have you always been around here and I didn't notice?" clouds rolling into itself, leaving streaks across the horizon sounds interested. "I'm too busy looking up at the skies to notice everything going down on the ground! Can I see where your other rock friends are?"
Jirachi yawns. "All of them are in outer space... Could you grab a Wish Stone for me? I'm going to take a short nap if you don't."
Which for Jirachi can mean one hundred years before I can wish for it to return me home.
I blink a few times and shake the rock in my arms. "Jirachi? Do Wish Caves exist on this planet? Hello? Where do I find a Wish Stone?"
Aren't those only in Mystery Dungeon worlds? How do I find that? I don't think anyone would tell me where one is if it has the power to help Jirachi grant wishes. Who wouldn't want to monopolize that if they know what a Wish Cave is?
I tap on Jirachi's rock. No response.
I... am going to assume Jirachi lives in this world. In a Wish Cave. Jirachi wants me to bring it home to get a Wish Stone. It didn't ask me to find them but told me to grab them like it knew where it would be.
"You want to see where Jirachi lives? I don't know if I should take you there. It might take many... seasons? Many seasons until you can return to your flock," I say.
"I want to see!" He jumps around on my head.
"I might have to go into cities and towns but you aren't familiar with humans."
"Yes!! I am familiar with humans!" He pecks my head multiple times. Ow. "It's also the perfect time for me to get away! I have to fly with my flock but you stole me and scared everyone off! I can finally go there! What can we do there?"
Umm... Well, if all the swablu were sleeping, to clouds, it must've looked like I snatched them up like a predator.
"It'll be boring. I just want to find a cave."
"Where are your ambitions?" clouds pecks me on the head again. "I want to be an altaria one day and 'trainers' have so many cool friends with them. I want to evolve. I don't want to stay a kid all the time."
"A kid?" That sounds... potentially horrifying. Do pokemon with evolution stages need to evolve to develop from child to adult? Swablu aren't a single stage pokemon so maybe they're only considered grown if they evolve. I would hate it if it took me fighting all the time to grow up from a kid to an adult, spending way too many years as a baby until I evolve. That sounds kinda awful.
I don't know if level experiences exist here but I'll assume pokemon can naturally evolve with life experience. It just sounds intuitive to think that way but the first swablu flock I see is being watched by altaria, meaning they might get no fighting experience to grow up and might spend the rest of their life as kids.
It sounds cruel but letting a bunch of pokemon considered children running around that could easily get eaten by larger pokemon? I can see why the altaria would do it but it sounds like it sucks for swablu like clouds here.
"Everyone is fine with waiting to evolve," clouds tells me. "I'm the oldest swablu... because my older brothers and sisters evolved before me but..."
He sounds really sad.
"Did one of your younger siblings evolve before you?"
"Yes! Was it that obvious? I want new, neewww experiences! I want more experience to evolve," clouds whines, flying off of my head to sit back on the rock. "Can you help me?"
He sounds like a younger brother who wants to prove to his family his worth.
He knows I want to go find this cave for Jirachi to wake up and doesn't think I might not have the time to help him evolve. Exactly like a self-centered kid, all kids are like that. It's not malicious or arrogance that drives him to focus on himself and what he wants.
Who can say no to that?
"Yes. I want to help you," I say. "I don't want to be a trainer's pokemon and it might be easier for me to roam around like this."
"As Team Rocket?"
"... I forgot about that. I need a change in clothes." I rip off the R symbol on my chest and shove it into my pocket. Now I only look shady walking in the sun wearing pure black.
Why couldn't Jirachi give me my regular human clothes to walk around in? Does it want me to get tackled by a dozen pokemon or challenged by trainers who do know who Team Rocket are?
"Do you want a cool nickname, clouds rolling into itself, leaving streaks across the horizon?" I ask him.
"How cool will it be?"
I look at clouds rolling into itself, leaving streaks across the horizon.
"Your wings look like clouds. I'll call you Cloudburst," I say. "You can call me Opal. We'll be heading into town."
"Is that a strong name?" Cloudburst flies back onto my head to sit on.
"Yes. It is a strong name. Cloudburst happens when clouds suddenly rain in a downpour." I try to word it like how pokemon sounds like to me and push into it the mental images of cloudbursts from my memories into my voice.
"Amazing! That's me!" Cloudburst excitedly takes off from my head and flies around. "Opal. Opal. Where are we going?"
"Find... people," I say, hesitating. I don't need anyone thinking they can put me into a pokeball by talking like I wasn't a human. Could I be put into a pokeball? I don't really want to find that one out. "I'll get you a pokeball."
"Sky has one too but it's with her trainer," Cloudburst says. "I've seen it before. Can you make it blue like me? Hers is red with stickers on it. I want mine to look blue. We aren't red. I don't want to be stuck in red."
"Is Sky the one who tried to fight me?" I snort. "She can't tell me I have bad fashion sense if she doesn't want to make her pokeball look pretty."
"Yes?" Cloudburst says. "Her trainer didn't want to change its colors. It makes it too obvious what pokemon is inside the ball. It's bad camouflage. That's what Sky told me."
"I don't care about that."
"Me too!" Cloudburst opens up his wings. "Where are we going?"
"To find people!" I say. "I need to find anything I can on Wish Caves. Have you seen a star fly down from the skies before?"
"Nope!"
"Expected," I say.
I don't know if I'm in the same regions Mount Moon or Meteor Falls are but if I am, I'll check it out and talk to the pokemon there.
The cleffa's line are said to be pokemon from outer space, it's possible the cleffa and this Jirachi might've met each other in space before crashing down on this planet. I'll be fine talking with solrock and lunatone too.
With how the altaria in Cloudburst's flock reacted to me, I can't see them nesting near humans.
I could go out to the skies to check but having someone spot me and think there's a new unidentified pokemon in the forest and bring out more attention than I want here? Nope. Not doing that to myself.
"Do you know where a city might be?"
"Nope! We're told to stay away from them. Why would I know how to get to one?"
"Can you tell me what direction you're told to stay away from?"
"Oh, I know, you can go..." Cloudburst trails off before becoming startled. "That's where the city is."
"Exactly. Where to?" I ask and Cloudburst flies off of my head.
"There!" Cloudburst immediately gets his fluffy white wings stuck on a tree branch when he takes off.
"Well... Clouds hang low? I see why swablu learn to hitch a ride on someone else," I say and put down Jirachi's rock and walk over to Cloudburst. "Your feathers are unusual. I've never seen them before. Very beautiful but it easily gets stuck on tree branches and collects dirt."
That explains my vague memory of swablu liking to groom themselves. Imagine having pure white cotton wings where everything easily gets tangled up i nit.
"Not again!" Cloudburst whines, kicking his feet around, and flapping his wings around everywhere.
I pluck Cloudburst off of the tree and place them back onto my head before returning to Jirachi's rock to carry them.
"Just turn around on my head. I'll follow where you are facing," I say and Cloudburst just sadly grooms himself on my head.
"Right..." Cloudburst hops around on my head and I turn to his direction where Cloudburst adjusts himself to be facing forward with me.
I start walking, surveying the forest.
"Do you have a flock, Opal? I'm fine with hanging out with other pokemon but I don't see anyone like you around... or is it Jirachi? Are you a jirachi?" Cloudburst asks before hopping a few times on my head, anxious. "Not like I care if you don't! You don't act solitary."
I could understand why Cloudburst asked me that. He just wants to know how we would be traveling together. He's young and his inability to evolve makes him shy about what role he'd play in our little traveling group of three. He wants to know if I would act like an altaria would to him or if he should be more independent.
"Since swablu evolve into altaria... I'll treat you as equal to me. We will split up our tasks dependent on our abilities. Would you like that responsibility?"
"Yes!"
"You'll get more experience faster under pressure. We might have more traveling with us and you will learn how to work with them." Because based on how difficult traveling the pokemon world is and how I'm going to wake up Jirachi to grant me another wish, I might need to keep an eye out for people who might want to travel with us.
People come and go all the time. Cloudburst plans to leave when he evolves into an altaria so I need to prepare myself to go solo or have found other traveling companions who could stick with me for a different tomorrow.
"Like an altaria? I can do it. I've seen it!" Cloudburst says. I don't believe he could do it but he can always learn.
"Protecting Jirachi is one of my responsibilities." I hold up Jirachi's rock to them. "Getting them to their Wish Cave is our top priority."
"I got it! I'll protect Jirachi with my life!" Cloudburst leans over and observes Jirachi's rock. "What is its name?"
"Jirachi forgot to tell me its name but I've been calling them Jirachu in my head."
"I'll call them Jirachi too!"
"That's the spirit!" I reply with a smile. "We should think about your training too. We might meet a lot of aggressive people you have to fight. What moves do you know?"
"Uhh, I'll tell you what I can do if you tell me yours," Cloudburst says, nervous.
Oh? I see. Cloudburst might hide what moves he knows if he has a move he's not too proud of because it'll be a move for beginners. Does Cloudburst have at least one strong move to tell me he has so he isn't embarrassed going after me?
"I stomp around. Very hard and charge at people. I can be very charming to people," I answer, not ready to give up how I would be doing any of it. "I'm only good at transformation because people dominate my home world."
It's a necessity to be treated as a person but that sounds too grim to tell Cloudburst.
"Uh huh! Sky teaches us the names to our moves," Cloudburst says. "It sounds like you didn't have a mentor but we do! Everyone can peck, use disarming voice, but me? I can use safeguard and... and..."
Now Cloudburst sounds super embarrassed.
"Something cool!" Cloudburst adds and tries to puff up. "The altaria are so much cooler and more amazing than I am but I'm not that weak."
"I'll trust you know when to use it," I say, unbothered.
Cloudburst doesn't sound confident he can use this something cool move, which I'm guessing is a dragon type move, up to standards a strong swablu should be able to use it in.
Basically, he doesn't want to disappoint me since we're going to be equals.
I won't be. It doesn't matter to me if Cloudburst isn't strong. I'm killing everyone in the room and myself if Cloudburst gets hurt...
Okay, that sounds funnier as a visual meme but that sounds too serious in my head.
I nearly stop when I smell blood in the distance. Cloudburst doesn't look too alarmed, so either this is normal or he can't smell it yet.
"Is there another way to get to the city? We can go around," I say. "I smell someone who's injured."
"Really?" Cloudburst sounds a little terrified. "We should stay away from there. Their flock will be coming soon for them or they are in the middle of a flock. You don't want to be in the middle of someone else's fight or be there after it."
"Is that what the altaria teach you?" I ask. I don't know why I feel disappointed Cloudburst doesn't want to go out and see what's going on.
"I guess? That's just common knowledge. You might just scare them into fighting you," he says, not sounding too worried about being preyed on. The altaria sounds like they do a good job in making them feel safe out here in the world if being eaten isn't a concern Cloudburst realizes could happen to him.
Jirachi's rock? It talks while being asleep.
"Go... Go there... I feel many... pokemon wanting to make a wish... Save me."
Thank you for being ominous, Jirachi.
"How are you talking? Shouldn't you be hibernating?" I hold up the rock to stare accusingly at Jirachi.
"I know how to sleep talk," it says. "Did you want me to act like a rock the whole time? I don't have any wishing energy to spare, not I don't have any energy for talking."
"What do you mean you feel these wishes?" Cloudburst sounds very spooked out. "Like ghosts? Is someone whispering to you right now?!"
"I hear the other pokemon wishing to be saved from their cages. I did leave you near Team Rocket to let you blend in with people."
Deep breaths, I pull out the R symbol and slap it back onto my chest.
"Tell me why I should go to them, Jirachi? What is the catch here?" I need to know what it actually wants me to do.
Did Jirachi grant my wish due to benevolence? It might not have twisted my wish, it is not kind.
"You want to go there, Opal? What could Team Rocket be doing?" Cloudburst worriedly asks.
"Team Rocket is a group of human thieves who kidnap pokemon to force them under their command," Jirachi says. "If you fulfill wishes for me... You could wake me up."
Are you serious? I squint at Jirachi.
Of all times, Jirachi chose to stay quiet and didn't explain to me where its Wish Cave is to get a wishing stone from until it gets into range of hearing people's wishes that could be fulfilled and Jirachi sounds like it prefers to grant impossible wishes which this shouldn't be.
Or...
"Do you get energy from fulfilling wishes?"
"Potential energy," Jirachi tiredly says. "It's weak energy but I'll like to have snacks along the way home."
"Snacks?" Cloudburst says, sounding too interested. "Could we, Opal?"
He sounds scared about facing off Team Rocket but he sounds a little too determined to get 'food' for Jirachi.
I did say Cloudburst was practically the second boss of our group and Cloudburst wants to take care of Jirachi like the altaria took care of him.
"Sky and the other altaria sounds like they've been pampering you," I say and Cloudburst huffs, embarrassed, and I feel like indulging him too. "Who could deny your honesty?"
"Ohh, please pamper me..." On the other hand, Jirachi sounds very puntable.
"I hope you know I'm going to use your rock to bash people over the head. I can't fight holding onto you and I feel like you'll be really upset if I lost track of you," I say.
"That's gross?? Don't do that," Jirachi complains but it sounds too tired to be angry and drifts back to sleep more silently.
"Fine," I say before looking ahead and I place down Jirachi's rock on the base of a tree, where a caterpie hurriedly crawls up and away from me. "Cloudburst. Can you guard Jirachi? I don't have any abilities to protect others. You're the best fit to look after it."
"Am I? Oh, I will!" Cloudburst hops off of my head and flies down over to Jirachi's rock. "You can count on me to keep them safe. I won't let anyone hurt them!"
I nod to Cloudburst. "I'll be back soon."
Alright, do I turn back or do I enter the area as a human? Time to find out.