Revelations
John had managed to get a hang of moving in this bizarre body. He had previously been walking on tiptoe, as that was how his new legs seemed to work, but despite his efforts he tripped over a stick. He prepared to taste dirt once again, but to his shock, he found himself floating above the ground.
OK, that's new He thought as he hovered in the air. With trepidation, he placed one foot down, feeling out the resistance that he seemed to now have to gravity. His foot did not touch the soil.
What, am I a fucking psychic now? John thought, hearing the words as though he spoke. Groaning, he rubbed his strange face with his strange hands. "What the fuck has happened to me?"
He despaired for a moment, before his personality kicked in. He slapped himself as hard as he could with his new padded digits.
Stop being a bitch, bitch. You won't get anywhere, much less back home, by spazzing out! Now think. Step one, you've gotta get out of this forest. Sure, it's got big birds and rats, but they can be dealt with. Two, find some human civilization. Make sure they don't kidnap you and slam you in a government lab. Three, get your body back. Those details can be dealt with later.
Buoyed by having a plan, John floated off through the treeline.
There were more strange creatures in these woods. Not just the massive birds and rats, but also a giant caterpillar with a horn on its forehead, and even living eggs!
"What the fuck are these things?!" John spoke aloud. These things didn't - shouldn't - exist. John was hardly a straight A student, but he knew enough biology to know that there were no such animals on Earth.
Then again, there are no giant psychic cat monsters either, so...
He continued onward. The monsters kept attacking him, and while he found it easy to smack them about, he was getting hurt from a thousand cuts. Some of the bird's beaks had cut him up, while some of the rat's teeth had found their mark, and even the giant eggs and seeds had struck him with vines! He seemed to have some form of regeneration, as the scratches healed as he moved, but he was getting hungry. His belly rumbled and he put a hand (should he call them paws? No, too inhuman).
"Well, at least I know that I'm not a robot, so that's something. But I've got to find some food."
He looked around. His new eyes seemed to work better than his human eyes, able to discern details both in greater clarity as well as from farther away. With a bit of a look, and a bit of a search, John found what looked like fruits. Some berries, seeds, and one single tiny apple. Sitting down in front of his findings, he picked up the most recognizable item.
I'd rather have a burger, but I'll take what I can get! he thought, chomping on the apple. It tasted...weird. Maybe it was his new taste buds and mouth, but it was still food, and soon there was just a core. He was still hungry and took a look at the berries. There were three types, one pink and two blue. He picked up a blue one, which looked sort of like an orange, and took a bite.
Immediately, his mouth burned, eyes watered, and he began to retch. He spat it out and scraped his tongue against his teeth, desperate to remove the poison.
Right, lesson learned, the blue oranges are poisonous. he groaned. He still needed to eat though. The other blue berry - which looked sort of like a strawberry - was out of the question. Blue meant bad until further notice. But he still had the pink, peachy looking one.
With no small amount of hesitation, he bit into the berry, before sighing with relief. Not only was it sweet and delicious, it even alleviated the burning sensation of the other berry! He finished it in one more bite. There didn't seem to be much to it. Still, better than nothing, and enough that he no longer felt hungry. He looked over his body again, feeling much better, as he took stock of his body.
He was taller, he was fairly confident of that. He didn't have a yardstick, but just eyeballing it, he felt that his eyeline was higher by at least a few inches to maybe half a foot. His face was kind of shaped like a cat, he had a strange second neck, and on the top of his skull were two blunt horns. Moving down, his torso was comparatively slender, in contrast to his legs, which were massive in circumference, while his new tail was almost as long as he seemed to be tall. His arms, like his chest, were now svelte, with his hands now being these pad things. He noticed for the first time he had a band around his right arm.
"What's this?"
It was shiny, lined with a golden material, with empty slots that looked like something would fit in them. He touched it and it felt cold to the touch, like it was made of a metal.
Do I leave it on or take it off?
After considering it for a moment, John decided to leave it on. It didn't seem to be stuck to him, but for all he knew taking this thing off could harm him. He'd have to ask whoever he found for help about it.
Speaking of, time to get going!
Dusting his hands off, he stood back up and began instinctively levitating again, prompting an idea.
Wait, if I can fly now, why don't I just fly over the trees?
John looked up. They were high, taller than any trees he had seen before. But he was no bitch! Closing his eyes and focusing, he felt himself rise up into the air. He forced any doubt out of his mind, just as he did when playing football, and the game depended on him. When he opened his eyes again, he was up above everything!
He could see for miles! For a moment, he was overwhelmed with the sheer beauty and exhilaration of flight, before looking down to the ground, and almost losing control from shock and horror.
There was a... what to call it? "Pit" and "Hole" were insufficient. "Abyss" was the closest John could think of, but even that seemed too tiny for what he was seeing. The depth stretched out to the horizon, the bottom impossible to see, as a storm covered the entire thing!
"What...what is this?"
John had to force himself to take deep, controlled breaths. He was still in mid-air and the thought of falling into that... thing was horrifying.
I'm not on Earth.
The monsters were one thing. Even his changed body was more acceptable than this sight. Those were changes within the world, this was an impossible sight that showed that everything was different. He wasn't a victim of some sci-fi plot; he was on a different planet or dimension or something.
He moved backwards, away from the hole, before wrenching his head away and looking to the nearest edge.
"Find people. Find Help".
He took off, blasting through the air faster than he thought possible. He would have been terrified of this speed, were he not running from something worse.
As the adrenaline wore off, John found himself slowing down and drifting towards the ground. Fortunately, he was now over the rim of the pit, and beneath him he finally saw a welcome sight. All over the ground were lights, luminescent and constant, obviously artificial, and therefore meaning only one thing.
"Civilization!"
He was still on the outskirts, but that was just fine. Last thing he needed was a mass panic from everyone freaking out over whatever he was now. No, he needed to be smart about this. Go to the outskirts, scope things out, and go from there.
Landing about a quarter mile from the border, John had a bit of luck. A length of fabric was draped over a tree branch. It looked like it had been there a while, but as he picked it up and brushed it off, it seemed thick and strong.
"Perfect. I can use this as a disguise. So long as no-one takes a close look, I should be good." he thought as he wrapped it around his neck and fashioned a hood. He made sure that all of his new body was covered, somewhat disturbed with how easy it was to move this new tail. Once he felt certain that he could get past so long as he stuck to the shadows, he took a deep breath, and made his way into the settlement.
As soon as he saw the inhabitants of the community though, he nearly fainted. There were no humans anywhere, instead everyone was more of those monsters! These ones were far more diverse, with all kinds of impossible shapes and sizes. John staggered, dashing alongside the shadow of buildings, desperately trying to find someone, anyone, who was normal!
As he rushed around, panicking and trying to keep hold of his sanity, he felt a weight on his shoulder. He span around, eyes wide and glowing blue with power, seeing a monster even bigger than him!
It was a dinosaur plated in steel. That was the closest that he could describe it. Its yellow eyes bore into his, the armor plating extending along its head nearly brushing his! Its mouth opened, showing the bony, teeth-like protrusions from its jaw, and its voice came forth sounding like a living earthquake.
"Woah there, friend. You're safe here in Relic Town. My name's Jinchi and you look like you've been through the ringer! Now come on, son, you could do with a warm meal!"
With that, the dinosaur put a massive arm around him, and the next thing he knew, he was sitting at a bench in an enormous hall. All around him were more of these beings, but unlike the ones in the forest, these ones seemed peaceable, engaging in human activities. A bunch of them crowded around him, and while they didn't seem hostile, that didn't mean John was OK with them. Some of the smaller ones, ones that seemed to be children, were incessant with their questions.
"What's your name?"
"What kinda pokemon are ya?"
"Can I have some of ya food?"
John sat in stunned silence; his mind having reached its limit on what it could take. The steel dinosaur shooed the kids away, before sitting across from him.
"Do you remember your name?"
"…John."
"OK, John, good. Do you know what type of pokemon you are? I mean no offense, it's just that I've been around for longer than I'd care to admit, but I've never seen any pokemon like you."
John sat there for a moment. He had a ton of questions, but the first that he asked came from the last thing the dinosaur said.
"What the hell is a pokemon?"
Silence fell over the crowd. How could a pokemon not know of, well, pokemon? Concerned glances were shared between the older members of the audience. Who was this stranger? The dinosaur's brow furrowed as much as a steel plate could.
"I, uh, well, hmm..."
"Excuse me? I believe I can help."
The new voice was deep, baritone, yet belied a lack of self-confidence. John, as well as the rest of the impromptu entourage, turned to face the new speaker. It was a large quadrupedal pokemon, its size behind only the dinosaur and John's new body, with a gigantic helmet with a reverse facing axe head atop it. He walked towards John.
"You see, friend, pokemon are-"
That was all it got out before John freaked out. As he stared at the helmeted creature, he was horrified by what he saw. Not by its physical visage, but because of what was appearing. Flickering over the mask, was the appearance of a human, a guy about his age. John felt like he was having a seizure; the sight was flickering so fast and so brightly that he felt he would be sick.
He had to get outta there! Without a second more, John dashed toward the door, half flying and half running.
"What's going on?" yelled the steel dinosaur. "Don't worry, I'll help him!" said the helmeted creature, dashing off after John.
Outside, John was now stumbling along. His mind was reeling from what he saw. Was it a ghost? What was that? What was he? What the hell was any of this!
"Hey, easy now. You're OK, you're safe." came the same voice as earlier from behind him. John span around, seeing the same sight of the helmeted creature and the human overlapping in an impossible fashion. Suddenly, the answer seemed to come to John, as though his new senses were dictating to him.
"You...you're human, aren't you?" he slurred out, steadying himself against the wall.
Archie's eyes widened. There were a scant few around Relic Town that were aware of the presence of isekai'ed humans, but none that would blurt it out like that, and certainly none that wouldn't even know what pokemon are!
"H-how did you know that? Wait, you're a Mewtwo, so I guess it makes sense. If you can tell what a human is, but don't even know what pokemon are, I'm assuming you were human as well. My name's Archie, what's yours?"
Suddenly, John realized something, another reason why he freaked out seeing Archie. He knew that face, from a memorial campaign.
"Wait, Archie? As in Archibald? Your surname wouldn't happen to be Vanderbilt, would it?" John said, a frigid shiver running down both his necks, down his spine, and to the tip of his tail.
"Uh, yeah! How did you know that?" Archie asked, his eyes showing the surprise that the mask hid.
"Dude... you're dead." John said in a blunt, flat tone.
Archie blinked before saying the only thing that he could. "What."
"I'm at the same uni that you were. You were in the news when I was a freshman. You had an aneurysm and died like, two years ago."