The Price of Cheating to Win
The concept of success is widely publicized as unique, generally based on
models who have had a wealthy life since they were tiny children — telling a
supposed life story involving effort, overcoming and conquest over the hostile
and unknown world that surrounds us with challenges — only that this view is
not entirely genuine, nor is it solely solitary. It's not that it isn't true in essence,
after all, we would all like to be born under the shadow of some powerful
tycoon and simply follow his monetary legacy, but the breadth itself of what it
can mean to achieve a purpose in life makes us able to trace our own goals.
As is the case with Rachel. Some might call her a naive person who
doesn't dream big or someone who doesn't esteem herself to be vastly superior
to the concept of normality, disembodying herself as a unique popular figure
like the Elite Four or someone who is as talked about and well regarded as the
Gym Leaders. For the woman in her mid-twenties, as simple as it was, there was
no more noble and appropriate goal for her than to become a true Pokémon
Trainer.
She recognized that it required just as much effort as other high-ranking
positions, even if the reward was a relative amount of money won in
tournaments and badges that could be displayed to demonstrate Pokémon's
unrivaled combat skills. In some cases, the presence of these items even helped
train tougher Pokémon, which required a proper trainer to tame them and extract
their full potential. The connection between humans and Pokémon goes beyond
friendship; pocket monsters like to evolve and fight in competition with each
other and are always hungry for adventures and discoveries.
Taking them to a daycare, remembering to buy adequate food, always
being up to date with the exams offered for free by the Pokémon Center,
teaching new techniques and skills to each of your team members, which also
needs to be properly balanced and ready to battle in different situations,
understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each Pokémon... These were just
functions that should be properly performed by those who wished to become a
Pokémon Master, learning more and more about the small, medium and large
creatures that surrounded the skies, lived in the grassy fields and even crept
around the corners of the big city every day. Yet, just as dreaming was quite
easy, working and acting out our imaginations was an extreme opposite;
especially when trying to design something for yourself and it doesn't come out
exactly as planned.
It bothers you, causes frustration and makes you desperate in search of a
simple, quick and easy solution. In Rachel's case, it was about assembling her
team. Water/Ground type Pokemon? Check. Fire/Fighting? That too. Yup.
Insect/Poison? Right! Electric? Well, she had a Luxray... In total, you can have
up to six in your party. With two slots left, it was obvious that it would be more
difficult to fill with Pokémon of other types, especially the rarer ones to find in
the wild. Maybe she should settle for a Normal/Flying type... No!
She needed a Dark-type Pokémon. And if there was a possibility that the
offer she saw on the Internet was real, then the trip would have been worth it. If
not, then she would at least have taken advantage of the drive to Roshan City in
search of a little shop amidst the gigantic skyscrapers and buildings that filled
the horizon. After entering the harbor area using an access ship, she took the
tree-lined coastal path to the bridge, facing other Pokémon trainers along the
way. Considering the experience she'd gained for her partners and how much
stronger they'd become, it wouldn't be a wasted walk.
It hadn't been expensive to go there either, considering how much she had
left over from the last event she'd attended. Until that moment, as strange and
suspicious as the offer was, without having the possibility of ordering for
delivery via a carrier, nothing had really left her dismayed, irritated or
uncomfortable. That is, until Rachel stumbles upon the commercial facade of
the location marked on her map. Checking her Pokédex a few more times to see
if she wasn't getting confused, she ensured that was the point demarcated by the
geographic coordinates she had entered into the device.
In disbelief, among the people who kept walking up and down the streets,
she couldn't describe exactly how out of place that place was from the others.
Unlike the other buildings, which were modern and clearly made to be
commercial and attention-grabbing, the faded yellow texture made the walls
look like they were made of straw. As if it were a house, it had a quadratic
shape, there was only a simple window that also had a square shape — on
which there was a sign written in red pen, saying "open between 09 am to 06
pm" — and an ordinary wooden door. , painted red and with a decoration that
said the name of the establishment as it was said on the Internet: "Pokémon
Perfumes".
The idea, basically, was to do the opposite of a repellent; in the sense that
if it was possible to make a product capable of avoiding the Zubats of a cave,
then the opposite should also be possible. And of course, it wouldn't be
something exclusively made for Zubats, raising the surreal possibility of: "what
if you could attract ANY Pokémon you wanted to capture at any moment?". Not
exactly absurd, considering that some are actually quite easy to be attracted and
won over, but the description of the establishment promised to have a product
that would meet any demand. And that made you ponder over some very
weighty questions: did that count for the ENTIRE list? Including legendary
Pokemon? And as for the ones that could be found with some difficulty, yes, but
that can only be captured by special Pokéballs like the Master Ball or
derivatives of the type?
There were no details about that sort of thing. That would make anyone
suspicious of the veracity of the claims. However, as you could imagine,
Rachel's need made any gamble worthwhile. So, sighing deeply, she turned the
knob and entered the store. The jingle of a bell chimed over the door with a
creak, with light from outside pouring into the room artificially lit by
fluorescent lights on the ceiling.
“Welcome, how may I serve you?”, a rather old man greeted the lady as
she walked past various shelves that were full of his products, with each one
containing various bottles and flasks containing unknown liquid.
“Uhh… Hi, I guess? My name is Rachel. I’m a Pokémon Trainer, and I
saw an advertisement about your store…”, she answered rather nervously,
shaking up towards the counter “I’m… Not sure it all works, but I’m having
difficulty catching a specific Pokémon to complete my team”.
“Why, yes. That’s what our products are aimed for! Dedicated trainers
who are just a bit unlucky when it comes to finding what they need the most. No
use going over and over again through the brushes if you’re only going to find
insect types, am I right?”, he said very casually, putting aside any shadiness
about how hard it was to find such a strange shop. “Now… Here’s how it works.
In those bottles is a special kind of mix that can make a specific kind of
Pokémon appear before you. It’s kinda like pheromones in a way. So… What
Pokémon are you looking for?”.
If she were to be honest, she'd say bluntly that she hadn't given much
thought until then. Yes, she wanted a dark type, but which one in particular?
Should she go for another mix and opt for Sandile or Scraggy? Should she dare
about the effectiveness of the product and want a Deino right away? Or, who
knows, opt for a pure type, like Zorua or Purrloin. Dammit, the thought of what
she would have to spend on it — the price of said potion which she'd already
seen ahead of time and knew it wouldn't be cheap at all — and also the process
of evolution... If only she could have exactly what she wanted... Perhaps…
“Can you make an already evolved Pokémon appear? I want a Liepard. I
feel like it just… Suits me. Any dark type would be good to fulfill one of my
two remaining slots, but I just really like its appearance and attitude. From what
I’ve heard from others, Liepards are moody and vicious, and that’s something
which I can relate to since that’s what I’m feeling right now with this relentless
search to no avail until now. Its fur patterning is also quite beautiful, Liepards
also have quite the number of abilities, being able to run silently and attack
opponents without being seen. It would be… Perfect. But I know that’s just
asking too mu-”.
“Here you go”, he said, interrupting her, putting a clear magenta-colored
glass on top of his countertop. “If your quest has led you to me, then I guess you
know how much it is worth. But I can see in your eyes that you think that I’m
going to sell you water in a bottle and then disappear from the face of the Earth.
Be honest with me, you’ve been nervously sweating since you were staring at
the entrance of my dearly beloved workplace”.
“Yeah, I guess I just…”, she didn’t really know what to say. Of course
she’d been seen by him earlier. Like he said, Rachel’s been outside for quite
some time, building up the courage to enter there. “Oh, for Arceus sake. Yes, I
was afraid. Still am, actually! But that’s because it just feels… Wrong. Nothing
can be that easy in life. I know how much effort I had to put in constructing my
own career as a Pokémon Trainer until now and this just feels… Wouldn’t
everyone choose the easy path if they were given it? Why don’t people talk
more about your store?”, Rachel opted to ask right away, thinking he would
soon spill the beans.
“Not everyone is bestowed by destiny, my dear”, the clerk gave his
response right away. “Like you said, it would be very easy if everyone finds
what I have. But people need to have the top five qualities in their being to be
able to deserve something so great. Courage, determination, intelligence, union
and fortune — that’s what makes someone truly gifted. And if you’re here, then
you have those qualities and are ready to enter the life that is mostly suited for
you. Tell you what, lady: I will give you a 30 percent discount. How does that
sound to you?”.
She was taken in by the argument almost as if it had been specifically
trained to convince her, tapping into her weaknesses and inviting her to try the
product almost as if it were a challenge — as if it put her in a position where, if
she refused, that would mean admitting that she wasn't ready for this — and that
made it all a little supernatural. An air of mystery and eeriness surrounded her…
She swallowed. And before she knew it, she had accepted the offer and
was leaving that uncanny place with a plastic bag in hand. Her next order of
business would be, without a shadow of a doubt, to test the efficiency and
quality of what she had bought. However, there was a call greater than herself at
that moment: that of Mother Nature. After a lot of prowling the local malls, she
finally found one with a ladies' room and relieved herself there. It had been a
while since she'd run so hurriedly through the hot urban alleys, being more used
to doing it in freer rural areas while hunting for Pokémon.
That's when she realized her deodorant had probably expired, so after
straightening her clothes and cleaning herself, she closed the toilet, flushed it,
and headed over to the nearest mirror. Luckily, the space was empty, and she
was able to get ready with greater care and tranquility. Finally, she threw her
right hand over the soap and was ready to just run a little of the soap and water
mixture briefly under her clothes, only then an idea came to her... Arm stretched
out over the sink, she noticed the bag containing that Pokémon Perfume sitting
right there. If its scent would attract the Pokémon she wanted... Then it must be
good, right?
Curiously, she walked over to the vial and picked it up. There was a
considerable amount of liquid inside it, so using a little would not be a problem
at all and would certainly not affect the result she was looking for. At least, she
hoped so. And without thinking too much, she didn't hesitate to apply the
fragrance around her neck, with a slightly thick, scented cloud surrounding her.
Initially, it was difficult to describe. It was as if she were rubbing a Pokémon
against her nostrils and inhaling its odor. And then... She seemed to tingle. And
then burn. When she realized it, she even seemed to have swallowed some of
the droplets expelled by the perfume and ended up coughing dryly.
Gradually recovering as the artificially colored smoke dissipated, she took
advantage of its disappearance to re-approach the mirror. As she felt she had
blown her nose, she would have to get dressed again or at least wash her face
with water to remove any perfume stains. Only then she noticed... Something
was wrong. When it comes to personal beauty, Rachel was a grown woman who
had curly dark brown hair, black skin, and an overall average body. Only now
she seemed to be… Getting stronger.
She thought she was imagining things, but as she looked down to lift the
blue blouse she was wearing, she saw that her belly was shrinking. The muscles
of the abdomen were strengthened, developing into a torso toned with rigidity,
exceeding the limits of thinness by rapidly decreasing the diameter around the
diaphragm and the rib cage. Her breasts bulged into a straight, defined pectoral,
thinning with tissues of hard-worked muscle mass, hardening the surface of her
skin with a combo of fortified bones and muscle fibers that were thin and yet
hard and powerful. Robust transverse growths spread from there towards the
pelvic floor, alternating the torso to something less circular and narrower, filling
it with tough musculature.
“What the…?”, Rachel was about to say before feeling a burning
sensation above her stomach as if her organs were being crumpled, making her
hunch over the sink.
Tormented by the pain, she leaned against the marble edges and pressed
her fingers against the wet sides, sliding them along the corners until she
reached the wall next to the mirror. She tried to look through the partial
reflection of what was happening on her back, her back seeming to be
frantically cracked through multiple joint motions along her spine, shoulder
blade and pelvis, but she saw something worse. As she opened her mouth to
gasp in desperation, she could see her teeth rapidly distorting, with the arch
becoming incisively more pronounced as each dental unit became more
rectangular and misaligned, sharpening especially in the most exposed area of
her mouth. There was an additional focus on those that were in the upper and
lower lips, mostly near the fangs as they themselves got sharper and lengthier.
Almost animalistic-like, very savage… And fierce. She screamed.
“What the fuck is happening to me?!”, she wailed as she was pushed
against the wall again, turning for the remainder of her stay in the bathroom,
walking away from the sink to lay her back against the white bathroom tiles,
dragging the bottoms of her shirt and slacks against the grimy wall as she
descended.
More and more of her body was lowered until she was against the corner
and dropped to the floor, sitting down permanently. Rachel needed the rest, her
body yearned to be still because it seemed to be consuming too much energy.
For what, exactly, she still didn't know, but she could see that just as her chest
and pelvis had become muscular and rigid, so had her arms and legs. As if being
pumped by steroids, she acquired the body of a bodybuilder at a rapid pace, her
biceps and triceps expanding as if she'd been bench pressing for years on end,
thickening the veins and arteries in her arms and forearms as they widened and
got bigger and bigger. With the same being applied to her legs, she held her
stomach as she watched a bit of her pants being ripped apart by the sudden
surge of muscles beneath her calves and thighs, rippling through her legs with
sudden motion.
“Ah, the hell is happening to my shoes!”, she exclaimed as she felt
something press hard against her sole, the muscles hitting the base of her feet
and apparently causing her lower body to widen.
Rachel has never had very big feet. And even if she did a lot of weight
training, she doubted it would be enough to change her shoe size. Still, she felt
the pressure inside the leather fabric build more and more, until inevitably the
ripping sounds came. They were audible and noisy, seeming to get louder at
each second; she swore she would have her toes broken, but then she saw that
she was being helped by something that had grown over there. Instead of
catching a glimpse of her short, manicured nails, Rachel saw something she
couldn't identify at first due to the distance.
It looked as if she was not only getting more muscular, but also getting
taller, with her ribs stretching along the skin above the bones that made up her
entire vertebra and oblique region, her sternum amplifying along with the
pompous musculature. With the continuous crushing rhythm that steadily
formed with the mixture of muscle mass and new bone extensions, she would
have sworn she'd see huge fingers, but that wasn't it. It was something curvy,
concave and black. It seemed to grow longer over time, sharpening and having
an increasingly thinner point.
Due to the mixture of negative emotions with the horror of sudden
metamorphosis, she couldn't concentrate to make out what that was. Only
Rachel didn't need it, as she soon felt the same increase present in her toes
become active in her fingertips. She then drew in a heavy breath and, arching up
to exasperate the painful discomforts of the transfiguration, resolved to let go of
her belly and free her hands, if only for long enough to know what was going on
there. When she finally got up the courage to see what was happening, she
couldn't believe what she was witnessing.
With an inconceivable speed, something sharp sprouted from the tops of
the fingers, destroying the pink keratin of the nails, crossing and withering them
to make way. Splitting the hard surface was another, one that was even thicker
and denser than the last. On each fingertip spread the presence of deadly animal
claws, with them growing as big as her hands. And then, from the top of them, a
yellow fur began to prick and protrude through the pores of her skin, rapidly
piling up in concomitance with the length of her phalanges and the bones of her
carpals and pasterns.
Rachel didn't need to be an anatomy and biology genius to recognize the
impossibility of the fact that stood before her. Like a monster movie, her hand
was a savage semi-human mix that transitioned more and more into a fully feral
aspect, with palms stretching and wrists shifting to be curved in relation to her
larger, wider arms, modifying the posture present there. She had already seen a
fiction about a human who turned into a Pokémon on the night of a full moon,
but she was obviously inside a mall bathroom during the day, so it was obvious
that it could only be that damn perfume! And before she could complain and get
ready to go after the merchant to vent all her anger, the flow of the change
unfolded faster than she could have imagined.
Running through the hand, arms and forearms in moments, patches of
yellow hair crackled between Rachel's body, which was also covered by the
same furry adornment in other regions such as the scalp and thighs. The
difference is that there was a junction of different colors throughout her
existence. Just like the arms, her legs were similar in terms of both the structure
change — after all, they would become paws just like the hands — and the gain
in coloring, sharing the yellow hairs that were present in these two regions and
also on the underside of the loin.
The fur emerged from there, passing between the groin towards the
surface of the belly and chest, puffing up the skin region with hairs that became
increasingly thick and bristly, sticking out primarily in the circular region
between the base of the neck and the top of the linea alba, with the clavicle
readjusting to adapt to the more curved and radiant frontal region. Her body was
like a mountain, with a high slope near her head and a deep slope between her
legs. And in the surroundings that were not touched by the yellowish fur, purple
hairs appeared above the elbows and knees, spreading over the round buttocks
and slender back, ascending to the top of the shoulders towards the back of the
skull.
Panic raged at how quickly everything changed in her, both internally and
externally, she could feel both the downy presence of the fur above her and the
sudden, harsh movements of organs and bones within her body. Joints adapted
to a less and less human frame as their organs were altered, swelling the
muscles and skin to the limit. Unable to do anything, she couldn't think of any
plans, so she tried her best to stay on her feet with extreme difficulty, stretching
along the bathroom wall to the exit and hurriedly running. Against Rachel’s
will, she realized with some perspicacity that, as bizarre and embarrassing as it
was for her image, walking on all fours was far more comfortable and managed
to get her forward without much difficulty. She still needed to adapt and get
used to the pose a little, but it was much better than before and an option to get
away from there. This became a drag, however, when she found herself facing
the mall crowd.
As if it were a mockery — and an unfortunate, disgustingly ironic
coincidence — just as she got close to the crowd, she could feel that not only
her shoes withered away with the changes, but the fabrics of her blouse and
pants as well. Increasingly, women's garments opened holes and rips through the
division of elastic and fabric, revealing spots that were soon filled with fur. In
front of the people, she clearly attracted attention wherever she went, as if she
were an unusual circus attraction. People thought it was some sort of fetishistic
performance or some sort of experimental footage for a movie, assuming it was
a tech paraphernalia that combined practical effects with some sort of special
machine hidden between clothes. They took pictures, babbled to each other, and
when she couldn't take it anymore, Rachel stopped wanting to strangle the
salesman and chose to beg for support right there.
“He-lp! Help m- I’m… I’m turning into… Paaarrrrrd…
Lieeeepaaarrd!!!”, Rachel didn’t even know what kind of Pokémon she would
turn into, but as soon as her vocal chords began to transform and she began to
growl and snarl her own battle cry, she knew… Her wish would come true. She
would have a Liepard, after all, just not in the way she thought of.
With the bag containing her Pokéballs falling backwards, she ran farther
and further, tasting a little of her new speed that gradually became faster and
ignored any lasting embarrassment that appeared among the wreckage that was
the remnants of her clothes. While the sides of its body were filled with purple
and yellow furry leather, several spots in the shape of irregular triangles with
curved sides and open interior with purple fur appeared on the kneecaps, elbows
and on top of the back, with other purely yellow spots dotting figures of
isosceles triangles with an interior completely filled by the yellow coat
appearing on the flanks, thighs and fore chest.
Finally, a new bone emerged from the tailbone and stretched from it,
lengthening the bone and splitting the rump of her panties until it reached the
inside of the pants, rising above the hump of the hip area. Growing up and soon
being covered by the hairs present on the upper back, it drilled a precise hole
using its sickle-like shaped tail tip, bending elastically and deftly swinging its
new mobility. She rose and stretched dizzily, stretching to a length as long as the
very back she now had.
A wide, slender, long body, with the fur consuming most of it and much
of the clothing already obliterated by the emergence of strong muscles and
dense fur, pale pink pads growing below her four paws and some tangled and
fuzzy tips condensing between the chest and neck, which also lengthened and
got bigger... It was all over. In a very short time, she will be nothing but a
Pokémon. Then she closed her eyes and took her mind elsewhere.
When she sought the complacency of reminiscence of what she used to be
until a few minutes ago, seeking to boast of her accomplishments as a Pokémon
Trainer over the years, she smiled, ignoring the cruel fate that befell her, filling
herself with fondly treasured memories. That... It didn't seem to get lost. It was
still kept. It was like a part of her that wouldn't go away, no matter what
happened to Rachel's body. Only, regardless, she seemed to be co-existing in a
manner equivalent to the presence of something else, just as important and
imposing as the remaining humanity inside her mind. She didn't know how to
describe it because she couldn’t really grasp it; it was just… A sensory gift. One
that clamored to battle, to get more and more powerful and fight increasingly
stronger opponents! And to venture out, if you smell the flowering fields and
get lost in nature, to live in freedom until someone appears capable enough to
tame you. Of looking for a skilled and reliable master, and also of wanting to
breed with a male of the same race.
Immersed in the confused bliss of the cataclysmically confused, bulky
jumble of thoughts, she felt surrounded by a hurricane of exploding emotions as
the last pieces of her clothing were left behind, expelled by the final expansion
of her voluptuous, feline form. The jaw and jowl shifted along the nostrils,
stretching to create a short, square snout tipped with pink as Rachel's golden
eyes were doctored to an intensely fierce shade of green. The cartilage from
Rachel's ears joined that of her cheeks and chin, pulling some of the skin up
toward her temples, while two larger strands stretched on either side in an
equivalent fashion, creating two pairs of long, thin whiskers.
On each side of the snout, the base was made up of yellow hairs while the
top was invaded by the purple area coming from the scalp, rounded in the
surroundings with a pointed, triangular tip. Part of the temples were pulled back
together with the ears and other parts, these closer to the moistened nostrils,
were stretched forward, forming a type of slope that left the snout almost
trapezoidal and allowed the eyes to be aligned diagonally, expanding her field of
vision.
Two yellowish spots shaped like an equilateral, fully furry triangle
ascended amid the purple fur between the eyes, with the rest around the eyes
being aligned with the wet surface present in the nostrils, with the texture and
pink coloring spreading from there towards the eyes and advancing through
eyebrows, erasing them and joining the inner area of her ears. From a distance,
it looked like some kind of wide mask.
She breathed in, inhaling unusual scents and hearing sounds from far
away, overwhelmed by sensitive sensory impulses, natural instincts telling her
to run away and dictate orders, partially taking in the human thoughts present
there. As much as Rachel's memories and identity remained, it seems she
couldn't say the same for her rationality. She now acted like a beast. It was just
an ordinary Pokémon that normally inhaled the scents around it and naturally
made decisions based on what it picked up from the movements around it. She
now found herself actively identifying danger using her heightened senses, as if
it had always been this way, in such a usual and natural way… as if she had
always been made to be this way.
Lost within the multicolored myriads that now made her nostrils frenzy
thanks to the multiple odors in the air, Rachel came to and opened her eyes,
seeing that, due to her unbridled running, she ended up in a public square in the
city. Temporarily trembling, she found herself targeted by several people in a
crowd. Fearful, but still curious, some took pictures and others moved away to
observe the situation safely.
She felt on top of the world; a majestic spire that was much sought after
and admired. It made her wary, with something in the back of her mind telling
her to get out of there as soon as possible. She didn't understand why, but she
soon realized, through the shy flick of her ears due to multiple metallic noises,
that some present were pulling Pokéballs from their pockets to try to capture her
without first weakening her in a direct confrontation. As difficult as it was,
Rachel still held on to the knowledge that it was possible, so she chose not to
bet on luck and savagely leapt into the huddle of people. Baring her fangs, she
roared.
“LIEPAAAAAAAAAARDDDDDD!!!!!!”, it filled her with an unusual
amount of stamina and anticipation, making the blood inside her boil and flow
faster. Unconsciously, she activated one of her abilities. In her 23 years of
existence, never before she would have imagined that’s how Pokémon felt when
launching an attack.
Assurance. It’s a dark-physical ability which causes an illusory projection
of being slapped through a charged lunge with the head together with the kick of
one of the feet. Leaping away, the expansiveness of the movement got the
crowd back as far as possible, giving them enough space to work out another
leap and utilize their new springy flexible joints to project a high-speed
long-distance jump into the outside of that mob.
Rachel was amazed at what she just did. She didn't have a look of
covetousness, but rather a pride in the allure of having direct access to the
technique whenever she wanted. She didn't need to depend on the life of another
Pokémon, only on herself. That strong emotion made her confident, in tune with
her fiery fighting spirit and direct contact with nature. The sensation of the
ground beating against her paws, with her thudding through the pipes and tubes
coming from the buildings, dodging from one side to the other progressively
until she finally began to absorb the warmth of the telluric soil of resplendent
planting, tall grass and various types of flowers.
As she fled from there, she realized that she had taken the return route to
the harbor area. There was the beach and the pristine coastline... And the ships.
Rachel's human mind pointed less and less there. Inwardly, she faced the brunt
of robust wild instincts, with her athletic body demanding more of the outdoors
and her silky hair fluttering in the gentle breeze. The desire to stop caring about
what happened just now grew stronger until she came near people in the fields.
She avoided them, making them fear her with her snarls and growls.
She didn’t want to, but… Her body wanted this. This freedom to be
herself. And to acknowledge that only someone who is willing to face the beast
is ready to actually train it. Gradually, she got used to life as a Pokémon, and a
part of Rachel that was still there realized how difficult it is to truly tame one.
She always did it so simply. But someone like her... Someone like a Liepard!
Maybe that's why she respected this Pokémon so much. She was meant to be
one.
With each moment that passed away from civilization, she adapted more
and more to her instincts. The only catch, however, was seeing more flying and
ground-type Pokémon around herself. With the knowledge she still had, she
knew she wasn't in an area where a Liepard would be found. And her body
reflected that, demanding a solution to the problem. For a few hours she
remained there, resting on the earth and stretching her paws across the field. She
yawned, exposing her new long, malleable, wet tongue and running it over her
furry lips and sharp fangs.
“Amazing…”, then, something came to the field that left her somewhat
confused and worried, needing to calm down as she walked slowly closer to it,
watching over the origin of the high-pitched voice.
Somewhat suspiciously, she was approached by an adult woman who
closely resembled her before being turned; one that promised it was friendly and
wouldn't hurt. Just like she did with other trainers. Rachel didn't look easy, but
that didn't stop that Pokémon Trainer, who seemed to want to offer to do
anything to capture her. Over the next few hours, that human spent all day by
her side, not approaching her so she wouldn’t be attacked, kind of respecting
Rachel’s personal space, but also leaving tasty food around and showing some
friendly gestures. At one point, she sat down and opened her Pokédex, revealing
the pictures she had with some Pokémon. She had a somewhat familiar team in
terms of division and an equal number of types. There was psychic,
ground/steel, normal, grass, fight... Lots of light, little darkness. It reminded her
of the situation that had brought her there. If Rachel couldn't complete her own
team, then she could at least be a key part of another party.
Realizing the fiercely courageous drive of that woman by spending so
much time on trying to gain her attention just so she could have a top-notch
group of Pokémon, she was unable to express in words as when she was human,
so Rachel tilted her head and wordlessly asked for pets. Letting her approach
and opening herself to be caressed by the woman, she also gained rubs on her
belly and above her back's pelt, and brushed against her body to signal that she
was comfortable with it. The trainer then showed a collar. Rachel knew that
there were some Trainers who chose to walk alongside their Pokémon instead of
carrying them in Pokéballs, as a sign of respect to demonstrate that they were
equals. Unbeknownst to the woman, in fact, she and Rachel were the same, yet
different... And for that, she accepted being leashed and guided a path with her,
being corrected a few times on the route.
Assuming she would be trained, Rachel was actually exhilarated to be
free so soon, as the woman's goal was really to get her into an environment
more appropriate for her. From what he could understand, apparently that
woman had been alerted to the situation after the citizens had spotted a wild
Pokémon in the city that later went to a field that didn't usually appear, so they
ordered someone to go there to investigate and restore the creature to return to
its natural habitat. However, Rachel could feel sympathy towards the lady, so
she touched the Pokéballs on the woman's belt with her paws, showing that she
could go inside them as soon as she was finished.
The woman understood and nodded, knowing the Pokémon would soon
come back to her. But for now, it was free to roam around. Excited to
experience new life, Rachel grunted in thanks, baring her fangs, and then
sprinted towards a flowering field, ducking through the bushes and ready to
actually start a new life entirely, being the Pokémon she was always supposed to
be in the place where it should have always been