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Aug 30, 2010 09:44


They say you only get to live life once, but those who actually believe that surely live in a nicer world than reality. She could still remember dying that day, one hundred millions years ago. Almost an eternity away, the Lileeps and Cradilies of her tribe had lived in relative peace at the bottom of the ocean ... until the famine. The young Lileeps of the tribe died slowly and painfully. While their permanent anchorage to rocks had been a good strategy for survival during times of plenty, it also made them completely vulnerable as soon as food had run out. There was no way to save them. Realistically speaking, it probably would have been better for the more mobile Cradilies to leave the Lileeps behind in search of food. Surely there was food elsewhere in the ocean. But not a single Cradily including herself could find it in their heart to abandon the young ones, thus they all stayed, comforting their children in their last moments.

They all wasted away on the ocean floor, eventually dying of starvation, and were completely forgotten, lost to time. At least, they were forgotten until the present day rolled around and the marine pokemon researchers dove into the depths of the ocean in search of answers to ancient mysteries. They were overjoyed to find Root fossils at the bottom of the ocean; modern technology could revive the pokemon found within those fossils. The few samples they found were separated and shipped around the world to different facilities. The pokemon researchers considered it disrespectful to revive all the Lileeps and Cradilies only to keep them only as scientific specimens, so the revived pokemon were given to a handful of trusted, talented trainers who would be able to raise and love the pokemon as they were meant.

Of course, nobody had stopped to think about whether these pokemon even wanted to be revived. The first few weeks of her new life had been excruciatingly painful -- she was completely alone, separated from her tribe, the people she loved. Scientists cooed at her and took notes, getting previously-revived pokemon to explain to her what had happened to her, what this new time period was like, and what was now expected of her. She had wanted to scream at these other ancient pokemon: How can you stand this? How can you just ... accept what these strange creatures want you to do? How can you live a life devoid of any freedom? They hadn't understood her at all; "Comrade," they'd said to her, "You are getting a chance at life again! You get to live a second time! What is there not to be thankful for?"

Nobody had understood when she'd tried to explain that a life without her tribe didn't seem to be a life worth living. And yet the teachings of her tribe had also forbidden suicide, so she was ... stuck. Left adrift without any options. The more she thought about it, the more confused she felt. From a young age, she had been taught that those who die with honor are able to go to a better world when they die, yet she had no memory whatsoever of being there. Were her memories erased when she was revived, or ... had she messed up somewhere in her past life? She shuddered to think of it, but saw that there was no point in fighting the inevitable. And so, she submitted to their tests but refused to cooperate any further.

The day that Lorelei had arrived to take her had been a happy one, she thought. At first, she had resented the idea of having a "trainer", someone who "owned" her. The scientists and researchers surely made it seem that way--she would be used in battle, in contests, in other ridiculous pursuits. And yet, when the female trainer arrived, the girl was completely different from what she expected.

"I'm sorry if you already have a name... I understand life was really different for you in your former life. But I don't think it's very nice for them to keep referring to you as 'Specimen #0276' and I don't know your real name, so I'll call you 'Iris' from now on, okay? It's because you kind of remind me of that flower... It's almost as pretty as you are."

The other fossil pokemon had informed Iris that humans couldn't really understand them. Even if she were to reply to her new trainer, it's not like the girl would really know what she was saying. And yet, Iris spoke to Lorelei at length and there were many times where it really felt like the girl understood how she felt, how frustrated and alone she was. Lorelei couldn't "adopt" Iris right away, but she came every day for a while to help ease Iris into the idea. She told Iris that while she was on a journey and did fight battles, it was more for the fun of it; she loved to spend time with her precious pokemon. She didn't collect them like many of her peers did -- she only caught and raised pokemon she would use and thus far she had five of the maximum of six. "Iris ... would you be my sixth pokemon? I won't make you battle if you don't want to, but I'd really like for you to share this journey with me." Surprising herself, Iris agreed. Perhaps she'd had no choice in being revived, but if she had to share herself with someone, this Lorelei seemed to be a pretty good choice.

There was still a lot of paperwork and procedure to be done before Iris could be released to Lorelei's care, so while they waited, Lorelei showed her pictures of her other five pokemon. She couldn't actually bring her team to the research facility because the scientists were afraid they might contaminate their data, but Lorelei was so descriptive about her pokemon that even though Iris had never met them, she felt as if she knew all of them. Stories about Hajime's antics made her laugh and she was curious about Julian, who was also a Grass-type as she was. Most of all, however, Lorelei's stories made Iris feel even more confident that she'd made the right choice; she knew her team so well despite not being able to communicate directly with them.

When Iris awoke one night in complete darkness, she was instantly afraid for the first time since she'd been revived. Had something gone wrong? When she got up and found that the door to her room was unlocked, she became even more confused -- had there been a power outage? Iris groped her way into the hallway (strange, her senses felt dulled...) but no one was there. Even at night, there were usually interns or other people mulling about. Where was everyone?

Just that afternoon, Lorelei had left saying that the paperwork was nearly done and she'd be back for Iris the next morning. There was no reason for everyone to be gone now.

"Hello?"

Before Iris could jump at the fact that she suddenly had a voice now -- and could now jump -- the lights flickered back on. "Yo, is someone in here?" She heard a boyish voice say. He sounded rather close by, but the hallway was in a secluded area and she didn't see anyone around. Was she imagining things? "Hey, don't mess with me. I know I heard someone~" Iris didn't recognize the voice; it didn't belong to any of the researchers. In fact, there was no reason for a young boy to be in the facility at all, but given how strange the situation was already, Iris was feeling rather bold.

"I'm here!" she called out bravely, but she had no idea what to expect and prepared for the worst. Then, realizing how tense she was, she chuckled to herself. "What, am I really afraid of a little boy's voice?"

"Oh, so you were in here after all!" the voice replied cheerfully, though it didn't sound all that sincere. It was probably not a nice person coming to find her, Iris thought.

Right before her eyes, a boy came waltzing into the hallway ... right through the wall. He hovered several inches from the ground and was partially transparent, but it was fairly easy to make out that he was a young boy -- man? -- of about 14 or 15. He had short, wispy dark purple hair and a pair of triangular ears stuck out from the top of his head. His eyes glowed a sinister red color and he smiled a toothy grin as he dug his hands into his pockets and looked around.

But then his eyes fell on Iris and suddenly his face turned bright red. Iris didn't think it was possible for ghosts to fall down, but this one did, and hard. He then crawled backwards away from her, in a funny sort of crab-walking motion, so quickly that he must have forgotten to immaterialize himself. He crashed into the wall with a large thud. "You.... Y-y-y-y-you!!!" he sputtered.

Iris laughed. So much for being scared of this guy, even if he was a ghost. She walked right up to him, ignoring his obvious attempts to keep his distance. He pushed himself back against the wall as much as possible as she replied, "Ye~s?"

"PUT SOME DAMN CLOTHES ON!" he howled.

"Why would a pokemon wear clothes?" she rolled her eyes.

"Have you looked at yourself lately?!"

Wait. The boy could understand what she was saying? Slowly, Iris began to realize that something was not quite right. She looked down; she had human legs. In a daze, she ran towards one of the rooms that the scientists had referred to as a "bathroom" -- there were mirrors in there, right? When she pushed the doors open and was confronted with her reflection, what she saw was not a Cradily. She had apparently somehow been turned into a human. And not just any kind of human.

A cute little pink-haired girl who didn't look a day over 14. Oh, and she was naked. Brilliant. Well, Iris thought to herself, The gods sometimes do strange things to test us. At least I'm adorable.

Forgetting how completely embarrassed the boy was, Iris marched back out to demand answers from him. He was still cowering against the wall, covering his eyes. Why he hadn't just run away was completely beyond her comprehension, but at least she could ask him questions. She decided to introduce herself first, though. Perhaps that would be more polite. "I know you may not believe this, but I am actually a ... a Cradily. My name is Iris." she held out her hand.

"I can believe it," he said in a sulky voice, though he didn't look up. "I'm actually a Gengar a-and..." He peeked out from above his hands. Then, once again defying what Iris thought possible, he turned an even deeper shade of red. "W-W-W-WHY ARE YOU STILL NAKED?!" he yelled and flailed wildly, but didn't cover his eyes this time. Iris thought he was overreacting quite a bit, but supposed it wouldn't be good for him to ogle her while she was in the nude, either.

"Rock tomb."

"Huh?"

WHUMP. A little house of rocks surrounded and trapped the boy completely save for one gap towards the bottom since Iris didn't know if it was possible for a ghost to suffocate, nor was she willing to experiment. Also, she didn't want him escaping while she went to go find clothing.

"HEY!" he yelled indignantly.

"I'll let you out in a bit. Just stay there for now while I go put something on, since it appears to bother you so much."

"What's stopping me from just going through those rocks and leaving you here?"

"Nothing," she replied after a moment's thought. "But I would hope that you're not so heartless as to leave a poor, innocent girl all alone like this."

"..."

Iris took his silence as an acquiesce and went into the locker room to sift through the scientists' clothes. They didn't have anything in her size so she threw on the smallest outfit she could find: a sweater much like the one the ghost boy was wearing, except his was striped red and black and this one was solid light blue, and a gray skirt. The sweater was so large that it mostly covered the skirt, however, so it almost looked like she wasn't wearing any pants. Being a pokemon, Iris had no concept of underwear and even if she knew what underwear was, that wasn't the sort of article of clothing to be left laying around. Iris fluffed up her hair a bit, liking how round and puffy it was, and walked back out to the hallway. She could hear the Gengar inside the rock tomb muttering to himself. She couldn't hear everything he said, but caught words like "abominable", "cute", and "naked", so she knew he was mumbling about her.

How cute. With a twirl of her wrist, the rock tomb dissolved into sand. This time the Gengar remembered to change to his ethereal form and the sand passed right through him. Frowning, he turned to look at her, but his expression eased once he saw that she was, indeed, clothed. Noting her sweater, he grinned. "Hey, we match."

Iris couldn't help but smile back. "It seems so. By the way, I never got your name."

"Oh," the ghost scratched his head. "It's Tenma. Pretty cheesy name my trainer picked out for m--"

"Tenma?" Iris' eyes widened. "As in Lorelei's pokemon?"

Tenma's grin vanished and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How do you know Lorelei?"

"Well, I'm one of her pokemon, too. At least, I was going to be, but then--"

"Bullshit. Lorelei said for a long time that she wasn't going to catch any more pokemon. Me and the idiot were the only ones doing any battling anymore, anyway."

"She said I didn't have to battle if I didn't want to," Iris snapped, annoyed that Tenma's words were making her doubt what Lorelei had said. "I was revived from a fossil. She didn't have to catch me, I was going to be given to her."

"Wait ... a fossil? What do you mean you were 'revived from a fossil'?" The hostility was gone now, replaced by confusion, though there was still a hint of distrust in his voice. Though he'd acted cute and boyish earlier, it was clear that Tenma had a lot more life experience than Iris had thought and he didn't trust anybody he didn't know. Smart boy.

"I was dead. I died millions of years ago and somehow my body was preserved as a fossil. The scientists here brought me back to life by experimenting on it. I don't know the details, but here I am." Iris chewed on her bottom lip nervously, keeping down the early memories of her laboratory life, the memories she'd rather forget. "Couldn't you figure that out when I said I was a Cradily? They're supposed to be extinct!"

"Just because I'm a pokemon doesn't mean I know about all the other pokemon in the world. I just figured Cradily was some pokemon I hadn't encountered yet, that's all. How was I supposed to know you were some kind of zombie?"

"I'm not a zombie!!" Iris screamed, using Giga Drain on him in a sudden, uncontrollable rage. Grass moves weren't particularly effective against ghosts, but it hurt Tenma all the same. He winced, but said nothing. "You, of all pokemon, should understand what it's like to be alive after you're dead, don't you? But I'm not a zombie or a ghost. I just..." She recalled the other fossil pokemon's words. "I just got a second chance at life."

She wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting from Tenma at this point, but when the ghost materialized himself and wrapped her in a hug, Iris was confident that this had been one of the last things on the list of Things I Think Tenma Is About To Do. His voice was far from tender, though, as he said, "I'm a ghost pokemon, not a ghost. As far as I know, I was born a ghost and I'm going to die a ghost. I don't think I was ever alive like you were. Sorry I was rude."

"I ... get the feeling that you're generally a pretty rude person, actually."

Tenma laughed. "Yeah, you're right. Don't tell the others I did this."

"The others?"

"You know, the rest of the team. If you know about me, you gotta know about the rest, right? Even if they're not as badass as I am."

"Oh, you mean Hajime and Kazuya and them. Yes, Lorelei told me about all of you. I was supposed to join the team today, actually," she replied somewhat wistfully. And then it dawned on her. "Wait ... 'Don't tell'... You mean we're going to find them? Do you think they turned into humans, too?"

"I ran into a couple of other guys before I got here and they were all pokemon-turned-humans. Pretty hostile, too, but I took care of 'em. But yeah, I guess we should find the others. I don't know what kind of trouble they're getting into without me to watch their back."

"Meaning you actually care about them a lot, right?" Iris smirked.

Tenma didn't quite push her away from him, but he let go rather quickly. "W-what the hell!! You know a guy for, what, five minutes and you start making those kinds of assumptions?"

"Actually, I think I've known you for closer to half an hou--"

"That ain't the point!!" he snapped, cutting her off. "A-anyway, if you're gonna be coming with me, I have to lay down some ground rules."

"Well, aren't you just a big, strong man? I don't think I feel like taking orders from a kid who probably hasn't even hit puberty yet," she teased.

"Sh-shut up!" Tenma growled. "Anyway. Rules. Number one, you don't talk back to me. Number two, you don't disrespect me or call me--"

"Cute?"

"Arghhhh! Whatever! Let's just go already!" Tenma started stomping off towards the exit, but not before Iris could see that his face had turned red again. "You're one crazy chick, you know that? Just stay out of my way."

Oh yes, she would have fun with this new family of hers.
『TITLE』 memento mori
『RATING』 PG-13 for ... idk, talk about nudity. cursing. etc.
『CHARACTERS』 Iris-centric + Tenma
『WORDCOUNT』 3,076
『NOTES』 A story about how the loli/shota couple on my team met and basically fell in love, though they're both too dense to tell at the moment. TENMA IS USUALLY MUCH MORE TSUN THAN DERE BUT HE'S IN LOOOOVE. ;_;
『SUMMARY』 A fossil pokemon gets a second chance at life and Tenma finds the only pokemon that can mess with him instead of the other way around.

original: pokejinka

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