4 Chapter Three: The Pokémon and The Battle

As Alex, feeling extremely depressed sped up towards his campsite, he felt that something looked different about it. He thought he was imagining things because of his depression, but as he got closer he realized that someone raided his campsite. Everything was all over the place, scattered everywhere. His lawn chair was toppled over, his Bug-Pokémon spray, flashlight and other camping items were taken out of his bag and spread out everywhere, his tent was toppled down and his sleeping bag was on the ground, unzipped.

Seeing this, Alex was thoroughly shocked, enough to replace his depression with anger. 'What the heck happened?!' he thought. He was sure that it had to be someone else or a Pokémon with high intelligence. He assumed it was the former, because if it was the latter the Pokémon would have to be a psychic type because they're the only type of Pokémon that could have intelligence close enough to a human. But, the area he was in wasn't native to any psychic Pokémon, so he assumed it was another person.

He looked around for any signs of where they went, but he couldn't see any footprints belonging to a person. But, he did notice some footprints that belong to a Pokémon. The footprints only led into his campsite, not out. 'Clever' he thought. 'It's a Fuser. He raided my campsite Fused with a Pokémon when it was empty, but didn't leave fast enough before I got here. So he stayed as a Pokémon and hid among my things. So all I have to do is search through my things until I find that Fuser'.

Alex started to search through everything that a Pokémon could hid in. He checked under the trampled tent, inside his hiking bag and was about to check under his unzipped sleeping bag when he noticed a slight movement coming from from his food bag. He walked up to it and picked it up. The bag started squirming and he could hear the sound of a Pokémon inside. 'Gotcha' Alex thought, as he opened up the food bag and dumped out the Pokémon.

When he saw the Pokémon, he was surprised. It looked like a Ralts, but was different. Usually, a Ralts would have a white body, green cap and a red horn, but this Ralts had a blue cap and a orange horn. 'Weird' Alex thought. He now didn't know if it was a Pokémon or a Fuser because Ralts is a psychic type, but he didn't care about that at the moment. He was caught up with the unique Ralts in front of him. As he tried to figure what was up with the Ralts, it started to flee.

"Not so fast!" Alex said, as he reached out and grabbed onto the Ralts. It tried to break free from his grasp, but Alex held on tight.

"Let go of me!".

Alex suddenly heard a voice. He turned around, but couldn't see anyone.

"Put me down human!". He heard the voice again. To put them down... Alex looked at the Ralts. Was the Ralts talking to him? "Come on, it was just a few berries. You can go search for some more. There's plenty everywhere". Alex finally realized it was indeed the Ralts talking to him. "How are you talking to me?" he asked. "My ability, telepathy. Duh!" the Ralts mocked Alex. Annoyed, Alex flicked the Ralts head. "Ouch! What the Heck! Why'd you do that?!" The Ralts said. "Answer my questions now, you're in no position to talk down on me" Alex said, as he shot a threatening glare towards the Ralts. The Ralts lowed it's head in submission.

"Ok, first, why are you weird looking? Is it a gender malfunction or are you a cross-breed?" Alex asked. "What gender malfunction! I'm male! And what's this nonsense about being a cross-breed! If you're cross-bred, you'd either be one Pokémon or the other!" The Ralts shouted back. He looked angry, so Alex assumed that he asked the wrong question. "Alright, then what are you?" inquired Alex. "Do you not know what a Shiny Pokémon is? Don't you get taught about this stuff?" The Ralts replied. Alex realized that the Ralts was indeed a Shiny Pokémon, but he didn't realize it because of the fact that Shiny Pokémon are very rare.

Shiny Pokémon (otherwise known as Shinies) are a rare and strange type of Pokémon. Around 1 in every 8192 Pokémon is a Shiny, so the probability of encountering one is 0.0001220703%. Now, if you're a Fuser that constantly goes out everyday to either train or befriend Pokémon, you'd probably encounter a Shiny Pokémon a couple times in your life. That's why it's incredibly rare. But, Shinies don't have anything else unique about them, just the fact that they look different. So, because that they're so rare, they're all unique and they don't have anything different with them other then their colour, Shinies were ignored. Most people only know that they're rare and look different, but that's about it.

"Ok, so that's why you look weird" remarked Alex. He didn't expect that he'd find a Shiny during his first Pokémon hunt, even though it kinda found him. "Now can you put me down?" asked the Ralts. "No, I have some more questions for you. Also, how do I know you're not going to run away?" Alex questioned. The Ralts paused for a few seconds, before saying "Fine, what other questions do you have for me?".

"Why did you raid my campsite?" Alex asked. It was bugging him ever since he saw his campsite in ruins. He didn't have anything of value, just some camping gear, some random items and some berries. "Well..." The Ralts said. "It's late at night and I didn't have anything to eat. It would be dangerous if I went to search for food so... I... raided your campsite for food..." The Ralts said slowly.

Alex was furious. "Why didn't you just search for some berries earlier!" He yelled, frustrated because of the stupid reason why the Ralts destroyed his campsite. 'Just because you were hungry and didn't hunt earlier? What kind of lazy excuse is that?!' he thought. The Ralts turned towards Alex and said "Well, can you please let me explain first...". Looking at the Ralts, Alex realized that he might've been to harsh on the Ralts. "Fine, then explain to me why you couldn't search for berries earlier" he said. "Ok, it all started when..." the Ralts said, when suddenly both of them noticed an unpleasant glare looking at them. They both turned to see what it was, but then realized that they were in trouble.

Looking at them was a Raticate, with it's long fangs gnawing together and its eyes creating and unpleasant feeling. "Watch out, it's using [Leer]!" The Ralts said. "What's [Leer]?" Alex asked, confused. The Ralts then looked at him surprised, then proceeded to scold him. "Are you an idiot?! I thought everyone that ventures out into the wilderness knows Pokémon combat at least! Didn't you learn about that in Fuser school!" The Ralts shouted, before continuing with "Also, let me down! I don't want to die here!". After letting go of the Ralts, Alex tried to remember about where he would've learned about Fuser combat. He vaguely recalled about it coming up during one of his math classes. It was the first class of math he took, before sleeping through it the rest of the time.

It was the first day of school, when he had math as his first class. During it, the teacher gave a speech about how everyone was going to learn about "Damage Calculations" and "Pokémon Counter" and some other stuff. They then said that it was all to prepare for Fuser Combat or Fuser Battles, where you fight wild Pokémon or other Fusers. Alex didn't find it worth listening too, so he fell asleep a little bit later. Now he realized his mistake now he's in trouble.

The Ralts, after Alex dropped him, immediately went to a tree and scurried up it, then urged Alex to join him. The Raticate, seeing this, started running towards Alex before he climbed up. Seeing this, Alex went to the tree and climbed up as well before the Raticate came. couple seconds later, the Raticate started biting on the tree, trying to bring it down. "Dang it! Is this where I die?!" Alex exclaimed. He didn't want to die here, he had so much to live for.

The Ralts looked at Alex panicking, then said "Just Fuse with one of the Pokémon you made a Bond with. Don't you have any strong Pokémon?". "No! I'm a Fuser in training!" he replied. The Ralts then facepalmed. "Well, then make a Bond with me" The Ralts said. Alex was surprised that the Ralts wanted to Bond with him. "Why? Are you sure you're willing?" He asked. Normally you had to befriend a Pokémon before making a Bond with it, so that they're willing. But, if the Pokémon is already willing, you don't have to befriend them and you can skip that part. It usually, doesn't happen because when you make a Bond, it's difficult to undo, so both Fuser and Pokémon have to stay within a mile of each other. If the Pokémon goes farther than a mile, the Pokémon will be called back to the Fuser. That's why he was so surprised about what the Ralts said. He was about to ask why, but then the Ralts said "Hurry up! It's either this or we both become rat food!".

Sighing, Alex took out a Common Bond and held it out to the Ralts. Once the Ralts touched it as well, the Common Bond disappeared and Alex felt connected with the Ralts. "Ok... now what?" Alex asked. The Ralts looked at him for a second, before jumping into him. Yes, straight up jumping into Alex's body. "What the?! What did you do!" exclaimed Alex. "Relax. This is all normal. Well, I guess it's new for you" said the Ralts, yet Alex didn't see him.

[System Boot-up Initialized...]

[Processing New Hosts Status...]

[Process Finished!]

[System Menu]

-Status

-Pokémon

-Items

-Rank

-Map

-Options

Seeing this in front of him, Alex was confused. 'Was this what everyone saw as a Fuser?' He thought. He was looking at a holographic screen that seemed to have come out of nowhere. It displayed a bunch of different options, but Alex didn't really know what it was. "What are you waiting for? Press [Pokémon] on the screen and then press [Fuse] with me!" The Ralts said. Alex felt that the Ralts was talking to him from inside of his head. No, wait, if it was inside of his head then it would sound the same. Alex felt that the Ralts was talking to him from inside of his... body? Sure, let's go with that.

He pressed on [Pokémon] and the screen changed.

[Pokémon]

{Shiny Ralts} [Summary] [Fuse] [Options]

"Are you sure this is normal?" Alex asked. He was a little unsure about the whole process. But the Ralts insisted. "Quickly! The Raticate is about to destroy the tree!". Alex looked at the Raticate. It was continuously biting at the tree. There wasn't that much time left before the tree fell. Alex pressed [Fuse] on the screen.

[Fusing Starting...]

Immediately, he felt his body change. He saw the world get smaller and all his body parts change. A few seconds later, the screen updated again.

[Fusing Complete!]

When he looked around, he saw that everything was... bigger. Than he realized that he was just smaller. He looked at his hands and instead saw some white stubs instead. 'These are the Ralts hands!' he thought. "Hey hey hey, watch out!" The Ralts said. "Stop looking at yourself and watch out for the Raticate. You do remember that we still have to battle?". "Oh yeah, sorry, my bad" Alex said. Just then, the tree fell down after the Raticate's relentless biting. "Dang it!" Alex exclaimed. Both him and the tree fell down.

[Fall Damage {-1} Remaining HP {20}]

Seeing the screen, Alex was a bit dazed. Well, who could blame him, it was his first time making a Bond, Fusing with a Pokémon, using the Fuser System and also falling of a tree. "WATCH OUT!" screamed The Ralts screamed. Alex jumped up, surprised from the scream. just in time to dodge the Raticate charging at him. "Stop dozing off and fight Raticate!" said the Ralts. Realizing his mistake, Alex looked at the Raticate. Face to face with the Raticate, a lot bigger than before because of his, Alex was startled. "Focus, unless you want to die!" yelled the Ralts.

'Yeah, he's right' Alex thought. 'I've got to focus, or I'll die!'.