Head reeling, Spike groaned as he woke up again. Something hard pressed against his head, but he felt blades of grass tickling his forearms and lower legs. His eyes fluttered open, and a blurry gray and red surface came into view. He then moved his arms into a push-up position and forced himself up. Almost immediately, his body shook, and his heart rate quickened. His forehead had been resting on a jagged and bloodsoaked rock. He quickly brought his hands to his forehead and felt a warm and sticky liquid. When he pulled his hands away, they were coated in semi-dried blood.

“Not good…” A youthful voice came out of his mouth, but he barely noticed due to being preoccupied with his injury.

Not yet realizing that he wasn’t in pain due to his panic, he looked around to figure out what was happening, and immediately met eyes with a large yellow face that had been right behind him.

“Wah!” Spike yelped, stumbling backward on instinct.

Beady eyes stared back at him. With a bit of distance, Spike observed the creature with raised brows. It had mostly yellow and brown skin and floated above the ground with its legs crossed. It had a few spiky parts protruding from its head as well as what looked like an impressive and fluttery mustache. It also held spoons in each of its hands.

Although Spike had never seen one in real life before, he immediately recognized the creature as an Alakazam.

‘But why does it look angry?’

Anxious about what might have happened, Spike first looked around for his Riolu egg and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was sitting on the grass a meter away in perfect condition.

The Alakazam raised a brow at Spike’s concern for the egg. It then seemed to calm down a little and floated back a few feet with its brows loosening into a curious expression.

{Who are you?}

Spike heard the question reverberate in his head. Raising his brows and widening his eyes, he locked eyes with the Alakazam and asked, “Was that you?”

{Yes. Who are you?}

“...Spike. You?”

{An ordinary Alakazam. Your brain waves are very different now after the spatial anomaly. I thought you died, so are you… a different human?}

“Eh?” Spike reacted with panic and finally looked at his own body. His hands were soft and small like a child’s. He also finally realized that what he thought was a huge Alakazam was probably normal and it was instead his own body that was small. “What in the world? Am I a child now?”

{It seems you are a different human. How interesting,} The Alakazam communicated again through telepathy as it started floating in circles around him as though inspecting his body like a researcher.

Feeling a tickling sensation in his head, Spike narrowed his eyes and asked, “Are you reading my mind or something?”

{Just reading your brainwaves.}

“I’d have given permission if you asked first,” Spike grumbled while stepping over to pick up his Riolu egg. It seemed a lot larger than before in his now small arms.

Meanwhile, the Alakazam halted mid-air and stared at him while tilting its head slightly. The tingling in Spike’s brain stopped. Turning his attention back to the Alakazam, Spike hesitantly asked, “Did you need something from me?”

{The previous human in that body of yours tormented my son, so I had been chasing him off to teach him a lesson. Seems it is no longer necessary. It is unfortunate for the child. I only wanted to scare him a little.}

Pressing his lips together, Spike remained silent and broke out into a cold sweat. He was now thanking Arceus that the Alakazam seemed pretty chill now.

The Alakazam chuckled lightly at Spike’s anxiousness and then raised a hand toward Spike. A purple glow appeared around its hand.

Suddenly, Spike felt something like compressed air brushing against his face and clothes. Then, red flakes and clumps of dirt and grass flew off his face and body before dropping onto the grass around him. Spike blinked a few times and looked down at the blood and dirt. Then, he shifted the egg to one arm and lifted his now free hand to his forehead. When he brought it back down, there was no blood on his fingers.

“Huh, cool. Thanks.”

{No problem. Then, take care of yourself. Please don’t torment Pokémon in the future. Some might not take it as kindly as I.}

“Well, I won’t.”

The Alakazam started floating away, but before it could leave, Spike called out asking, “Sorry, but could you point me toward a human town?”

Stopping, the Alakazam turned and pointed toward where the sun was starting to set and telepathically answered, {Walk about 500 steps that way, and you should be able to see the road leading to a human city. I was already chasing you toward it, so it isn’t far.}

“That’s very kind of you. Thanks,” Spike replied with a grin.

The Alakazam then nodded and floated a bit further away. Then, strong energy wrapped around it, and it teleported away with a flash of light.

“Cool,” Spike mumbled before walking toward the road.

Along the way, his head started to feel heavy, and he started seeing fuzzy mental images. Some were of a man with green hair, eyebrows, and irises sternly reproaching him. Some were of a purple-haired woman with black eyes doing the same. Some were of small Pokémon or other human children being bullied under his own hands, which disgusted him. Eventually, he realized that he was seeing memories of the kid who used to occupy this new body of his. During his previous interaction with the Alakazam, he had felt guilt for suddenly taking over the kid’s body, but the more he saw the kid’s memories, the less guilty he felt. Arceus and that other giant nightmare of a Pokémon must have known what they were doing.

During his trek through the woods, he spotted a handful of small Pokémon like Seedots, Taillows, or Zigzagoons. Other than those, he also spotted strangely normal animals similar to squirrels or even a herd of what looked like deer, but they all lacked the glint of intelligence and awareness he observed in the eyes of the Pokémon he passed. At one point, he even saw a Poochyena barking while chasing something that looked like a squirrel.

‘I guess I won’t have to eat Pokémon for protein, then. That’s a relief,’ Spike noted.

Eventually, Spike reached the road. Some buildings could be seen in the distance, so he headed toward them. The closer he got, the more familiar things started to become as the fuzzy memories solidified in his mind. At some point, he arrived before a sign that read: Petalburg City. Spike’s lips curled upward when he saw it.

Upon arriving at the small city, he saw a mixture of humans and Pokémon mulling about, mostly minding their own business. Near the entrance of the town, he saw a lake surrounded by Zigzagoons, Taillows, and Seedots drinking from it. There were also Lotads and Surskits floating on or dancing along the surface of the water respectively. He also saw a Corphish popping out of the water here and there nipping at the surskits as though playing with them. A few people sat at the lakeside with fishing rods without catching anything, almost like back on Earth.

In the city itself, he saw Taillows, Swellows, and even a few Spearows and Pidgeys perched on rooftops or power lines while some of them fluttered about freely. On the streets, some people walked around going about their business, some of them walking with Pokémon, though most were small Pokémon like the ones by the lake. The most unusual one he saw was a guy with spiky hair walking into a house with a Ninjask flying behind him. There was even an older woman walking with six Skittys, which nearly made him break out into laughter.

Smiling at the odd mixture of familiar yet unfamiliar sights, he walked along the dirt road that he recognized from the kid’s memories toward where he supposedly lived. A few people glanced at him and the Pokémon egg in his hands with curious or concerned looks, but he ignored them. After around ten minutes of walking, he finally arrived at a two-story house about a block away from the Petalburg Gym.

“I guess this is home now,” Spike mumbled to himself. Then, he looked at the egg in his arms and said, “Let’s go check it out, little guy.”