A Dream or A Nightmare? : Part 1

I have been many things over the years, a Summoner, a Keyblader, I’ve even been the reincarnation of a five thousand year old Pharaoh.

This however, this was a new experience.

Going to sleep as a girl in cosplay and waking up in a very male body to an obnoxiously loud alarm clock was not the most ideal way to see the dawn.

Now normally I’d hit the off switch, roll over, go back to sleep and get woken up by my furry snooze button. After all my cat has learned that when my alarm clock goes off, I get up and she gets fed. So she head butts me until I emerge from my covers.

Today however my alarm clock wasn’t in reach. In fact nothing belonging to me was. It took me a moment to register the fact, as me and mornings normally go about as well as cats and water. Sitting up provided enough information to make me decide that this was all a dream and very shortly I would wake up again. This time on my very comfortable sofa.

The room itself was plastered in posters about the ‘Pokémon League,’ the alarm clock, which was still merrily buzzing away on the bedside table looked like a pokéball, there were very familiar clothes laid out for the room’s owner and on the end of the bed was a certain unmistakable red and white hat with a green ‘L’ on it.

It wasn’t until I managed to work out how to shut up the beepy thing that I took a proper look at myself.

Then, embarrassingly, I screamed.

On the one hand I at least sounded like a girl, even if the body I was in was male. On the other it brought someone running. They burst through the door, panic on their fact, only for the sight of them to cause me to flee under the blanket.

Delia Ketchum. The woman who had entered the room was Delia Ketchum.

So did that make me Ash?

Oh god I hoped not.

It was a fool’s hope as Delia settled on the bed and pulled the blanket shielding me away, watching me with a concern that should have been aimed at her son, not some imposter.

“Ash?” She asked, worry obvious, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, no, yes...” I didn’t know. If I was actually dreaming this was no big deal. I’d wake up soon and probably forget all about this. “I’m okay.” I finally sighed, knowing where I was supposed to be going and what I was supposed to be getting today if the plot continued its proper course, “I just realised I’m running late.”

It was a little white lie but it did the job. Delia took one look at the clock and yelped, shooting to her feet. “Right, right!” She shot over to the pile of clothes and shook them out, then grinned at me, “You don’t want to be last to choose.”

“Charmander all the way.” I grinned, though it was half-hearted. Charmander was my favourite Kanto starter, it always had been. I just remembered what Ash’s Charmeleon and Charizard had been like. I had theories about why they’d been like that, but still, getting chargrilled regularly enough that I should have first degree burns was something I could not bring up the energy to be enthusiastic about.

That and ever since watching the Celebi movie, I was convinced that no matter how early I got to the lab, Pikachu would be the only choice available. Professor Oak would want to preserve the timeline after all.

Delia seemed pleased by response though, obviously up until this point Charmander had been a favourite of Ash’s too. She shot out the door in order to let me get ready.

Getting dressed was not a fun affair. While I knew the outfit like the back of my hand, it had been the cosplay I had been going to wear after all, it took me a while to get over the blush I gained when changing underwear. This wasn’t fair. If I had to dream about the start of the Pokémon Anime, why couldn’t I have at least been a girl?

And worse I was ten. Ten! I hadn’t been ten in about fifteen years. I didn’t remember how to be ten.

Still I was up, washed, changed and ready to be out the door in about forty minutes. I had taken less before when getting ready for work when I was running late. However it’s a lot more difficult to be fast when you don’t know the layout of the house. Delia had ‘my’ backpack waiting for me as I rushed down the stairs, pulling my cap on and having to resist the urge to pull a ponytail I no longer hand through the hole at the back.

I admit I kind of zoned out on the whole, ‘I’m your mother and I love you, but it’s time for you to see the world’ speech she gave. She wasn’t my mum. My mum didn’t live in the Pokémon World. She lived in my world, the REAL world. Admittedly she’d probably give a similar speech and then burst into tears when she knew I wasn’t looking. I remembered being told about how emotional she had gotten when she had left me halfway across the country for university after all and I had been eighteen then.

I tuned back in to Radio Delia just in time for her to point out a brand new set of running shoes and wish me luck, before retreating into the kitchen.

It shouldn’t have taken me long to pull on my trainers, get out the door, get to the lab and pick up my starter Pokémon. It really shouldn’t. Except for one minor detail.

The Pallet Town in the games involves a grand total of four or five houses, the Pallet Town in the dream was much larger and I successfully managed to get lost.

In the end I arrived at the lab just in time to catch Gary’s gloating and him zooming away in a convertible. That he was driving. That still made no sense to me. The boy is ten. How does he have a driver’s licence? It hadn’t made any sense in the anime and it made no sense here.

Being late meant no Charmander, I didn’t even bother trying the pokéballs for Squirtle and Bulbasaur. There was no point. I was obviously going to get Pikachu. I didn’t mind, having Pikachu was kind of like having a ‘win button’ unless the plot demanded otherwise.

Sending the critter out was a delight. Ever since playing the games and watching the show I had dreamed of having real Pokémon and this was as close as I was ever going to get. Warily, remembering Pikachu’s first reaction to Ash, I reached out to touch the electric mouse.

And got my first taste of Thundershock for my troubles.

It took me a minute or two after the electricity died down for me to pull myself together. Ash made it look so easy on TV. That had hurt.

Wait. That had hurt...

Oh shit, this wasn’t dream. I was trapped in the Pokémon Anime.