Battle Bonds: The Beginning (ch1)

At the very darkness of night, most people would find themselves sound asleep, all comfortable in their beds. Perhaps some may find themselves just sitting in bed with a good book, or playing games on their phones.

Well, I was doing none of that tonight.

"Run!" A sandy yellow and black striped crocodile-like creature took my arm in a hurry as we were being chased by a very large group of creatures like him.

Unfortunately for me, my cozy bed was furthest away as it possibly could have been.

Oh, you may be wondering who I am? Forgive me. This story is better telling from the beginning.
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If you've ever been to Colorado, you know that we have a lot of mountains that cover a big area of the state. My town is a fairly smallish town since the town is surrounded by a good number of mountains, there's not a lot of room to add on to the town. We're big enough to have a school here, however, but because of the rough terrain making traveling difficult, not a whole lot of kids attend.

It was a busy day at my school as usual. I was packing up my gear and getting ready to head home for the day. I was dressed in a dark blue hoodie with light blue jeans from the waist down. My feet were covered in white ankle socks with black and white sneakers. My long blonde hair was tied up into a ponytail with a red band holding it up.

As the school day was ending for the weekend, I found myself at my locker that day, just packing up my books and getting ready to leave. I was super excited for getting to relax after a full week of homework and tests stressing me the days prior. But now I'm a free woman!

I had just finished getting my stuff and shut the door to my locker. I turned to leave, when I was approached by a brunette with long straight hair, wearing a purple t-shirt with dark blue jeans.

"Hey, Seren. What's up?" The girl smiled, looking as cheerful as ever.

"Nothing much, Ericka. I'm just packing up and getting ready to go home. How about you?" I smiled back at her as I threw my backpack over my shoulders.

Ericka was probably my best friend in the world. She was somewhat of a girly-girl, but also had a tomboyish side to her, like me. She liked to be fashionable and loved to shop, while she and I could still play video games, which happened to be my favorite thing to do.

"I'm not up to much this weekend. Hey, do you want to come to my house for a sleepover?" Ericka eagerly asked with a grin on her face.

"Really? That would be great. What time should I come over?"

"How about five? My mom should have dinner ready for us soon after you get there." Ericka replied, almost jumping with excitement that I could be coming over.

"Alright. Let me just call my mom real quick..." I said as I reached into the pocket of my backpack to get my iphone.

As I grabbed my phone, I dialed the number for my family's home phone.

*ringing* *ringing* *ringing*

"Hello?" An older woman's voice spoke as she answered the phone.

"Hi Mom, it's Seren."

"Oh hi, Seren. What's going on?" She asked me curiously.

"Oh, my friend Ericka just invited me to a sleepover for the weekend. Do you think it would be okay if I went to her house at five?"

"Sure, that would work. But I'll have to pick you up around noon tomorrow for your cousin Jenny's party." She reminded me.

"Alright. Sound good."

"Okay, love you hon." My mom said, with faint kissing noises coming from the other end..

"Heh...Love you too. Later, Mom." I said as I hung up the phone and placed it in my backpack.

"Sounds like we're good to go." I grinned as I looked up at Ericka..

"Sweet! I can't wait. After dinner we're going to have to play some super smash bros." Ericka clapped her hands with excitement.

"You shouldn't have warned me. Now I have time to practice." I winked.

"Ha, you're on." She smirked.

I reached back for my phone and looked at the time.

"Oh shoot, we'd better hurry if we're going to catch the bus. It's gonna be here soon." I warned her.

"Then let's hurry!" Ericka said as she started to pick up pace.

With that, the two of us ran to catch the bus for home.
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Later in the day as I got home from school, I said hello to my mom before running upstairs to get ready for tonight.

"Heh..." I chuckled as I ran into my room and placed my school backpack on the floor.

My rooms was a slight mess like always. My bed was made, but not straight, with white and blue sheets covering the mattress. The walls of the room were painted a light shade of blue, with a window letting in light from across where the door was. There was a dresser across from the bed, and a door to my closet right next to it.

I ran quickly over to my dresser and opened the drawer.

"Now let's see...I'll need a change of clothes...my sleeping bag..." I ran towards the closet to grab my sleeping bag from the top shelf.

As I opened the door to my closet, I reached up to the shelf to try and get my sleeping bag. Only, because of how high the shelf was, the bag was out of my reach.

“Argh...c’mon! If you’ll just get down here, I’ll gladly-” I tried to argue with the sleeping bag, but as I poked it the bag started to fall.

“Uh oh-ah!” The sleeping bag had fallen from the shelf and onto my head.

“Well...at least it’s not on the shelf…” I picked up the bag before I rubbed my head.

I emptied my backpack and put the change of clothing in it, as well as anything else I might need.

"I'm probably gonna need my toothbrush too..."

I got up and walked out of my room towards the bathroom to get my things.

As I got into the bathroom, I turned on the light and turned to the sink. When I was collecting my things, I got a quick glance at myself in the mirror, and turned back to my stuff. However, as I looked away from the mirror, I noticed a slight change on my face.

"Huh?" I leaned in closer to the mirror curiously.

What I saw I couldn't believe. My eyes weren't their usual green color. They were almost a bright red color.

"H-How? How are my eyes this red?!" I looked into the mirror with disbelief.

"Hmm...Maybe my eye is just deciding to be red today? Or maybe I’m just imagining it...that has to be it..." I questioned, trying to make sense of it.

For now, all I could do was shrug it off and continue to pack. Maybe my eyes had just decided to change color. Sometimes eyes do that, right? But why would they be red like this?

I grabbed my things from the bathroom and headed back to my room to pack them.

As I threw stuff into the backpack, I glanced up on my dresser to the greninja plush sitting there.

"I see you sitting there, Buddy. Do you wanna come to the sleepover with me?" I grinned at the plush as I picked it up, using my hands to make it move.

"You're going to a sleepover? That sounds fun!" The plushie "said", as in I was speaking for it.

"Do you want to come, Buddy?" I smiled at him.

"Sure thing!" The plushie replied excitedly.

Before I met my friend Ericka, I didn't really have many friends. I had developed a quirk that I would make my plushies talk to me, as if they were living things.

"Alright, Buddy. Let me just get you all comfortable in the backpack." I said as I lifted the greninja plush and carried it to the backpack.

I placed Buddy into the backpack and started to walk away.

"Owww!" Buddy yelled.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I turned to him.

"You bent my leg, it huuuurts." Buddy whined.

"Oh! Sorry!" I said as I reached into the backpack and fixed Buddy's leg. "Better?" I asked.

"Better, thank you." Buddy thanked.

"Alright then. I'm going to play some games while I'm waiting for us to get going." I said to him.

"Okay." Buddy replied.

I walked over to my dresser where my 3ds had been sitting. I powered on the system and watched as the 3ds logo came on. As soon as the home menu came on, the game "Pokemon Sun" appeared on the screen. I selected the game and let it play. My starter for this game was a Decidueye, but the real star of my team is the special Ash-Greninja they give you from the special demo. Having been a huge fan of the xyz anime, Greninja had easily became my favorite. he's just so cool with how fast and strong he is.

Staring at the character in my game, I looked at the greninja in awe.

"Gekkouga..."
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As my mom drove me over to my friend's house, I couldn't help but begin to worry about my red eyes. I tried to avoid eye contact with my mom in hopes that she wouldn't see them. I don't know...would she notice? If she saw them would she know what to do about them? I've never heard of anyone's eyes changing color to red. Is it normal? Should I have someone look at them? What should I do?

"So are you looking forward to spending time with Ericka?" My mom asked.

"Uh, yeah. I'm excited." I replied while staring out the window, trying not to look at her.

"You made sure to pack everything, right? Change of clothing, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush..."

"Yeah, I packed them. It's a fine time to ask me though when we're like halfway to her house." I replied sarcastically.

"Just making sure." She chuckled.

It wasn't long before the car had arrived at Ericka's house.

"Now remember, I'm coming to pick you up at noon tomorrow for your cousin's birthday." My mom reminded me.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then." I said as I picked up my backpack and opened the car door.

"Have fun!" My mom smiled as she waved goodbye.

"Later mom." I replied to her as I shut the door and threw my backpack on my shoulders.

The house I was approaching was a light blue house with a red roof and door. It was a two story house, kind of like mine. I walked up to the front door and knocked on the door.

I heard some footsteps running from the other side of the door and watched as the door slowly opened. Soon after, I saw a head peek out from behind.

"Oh, hello Seren!" Ericka's mom greeted.

"Hi Mrs. Janet." I replied.

"Come on in, Ericka will be right down." She said, opening the door wider to let me come in.

"Thank you." I nodded as I walked inside before shutting the door behind me.

It wasn't long before I heard Ericka's feet pounding against the hardwood flooring of the stairs.

"Hey, Seren." Ericka cheerfully greeted me.

"Hey, Ericka. Ready for a fun night?"

"You bet! My mom's going to have dinner ready soon, and after that I was hoping we could play some super smash bros?"

"Sure, as long as you're prepared to lose." I smirked.

"As if." She playfully rolled her eyes.
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"Ha! Booom!" I cheered in victory as I watched a blonde warrior in a green tunic and green cap fly off the stage into oblivion.

"Darn it! That was such a close match!" My friend Ericka yelled in frustration as she threw down her controller.

After dinner we both found ourselves upstairs in my friend's room, playing the game Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U. She had been playing as a character called Link, while I was playing as a character called Zero Suit Samus.

"You were close, but I proved yet again that no one can beat me." I smirked at her.

"That's it. Let's play this again, let's do this!" She said as she started to get super hyped.

"Alright, you're on." I said as she picked up her controller and selected another fighter. I chose to do the same and picked another fighter called Sonic the Hedgehog.

"You know, it's funny." She chuckled.

"What do you mean?" I looked at her curiously.

"I mean you always go on about how Greninja's your favorite, yet I never see you play as him." She slightly chuckled..

"Oh I've tried him out a few times, but he just doesn't play that well in Smash Bros." I said as the game went to the "select a stage" screen.

"Yeah, but what if you actually had to fight like greninja someday? Huh?" She playfully pondered.

"Pfft, what?! Fight like Greninja? How on earth could that be possible?" I laughed out loud.

"I dunno. Just imagine though, getting to fight like him. You could be fast, and-"

"And people would be making jokes on how they should nerf me. Now come on, select a stage already!" I urged.

"Alright, alright. Geez, don't need to be a stick in the mud." She teased as she moved the joystick on her controller and selected a stage.

"So you think it'd be cool, huh?" I asked her curiously.

"Well, yeah. What's not to like about it?" She wondered.

"Hard to think of anything besides the nerfing joke. I mean your tongue would be wrapped around your head all the time. I dunno, it would just be so weird..." I said.

"Ha, true." She chuckled.

We began to start fighting on a stage called Final Destination.

"So you're talking about turning into a pokemon, what would you wanna be?" I asked Ericka as we played.

"Now that's a tough one..." She replied as she started to think. "Maybe something like Kirlia could be cool? Hard to say."

"Kirlia, huh? I could see that." I smiled slightly.

We continued to play the match until the stocks got down to 1v1. It was either me or Ericka who would claim victory.

"Ericka!" Ericka's mom called from the hall.

"Argh...hang on..." Ericka said as she pressed "pause" on her gamepad. "We're in here mom, what's up?"

Ericka's mom peeked her head out from behind the closed door.

"Do you girls have any idea what time it is? It's 10:30." She informed us.

"It's 10:30 already? I didn't check the time..." Ericka replied.

"You girls better get to bed soon. Seren's mom won't like it if Seren is tired for the party." Her mom reminded.

"Alright...We'll get ready for bed then..." I yawned.

"Good." Ericka's mom replied as she shut the door.

I turned to Ericka after hearing what her mom had to say.

"Want to finish this round first?" I asked.

"You're on." She smirked.
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It was late at night as I cuddled my plushie in my sleep. I can't remember how late it was, but I knew I wasn't in a normal area.

It appeared to be daytime where I was. I found myself on a dirt field in a stadium that had white markings on it.

"Where am I?" I asked myself.

I looked in front of me to see a small brown creature with a large green leaf sticking up from its head. I knew from my pokemon game knowledge that the creature was a pokemon called Nuzleaf.

"You're going down, Greninja." The Nuzleaf taunted.

"Greninja?"

I looked down and saw that I wasn't standing in this stadium as a human, but a pokemon. I was a tall blue frog-like pokemon with yellow webbing on my toes and fingers, and I had a short blue tail sticking out from behind me. My tongue was stretched out and wrapping around my neck.

"I'm the Greninja?!" I questioned.

"Razor leaf!" The Nuzleaf yelled as he swung the leaf on his head and shot out leaves at me.

"Hup!" I grunted as I jumped to dodge. "Water Shuriken!" I called as I reached to my thighs where a giant water shuriken was forming, getting bigger and bigger as I held my hands there. As soon as the shuriken grew large, I chucked it at the nuzleaf.

"Gah!" The nuzleaf grunted as the shuriken hit him, moving him from his spot a few inches.

"Ha! Is that all you got?" It taunted.

"Greeee..." I growled.

"Double team!" Nuzleaf started to glow white as multiple copies of himself surrounded me. Everywhere I looked I was surrounded by copies.

"Quick attack!" I called as white light started to trail behind me as I started to run towards the copies.

"Gekkou-!"

"Seren! Wake up!"

Huh?
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"Gyuh?" I was woken so suddenly from my dream as I saw Ericka shaking me awake.

"Argh...Ericka...What?" I stuttered as I was still waking up.

"Seren...something definitely isn't right..." She looked at me with worry as she grabbed my hand as if she wanted me to follow.

"Argh...What is it? Where are you taking me?" I asked as I rubbed my eyes.

"Come into the bathroom, you're not gonna believe what you'll see..." Ericka replied in a serious tone.

I reluctantly got out of my sleeping bag, with Buddy in one arm and my eye being rubbed by the other as I went to follow Ericka.

She brought me into a bathroom and flipped the light switch on. Still feeling groggy, it was kind of hard to keep my eyes open.

"Seren, look in the mirror." She instructed. I opened slowly opened my heavy eyes and a figure began to shape in the mirror. There was a girl standing there with short blue and red hair-wait, what?!

"What the-?!" I said as I was suddenly shocked awake from complete disbelief. I leaned closer to the mirror as I inspected my hair.

"What the heck?!" I began to panic.

"Do you know what it is? I saw your hair was shorter and more colorful, and it even looks a bit rubbery..." She observed.

I touched my hands to my head and began to feel my hair.

"Yeah...you're right..." I said as I kept running my fingers through the unimaginable rubbery hair.

"Do you think it could have been a prank someone did?" I asked, trying to figure out how this was possible.

"How should I know? That doesn't look like a normal prank...And who could have done it?" She asked, starting to panic a little.

"What should I do...? What can I do?" I questioned as anxiety began to get worse.

Ericka stood there in silence, staring at the hair. She didn't have an answer or a clue what was going on.

"...What can we possibly do? Nothing like this has scientifically happened...has it?"

"No...Not that I can remember..."

*knock knock*

*tap tap*

Ericka and I both looked up with fear as it seemed there was a knocking coming from the window.

"What was that?" I asked nervously.

"I don't know..." Ericka replied curiously as she walked up to the window.

She tried to look and see what was out there, but the glare from the light reflected off of the glass.

"Hrgh!" Ericka unlocked the window and stuck her head out.

Holding Buddy tightly in my arms, I started to take a few steps closer to the window as she looked around.

"I don't see any-AH!" Ericka screamed as she was knocked back by a gigantic red spider that came through the window and attacked.

"Ericka!" I yelled in worry as she fell.

"Gyyhh...AHHH! What is that thing?!" Ericka started to panic as she hurried to crawl away from the spider and closer to me.

I stared into the spider's eyes as it glared at me with an intense stare.

"You're one of them!" The spider hissed as his stare intensified.

"Huh? Did that thing just-AH!!" Everything seemed to happen so fast as the spider shot string from its mouth and tied me up with it.

"What's going on?!" I began to panic as the string tightened around my arms, preventing me from using them.

"Hrgh!" The massive spider opened its mouth and pounced at Ericka who was next to me.

"Gah! Get away from me!" Ericka shrieked as she nearly missed the spider's bite.

As the spider got close, he used his arms and grabbed the string that held me.

"You saw nothing!" The spider threatened Ericka.

"Ah!" I panicked as the spider spit out more string at me that stuck to the strings around me, as he used the string to tug me to the window.

“Hrgh!”

"Gah!" Fear spread throughout my body as The spider jumped out of the bathroom from the second story and landed on the ground, trying to drag me into the forest.

"SEREN!" Ericka called out as she got to the window.

"Hah!"

As if from out of nowhere, another large creature, a sandy beige and black striped bipedal crocodile jumped from behind the trees and bite the string that the spider was carrying me with.

This creature...isn't it a Krokorok? And is that one he's fighting...is that an Ariados?

"You! You’re not one of ours!" The spider hissed as it glared at the crocodile.

"Sorry, but you pokexstinctionists aren't getting this one on my watch!" The crocodile said as he stood in front of me, shielding me from the spider.

"Grr...Ha!" The Ariados then jumped forward and was about to attack the krokorok.

"Fire Fang!" The krokorok's fangs became heated by flames. As the Ariados got in range, he bit the Ariados and threw it around behind us, knocking him on the ground.

"Hrgh!" The Krokorok latched his fangs onto the strings that bound my arms and bit down to cut them, freeing me from them.

"C'mon, kid!" The Krokorok said as he took the arm that wasn't full and tried to urge me to run.

"Seren!" I looked up to the house where Ericka was standing. I then glance down at the Ariados that was starting to get back up.

"Kid! We don't have much time! We have to hurry!" The Krokorok urged.

I looked back at him with uncertainty, but slowly nodded in agreement.

I quickly looked back up to Ericka as the Krokorok tugged on my arm as my stance was slipping.

"C'mon!" He wasn't waiting any longer as he held a firmer grip on my arm and started to run.

"Where are we going?!" I asked him fearfully.

"We need to get you to safety! It's dangerous here!" He replied with haste.

I began to run with the pokemon, but couldn't help be keep looking back.

I gazed up to see Ericka who was watching helplessly from the window at the mess that was going on.

"Ericka! Don't worry about me! I'll find you again!" I yelled to her, trying to reassure her.

"Hah!" The Ariados got to his feet and glared at us.

"WOOOOOO!!!!" The Ariados let out a cry as we started to run.

Soon, the Ariados wasn't alone as two more pokemon came to his aid. A tall purple shark-like pokemon, if sharks had arms and legs, with fins on the arms. The second one was a yellow pokemon with black stripes that had electric sparks coming from its body.

"Uh oh! There's more of them!" I warned the Krokorok.

"Just keep going!" Krokorok replied as we kept running.

"Draco Meteor!" The land shark pokemon, Garchomp, released energy from his mouth that flew launched into the air like a firework that burst in the air. The meteors from the draco meteor rains down on the two of us.

"Gah!" I screamed as I watched the explosions all around me.

The meteors were aimed very well as they almost inches away from coming into contact with us.

“Who are those guys?! Why are they attacking us?!” I questioned the sandy crocodile.

“Kid there’s no time for questions. Go and keep running, I’ll catch up!” The Krokorok instructed.

I kept on running and running as I noticed Krokorok let go of my arm and was starting to slow down to face the three pokemon facing us.

"Stone edge!" Krokorok yelled as stones began to form in the air and rain down on the three pokemon.

"Gah!" The three pokemon gasped as the rocks came down on them.

The yellow pokemon with black stripes, Electabuzz, quickly jumped from rock to rock and started to get closer and closer.

"Thunder Punch!" Electabuzz yelled.

Before I knew it, I was hit in the face with a fist full of electricity. The punch was enough to knock me back and drop Buddy out of my arms.

I looked at my arms and noticed that Buddy was gone.

"Gah! Buddy!" I looked up in panic as I saw Buddy lying in front of the Electabuzz.

Without thinking, I ran towards the Electabuzz in attempt to rescue the plushie.

"KID! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Krokorok looked at me like I was insane.

"Elelebubububu!" Electabuzz was beginning to charge another thunderpunch, when I felt instincts kick in.

"Hah!" As my speed increased, I ran towards the electabuzz and used my feet to kick his legs and knock him to the ground.

I looked at the ground next to Electabuzz where Buddy was.

"Buddy..." I bent down to pick him up, feeling slight relief now that he was back in my arms.

"Hrgh!" The Electabuzz wasn't down and out. He reached an arm out for my leg and started charging another thunder punch.

“Ah!” I cried as I watched the electric type.

"CRUNCH!" The Krokorok yelled as he charged at the electabuzz and bit him hard.

"Gah!" The Electabuzz flinched as he was bit.

Krokorok then grabbed my arm.

"Run!" He instructed me.

I nodded as adrenaline rushed through my entire body from fear.

The two of us were running for our lives as we knew it.

As we were running, I looked down at Buddy in my arms.

"Never thought we'd be in this mess, huh, Buddy?" I thought.

"Alright kid, get behind me." Krokorok instructed.

"Stone edge!!!" Krokorok yelled as rocks began to form in the air again, only this time many more rocks formed than before.

"Thunderbolt!" The electabuzz, acting fast, shot electricity aimed directly at me.

"GAHHH!" I screamed loud as the electricity flowed throughout my entire body.

At that moment, everything began to feel dark. I could hear the faint sounds of rocks pounding against the ground as everything was turning dark.

Argh...My body...It's...Is this it? What is this feeling...

With only faint glimpses of everything around me, I could no longer feel my senses working.

Nope...I can't...I can't hold...on....

With my last glimpse of the world around me, I blacked out.

B-Buddy...S-someone...Gah...