Team Fox Force

Chapter 1: A Nickit in a Sticky Wicket

The sun rose faintly over the sprawling meadows below, the sound of Nincada still present as the calls of Pidgey and Starly could be heard as well. A particularly bright beam of light trickled down to the surface, where it slowly stirred awake one particular creature sleeping in the grass.

“Ah! Too bright!” He yelped to himself as he waved in front of his eyes to shield from the rays of the sun. With a low groan, he began to come to his senses and open his eyes naturally.

When he was finally able to see what was in front of him, he saw not a hand waving, but something else entirely. It was hard to tell at first because of the minor case of double vision, but it came more and more into focus by the second until it was unmistakable. It was a paw.

“Huh?” He examined the paw more closely. It was brown and connected to an orange foreleg. Taking a further look, he had another identical brown paw and orange foreleg on the other side.

“My hands! What happened to my hands?!” He shouted aloud. Now sent into a panic, he desperately searched for a method of seeing himself. With a little bit of stumbling, he had located a nearby creek and clumsily wobbled over to it, and what he saw made him take a long, hard look.

What was he looking at? His reflection. But it wasn't the reflection of a human, no. It appeared to be something else entirely. He saw that he had orange fur, black spots around his eyes that looked like a mask, thick, fluffy tufts of fur on his cheeks, long, pointy, brown ears, white fur down his chest and tummy, and to top it all off, a large, thick tail almost about as big as his whole body, orange with a wide, brown, frilly tip. To experiment, he moved the tail around. While he wasn't sure what muscles to move or how, with some effort, he got it swishing it from side to side, verifying that, yes, it was his tail.

“That's me? That's what I look like?” He uttered in disbelief. His eyes widened at the realization, being visible in the reflection as well, the reality of his situation sinking in like a weight thrown into the ocean.

“I… I'm a Nickit. I've turned into a Nickit.”

Distressed to the point of near hysteria, he looked around to get a feel for his surroundings. He seemed to be a lush meadow, some trees in the distance beyond the creek and a few flowers and bushes scattered about, yet nothing looked familiar to him.

“Where am I? Where was I? Who am I? I don't know! I can't remember! What's going on?!”

Practically hyperventilating, he closed his eyes and had a look of strain on his face as he tried to recall anything that happened before this. However, he regrettably couldn't remember a thing.

“This is all wrong! I wanna go home! Wait, was I happy at home? Did I even have a home? Ugh, I can't remember that, either!”

Unable to think of any course of action, he did the only thing that came to mind; run. Run away and look for something, anything, that would jog his memory.

Unfortunately, he hadn't accounted for the fact that he hadn't fully adjusted to walking on four legs, and soon enough, he stumbled over and fell down onto his white, fuzzy tummy.

“Ouch!” He cried out upon impact, the pain making his head spin a bit.

“Great. Just great. I can't remember anything, and I can't even walk properly.”

Feeling hopeless and defeated, he looked down to the ground, tears welling up in his eyes. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this situation, or even survive.

As if he didn't already have enough to worry about, a chilling wind blew through the area, with a murky fog filling the air. Something about it seemed off… Ominous, even.