The Corruption in Arth

***The Corruption in Arth*** is a fantasy story made by Isaiah Andrews. It was finished on **June 6, 2023**.

It was evening at 9:31 pm in Elkford, BC, and I was getting ready for bed as usual. I put on my favourite pajamas that were black and red, and said “eat sleep hockey.” I hopped onto my bed and stayed up a little while thinking about what my imagination was like for me next. I had that thought wrapped around my head for a long while before finally drifting off to sleep. It took a few minutes to finally settle in, and I felt the transfer between Earth and... what I was dreaming about.

I woke up suddenly, but not at my house. I was in a different bedroom. Things looked a bit different, and I got up and looked around. I walked around the room, and I could feel the floor beneath my feet. I had my socks on and the exact same pajamas, but I still could not understand my surroundings that easily. Then I heard something. I felt tiny bits of fluff on my leg, as if someone were rubbing themselves on me. That is what my cat Simon does whenever he gives me love. Except it was not Simon. I looked at what was rubbing on me, and I could not believe it. It was Vulpix, a young 6-year-old orange and brown fox staring at me with bulging cute hazel-coloured eyes.

“Yayah!!” She had a cute child-like voice, squealing at me. Yayah was a term of saying my name, Isaiah. She seemed extremely excited to see me. I wondered if I could pick her up. I did, and I felt her fluffiness all over my hands. Vulpix positioned her arms to stick out. She then tried reaching for me, so I brought her closer and she cuddled me. I could not believe how soft she was. Back home, I tried to roleplay her and pretend she was real, by cuddling a plushie of Vulpix and giving her a voice and personality. This Vulpix was real, and my interpretation of her was carried on.

“Vulpix?” I asked. I could hear myself clearly as if I were not dreaming.

“Yeah?” She responded, tilting her head slightly clockwise.

“Are...are you real? Is this real?” I suddenly started to question where I was again.

“Yeah! Everything is!” She emphasised her answer, and she reached out her brown paws for another cuddle. “I’m so happy you’re finally here with me! I’ve been waiting for you for so long, you would not believe it!”

I blushed. She had the exact same thoughts as what I pretended to give her. I put her down and tried to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. “Ouch!!” No? I wasn’t? Somehow, I was suddenly transported to my imagination, and all my surroundings and feelings of the objects and people were real.

“You okay?” Vulpix came up to me with worry on her face.

“I’m fine. I just need to get used to this.” I answered. It was so strange how this was beginning to feel like I am in a whole new world.

I left the bedroom at last and went downstairs to the living room. I can remember the layout of the area I was in and knew where everything was...as if...I was in a planet I made up, a planet remarkably like Earth, a planet...called Arth. I checked the time on the microwave when I got in the kitchen, and surprisingly it was 9:35 am. I felt confused once again. I fell asleep at 9:31 pm and got here at 9:31 am. Is my world 12 hours ahead or something, or is that just a coincidence? I decided it was normal and got a bowl and a box of cereal. I poured in milk, grabbed a spoon, and started eating. Then I heard faint thumping on the stairs. Vulpix came down to have her breakfast. She grabbed the same box of cereal as me, sat beside me, and started her breakfast.

“Hi,” I started speaking. Vulpix twitched her ear and tilted it toward me, then turned her head and looked at me.

“Hi.” She smiled. She spoke quieter than earlier.

I wondered if anyone else was here, then I saw a familiar figure laying on the couch asleep. I saw red and green stripes on its tail, with three diamond-shaped ends on it. I thought it was Flygon laying there, and he is another Pokémon I imagined. He is only 23 years old, and he usually gets up around 9:45, as so I thought. He moaned and mumbled while repositioning himself, and I saw his tail slightly move.

I ate the last spoonful of cereal in my bowl and tilted the bowl toward my mouth and gulped the remaining bits of milk. Then I put the bowl in the sink and rubbed my mouth to get the milk off. Vulpix finished hers as well.

I then checked the time, 9:39, and approached Flygon. I watched him, and he twitched a little bit. I stepped back but Vulpix rubbed Flygon’s tail end. He groaned and slowly got from sleeping to being awake. He stared at his tail and saw Vulpix rubbing it. Then he sensed my presence and went from being worn out to instantly shocked. He got up quickly and Vulpix collapsed suddenly when Flygon started swinging his tail side to side. Flygon’s jaw hung open, and I tried to close it for him.

Flygon was green and had a darker green stripe between his eyes. He had darker green ends on his four fingers and on his two feet. His pair of diamond-shaped wings spread out quickly, which looked like the ends of his tail. He had green eyes reflected from the kitchen light.

“Oh my god...Isaiah?!” He had a cheek-like voice and was talking loudly. He swung his arms open and wrapped them around me. Vulpix stared at us and smiled again. “We all missed you, buddy!”

“Thanks, Flygon, but where is everyone else?” I asked.

He stopped hugging me and responded. “Most of us are out somewhere, but Tito and Fennekin are outside playing with a ball.”

Tito and Fennekin? I thought.

Tito is a green-coloured cat with white tips on her fluff and paws and had a dark-green pattern on her face that was shaped like 4 leaves spreading out. Fennekin is a yellow-coloured fox with white around her black nose and single-fanged mouth and had orange furry flames coming out of her ear insides. She also had an orange tip on her tail that was shaped like a flower.

“Thanks,” I said, and I headed outside to find the two. I did not see them in front of the house, so I walked to the end and that is where I saw them. They noticed me and ran toward me, flinging the blue ball toward the nearby bushes. Fennekin was on her hind legs and Tito was on her fours. I had to deal with multiple cuddles from the Pokémon.

“Mraw!!” Tito mewed, and she was bulging her salmon-coloured eyes.

“Yay!” Fennekin cheered, and she bulged her fiery-orange eyes.

Fennekin felt warm like fresh spaghetti and soft like rabbits, and Tito felt like I was cuddling the grass.

“Hi girls,” I said, “yes, I’m happy to see you both too.”

They both stopped hugging, and both sat down the same way as a cat, except foxes sit like this as well. They both wagged their tails in happiness.

“Where have you been?” Fennekin asked. Her ears tilted a bit upward.

“I’ve been, uhm,” I was stumping on words, because I have been back in Earth, and seeing the landscape differently was a whole different story, “well, it’s hard to tell.”

“That okay,” said Tito reasonably. She understood my whereabouts, and Fennekin did too.

I noticed I was still wearing my pajamas, so I went back inside, with Tito and Fennekin behind me following my lead. I went upstairs and got changed into my usual green shirt and black pants. Then, I went back downstairs and exited the house again.

Tito still followed me, but then I turned to her and explained, “Tito, I got to go places with Vulpix, but I’ll see you later, I hope!”

Tito understood and closed the door. I heard her faintly call for Vulpix. She then came with a bright smile and a high-pitched squeal to express her cuteness. I pet Vulpix’s bright pink curly hair and then pet her six fluffy curled bright pink tails, and I started to move forwards.

On Hailsey Road, which was the home address of where I lived in Arth, it took a while to head to the main part of town, turning right twice and left once just to get there. I saw the amazing landscape in the town of Sortles, and it was nice to return. Once me and Vulpix got to the main part of town, my eyes locked on another familiar figure. An iron grey and bright golden yellow robot furry with a yellow pixelated face on a black visor. I approached him and he turned to me, putting a smile on his 8-bit-like face. I knew Battery very well, and he had a big yellow furry tail shaped like Fennekin’s tail, without the flower shaped tip at the end.

“Hi Isaiah!” Battery said. His voice had the Gameboy Advance audio chip, and his speakers were coming out of his chest, but his fur was covering it even if the audio is still clear.

“Hey Battery, me and Vulpix were just strolling around town.”

“Sounds cool, I haven’t seen you for a while though, are you okay? What’s been causing your absence?”

“Stuff,” I answered. It was hard to explain after being on Earth for my whole life, “just stuff.”

“That’s reasonable.” Battery then came closer, pat my shoulder, and gave a suggestion. “I could get you back on your roots if you think you aren’t used to the landscape like you used to.”

“Okay,” I took Battery’s hand while Vulpix took mine, and we walked together. I then became unsure of what day it was. I remember entering the world when it was May 15. I turned to Battery, “hey, what day is it?”

Battery was glad to help me by tapping his visor and showing the date and time, with a text to speech voice reading aloud, “May 16, 2023, 10:02am.”

We continued to talk together for the next few minutes, and during that time he introduced me to the Pokémon Transformation Centre again. I peeked inside but Dillan was not there. Dillan usually wears a white shirt with a Pokéball on it and has black swept hair with a medium-large bushy full beard. He was another human being like me, so this world has plenty of humans around.

“Where’s Dillan?” I asked.

“He’s busy training his Jigglypuff,” Battery mentioned, “I knew that because he told me before he left.”

I knew Dillan’s Jigglypuff named J-Puff, and he had bluer eyes while the wild Jigglypuff have teal-coloured eyes. This makes J-Puff a little more special.

Battery then showed me more of the town, but he then got interrupted suddenly. His face instantly changed into an anxiety expression. I felt troubled watching Battery, then I realized what happened. His face kept glitching out strangely, and he put his twitching hands on the sides of his head, trembling and freaking out, but his voice was losing some sort of signal. Then I finally remembered, Battery just got corrupted again. I stood back and protected Vulpix from further harm. Battery then lost power and collapsed like a ragdoll onto the grassy floor. Vulpix then squealed in terrorization. I felt worried but I knew this event before.

Battery’s body powered up again, but he lit up with red LED lights on his face instead of yellow. He snickered in a recognizable voice, because I also knew this person was Discharge, Battery’s arch-nemesis. If Battery were in his own story as a protagonist, Discharge would have been the antagonist.

“Well, dang it,” I exclaimed, looking at the evil-like expression running on Discharge’s face, “you’re troubling the town again, aren’t you?”

“I don’t share data with enemies like you,” he responded bitterly, “besides, you shouldn’t even be here.” He stood tall and cross his arms, rolling his pixel eyes back.

“Why do you even do this to an innocent protogen?!” I shouted. He was getting in my nervous system.

“Why ask?”

I got heated and stormed off. I saw that Vulpix was sweating from the obscene problem with horror on her face and followed me. Discharge bent his legs slightly and turned to feel the bushy tail behind him.

I returned home almost slamming the door, but Vulpix caught it and slowly closed it without causing a bigger situation. Flygon, Tito, and Fennekin saw me have a negative attitude, and they tried helping me out by sitting beside me on the couch. Tito cutely hopped onto my lap and purred while expressing her begging-like look.

“Murrow?” Tito mewed, “What happen?”

“We can help you with anything, Isaiah,” said Fennekin.

Vulpix and Flygon stayed silent but still listened.

I started sobbing, “Battery’s gone again, and he was touring me. It was an inconvenient time...”

Vulpix cried out, “He glitched out and it was freaky!!” She then started balling out.

Fennekin saw us looking upset. “What can we do to help out?” She asked.

It took me a while to answer. “Guys, go grab the other members, we need to go all hands-on deck and save Battery from this corruption!”

They understood that the problem was inconvenient, and Flygon called the other four that were out.

About ten minutes later, the rest of the group came inside and were surprised with both Vulpix’s and my depressing looks. The other four members names were Vaporeon, Taya, Katie, and Anala.

Vaporeon is a blue teal coloured Pokémon with yellow fins as ears and one on top of his head with a navy-blue stroke on top. He had a long aquatic dolphin-shaped tail with navy blue spikes on the back. Taya is not a Pokémon and is a Kwami from another world called Perilya, and she invited all her Kwami friends to live in Qualidan. She is light green with a collar and bell combo and has black stripes on her forehead and knees.

Katie is a new blue and white Dratini Pokémon with arms and legs, and she has fuchsia-coloured eyes. She also has white and light blue wing-like ears. Anala is also a new member of the team, as a red orange Flareon with gazing violet-coloured eyes. Altogether, we formed the team everyone knows, the Poképals!

“Oh no, I hate those looks,” Anala fretted. She put one of her paws on her cheek.

“Yeah,” Flygon replied, “we got a problem.”

I stood up. “Battery’s undergone corruption again, and all of us together need to stop Discharge from any further harm!” The eight others agreed to my notification.

Taya the Kwami hovered over, landed on the ground, and walked a few steps closer to me. “Is there a plan on how we’ll stop him?” She asked.

“Well, do what you think is best for this. Anything that will distract him and defeat him for the last time.”

Taya flew up and hovered over back where she originally stood. Then I opened the door to the outside and everyone followed. Flygon requested some of us took a ride onto him. Tito, Vulpix, Fennekin and I hopped on, then Katie joined us, and Taya flew with us, while Anala and Vaporeon stayed on the ground sprinting as fast as they could.

We approached our destination and Discharge was still there in the same spot as where we last saw him. He saw us and was unamused.

“Down there!” I demanded. “Go!”

Flygon obeyed and flew downwards. Taya flew behind him. We landed and got in our stances. Tito and Fennekin took the front.

“I said leave me alone!!” Discharge shouted.

“Not until you stop corrupting my friend!” I answered furiously.

I gave them the signal to start using their attacks. Vaporeon used Vapor Wave and it splashed onto Discharge, making him slightly get electrocuted. Vulpix used her big Blaze and Anala created a fiery sword to slash at Discharge.

He started getting hazy, but wasn’t giving up, so more of my team members used attacks. Tito used her Quick Attack, Taya tried ringing her bell to stun him, Flygon proceeded to use Sand Gust, and Fennekin started her fireball. These moves they’re pulling off can either have great effectiveness or no effect, and unfortunately Taya’s stun attack was no effect, even if it was successful one time when she fought a feisty Jolteon.

Me and Katie have not attacked yet, and Katie wouldn’t know what to do right away even if she experienced battling another Pokémon before.

“Uhh...” She was hesitating and could not figure out a move that would work.

I tried helping her out. “Dragon Breath?” I asked in a low tone so Discharge could not hear. Katie nodded and tried to use the move I suggested. It came out right and it was amazingly effective!

Finally, it was my turn. Discharge was losing power and was a bit glitchy. I winded up my fist and a ball of light with sparks coming out appeared, and I felt so strong I swung my fist very quickly it flung him farther than the others’ attacks. He was finally defeated.

I panted but still celebrated with my team for a successful victory. Discharge lost signal and the LED lights returned to yellow. Battery was back! He slowly got up and was dizzy, but I was also dizzy and managed to hug him before fainting and collapsing. Battery fainted and fell with me as well.

“Well, my sword can be powerful, right?” Anala thought.

“Yeah, I guess if you use it once,” Taya remarked.

“Guys?” Vulpix called. “Yayah and Battery fell!”

The Poképals went over toward us. I was still able to see and hear them, but my vision was blurry even with my glasses on. I wasted my whole energy for that single attack. I felt Vulpix’s paw rubbing on my belly. She lifted my shirt to touch there. Then I felt her cuddle my cheek again for 10 seconds before she stopped. Then I felt a different fluffy feeling, and purring. It was Tito, and I saw bits of green to give me hints.

A bit later, I passed out, then I woke up again to a different face not on the team. A Sylveon healed me, but it wasn’t just any Sylveon. It was a Sylveon from another team I know, the Buddies.

“There,” she said in a Goiky accent, “all done! You’re good as new again!”

Sylveon’s accent originates from Battle for Dream Island but is also an accent commonly used in another Pokémon world she came from called Silveria.

I got up and shook hands with her. “Thanks!” Battery then shook hands with her after. It was a good reason to get healed after an intense battle.

Then, I turned to Battery. “We need to figure out how to stop getting you corrupted all the time.”

“Yeah...maybe I should install a virus protection software, but I apparently don’t know how to do that.”

“Well,” I thought, “let me try accessing your screen and see if I could help.”

Battery turned on his phone screen on his chest and I navigated through the store. I searched for “virus protection software” and looked inside the apps to see which one would be perfect for him. I found one called “Pro-T” and it had the highest rating, so I installed it into Battery’s database.

Battery felt the installation in his chest vibrating. “Is it working? Are you installing something?” He asked.

“Yes,” I responded, “and this should be the one that will protect you forever.”