Warrior Pokemon Ch 1- The Storm

Lightning flashed dangerously close to a ship that was braving the storm. Rain heavily pelted the top of it and the waves tossed it mercilously around. Aboard the ship were many people clinging on for dear life, some of the many being Ash and his friends.

The captain had already been thrown overboard by the storm, along with many of the crew. Brock sprang to the rescue and did what he could to steer the ship safely through the storm.

A young boy with teal blue hair and glasses suddenly flew through the air and was grabbed by a gloved hand.

"May!" Max cried, his eyes nearly tearing up.

"Max!" May responded with equally emotional eyes as she held onto his hand and a beam at the same time to stop them both from flying.

"Hold on tight Pikachu." Ash said through gritted teeth as he saw his buddy fighting to hold onto his shoulder.

"Azurill! No!" Misty cried and ran after her water Pokemon who was being carried away by the wind. She leaped up and caught it, only to be carried by the wind herself. "AHHHHH!"

"Misty!" Ash abandoned his pole and leaped up to grab Misty's hand, his feet succeeding in hitting the ground again.

"Ash!" Misty gasped, gripping Azurill with one hand and Ash's hand with her other.

"Everyone!" Brock cried as he saw their turmoil. How would they make it out of this?

Suddenly a bright light could be seen below the surface of the raging black water that seemed to be glowing eyes and designs on a body. A foreign and echoing roar filled the air before a bright light overtook the group and they all passed out.

***

Ash slowly opened his eyes to serene silence. His vision was slightly blurry but when it cleared, he saw greenery all around him. The ship and the storm was nowhere in sight, making Ash wonder if they had landed on a beach or something. But as he looked around, he saw that he was in some sort of cave covered with what looked like moss. As he searched his surroundings, he noticed a brown heap of fur lying somewhere nearby him.

Standing up, he noticed that he seemed way shorter than usual and as he walked, he was clumsy on his feet. 'What's wrong with me?'  We wondered and instinctively looked down at his feet. He leaped back in shock at what he saw. "PAWS?!" He gasped in shock. "Why in Mew's name do I have PAWS?!"

The brown heap stirred at his outburst and looked at him with her dazzling sapphire eyes. "Huh?" She mumbled sleepily, slowly getting up.

Ash noticed that this brown heap was actually a 'Cat?!' Regular animals were exceedingly rare in the Pokemon world and here before him was a regular cat. But she looked very familiar. She was brown with a black spot on the bridge of her nose and had one extremely long tuft of fur on each side under her ears that reminded Ash of May's hair.

The cat suddenly jumped up and stared at Ash in surprise before looking around the cave in a panic. "Wh-where am I?! Where is everyone?!" She cried in a panic with a strikingly familiar voice.

"Whoa…" Ash muttered as he stared at the cat like she had two heads. "I never knew that cats could talk."

She glanced at him in surprise. "Cats can't talk! I was wondering how YOU were able to!"

"Well I'M not a cat!" Ash spat.

"Neither am I!" The cat responded.

The two stared at each other in utter confusion until the cat's blue eyes lit up in realization.

"W-wait a minute! That voice! A-Ash, is that you?!" She gasped.

Ash blinked. "Yeah, I'm Ash. But how do you know my name?"

"It's me, May. Don't you recognize me?"

Ash stared at her in shock. "I thought you seemed familiar… But why are you a cat?"

"That's what I was about to ask YOU!"

"But… I'm NOT a cat." Ash muttered, even more confused then before.

"Yes you are, and you're…" She smirked. "Fluffy."

"What? What do you mean I'm 'fluffy'?" Ash stared at her dumbfounded.

May laughed. "Exactly that. You are a ball of black fluff. If it wasn't you in that body, I'd be squeezing the life out of you because you're so adorable!"

"Wha-?!" Ash yelled, blushing under his fur in embarrassment. "I'm not supposed to be adorable! I'm training to be a Pokemon Master! I can't be a fluffy, adoable Pokemon Master!" He spat in exasperation.

May snickered softly. "You're adorable to Misty…"

"WHAT?!" Ash yelled.

"Nothing, nothing. We have more important matters to worry about like why you're a cat." May waved a paw in dismissal.

"And why you're a cat too…" Ash pointed out.

May stopped and looked at her paw, freezing at the realization. "I'm a cat…" She muttered. She ran a paw over her hair tufts under her ears before starting to bat at them slightly.

While May was stuck in her own world of realization, Ash was twisting and turning trying to get a look at himself, losing his balance and tumbling to his side in the process.

"This is horrible!" May wailed suddenly.

"Yeah, I know… We're both cats." Ash muttered.

"No, really. This is horrible!" May repeated as she was batting her own hair with her paws. "Being a cat makes me want to play with my own hair!"

Ash chuckled with a sweat drop. "So how-"

"I'M A CAT!!!" May wailed at the top of her lungs, making Ash leap up about 5 feet with fur fluffed out more than it already was.

"C-Calm down May!" Ash said.

She glared at him. "Don't tell me to calm down! We don't know where we are, we don't know where everyone else is, we somehow turned into cats and…" She suddenly started looking around in more of a panic. "My Pokeballs are gone!!!"

"Huh?!" Now it was Ash's turn to panic. "My Pokeballs are gone too!!!" Ash cried as he searched frantically around the cave. "Pikachu?! PIKACHU!!!" He cried at the top of his lungs, this time making May's fur fluff out.

"What's going on here?!" A deep voice growled.

They turned around to see a humongous cat at the mouth of the cave, glaring at them with eyes cold enough to send a chill down your spine.

They stared up at him, speechless with shock.

"Come on you two. It's time for the Dawn Patrol. Get your lazy rumps out here." And with that, he withdrew from the cave.

The two exchanged glances.

"It looks like we're not the only cats…" Ash muttered, the light bulb above his head staring to light up slightly.

"D-did you know him?!" May asked, her eyes huge and she was trembling slightly.

"Huh? No… He didn't seem like anyone I know." Ash pondered. "Unless it was Paul or something…"

May shuddered. "You told me about Paul… I never knew he was so scary."

Ash shrugged. "He's not really scary, he's just a jerk."

"Stop sitting around chattering like starlings and get out here!" The cat's annoyed voice called from outside the cave.

Ash blinked. "Did he just call us Starly?!"

May shrugged and cautiously crept out of the cave with Ash following.

***

As the two exited the cave into the sunlight, their jaws gaped at the sight.

Everywhere you looked in the sandy clearing there were cats of all sizes and colors. Some were walking around, some laying together grooming one another, some eating meat that came from a pile in the center. The clearing was surrounded by cliff faces that closed them in and all around the wall were dens made out of various materials such as brambles and even a fallen tree trunk.

"Ash… I don't think we're in Kanto anymore…" May mused breathlessly.

"No kidding." Ash agreed.

"I think I'd be glad Pikachu isn't here if I were you." May said with a slight nervous chuckle.

"Why's that?" Ash blinked at her densely.

She gestured with a nod of her head toward the pile of prey laying in the center of the camp. "This is a world of cats… I don't think that a Pikachu would do so well here."

Ash cocked his head. "Why not?"

May face-pawed (Me: Lol. Facepalmed but cat style. ). "Think, Ash! Pikachu is a mouse and cats EAT mice!"

"Huh?" Ash blinked before his eyes grew in realization. "Oh! Uh, yeah… That wouldn't be good."

"AHHHHHHHH!!! This isn't logically possible!" A familiar voice cried as a small blue gray cat with a black dot on the bridge of his nose- like May had- ran into the clearing.

"I'd know that know-it-all voice anywhere!" May cried and ran to the cat. "Max! Max, is that you?!"

"May?!" Max asked in shock and looked up at her, his brown eyes gleaming. "How is this happening?!"

"I don't know." May shrugged. "Me and Ash are trying to figure that out too."

"Ash?" Max looked past May to look at him. "Whoa Ash! Why are you so fluffy?!"

Ash gave him a death glare. "For Mew's sake! I am NOT fluffy!"

Ignoring him, Max continued panicking. "So I'm not the ONLY one who's a cat… I wonder who else is like this. How did we get like this in the first place?!"

"I dunno." May shrugged and then smirked at her little brother. "You should be happy about this though."

"Huh?" Max blinked up at his sister. "Why should I be happy about becoming a cat?"

"Well, you don't need glasses anymore."

"That's right!" Max realized, pawing at his face as if feeling for glasses. "But I'd rather not be a cat still." He pouted.

"Beggers can't be choosers Max." May scolded.

"Max? Why do you keep calling your brother Max?" A random cat walked out of the den that Max had run out of and walked up to the group.

"Because that's his name…" May answered.

"No…" The cat gave her a weird look. "His name is Owlkit. You should know this Maypaw."

"OwlKIT?" Ash muttered in confusion.

"MayPAW?" Max looked at his paw.

"Geez, you cats act like you were born yesterday. Ashpaw, Maypaw, I believe you're expected to go on the Dawn Patrol today. The walk out of camp may do a world of good for your foggy minds." The cat said in a soothing, motherly voice.

They all stared at her with blank stares.

"AshPAW?" May muttered with a confused look at Ash.

"As for you, mister." She looked down at Max. "You need to come back into the den." She reached down at picked him up by the scruff.

"Hey! Put me down!" He whined and struggled in her grip. "I need to go explore and figure out what's going on!"

"You'll be an apprentice soon enough Owlkit," the cat murmured though his fur in her mouth. "You can explore then."

"But I wanna explore now!" Max protested as he was carried back into the den by the cat.

When they had gone, May stared at the ground in shock. "That's not our mother…" She said.

"Everyone seems to know us. It's almost like we've been here the whole time without realizing it." Ash realized.

"COME ON YOU TWO CHATTERING STARLINGS! HAVE YOU GOT BEES IN YOUR BRAIN?!" The humongous cat from before yelled to them with another bone chilling glare. Another cat stood next to him but she wasn't nearly as big as him.

"Now they called us Starly AND suggested that we have Combee in our brains." Ash muttered.

May rolled her eyes. "Let's go and see what they want us to do."

The two cats walked across the camp to the ones waiting at the entrance, although having difficulty getting used to walking with their new legs.

"About time!" The male cat said in exasperation. "I thought I'd be an elder by the time you two got up! Now let's go, we're patrolling Shadowclan's border today."

Ash glanced at May. "Shadowclan?"

"Don't ask me! I'm just confused as you are!" May retorted.

"What?! You two know what Shadowclan is! Don't play dumb." The cat spat.

The female nudged him. "Give them a break Nightshade, they DID just become apprentices yesterday."

"Why is he named after a Pokemon move?" Ash mumbled to no one in particular.

Nightshade rolled his eyes. "A moon old kit knows what Shadowclan is though. You cut them too much slack, Foxheart and they're not even your apprentices. Anyways, let's get going. We've wasted too much time here." Nightshade lead the way out through a tunnel woven in brambles, Foxheart following close behind.

Ash and May followed but were still confused out of their minds.

Right as Ash started to go through the tunnel, he was pulled back and a sharp pain overtook him. He looked toward the source of his pain to see a tuft of his long fur caught on a bramble. "Help! I'm stuck! I can't get free!" Ash struggled and wailed in a panic.

May looked back at him in shock but Nightshade just rolled his eyes.

"Stop wailing like a kit and stay still." The cat spat and ripped Ash free of the bramble a bit harsher than he would have liked, leaving the fur tuft behind on the bramble. "Every cat knows to walk in the center of the tunnel." Nightshade grumbled as he walked back to the front of the patrol.

Ash glared daggers at him and followed slowly.

May bounced up to Ash. "Well, if you keep getting caught on the brambles you won't have to worry about being fluffy anymore." She giggled.

Ignoring her, Ash followed the two larger cats out of the tunnel, being careful to avoid the brambles.

***

The four cats walked together through the forest at a brisk pace; Nighshade walking at the head of the patrol with Foxheart by his side and Ash and May trailing behind looking at the scenery.

It was as if they were looking at a forest for the first time. Being cats, their senses were amplified, making every sound more clear and every scent all the more enjoyable. They could even smell the distinguished scents of the two cats in front of them. Not to mention the fact that without shoes, they could feel the soft earth beneath their pads as they walked.

"I think I may come to enjoy this!" May cheered, her voice breaking off as a rumbling sound came from her throat.

Ash laughed. "Did you just start purring May?"

She gave him a flustered look. "Shut up! I can't help it."

Ash laughed and accidentally let out a mrrow in the middle of it.

The two stared at each other for a moment before bursting out laughing.

Nightshade rolled his eyes at the two. "They're going to scare away all the prey in the forest with how much noise they're making." He grumbled.

A growling sound suddenly filled the air, followed by a groan. Nightshade and Foxheart turned to see Ash with a disgruntled look on his face. "I'm hungry…" He complained.

"So am I…" May chimed in.

"This isn't a hunting patrol but we may be able to catch something on the way back from Shadowclan. Then you can eat when we return to camp." Foxheart said.

"Can't we eat NOW?!" Ash complained.

"The Warrior Code won't let us do that. Didn't you get taught that in the nursery?" Foxheart asked with narrowed eyes.

"Huh?" Ash asked.

"Shh." Nightshade said sharply and raised his tail for silence. "I smell something."

Foxheart lifted her head and sniffed the air. "Shadowclan." She bristled.

Ash and May mimicked the other cats. "There's so many scents that I can't tell which one they're talking about…" May sighed.

"We aren't even close to their border yet so they must be intruding." Nightshade bristled and bared his fangs. "Let's go." He broke into a run with Foxheart hard on his paws.

Ash and May exchanged confused glances before following as fast as they could.

***

Foxheart and Nightshade stopped running and crouched behind a bush, slowly and stealthily creeping under it. May arrived next, getting a little used to moving around on her new cat paws with the occasional tripping. Ash then FINALLY arrived a significant amount of time after May. He was breathing heavily and his fur had pieces of twigs, moss and dirt ensnared in it from the multiple times that he tripped.

"This… is getting annoying…" Ash grumbled breathlessly.

May smirked at him and opened her mouth to say something but after receiving a look from him that dared her to speak, she closed it again.

May just smiled her bubbly smile and followed the older cats under the bush.

Ash started to follow but didn't get very far as his fur got caught again. "Argh! Stupid long fur!" He spat in irritance, receiving a sharp look from Nightshade.

"Be quiet!"

Ash grumbled softly as he tugged on his fur with his paws to get it unhooked.

The four cats hid under the bush and watched as a patrol of 3 strange smelling cats came into view.  

"Ow! How does Thunderclan even move through all of this?" One of the cats spat as he tripped on a bramble.

"They probably ask the same question about our marshes." The other cat smirked.

"Who cares what that stupid clan thinks?" The third cat spat. He was smaller than the other two- about Ash and May's size- and almost looked like he had purple fur with dark eyes. His voice sounded familiar as well.

"That almost sounds like Paul…" Ash muttered.

"Lighten up Coldpaw." The smirking cat said as they continued walking.

"Nope, it can't be him. They didn't say 'Paulpaw'." Ash answered himself, starting to see the pattern of the 'paws'.

"Well Max was named 'Owlkit' remember? I guess some names just change even though our's didn't." May answered him.

"Be quiet!" Nightshade hissed again and the two shut up instantly.

Foxheart glanced at Nightshade swiftly, crouching and tensing her muscles before glancing at Ash and May. "You two stay here and watch us since you've had no battle training yet. If we need help we'll tell you to run and get it."

"I don't think we'll need help with just two warriors and an apprentice…" Nightshade mumbled.

"I've had battle training!" Ash protested, looking insulted.

"She's probably talking about cat battle training, not Pokemon." May pointed out softly.

"Oh yeah…" Ash realized.

Foxheart just gave them a weird look before the two older cats shared another glance and then both leaped out simultaneously, yowling battle cries.

Ash and May just stayed in the bush and watched in shock.

Nightshade and Foxheart leaped in front of the patrol. "What are you doing on Thunderclan territory?!" Nightshade snarled.

'So we live in Thunderclan and Paul is in Shadowclan…' Ash made a mental note as he tried to absorb everything.

"Just taking a nice stroll and wondering when you lazy tree dwellers would patrol the border. We even had time to catch a thrush or two. Disgusting things… Who would want to munch on feathers?" The tom who had tripped on the brambles said coyly.

"Look who's talking, you crow-food eaters! Go back to where you belong!" Nightshade spat, unsheathing his claws.

"Make us." The tom snorted.

With that, Nightshade yowled and leaped into the tom, bowling him over with his larger size and battering him with his claws.

Foxheart jumped into action and started clawing and biting at the other cat.

Paul just stood away from the battle a few feet and stared on with emotionless eyes. "All of them are weaklings." He growled.

Nightshade slashed at the cat he was attacking and a little blood landed in front of the bush where a horrified Ash and May were sitting.

"A-Ash? ….Paw?" May whimpered slightly, her large eyes glued to the horrible scene before them.

"Y-yeah May? …Paw. Geez, it's gonna be hard to get used to calling you guys those names." Ash muttered.

"Th-this is horrible!" May gasped.

"I know! I've never seen any Pokemon battles get THIS violent!" Ash added.

"We have to find everyone and get out of here as soon as we can." May said.

"Yeah, but how?" Ash asked.

Neither of them had an answer for that. All they could do was stare at the battle before them and wonder how in Mew's name they would turn back into humans.