Pokévengers - Repost - Chapter the First

[cashew]

So, the NaNo project spawned by this discussion from 2017 has been revived. I'm going to spend this year's NaNo trying to finish both Nowhere Past Morning and this Pokévengers-AU. We'll see how it goes. I think I'll end up switching back and forth between the works to keep things fresh for myself.

Poké-cast this chapter

Steve:
Shiny Braviary

Wanda:
Delphox

Natasha:
Shiny Aromatise

---

Pokévengers

Steve struggled toward wakefulness. He tried to recall the last thing that happened, but beyond darkness, there wasn't much else he could remember. It should alarm him more, but his head was foggy from the struggle, so he focused instead on the present and pried one lid open, squinting into the light.

And there was light. That was encouraging. However, the brightness was blinding, so Steve snapped his eyes shut against the light as a pounding pain zinged up to his temples. Taking another deep breath, he tried again, this time managing to get both lids to open just a slit, using his lashes to filter out the brightness as his eyes adjusted.

Ever so carefully, Steve shifted his head as feeling started to return to his extremities. Pushing up, he tried to orient himself. It took a few tries, but he was able to finally get himself into a semi-upright position, at which point, several things suddenly became apparent.

First, he realized his arms were no longer arms. The limbs trembled under his body weight and Steve would have thought the supersoldier serum has finally given out had he also not been aware of the ridiculous strength in his pectoral muscles supporting said limbs. Looking down, he saw that his arms were no longer covered in the sleeves of his uniform, but were instead covered from shoulder to tip with what can only be described as feathers. Red, white and blue feathers, yes, but nonetheless feathers.

Second, he noted that the weight distribution in his body has significantly shifted, which was a feeling that was more familiar than he'd like to admit. Only this time, instead of an upward shift in his center of gravity and becoming top-heavy from a spontaneous gain of 50 pounds of muscle in his shoulders, Steve was feeling a shift backwards. Joints were no longer in their usual places and his proprioception was telling him that there was much more mass behind his head than before.

Third, and most alarmingly, he was certain that he has the body of what can only be described as an avian creature. In his shock, his first instinct was to touch his face to check on the one body part that wasn't readily visible, and, instead of his hand, he reached with his foot instead. A foot that was now a talon and gripped in the talon was a hard beak-like object that replaced his nose and mouth.

Steve blinked again.

Shock, he thought as he tried to settle himself. He must have hit his head too hard and that was leading to all sorts of confused sensory inputs. Even the serum couldn't prevent a concussion, something he learned after getting too close to an exploding vehicle during the war. He's gotten much better at judging the distance he needs to stay out of concussive range in his tenure as an Avenger, but he still remembers what a concussion feels like. Specifically, he remembers the disorientation and how the words he spoke made no sense once they were out of his mouth. Hallucinations were also a part of that interesting experience, one which he wasn't keen to experience again.

Unfortunately, the hallucination hypothesis was disproved when he heard Wanda's voice calling out his name.

Raising his head, Steve looked toward in her direction, only to see a vulpine creature standing on its (her?) hind legs, holding a stick in one hand (paw?) and looking concerned.

"Steve," the fox-like creature said in Wanda's voice. Steve spent a moment to wonder how a canid maw formed words, but dismissed it as too much for his rattled mind to handle.

"Wanda?" he asked, his mouth shaping the words despite feeling the stiffness of the beak-like appendage that had replaced his mouth.

"Yes, Steve," the fox creature answered. So, Wanda, then.

His face must have made some kind of disbelieving expression, because Wanda continued, "I know, I couldn't believe it at first either, but it seems that we have turned into some sort of animal."

Well, that explains everything, Steve thought to himself. Aloud, he cawed out, "Is everyone else here?"

"No, unfortunately, I didn't find anyone except you," Wanda answered as her face took on a look of disappointment.

"Wait, how did you know it was me?"

It hadn't escaped him that he was no longer himself, more so than usual, and this time it was more drastic than merely gaining or losing a few pounds.

"I can read minds, remember?" Wanda reminded him, tapping her head with the paw that wasn't holding the stick. Steve looked wonderingly at it for a moment before shelving the thought for another day.

"Right," he agreed as he tried to reorient himself in this new setting. Turning his head around further than he could ever in his human body, Steve scanned the the surroundings.

It seemed that he was in a clearing of some sort, the grass unnaturally even and bright. A few paces from where he stood, there was a wall of trees that expanded into a thick forest. Amongst the densely packed trunks, there was a single path leading to the clearing, which disappeared from view in the shadow of the woods.

"Have you scouted the place out?" Steve asked as he turned his attention back to Wanda, a plan percolating in his mind. This was not unlike when he and the commandos were stuck behind enemy lines in Axis occupied Austria, with maybe slightly less hostility and cattle.

"No," Wanda responded.

She wrung her paws together while still clutching at the stick, which drew Steve's attention to the innocuous twig.

"I woke up and saw you," she continued, then paused to tap at her head again, indicating that she had read his mind. Steve nodded along and waited for her to go on.

"Anyway," she said, "I'm as clueless as you."

"Great," Steve muttered as he tested out his new legs. They supported his weight, but he wasn't sure how good they were in a hike. He was even more loathed to try flying, even if he was now in the body of some bird-creature.

Without much hope, Steve asked, "What are my chances at being able to fly?"

Wanda shrugged her vulpine shoulders in a helpless gesture and Steve sighed. He had to admit now might not be the best time to test his flying prowess. He's seen enough nature documentaries — the internet was very helpful in that regard — to know what kind of disasters awaited him if he failed and, though his teammates contest it, he's not actually suicidal.

Not without good reason, at least. And being lost in the woods while stuck in the body of a bird-creature was not yet reason enough to risk breaking his neck.

Suddenly, another thought struck him.

"Wanda," he asked, as he continued to test out his new limbs, "how much of your powers can you use?"

"What do you mean?" she queried back.

"Can you still move things with your mind?"

A look of intense concentration appeared over Wanda's new vulpine face, which then dissipated into frustration laced with a healthy dose of worry.

"I can't," she confirmed, looking back to Steve with wide eyes. "I can sense thought, but it's muddled and that's it."

Steve nodded in acknowledgment, though he was not surprised. He was more surprised that she had retained any of her powers at all.

"If you can't use your powers, then I probably don't have the supersoldier serum either," Steve mused aloud.

He was still stronger than he was before Project Rebirth, that much he could tell from how his muscles stretched with each wing flap, but there was no way to test the full extent of his strength. He also doubted there would be comparable benchmarks given his skeletal structure has changed from humanoid to avian.

Having confirmed that a) he was no longer hallucinating, b) was now a bird of some sort, while his friend has become a vulpine creature, and c) they are in a world whose rules resembled but were also unlike the rules which governed earth, Steve finally asked to sate his curiosity, "What's with the stick?"

He gestured at the stick in Wanda's paw with his beak.

Wanda stared blankly at him for a moment before looking down at the paw in question. Then, as though noticing the stick in her paw for the first time, she shook the limb..

"I can't let it go," she murmured, equal parts wonder and surprise. Then, as if to test the statement, she pulled at the twig with the opposing paw to no avail. The stick remained firmly in her paw's grasp.

"Okay, let's just leave it for now," Steve assured her. It wasn't a hindrance as far as he could tell and, until it becomes one, it was best to leave it be.

"Wherever we are," he continued as Wanda stopped pulling at the stick, "I'm going to assume things don't work the same way we're used to."

It wouldn't be the first time he was thrown head first into a world where nothing is the same anymore.

"Let's stick together and see if we can't figure out how this world works."

Plan made, they shuffled toward the only visible exit. First order of business was to find some food and shelter, then they can start trying to figure out how to get back home.

---

Sooner than expected, although not sooner than warranted, Steve and Wanda wandered across a cave opening in the side of a hill. Looking around and seeing no better option, Steve decided to use the cave as shelter for the night.

"I don't see any useable firewood," Steve told Wanda as he worked through his mental survival checklist. "And there's not enough brush for a lean-to. The cave will provide some shelter from the wind at night and if it starts raining, we'll stay dry. It'll be better if we had a light to get us further into the cave, but I'm good with just deep enough to keep the wind off us."

Steve checked to make sure Wanda was listening, then turned to lead the march into the cave. As they entered, Steve could feel a gentle breeze brushing past, the sign of a potential opening on the opposite side. But without a light source, it was dangerous to wander too deep away from the cave mouth.

Just as Steve was pondering their predicament, Wanda suddenly stopped in her footsteps. Turning to look at what distracted his companion, Steve saw Wanda wave the stick in a circle as though in a trance. A burst of light followed and the end of the wand lit up in a small glowing flame. Steve stared agog at the unexpected light, then turned his questioning gaze on Wanda.

"What was that?"

"I don't know," Wanda answered, snapping out of whatever gripped her. She gave the lit stick in her hand a puzzled look and tried to explain, "I felt what you thought."

She paused to tap her free paw against her head then continued, "Then I started to think how it would be nice to have fire and then..."

She trailed off and repeated the previous circling gesture. The flame moved in a circle with her.

"Poof," she finished with an impressive attempt at jazz hands without access to jointed digits or an opposable thumb.

"Try thinking of something else," Steve encouraged.

If this was another aspect of Wanda's power, then Steve wanted to know what its limits were. It would be handy if Wanda could manifest whatever she thought about. If nothing else, it would give them an edge as they tried to figure out the rest of this world.

However, after a moment of focus and struggling, Wanda shrugged at him helplessly. It seems that the only thing she was able to manifest was the fire at the end of her stick.

"Nothing," she informed him.

"How about a bigger fire?" Steve pushed.

Wanda's features became distant as she concentrated. Then, without warning, her maw opened and spewed from it a plume of fire. Steve squawked in shock and tried to dodge, his wings beating out of avian instinct. Without conscious thought, he rose into the air, hovering just slightly above Wanda's head. Then, coming back to herself, she closed her mouth.

The two looked disbelievingly at each other as Steve continued his hovering.

Another moment passed.

Steve finally stopped flapping his wings and dropped unceremoniously onto the ground.

"Well, now we know you can breathe fire and I can fly," Steve concluded.

Wanda just nodded, eyes still wide with disbelief.

Taking another moment to digest the new information, Steve lead them further into the cave, following the slight breeze towards what he hoped was a second opening on the other end of the cave.

However, it was only a few more paces when suddenly a large bee-like bug dropped in front of them with no warning. The creature was almost the size of a chicken, yet it was colored and shaped distinctly like a bee, if not for the two drills that replaced the bee's front legs. It was buzzing viciously and hovered just long enough to point the sharp end of its drill-shaped legs at Steve and Wanda.

Without pausing to consider the oddness of the creature or how he knew the stance was aggressive, Steve charged at the animal with his wings spread, flapping hard in the direction of attack. As he felt himself collide with the creature, his wings buffeted against the creature's body. Then Steve pushed himself back on his still beating wings and reoriented himself for a second assault.

That proved unnecessary, as the bee-like creature let out a tinny call and fell to the ground. Steve inched forward, wings still spread in preparation for aggression, only to find the creature lay unmoving on the ground.

"I think it fainted," Steve told Wanda as he circled slowly around the still body. He wasn't sure how he knew the creature wasn't dead, as it wasn't moving nor was there evidence of breathing, but he was fairly certain that the thing wasn't dead.

Edging closer to the unmoving body, he nudged it tentatively with one outstretched talon. The body rolled slightly, but otherwise gave no further response.

"Let's move before it wakes back up," Steve concluded as he ushered Wanda to hurry past the creature and deeper into the caves.

A few more paces and another creature appeared. This time, the creature had a rotund body with two exaggerated bat wings and a head that's almost the size of its body. It, like the bee creature before it, emanated a distinct sense of hostility.

"Are we being tracked?" Steve asked no one in particular as he backed up a few steps right into Wanda who was behind him. He stumbled a bit, but regained his footing as he flapped his wings, once again going airborne while Wanda circled around, her fire-lit stick in front of her, serving as a makeshift weapon.

Before they could make a move, the creature flew at them, face first and teeth exposed. Steve flapped his wings forcefully downward, swooping toward the cavern ceiling and only barely avoided braining himself against the hanging stalagmites. In the meantime, Wanda stood at her full height and opened her maw to release another plume of fire, which surrounded the bat thing in a ball before tapering off.

The bat creature responded by diving toward Wanda and Steve took the moment of distraction to propel his body towards the enemy. He slammed his body into the bat and they tumbled into the ground together. Rolling with the momentum, Steve brought his limbs close, then dug his talons into the creature's body, crushing the pelt before flinging himself away.

The body laid still on the ground.

"Do you think it's dead?" Wanda asked after a moment of silence.

"I don't know," Steve answered as he stood up, shaking the dust off of his wings. "I don't intend to find out either. Come on, let's go."

Once again taking the lead, Steve directed their small party into the depths of the cave.

---

Their journey continued in a similar manner as they walked. Every few paces a creature, usually one that resembled some small flying animal in shape but was magnitudes larger in size, would attack from nowhere. More than once, after hitting a dead end in the cave tunnels, they would backtrack only to meet up with the same enemies. Steve suspected that these creatures where managing to track their movements, but their motivations remained opaque. In his experience, wildlife didn't attack without provocation and they certainly don't throw themselves at targets that are visibly bigger.

Unfortunately, Steve had no working explanation for the odd behavior. However, since Wanda's flame continued to burn despite the extensive time they spent in the cave, Steve chose to press on. There was no reason to believe that environment outside the cave was any less hostile and the source of the gentle breeze still remained a mystery.

As they padded down yet another cave tunnel, Wanda suddenly froze. Steve also paused his movements and looked to her in askance.

"I feel someone else," Wanda informed him, eyes focused down the darkness of the tunnel. Steve nodded and waited for further explanation.

"I can sense it, coherent thought, not like the creatures that have been attacking us. It's human thought."

"Human," Steve repeated.

"Yes, I can't describe it well," Wanda confirmed. What passed for brows on her vulpine face furrowed as she concentrated on the extra-sensory input. "But the shape of it, it is similar to what I have felt before, in our world."

She fell silent after those words. The verbal acknowledgment of their peculiar circumstance and their foreign environment seem to inspire a renewed sense of discomfort, reminding them that their situation was far from normal with no reassurance of a return to normality.

After a lengthy bout of silent fretting, Steve decided, "Let's go see who it is."

It turns out, once they arrived at the tunnel's end, the presence Wanda detected was a small, fuzzy creature with hot pink fur that bore a shocking resemblance to a woman's powder brush. The skirt of purple fur that encased its bottom half gave the creature a shape that resembled a baroque perfume bottle.

Wanda gasped, "Natasha?"

Steve looked back and forth between Wanda and the now identified Natasha in astonishment. It was possible, even probable, that more of their friends landed in the same situation Steve and Wanda found themselves. Although Steve still could not recall what happened, the possibility that it was tied to their actions as superheroes was growing every more plausible.

Hoping that Natasha had retained more memories of the passing events, Steve asked, "Do you know how you got here?"

"Steve?" Natasha asked instead, clearly not believing her ears when Captain America's voice came out of a bird. When Steve nodded in confirmation, Natasha turned to Wanda and asked the same of her identity. Wanda, too, nodded.

Natasha was quick to school her astonished face back to its usual, albeit still foreign looking, mask.

"No, I don't remember much of anything, really," Natasha finally answered Steve's previous question. "But I was probably awake longer than you were."

"How do you know?"

A familiar sardonic expression appeared on Natasha's new face as Steve finished his question.

"It'll be easier to show you."

With that, Natasha turned around and led them to the back wall of the cave where a set of stairs descended into the ground. Gesturing for Steve and Wanda to follow, Natasha walked down the steps and disappeared into the cave floor.

Steve followed Natasha's lead as Wanda brought up the rear.

It turned out that the stairs led to a small underground chamber that housed a single glowing circle of light that formed intricate glyphs on the ground it lay. Natasha stood in front of the humming circle, waiting, as her fur fluttered in the gust of wind that blew around her.

That explains the breeze, Steve thought to himself.

With a small bow, Natasha leaped onto the circle of glyphs and vanished. The light, it seemed, acted as a portal to...somewhere.

"Here goes nothing," Wanda muttered as she approached the portal. Taking a visibly deep breath, she, too, stepped into the ring of glowing light and disappeared.

Steve followed the example, holding his breath the entire way. As he stepped into the circle, a warm sensation swept over him, not unlike slipping under heated bed covers on a cold winter night. The bright light blinded him from seeing much more, but that faded quickly enough. Once it was dim enough for him to open his eyes, Steve could see that he was standing at the gate of a small village.

Natasha stood in front of the gate, looking pleased at the confused awe that graced Steve's face. Then, in a dramatic voice, she announced, "Welcome to Pokemon Square."