Prologue: Gods or Men

It started out with two scientists playing god in a laboratory with a tiny cold virus. It was so simple what they were doing: studying ways to make a cure for the common cold. It seemed like there were no ways to screw up catastrophically. They’d either make a cure or they wouldn’t, but it was just so many little things that led up to the disaster though.

On the morning that it happened, the first scientist’s alarms didn’t go off. In his rush, he skipped breakfast and instead only brewed his morning Joe. As he hurriedly made his morning coffee, the cup slipped off the counter and shattered on the floor, spilling coffee all over. He was already late, so he couldn’t brew another cup. 

The second scientist owned the house that the lab was under and had just gotten a new kitten that had yet to be trained. As he was routinely cleaning his many drawers in the lab out, the kitten had an accident. He disciplined it and cleaned up the mess, causing him to forget several chemicals on the counter.

As the first scientist arrived at the lab, the second scientist stubbed his toe on the door as he answered it, tearing back part of his toenail and causing slight bleeding and slight cursing. 

The two went down the stairs to the basement lab, laughing about some joke the first one told. As they were laughing, the kitten snuck through the open door to the lab unnoticed. The two of them got to work, unaware of the kitten’s presence.

The first one’s fatigue from lack of coffee and the second one’s throbbing toenail put them both on edge, and when the kitten jumped up on the table, the angry owner, the second scientist, swiped at the cat, aiming to knock it off the table, instead hitting the chemicals that he had left out while cleaning out the lab. The first scientist, senses impaired without the help of his morning coffee or a proper breakfast, reached for the chemicals trying to catch them before they were knocked over. Instead, he bumped a vial of cold virus over and together the virus and chemicals tumbled off the table and shattered on the floor into one multicolored puddle that the startled kitten jumped into.

If any of these small events had not occurred, who’s to say that the following events would have ever transpired? In any case, they did occur and the vial of cold virus was introduced to the chemical and became a completely new virus which was then introduced to the kitten. The kitten scurried off, leaving little foot prints of Pokérus all over the floor. The angry scientists cleaned up the mess and thought that nothing out of the ordinary was about to happen.

They were dead wrong.

Eighteen-year-old Leon watched on the news a story about a kitten who had been transformed in New York City due to a new virus the clumsy scientists had dubbed Pokérus. The mutated cat would walk upright on two feet and had a coin seemingly attached to its face. This cat had the power of speech though as of yet it only said ‘Meowth.’

Leon and his girlfriend, Kristy, would follow the story as the mutated cat broke free of its cage and got into a fight with some stray dogs, one of which it would bite before being forced to retreat back to the safety of its owners house.

The virus quickly spread through the stray dogs of New York, altering their appearance and even giving some the ability to breathe flames. The people of New York panicked as the dogs then gave it to new animals. Some took the virus and mutated, others remained unchanged or died, but the ways the virus affected them were always clear. 

The new creatures made by this virus gained wonderful and terrifying new abilities and resisted introductions of possible cures. It wasn’t long before the first case of human infection occurred, making the first ‘medicham.’ 

Leon would stay with Kristy as she drove an hour both ways to Minneapolis to attend an arts college, attending a technical college himself in the mean time as the infection spread through the entire state of New York and other parts of the US and Europe and Asia, hopping aboard planes. Quarantines were put in place, but these mutated animals and people always made it past the barriers. Large cities quickly became hotspots for Pokérus. People began to fend for themselves.

Despite all this, by the time Leon turned 20, small towns remained relatively untouched by it. Everyone stopped going to the big cities, but commerce continued. Life went on. Leon moved in with Kristy, happily in love as the world slowly slipped into chaos around them.

By then, the world had come up with a name for these new, mutated life forms. They were Pokémon.

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Chapter 1: the Incident

Leon’s Point of View

Leon’s foot felt heavy on the gas pedal. There were few people on the interstate these days and law enforcement had better things to do than give people tickets for speeding. Knowing that, the red needle slowly passed 95mph on his dash. His home town, Huntsdale, was long gone from the rear view mirror.

Kristy was quiet in the passenger seat of the small yet powerful car. She was curled up in a ball and hadn’t spoken in a long while, but her breathing was heavy and uneven. The dog in the back had transformed fully hours earlier and now was in its full form.

What was he doing? Leon asked himself. The night’s events were a blur in his mind. He stepped harder on the gas. He vaguely remembered his dog getting into a fight with something in the back yard. Pokémon had been to Huntsdale before, but were quickly dispatched by the civilian watch. He had never seen a live one, so he never would have guessed…

He swerved around a car that had stopped on the highway. Its windshield was shattered and its front bumper was dented. He tried hard to focus on the road after that but his thoughts quickly returned to the night before.

He remembered grabbing Kristy, tears in her eyes, and shoving her roughly into the passenger seat along with every cent in the house. He emptied out the kitchen, throwing everything nonperishable into a garbage bag which he tossed into the trunk of his car. Clothing followed. Last minute, he grabbed the ornamental dagger he had purchased at a renaissance festival and threw that in as well.

Towns blurred by. He was only vaguely aware that he was driving south. He didn’t know where he was going, but he was getting there fast.

He didn’t notice the dog jump in until he was long gone. He was tempted to throw it out of the car seeing how it started the whole mess, but something stopped him. However he treated this dog could be the way that he treated Kristy once she was through. The transformation took the small dog quickly, turning its fur grey and black. When it was over, he looked back and saw a familiar Pokémon. It was one that was often enough that it had been dubbed ‘Poochyena.’

He wanted to kill it badly even now as he sped down the road at speeds reaching 110. Rarely did it occur that he would pass people or even see them. He just kept going and going and going.

“Where are we?” Kristy unfurled herself, hugging her right arm so Leon couldn’t see. Leon knew why.

“I don’t know. South. We’ve got to be out of Minnesota.” He answered, keeping his eyes on the road. “We’re going to have to stop soon for gas. There’s a town coming up. Stay down and don’t look at anybody.”

She nodded, but Leon wouldn’t look at her. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, but it’ll be alright.” Leon promised, turning onto an off ramp. He felt like everyone and everything was looking at him as he drove through the peaceful, small town. Stubby houses, white picket fences, vibrant colors. It almost made him sick with how normal it was. Yesterday was normal. Today was haywire.

He found a gas station easily enough. After reminding Kristy to stay down, he popped the gas thingy open and began filling up the car.

“The price of gas these days.” Leon nearly jumped as the man on the other side of the pump spoke.

“Yeah.” He nodded nervously after he regained composure.

“Six bucks a gallon? That’s crazy.” The man continued.

“It’s probably harder to get to with Pokémon everywhere.” Leon replied. Nervously, he looked into his car. The Poochyena was standing up and looking out the window. It looked enough like a normal dog that maybe no one would notice it.

“Pokémon? You don’t believe that bull do you?”

“Um, no.” Leon was itching to get away from this man. He moved around the car to check on his girlfriend. “Ha-how you doing?” He asked when she rolled down the window.

She smiled weakly at him. “I don’t have the urge to bite you if that’s what you’re asking.”

Leon tried to smile back. “I love you more than anything else.”

“And I love you more than that. Let’s get out of here. I feel like everyone is watching us.”

He nodded, stopping the gas pump at half full, paying, then leaving with his tires screaming. He didn’t feel safe until he was back on the interstate, returning to his ironically unsafe speed.