I heard a knock at the door, but I didn’t want to get it. My eyes stayed shut as I heard the human in the other bed shuffle around and eventually get up. A fly buzzed around my ear, exposed from the covers, causing it to subconsciously flick through the air. Damn reflexes. Caleb opened the door, “Yes?” the trainer spoke in a soft voice I guess trying not to wake me up. “Tell Mina that Luke is doing well, but he will be unconscious for the next two days.” I recognized this voice. It was none other than Dr. Brennen herself. “She can visit him anytime she wishes now but you have to be careful not to move him or his stitches might open up.”

“Okay, I’ll be sure to tell her. Thank you.”

“Oh, one more thing. Your pokémon are fully healed and are waiting for you downstairs in their balls for pick up.”

“Alright, we’ll be down right away.”

I heard the door quietly close, and Caleb’s footsteps returned to the bed. I was facing away from the trainer’s side of the room, so I could only guess he was getting his clothes and making the bed up as I heard a rustle, and the bathroom door close. Opening my eyes for the first time, I was nearly blinded by the light that came into the room, but squinting proved to be a successful light deterrent as I glanced to the alarm clock for the time. 6:45 AM.

Closing my eyes again I took a deep breath as I stretched beneath the warm covers. I didn’t sleep very well last night. I could only guess that I was busy tossing and turning, trying to find someone to curl up next to. This has been the second night in a row that I haven’t gotten to sleep next to my Lukey, and it was painful. Sitting up on the edge of the bed, I couldn’t help but note a sharp pain in my neck. I had hoped this day would be better, but so far its turning out to be as shitty as the last two were. I got out of the bed and groomed my hair back as best as I could completing it, like always, with the blue hair tie Luke’s mom had gotten me. With the exception of my neck, I guess you could say I felt refreshed. I was definitely a lot better than I was yesterday. All I had to do now was pick out some clothes to go out in.

Lifting the heavy bag onto the bed, I opened our clothes pocket and began rummaging around for an outfit. I found that a blue top with long jeans would be suitable. I didn’t normally wear underwear, but I figured I might as well put some on, just in case Caleb were to step out of the shower at an inconvenient time.

Luckily, I was able to transform and get all of the clothes on before the trainer came out. I had even gotten out the brush and began to groom my human hair when he finally emerged from the bathroom with his clean clothes on. He wore a white tank-top covered with a blue flannel windbreaker and black, loose fit jeans with a chain on one side. I have to say, for a fifteen year old, he sure does know how to dress.

“Oh good, you're up. Dr. Brennen said that-”

“I can visit Luke, and your pokémon are healed… yea, I know. I was awake, sort of.”

Caleb smiled and continued to walk towards his bed. He carried his dirty clothes to his backpack and carelessly stuffed them inside it; which admittedly is more than what I did with my clothes. The garments of mine are scattered all over the room, and by all over I mean just my shorts in the bathroom, the shirt on the floor next to my bed, and my socks and shoes near the door. But hey, I’m a pokémon; you should just be surprised that I even wear clothes…

“Hey… Mina,” I heard the trainer say which made me instantly know he was about to ask a question. He earned my attention though as I looked up and gave out a ‘hmm?’ to his voice. “What was that thing that Brennen handed you last night?” I put the brush back into Luke’s bag having groomed my hair to a perfectly straight sheen. “Oh, that’s called a soulstone. Luke found it in a cave a long time ago.”

“Soulstone? Why is it called that? And why does it glow so bright?”

I got up from the bed just to stand in the middle of the room. What is with this kid and all the questions? “Well, it’s said soulstones absorb spiritual energy from living things that come into contact with them. We found a bunch of those stones in a secret cave, most of them were as big as me, but that crystal is special.” I trailed off intentionally willing Caleb to ask the obvious next question. Which he did, “What makes it so special?”

I turned and smiled, happy to quench his curiosity on the topic, “Out of all the stones in that cave; that one was the brightest, and Luke has been carrying it around for more than five years. During that time, I’m very positive that it has gotten much brighter in the last month than it has its whole life.” Caleb got up from his bed and joined me in the middle of the room after donning his pokéball belt and handing me a key card one of the employees must have given him. “Soo… what does that mean? The crystal has been feeding off of him or something?”

“I’m not sure what it means, but it’s pretty neat to think about. I’d like to think Luke is getting stronger from carrying it around. You know, like when you carry weights for a while and then take them off one day and you can suddenly jump super high and lift heavy stuff for a while…” I thought back to the forest, before Caleb had found out about us, and remembered how Luke had said something about being able to hold back the giant fireblast. I guess it was starting to make sense if I took the time to think about it for a bit, but it all just sounded too fantastic to be true. We both walked over to the door and put our shoes on before opening the door, and stepping out.

“You're really smart for a pokémon.” Of course I knew he meant it as a compliment to me, but I also heard it as an insult to pokémon. Although, I had to admit, some pokémon deserve being called dumb. I found myself liking this kid more than I thought I would when we first met. For that reason I found myself wanting to get to know him better, and him know me in return, but alas, some details of Luke and my story, have to remain a secret from him for now. At least for a few more days… hard telling what kind of messed up shenanigans we would get into once we left this place. Plus, even though I couldn’t talk to him now, I felt as though Luke was warming up to the kid too, even despite what happened at the river.

We left the room, walked through the hallway and Caleb led me to the elevator we apparently used to get to the second floor. I didn’t remember any such thing, but that’s no surprise since I was really out of it last night. Once inside the tiny room, I noticed on the buttons that there were four levels. Floors 1-3 were just labeled like F1, F2, and F3, but the bottom button was labeled: Medical. ‘How convenient’ I thought. Without a second thought I pushed the medical button and we started moving down as the elevator doors closed us in. “Hey Caleb… Remember at the river when we had that battle and then again when you and Luke had that fight?” I didn’t want to dredge up the past, but the more I thought about that crystal… I just had to know.

The trainer looked to me with a tinge of guilt in his eyes as he nodded. “Did you notice anything, uh, weird about Luke’s hands?” Caleb furrowed his brow and thought for a moment. “I don’t think so, what do you mean?” He didn’t see it? I know it was quick but I definitely saw Luke’s hands light up when they fought. The thought was starting to bug me now, and apparently Caleb caught on to my silence. “Is something wrong?”

“No, no! I was just thinking is all.” I said with a slight chuckle to my voice. I could see the numbers count down on the display above the door. 2, 1, M. We were finally there. The bells chimed and the door opened up revealing a wondrous scene. I had been in the medical wing of a few pokémon centers before, but this wasn’t anything like those! For starters, it was much bigger, and just like upstairs it even had its own lobby. Pokémon centers have a collective operating room where all of the sick or injured pokémon are treated, but from what I could tell, there were many rooms down the hallway that separated patients from each other. The only thing that was familiar was the waiting room that was placed adjacent to a long desk with humans typing away on their keyboards and even that was much larger! The whole place seemed lively and energetic as people were scurrying about from room to room, forming lines at the desk, and sitting in the waiting room.

This place is a weather institute! It studies weather! What is all of this stuff doing here? I saw Dr. Brennen enter into the medical lobby from one of the patient rooms and begin to walk towards the long desk holding a clipboard. She then stopped once she noticed Caleb and me and came straight over to us. “Hello you two.” She greeted us with a slight smile, obviously aware of the chaos behind her. “If you could follow me this way, I can take you to Luke’s room. Careful though, it’s a bit more chaotic down here than it was an hour ago.”

Dr. Brennen turned and motioned for us to follow, which we did; albeit with a bit of reservation. “Uh… I’ve never seen this part of the building, what is going on here?” Figures Caleb would ask the question I was also curious about. He had told us that this was a Weather Institute, but from the looks of it, it was something much more. Thankfully, the brunette scientist had an answer for us. “Since I became in charge of this place, we’ve undergone some serious renovations. This was a research center for weather, but now we do all sciences.”

“That’s really neat!” Caleb exclaimed as we weaved by several humans and pokémon on gurneys. “So that means this place is the capital of science in the Unova region!”

“Bingo! We have meteorology of course, also physics, medical, chemistry, biology, geology… as a result of all these sectors, some of the employees are actual residents here, so we had that hotel wing built to accommodate for them; as well as travelers of course.” As Brennen and Caleb were having their nerd-gasm, I was paying more attention to the scenery, which was a lot of people running around. Most of them were the trainers from yesterday and it shames me to say that I had bumped into just about every one of them on our way through the crowd.

The doctor led us to a hallway and stopped at a room labeled 23E. Before opening the door she turned to and spoke to me specifically. “Before we go in there, you have to understand that he is not in the best shape… uh, visibly that is; but I promise you, he is doing much better than he looks. Even so, I would advise you to not move him. If he moves too much his stitches may open up.”

She finished and waited for my response, but I could only nod as I found that my voice had left me. I subconsciously began biting my human fingernails out of nervousness as the doctor turned the door knob and slowly swung the door to open inward. I was expecting a dimly lit room with the only source of light coming from a solitary window, but the inside was actually well lit and since we were obviously underground, there was no window. The room wasn’t as dismal as I thought it would be either, and if I wasn’t so worried about my lover I might have been able to see the surprisingly well furnished room. As the door came fully open, I could see Luke lying in one of those weird looking hospital beds.

He was wrapped in bandages around his head neck and chest, and a bag of clear fluid hung next to him. A tube ran from the bottom of the soft rubbery container and disappeared beneath the navy blue blanket draped over his form. On the other side of the bed was a computer-like machine connected to Luke with an assortment of colored wires, and it made a soft beeping noise every second or so with dots and lines jumping along the screen.

Caleb and Brennen stepped out of my way as I slowly entered into the white walled room. After a few short footfalls, the door closed behind me as I assumed both of them had followed me in. Wide eyed, with my hands clenched together in front of me, I approached and came to a stop to his bedside taking my place next to the bag of clear fluid. I could feel myself shaking and every breath I let out felt as cold as a sheer cold attack. His eyes were closed and I could make out his arms wrapped around his stomach, crossed just below the midsection. Overall, it was as if he had just fallen asleep save for the bandages which started at his neck and I could only guess went all the way down to his waist.

My focus was on him; my trainer, my friend, my lover… so much so, that I didn’t even feel Caleb’s presence until I felt his hand rest on my shoulder, breaking me from the trance. I was a little surprised at first and jumped at the touch before I realized it was only him. Turning to look at the young trainer, I saw he wore quite a distressed look as did I. Apparently no words were needed as he only bowed his head and released me, allowing the hand to trail down my back a short ways before parting.

He was leaving. Dr. Brenned had beckoned for him to follow her, and now was my only chance to say anything before I would be left alone with Luke. “Caleb…” The trainer turned to me with raised eyebrows. “Meet me, at the fountain in half an hour.”

Caleb nodded and gave out a ‘hm’ before following Brennen out and closing the door behind him. Now I was alone; my attention turned back to Luke, lying in the bed with tubes, and wires, and hoses attached to him. I stood over his form and felt tears start to well up in me once again. Talking with Caleb last night may have felt good for the moment, but now that I was here, seeing him like this… all the guilt, anger, pain, and depression began pulling on me at full force.

The scariest thing about this was that he just looked like he was sleeping save for the bandages; I just wanted to shake him awake, but knew I couldn’t. So I kept my distance for fear that even the slightest touch would make him shatter into a million pieces. “Oh Luke…” I said out loud, whispering to my love’s unconscious body, “why did you move me? I wouldn’t have been hurt nearly as bad as you from that attack.” My head hung from its human shoulders as a tear rolled down my cheek. “I… I could have protected you. I should have taken the blow!”

“Wwwhhhheeeeeyy” I jumped at the sound. It was faint and possibly the quietest thing I could hear, but I swore it came from Luke. I gingerly came closer to him, being careful not to touch his body. “L-Luke?” I said in a loud whisper nearly into his ear. I didn’t get a reaction; only silence besides the terrible beeping from the machine and his breathing. Quickly, I withdrew myself from floating over him and returned to where I was. Maybe I was just imagining it? Yea! That’s all. All this stress must really be getting to me.

‘Don’t worry girl… he’ll wake up when he’s ready.” I thought to myself as I gave a slight sniffle and wiped my eyes.

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(Caleb)
The door to Luke’s room had closed behind us. With the doctor leading the way, we headed back to the hospital lobby. Seeing Luke like that was a bit much even for me; I can’t even begin to imagine what Mina must have been going through. I may have given the two a bunch of grief over the last few days, but I have to admit; I really do like them, but I have the feeling that they were hiding something. I can’t really explain it, but something just feels odd. Their relationship took me completely by surprise, but now… I don’t know…

We came to the desk, passing by all of the other trainers waiting in line. I recognized some of them from the uprising yesterday, but I couldn’t remember any names; not that we took the time to introduce ourselves or anything. “Okay, Mr… uh, actually I didn’t get your last name.” Dr. Brennen trailed off, expecting me to tell her what it was. “Oh, um… just ‘Caleb’ is fine ma’am, no need for formalities here heheh…” I nervously dodged her semi-question.

“Hmm. Okay then, Caleb, Here are your pokémon.” The professor continued after ducking behind the desk and pulling out a styrofoam ball holder with four balls in it. “An Arcanine, an Emolga an Axew, and a Pawniard. As I recall, your Gallade only needed rest and wasn’t admitted here.”

Wow, she was good. Although, that clipboard she was carrying around probably had all the information on it, I was still impressed. For the first time in days, I was able to smile as I could finally hold those balls once again… wait, that sounded wrong. Uh, I was finally able to smile having my pokémon returned to me. Yea, I guess that’s a bit better…

I took each of the red and white orbs and inspected them; why I don’t even know, but I did anyway. After turning each one in my palms I placed them into their magnetic slots on my belt. I felt complete. I mean, there was still one empty slot, but complete none the less. I looked back to the woman and noticed she was just standing there smiling through her green rimmed glasses. “Um, do I have to… uh ‘pay?’ you for this?” her eyebrows lifted at my question as her lips pushed forward before responding in a quick surprised tone. “Oh! No! This program is actually funded by the same organization as pokémon centers. So all of this is free!”

I took a look around at my surroundings. Being a trainer, I knew that pokémon centers were free to the public to make sure that pokémon got the care they needed. Looking around though, this was a completely different situation all together. “All this is free??” I asked in confusion. This place wasn’t a pokémon center; it was more like a full-fledged hospital!

Dr. Brennen simply nodded and I didn’t want to keep the other people waiting, so that explanation would have to do. Nodding my own head I thanked her for her kindness and escaped from the people crowding the desk. As I backed my way towards the elevator, I took a look at my Pokégear for the time. “7:15” I stated to myself aloud. Mina said to meet her at the fountain in thirty minutes, which means I still have about twenty minutes left. Reaching the door, I gently pressed the button to call for the moving room.

‘I should really see Castform before going out there.’ The doors opened up and I graciously stepped inside, pushing the button labeled F1. ‘Dr. Brennen said it would be happy to see us, and well… I really wanna see it too. Hehe.’ My thoughts were interrupted as the bell dinged to signal my target floor had been reached. The doors opened up revealing a quieter scene. There weren’t nearly as many people in the lobby as there was downstairs. Everything however, looked as though it were running just like nothing had happened. The front desk had a few receptionists; the proper, not kidnappy, doorman was attending to a small group of trainers getting ready to go on their tour. The whole place seemed a lot more… cheery?

I approached the front desk and eyed the pretty lady wearing a blue business dress. Typing away on her keyboard, it took her a few seconds to notice me. “Oh! Hello there, aren’t you that young man from yesterday? In the room?” Wow, I didn’t notice her in the room with us, but she must have noticed me. Looking back though, I couldn’t see how she wouldn’t notice me. I didn’t really like to make myself noticeable, but sometimes I admit; I can really get caught up in the moment. “Haha! Yea, I’m Caleb. I was wondering if I could visit Castform, Dr. Brennen had said I should so… heh, here I am.” I gave my best smile and shrug which, admittedly must have looked a bit awkward, but in the moment I didn’t notice.

“Oh, of course! You should know that after that… incident… Castform was moved from the bio-chamber because the door wouldn’t lock anymore. Instead it has been placed in another room in that direction. It’s being guarded from the outside on the left, so you can’t miss it. The good thing is, they should let you in there since… well, you know.” Her cheery voice was completely opposite from what had happened yesterday. Maybe it was part of her job, or maybe she was just as happy to make it out of that mess as I was. Either way, it really took the edge off. “Okay thank you,” I thanked the woman taking a small step away from the desk. “Have a nice day.” I said as I waved to her and turned to the doorway leading to the bio-chamber.

“You too sweetie.” I heard her say from behind me.

The last time I was in this hallway, I was going toe to toe with Archangel grunts. ‘Heh, those guys couldn’t last too long with me and my team.’ I thought to myself as I came around the corner leading to the chamber door. Upon rounding the corner, I could see the large metal door that lead to the bio-chamber and just as the receptionist had said, it was obviously not operational. It had two men on either side of it, one with a handheld keypad plugged into the pass code pedestal. ‘Obviously trying to fix the after effects of that guy’s hacking of course’ I thought to myself. Just to the left of the scene were another two guys dressed up in uniforms. I could read the red letters ‘UDS’ on the right arms of their black jackets.

‘Oh, some of the troops stayed behind to guard the facility.’ I walked up to stand in front of the two men who looked down at me with questioning glances. “Uh. Heh, hey guys! I’m uh Caleb, I just wanna see Castform. Dr Brennen said it would be okay, so umm, can I maybe… goooo inn??” Yea, I was nervous. I mean, they were like two brick walls! Easily twice as rugged as the Archangel grunts and don’t even mention the fact that they were armed! “Back up kid. No entry beyond this point.”

“B-but Brennen said it was okay.” I pleaded to the men, but whatever I said, they wouldn’t budge.

“Look, I’m sorry, but it is my job to make sure no one gets in this room other than Dr. Brennen herself. If you want to get in here, you're going to have to get her to show up here in person.” The UDS trooper stated with that kind of ‘fed up’ tone. I didn’t have much of a choice here. I knew Brennen was very busy downstairs, and by the time she made it up here to allow me in, my time would be up anyway. I simply decided to leave and wait for Mina at the fountain. She told me to meet her in thirty minutes, and so far it’s been about fifteen. Hanging my head, I admitted defeat to the guards, “Alright, I’ll be back some other time then.” I took one more look at the guys around the vault door.

“Okay, our attempts are no good… get out P-z.” Upon hearing this, the man on the right nodded and reached for a pokéball. With a flash of light, a Porygon -Z was brought out. “Por… ZZZ Gon, por!” “Okay P-z, get in there and try to get this program back to normal okay?” With the instructions of its master, the pokémon digitized itself and was sucked into the keypad. Within moments of its entry, all kinds of lights began blinking on the key pad as well as the code console mounted to the wall. I stood for a few minutes just to watch the display completely entranced by the flashing lights and small mechanical sounds emanating from the two machines. Then everything stopped and a couple seconds later a green light blinked once accompanied by a ‘ding’. Without much more time, the Porygon -Z manifested in reality once again.

“Alright! I knew you could do it!” One of the tech workers shouted as the other one holding the keypad just grunted and passed over 500 pokédollars to the Celebrating man. At this, I just had to laugh under my breath and turn to leave. It’s a good thing they got the door working, I had a feeling that Castform would be a lot happier in there than in a stuffy storage closet guarded by UDS anyway.

The trip out of the facility was pretty uneventful as just like anyone else, people just nodded as they walked by me. Even the door man, who was not ‘Doug’ this time, smiled and nodded in my direction. It was a general happy tone just like always was. ‘Just like it always was…’ I reminisced as I strolled out of the building into the sunlight. I had told Luke and Mina that I always went to the Weather Institute when I traveled this road, and while that was true I haven’t actually been here in a long time. Six months maybe? Anyway, the last time I was here, there certainly wasn’t any construction going on… well, not that I knew of. At any rate, there certainly wasn’t a second and third floor!

I dully clicked my shoes across the pretty tan bricks that made a sort of ‘plaza’ type ring around the fountain. I didn’t know what it was about that sound, but it was very satisfying; my only wish that my soles were harder. The faint breeze flowing through the trees making the leaves rustle, and the sounds of various flying pokémon chirping away in the distance, tied everything together and made me feel calmer. Very calmer. Taking a seat on the edge of the fountain, I looked up the building to see the tiny specks of Pidove bouncing around on the edge of the top floor. Getting antsy, I took another look at my Pokégear for the time. ‘7:25’. “Hmm… still ten minutes…” I said aloud as I pocketed the phone once more. ‘Ahh, who am I kidding? She’s a pokémon! She’ll probably be late anyway.’

Another strong breeze blew through my blonde hair allowing the strands to tickle my forehead. I took a deep breath as I felt Swanna-bumps trail up my spine and over my arms. Gee, if I was any more relaxed, my soul would leave my body. Feeling the serenity of it all, I closed my eyes and let the pitter patter of the fountain carry my mind away.

………

…………… My eyes snapped open when I realized what all of this calmness was doing to me. ‘Oh crap. I have to pee.’

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I had relieved myself behind some bushes across from the fountain. Hopefully far enough into the forest that no one saw me. Taking just one more look at my pokégear I saw it read 7:30. Only five more minutes. ‘What did she want to meet me out here for anyway!? Shouldn’t she be spending her time with Luke?’

As I came back to the fountain, my attention was then immediately pulled towards my belt. I don’t want to say that I forgot about my team, but during these past few minutes I’ve spent outside by myself I can’t say I was thinking about them either. ‘Oh man. Sorry guys, I don’t know what I was thinking!’ I pulled each of the five balls from their holders and pushed the center button which released the pokémon from their containers. If I were over grassy terrain, I would have threw them all, allowing the balls to automatically release them and return to me. However, I still didn’t quite trust the auto return function which is used to make the balls fly back to the direction they were thrown from.

Each of my pokémon materialized in front of me and gave a stretch. Terkin, Emolga, Pawniard, and Axew all came out battle ready with their respective cries as they hunched into their fighting stance. It didn’t take long before they realized that there were no opponents, and their guards were lowered as they looked to me with tilted heads. Glade remained calm as always. Even in a battle situation, he was always the mildest of my team; which is to be expected when a pokémon has as much battle experience as he does. He did travel with my father in the old days after all.

Speaking of my father… I took a quick look in the fountain water to check myself. I never really knew when my hair color would return to its real hue until someone pointed it out. Thankfully, I had stocked a couple boxes of dye in my bag before leaving Driftveil. Back to my pokémon now, I spun around on the edge of the fountain, “Guys! We did it, the Weather Institute is okay now.” I said with excitement in my voice. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have been able to be much help, so I figured I might as well keep them informed as to what was happening.

My words didn’t seem to bring much joy through the group, but at least I could see them smiling. “Okay…” my voice waivered. I could tell something was eating them, and honestly I could think of a few reasons of why they would be peeved at me. Terkin gave out a wide yawn as he scratched his bright orange fur. The Arcanine was definitely the second strongest here and he certainly emanated his status. “There are going to be some changes here guys…”

I had to chuckle to myself as they all grunted in unison, wondering what I had to say… if only I could understand them. “I uh- I know, I haven’t been the best trainer to you guys… A-and. Well, what I’m trying to say is that; I’m, well… I’m really sorry. I know I haven’t been taking your feelings into account. You know, when it comes to battling, and just about everything. So I’m gonna be a better trainer to you guys… wait. No. I’m gonna be a better friend to you guys.” I finished speaking and was relieved to see my pokémon ‘talking’ amongst each other excitedly. Well, not relieved. The whole situation made me feel weird; I had hoped they wouldn’t have thought too badly of me, but I guess this is okay too.

While they were chatting with each other, I saw Mina coming my way from across the ‘plaza’. She held her head low and squinted as the sunlight shone off of her skin. My pokémon broke their conversation to examine the human coming towards us. As she came to a stop in front of them, they began to murmur and I finally realized; they have no idea who she is.

“So… you said you wanted to see me out here?” I asked her, intentionally ignoring their curious whispers. I would tell them later, but I was more concerned with what she wanted at the moment. Of course though, I didn’t have to explain anything, “It’s me guys! Mina? Remember? From the river?” Mina’s explanation sent out a wave of shock through the group with all of my pokémon gasping. Axew came close to her and started poking at the exposed part of her legs. “Hehehe, Juko that tickles!” Mina started to squirm away from the prodding dragon.

“How’s Luke?” I asked. My voice kept low to let her know it was a serious question. The girl’s mood turned serious as well. “He’s still asleep. I’ll go back in after we’re done here, but… I just needed some air.” I could tell she was trying to flake off her worries. The sorrowful look in her green eyes said it all. “Anyway, I shouldn’t stay away for too long… let’s get started.”

“Get started? With what?” I asked. My pokémon seemed to have the same question; of course they were way more lost than I was at the moment. “Don’t you remember? We talked about this last night.” Oh, now I remember, I can’t believe I had forgotten! Mina had said last night that she would try to turn me into a pokémon. Truthfully, I didn’t think she was serious at the time, but now… I guess we were really going to try it, despite the current circumstances.

“Oh, alright. I remember now! So uh, how do you wanna do this?” I asked. After all this time of calming down, I was starting to get excited again. “We have to go into the forest. Can’t do it here or people might see us.” I got up after Mina had finished her statement. “Lead the way madam.”

My pokémon also stood up from their seated positions around the fountain. As Mina led us into the woods, I motioned for my team to follow. If this worked, I might finally be able to talk to them, which is actually something I have wanted to do since before I was a trainer. It would have made things a lot less confusing for me. With the pokémon in disguise leading the way, we all entered the forest across from the Weather Institute not far from where I relieved myself earlier. My pokémon were all too happy to be out of their balls following me with deep curiosity. I could overhear a conversation between Pawniard and Axew but of course I could only assume they were trying to figure out what was going on. I looked to my left and saw Glade calmly walking beside me in silence while the large orange dog with Emolga riding on top of him trailed just behind.

We continued to walk through the forest until the building behind us disappeared in the foliage. “Okay, this should be good.” Mina came to a stop and turned on her heels. My company and I stopped as well. Taking a look around, the only thing to be seen were leaves. No one else was around which was good, because of what Mina had to say next. “Take off your clothes.” She said with a ‘matter of fact tone’.

I wasn’t sure if I heard her correctly. My eyes grew wide as the words registered through my mind. “Uh… take- take off, y-you want me to. My… whaa?” I stammered out the words the best I could. Why did she want me to take off my clothes!? My heart pounded in my chest and it seemed like an eternity before she caught on to my confusion.

“Whats the problem? Just take off your clothes; it’s not that big of a deal.” She continued after seeing no action from me. I took a look around once more glancing at my team who were sitting behind me all just… staring… I’m not sure what it was, but at the time their looks were kinda creeping me out. “W-well, you see… wh-why do I need to take my clothes off?”

Mina huffed in frustration as she explained, “Transforming is a physical change! If this works, you might become a Snorlax or a Garbodor or maybe even a Haxorus! I’m sure you don’t want your outfit and pokégear and probably your wallet ripped up or destroyed. So it’s best if you just take them off now because I don’t know what you’ll turn into!” Well, as much as I didn’t quite agree with what I had to do, I guess it did make sense. Still though, nudity was something I was very shy about and it didn’t even matter that I was amongst all pokémon and not humans.

“Ehh, okay…” I grumbled, and began with taking off my shirt. I could hear leaves rustling behind me and I could only guess that my pokémon were laughing at me. Actually, I bet Mina was laughing at me too. This was probably some kind of joke. ‘Oh yea, let’s embarrass Caleb! Tell him to strip naked in the woods and laugh at him!’ I tossed my shirt off to the ground and paused a bit before proceeding to my pants as I remembered that I hadn’t put on any underwear this morning. My blush immediately intensified; I would have been fine with losing a pair of undies, if only I had put some on…

“Geez, how long does it take to strip?” Mina was becoming impatient. I wasn’t sure if she knew how wrong this felt, but I didn’t have to brood on that for too long because she continued to explain. “Caleb, we’re all pokémon here, we’re naked all the time! So why is it sooo hard for you to take off your clothes? I know humans are shy and all, but it’s not like we care.”

Mina had a point and it did do a little to dispel my fears, but that didn’t change the fact that I was about to take off my pants in front of her. Oh well, better get it over with… I closed my eyes and swallowed hard as I unbuttoned my blue jeans. Taking a deep breath, I pulled them down; exposing my groin to the elements. What was nice weather, is now a bit chilly. I wasn’t out of the clear yet however, I couldn’t take off my pants without taking off my shoes. I stumbled backwards slipping my shoes off and taking the blue jeans with them.

Now I stand here in front of everyone, stark naked, with my hands covering my junk. I looked back to my pokémon again and they didn’t seem to mind; in fact they seemed to enjoy seeing me like this. Their smiles were a little unnerving though. “Finally! It’s about time!” Mina exclaimed. My skin began to get swanna-bumps again with the feeling of the breeze flowing between my bare legs. My blush burned with the intensity of a thousand cherri berries as I felt her eyes scan my body. “Mina… i-is this gonna hurt?” That was the first question that came to my mind.

“It doesn’t hurt me and I transform all the time.” Mina began walking closer to me. At first I shirked away but then I realized that, in order to get this over with I just had to do as she says. That doesn’t mean I didn’t still have questions.

“Will I be able to understand them?” I asked nodding towards my team who were patiently waiting for the events to unfold.

“I don’t know.” She took a few more steps towards me.

“Will I have powers like a pokémon?” This was the next most important question. If I was going to be a pokémon, I would at least like to have the full experience.

“I’m not sure.” Coming closer still, but not having any answers.

“Will I have arms? Or four legs?” Third most important question in my opinion. I would much rather have arms and legs than only four legs.

“I have No idea.” It seemed that the disguised Zoroark didn’t have any answers for me. She came closer until she was just inches away from me and gently laid her hand on my chest.

It didn’t take long before I felt a warmth spread throughout my whole body. Slowly, my nerves became numb and I couldn’t feel anything. It was like the ground fell away beneath me as my legs became like jelly. I fell to my knees and put out a pair of hands to stop me from prat falling. The world around me became fuzzy and started to spin. What had that girl done to me!? I didn’t feel like a pokémon, I felt like I was dying! Suddenly I could feel again, and just in time too. It felt like my whole skeleton was changing; bones becoming shorter and longer, thicker and thinner. My spine elongated and the skin stretched around it forming a tail. My skin began to crawl and itch. I attempted to scratch my arms and realized that my fingernails had grown into three inch black spikes as my palms changed to black as well. My fingers shortened into nubs and my inner thoughts screamed once I had come to the realization that they were turning into paws. Not biped paws, quadruped paws and already covered in a thick coat of white fur. I tried to bury my face into the ground as splitting pain ripped through the right side of my head, but that proved to be useless. As if that wasn’t enough; my face began elongating and my teeth were reshaped into points and fangs.

The whole world suddenly got brighter and clearer. The fuzziness of it all had completely disappeared and had been replaced with crystal clear clarity and sharper colors. I was no longer dizzy; in fact I was feeling more stable than I had ever been. The dull smells of the forest had become strong, and every small feeling, smell, sound, or sight popped out at me and was now blatantly obvious.

I was still on my knees which, given my current form wasn’t very natural. I could feel that my feet had become longer and the ground was bending my toes in an uncomfortable way. Not to mention my new found claws digging into the dirt. I raised off my knees and stably came to place all four paws flat on the ground. I kept my eyes pointed downward staring at my forelimbs and paws. White fur. Black paw pads and claws… What was I?

The surroundings were eerily quiet. I could tell that everyone was still here though. Their distinct smells were really strong on my new nose. “Caleb?” I heard Mina’s voice whisper to me, though ‘whisper’ is a relative term. Even though she was speaking softly, my new ears were all too sensitive to every sound that was made. For the first time since changing, I raised my face from the dirt and looked to the Zoroark in disguise. It didn’t matter that she looked human, it didn’t even matter that she was within sight for that matter. She had a distinct smell about her. Somewhat like how Terkin smelled after stepping through puddles; and with these senses, I could understand why my pokémon would be confused.

“M… Mina?” I stuttered blinking a few times. I was trying to look at her directly, but her gaze didn’t meet mine. “W-what am I?” I heard crunching leaves behind me, and I soon got a poke to my left side. The tiny fingers reached all the way to my ribs making me jump to the right. It was Axew. The little dragon was almost as tall as my shoulders and stared with wide eyes. I stumbled back a little bit and bumped into another fluffy body. It was considerably larger than I was and the bright orange fur quickly told me it was Terkin. The fur on my back raised as I felt his cold nose run across my head.

“You… uh, you’re, you're an Absol.” Mina said to me while still not making eye contact. I whipped my head around as I felt a tug on my tail; Glade seemed to be in shock as he let it slip through his hands. I turned my back to Mina to face the other two pokémon who had yet to touch me, but when I did I noticed that only Pawniard stood there. My eyes narrowed for a few seconds as I thought to myself ‘where is Emola?” My thoughts didn’t have time to dwell though as I felt a small body fall onto my back and grip onto my fur. I immediately tried to ‘buck’ the body off of me, but stopped thrashing when I came to the realization that it was Emolga who had tackled me.

Ignoring the rat on my back I turned back to Mina. “So… I’m a pokémon now??” The girl just nodded, still avoiding eye contact. I thought that was a bit weird considering my pokemon didn’t seem to have a problem looking at me, at least from what I could tell at the moment. “Can’t you turn me into something else? Maybe something with arms?”

“Even if I did turn you into something with arms, it wouldn’t be real.” She explained. “This only works one way. I can’t turn into any other humans. You can’t turn into any other pokémon. This is my human counterpart, and that is your pokémon counterpart.”

“An Absol?” My tone was more matter of fact than questioning; which made her response all too canny. “Absol-utely.” She said in her cheery voice. The pun washed over me and almost made me laugh, but I held my ground refusing to let such a crappy play on words get the best of me. Her gaze was still bothering me though, “Hey, why won’t you look at me?”

“Well, in the pokémon world it’s kind of a bad thing to look another in the eyes, don’t worry… it’s just uh, natural instinct.” She paused for a moment looking around me at my pokémon patiently waiting for me to address them. “I think they would like to talk with you now.” Mina raised her hand gesturing towards my party. “I’m gonna go back inside now, so you guys play nice.” She then began picking up my belt and clothing before walking past us. My head turned to follow her as she walked by carrying my things. “Wait! Is this going to wear off or something? How long do I have?”

Mina stopped and looked at me in the eyes for the first time since becoming an Absol. “There is no time limit. You’ll stay like that until I turn you back… so if you want to not come back, that is an option.” With that little bit, she once again turned and was off to return to the weather institute. My pokémon were now at the brunt of my attention, but Mina’s words did give me some concerns. What if I just decided to leave? Live the rest of my life as a pokémon? Then what? But the thought was starting to excite me as well; I could just go and live free, never have to worry about anything!

My pokémon were waiting patiently for me to acknowledge them and I didn’t want to keep them waiting any longer. “Hi guys.” ‘Hi guys?’ I thought, ‘that was all I could say? Really?’

“C-Caleb… you're… you're a pokémon?” Glade broke the silence and Terkin was soon to follow. “Oh yea he is! Look at him; he’s a regular canine now!” The Arcanine added as he roughly bumped me to the side. Maybe a little too roughly, as the force made me stumble and fall to my side. As I lie on the ground, Pawniard came close to me and kneeled to my side; his eyes peering into mine. I didn’t take Mina seriously when she said it was bad to look another pokémon in the eyes, but now I understood… it was really unsettling. “Can you understand us though?” he said, not taking his eyes off of me. Now that he mentioned it, I could understand them… I could understand them!!

I slowly nodded my head and the gesture made the bladed pokémon blink once and give what I could assume to be a smile. He turned to Axew and Emolga who pricked up their ears to hear what he had to say. “He can understand us!”

“I don’t believe it!” Emolga shouted as she bounced into the air. Axew was left speechless, but smiled at me with his big eyes. Not wanting to stay lying on the ground too much longer, I lifted myself up on my feet… uh, paws… once again. As I returned to standing position I noticed that all of my pokémon had gathered together and seemed to be talking amongst themselves. I found that they must have been speaking pretty quietly, because I couldn’t hear anything that was said, and that was saying something regarding my current form.

“Ahem…” I gave out a feign cough to draw their attention which certainly worked, as they all of them focused their gaze on me. When this had happened; when Mina and I were talking about it, I had wanted to have a nice peaceful talk with them. However, this was not going to be the case. I didn’t know it at the time, but all hell was about to break loose.

My pokémon started to slowly walk towards me, with Terkin taking the lead. I could see a sly smirk across his muzzle as his feet took heavy steps into the dirt. The rest of them wore the same expression, all except for glade who donned a guilty face. “You’re a pokémon now… which means that you’re not in charge anymore.” Terkin’s words and deep voice sent a sickening feeling right through my core. “Wha- uh, what… what does t-that mean?” I tried not to sound intimidated, but I failed miserably. Terkin is a lot larger than I am. Even when I was a human he could lay his chin on my shoulders without leaving the ground. Now… the beast was nearly double my size.

“That means… it’s time for a little payback…”

‘Huh? Payback for what?’ my terrified mind tried to scramble for what I would need paid back for, but I soon came to the realization that they were still angry for how I treated them. I understood I wasn’t a friend to them; I used them for battling; without a single concern for how they might feel. I knew that though, I apologized! I said things would get better, why were they doing this? The group continued to press towards me as I started to back away from them.

“H-hey guys, c-mon…” I tried to talk my way out of this mess. “We don’t need to do this, why can’t we just get along? I wanted to be a pokémon to walk in your paws, to speak your tongue, not to fight.” Words we clearly not working though, because they kept their pace unhindered, but I soon unwittingly backed into a tree. “I SAID I WAS SORRY!” I guess this must have been the trigger words; just as I had finished Terkin drew back with his maw agape. Flames escaped from between his teeth. Had I have been in the right state of mind, I would have been able to move, but I was scared. Legitimately terrified actually and the only thing I could do was huddle against the tree with my tail between my legs. I heard Terkin fire his ball of flame at me but with no time to move I was just a sitting Farfetch’d. I closed my eyes and the small ears beneath my fur folded against my head. Hopefully with my new body, I could survive this.

Suddenly I felt thin arms lift my body off of the ground and the heat of the flames whizzed by my rear end almost singeing my tail. I quickly looked up to the face of my rescuer to find Glade staring intently at me.

“Go Caleb, get out of here! They aren’t thinking clearly. Find Mina and get back into human form.”

The Galade threw me forward to let me hit the ground with a running start. It was a little awkward at first; I immediately began tripping all over myself, but eventually gained control and could run through the dried leaves; kicking up a trail behind me. I managed to glance back and saw Glade holding Terkin back from chasing after me. The other two were fighting him as well, trying to get past him. I quickly returned my eyes to my front just in time to avoid several trees and a stick. Finally I came to the bush dividing the forest from the Weather Institute and plowed my way through it.

Mina was walking back to the front doors with my clothes in hand. “MINA!” I yelled out to her with a desperate tone. The Zoroark in disguise turned to greet me as I came to a stop at her feet. “I need to go back! My pokémon are crazy, please make me human again!” I blurted out the string of words as fast as my tongue could allow me to. Mina simply smiled and kneeled to my level.

“Oh my, aren’t you a pretty Absol… where’s your trainer, girl?” She paused and dipped her head to the side. “Oop, I mean boy.” She let out a little giggle.

‘Did she just look at my junk??’ I thought with my mouth agape before shaking it out of my head. “No, Mina this is serious! I need help!” The human girl patted me on the head, “I’m sorry little guy, I’m only human and I can’t understand you.” Her tone was that of sarcasm, but of course I knew she could understand me. “Oh, well… If only I were a trainer, I would catch you myself you better be careful out there. I got to go now, bye bye little guy!” and just like that, she turned and went through the rotating door that led into the building. I was left speechless. The only person who could set things right, was her and she just walked away. My ears perked at the sound of fighting in the distance. My pokémon were still at it, and as much as I hated seeing them fight each other (seriously I thought I trained them better than that.), I had to find a safe place to escape from them. Namely Terkin. Although I suppose Emolga and Axew could do some damage as well…

Seeing as Mina won’t help me any time soon, I bolted to the other side of the building, opposite the direction I came from. With not much elsewhere to go, I started walking along the road that lead to Mistralton City. Not like I was leaving everyone behind or anything, I just thought maybe I could find a thick grassy mound or something to hide behind. At my running pace, it didn’t take long before I reached the first bridge after the Weather Institute. As I slowed my pace, I could feel the softness of the cool dirt change into warm wood under the pads of my feet. The sound of the rushing river below the boards was loud against my ears, but the smell was absolutely fresh. Intoxicating in fact. All except for one. It was faint, but definitely there. It smelled like… like, dirty laundry.

“OH! Omigosh!!” I heard a little kid exclaim from behind me. ‘How did he get there!? I thought I was alone!’ I thought to myself before turning to face the kid. “HO MAN! An Absol, those are soo, rare!” The little boy dug into his pockets and pulled out a pokéball. “If I catch you I can be a trainer too! And I won’t need to wait till next year to get my starter pokémon!” Was this kid going to do what I thought he was? I didn’t have time to really think about it because as soon as he was done with his sentence, the ball was hurtling through the air at me. It wasn’t aimed very well though and I could easily dodge it, but I didn’t know another ball was already on its way. As fast as I could, I tried to dodge this one as well, but… it hit me and I was sucked inside.
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(Mina)
Caleb had come to me, wanting to be changed back. However, I thought it was way too soon for him to be human again. I thought he wanted to see what it was like to be a pokémon. Besides, I knew what would happen; really it was inevitable. As a human; as holder of the pokeballs, Caleb was in charge without question, but as a pokémon he would have to fight for dominance. Also, humans not being able to understand you comes with being a pokémon as well.

I reentered the Weather Institute and took the elevator to the lower level. After showing my visitor badge to the desk woman, I proceeded to enter Luke’s room. A woman dressed in white carrying an armful of bandages nodded and walked past me out of the room. I was already by the bed before the door was fully closed. The machine against the wall was still beeping at a steady rate. Which I guess meant that he was okay. Unconscious, but okay. I slowly took a seat in the padded chair next to him. Looking towards my love I gently brushed his wavy brown hair out of his closed eyes and slumped back in the chair.

I looked to my right and saw a small table, upon which was a remote to the wall mounted TV. Not wanting to be alone with my thoughts, I picked up the black ectangle and pushed the red button labeled “Power”. The Television clicked on and the news was the first channel to be displayed.

“Owever, the flood in Undella Town that occurred just last week has not made a big impact on daily life within that district.” Undella Town was displayed on the screen with its high waters and people getting around via water pokémon. It seemed as though they were well prepared for it. “In other news, there was quite a dramatic event that took place just yesterday on route 6. It seems as though a group of radical extremist terrorists was able to take over the Weather Institute, locking all of the staff and various other trainers in a room within the building. One trainer, had this to say...” Caleb in his human form flashed onto the screen. I guess this was from when we were interviewed after it was all over. “They got trainers by pretending to give tours of the building. Naturally the Weather Institute gives out tours so that’s why there were so many people fooled by it. Heheh… yea, us too…” A Woman’s voice came but Caleb was still on focus. “And how exactly did you manage to escape? Our sources say you used some kind of blade?” “Yea, you could say that… Really though, it was all Luke’s plan, he pretty much singlehandedly did everything. If it wasn’t for him, we’d still be in that room, our pokémon taken to Arceus knows where…” The screen flashed to a still picture of Luke and the anchorman’s voice started speaking over it. “Luke Irving, a young man from Anville Town, and famous for being the Lacunosa pokémon contest champion, a performance which blew everyone in the contest world away; seemed to have been the hero in this story. Just like the incident in Sinnoh, which took place several years ago, Luke had defeated an organization bent on getting their hands on the pokémon known as Castform.” Another interview held by an unrecognized female trainer flashed onto the screen. “I saw the whole thing, that guy appeared from the hallway with another trainer and his exhausted Zoroark, and threw a rock at the capsule holding Castform.” The next image to be displayed was that of Luke lying in the hospital bed. Once again the anchorman’s voice started speaking. “Mr. Irving is currently being looked after at the Weather Institute after being raked by a Tyranitar and passing out after throwing the stone that saved the little pokémon from being stolen by Archangel.” Luke’s image faded away and the anchorman was shown sitting at a desk facing the screen. “Well, that sure was brave of those young boys, I hope Mr. Irving makes a quick recovery. Coming up next, ten simple ways to minimalize you pokémon’s accidental injuries.”

Commercials flashed across the screen which broke my unblinking gaze. Unconsciously I pressed the power button on the remote again and the TV shut off. I wasn’t really in the mood for Television anyway… After a few seconds of silence, I heard a light knock on the door, but apparently I didn’t need to respond, because the same nurse, who left the room as I was coming in, had opened the door and stood in the doorway with a phone in her hand.

“Miss. Mina?” Her voice was light and showed some urgency as she held out the phone to me. “You have a phone call from your mother.” I got up from my seat and was handed the phone. ‘My… mother?’ I was a little puzzled for a moment. The nurse nodded towards me and left the room closing the door behind her. Not wanting to let my caller wait I put the phone to my human ears and soon realized that I shouldn’t have even thought about it at all.

“MINA! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!??” It was Luke’s mom and I guess she saw what was on the news just now. “Um… Hi Mrs. Irving…” My nervousness leaked through and my voiced cracked a little. “Don’t you, ‘Hi Mrs. Irving’ me young lady! You two are in BIG trouble do you hear me!?”

“Y-yes, ma’am…”

“Honestly, how could you get caught up in all of that? When I heard it on the news I almost passed out! And why didn’t you call me the second Luke got hurt!?”

“I-I’m sorry, I haven’t r-really been thinking straight since yesterday, and we kind of got caught off guard.” My knees started shaking, so I sat back down in the seat, but that didn’t stop my nervousness. I started biting the nails on one hand; Luke’s mom could be really fierce when she wanted to. It’s for this reason that I often thought of her as my own mother. “I should have done more… but I couldn’t move… I’m so sorry.”

“I’m sure it’s not your fault Mina.” Her tone came down to more of a sad tone than an angry one. “You know Luke, he likes to play hero.” This made me give out a small giggle… he did, kind just a little. “So how is he?” Mrs. Irving asked.

“Dr. Brennen said that he was a lot better than he looked and should be okay in the next couple days.” The other end of the line was silent for almost a full minute so I spoke up to break the silence. “You know, I didn’t know that the Weather Institute had all of this healing stuff. You should see it; he’s in real good hands.”

“I want you to come home…” ‘Huh?’ After all of this time on our own, she wanted us to give all of this up and come home? There were still so many places we haven’t been to! I still wanted to go to Sinnoh with Lukey! “I want you guys to come home, even if it’s for just a little while… I worry about you two out there, and this doesn’t make it any better.” The more I thought about it, the more I realized that she must be awfully lonely at home by herself. And it really has been a long time since we were back in Anville Town, maybe it was time we stopped by for a visit.

“I’ll have to talk to Luke when he wakes up, but I think we should stop by after the next town.”

“You mean Mistralton right?”

“Mmhm.”

“Alright then. Call me when Luke wakes up. Don’t forget now. I wanna talk to him when he gets up.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Okay, love you sweetie. Bye bye now.”

“Love you too.” After a few seconds I heard a click on the other line signaling that she had hung up. I lowered the phone from my head and held it in my lap…

‘Wait… how did she know this place’s phone number?’
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(Caleb)
Pain… I was expecting pain. Actually no, I didn’t know what to expect. Trainers carry pokéballs and use them to capture pokémon to use in contests or battles. But I’m not sure even the oldest trainers know what goes on once a pokémon is sucked inside one. Too bad for me, I was about to find out.

Suddenly I was thrown into a dark space. I could feel a solid flat floor beneath my paws, but the darkness was disorienting, I could barely stand. Trying to move, I began sliding my pads along the floor being careful not to fall off a ledge or something. Just a few more inches I moved through the dark, but it didn’t last much longer. The lights came on, and I could see that I was in a huge dome with white walls. Black lines covered the walls in a ‘circuit-like’ pattern.

“-Pokémon assessment completed. Species confirmed. Absol. Male. Initializing environment.-”

As soon as the robotic voice had finished, the whole area transformed into an open grassy clearing surrounded by trees and the sky turned blue with clouds and even a sun. However, the black lines stayed behind. ‘Must be a holographic projection’ I thought as I walked around the area. Suddenly I began to feel grass on the bottoms of my feet and the smells of nature flooded my nostrils. ‘An impossibly good hologram.’

“-First phase, comfortable atmosphere, complete. Next phase, open mind writing initializing.-“

“Mind writing? Oh no… I need to get out of here NOW!” I shouted out loud, but I knew no one would hear me. I looked to my left, then right, and then behind me. Everything was the same; I was in the middle of a giant circle disguised as a forest clearing. ‘The only thing I can do is run to the fake trees. That should be the wall.’ Without any more thought, I leapt into a full on sprint. The clarity of my path and the distance to the wall allowed me to finally run at full speed and it was incredible. I could feel the breeze through my fur as my paws pounded the ground. The horn coming out of my head whistled slightly, cutting the air as I gained speed. It didn’t take long before I reached the edge. Not knowing what to do, I stopped and tried to think, but started to panic when I noticed the lines on the walls start to morph and lift themselves off of the surface.

“-Stage two activated. Target located. Stage two begin.-”

As the voice finished speaking, the black lines bolted towards me. I didn’t stand a chance; they wrapped themselves around my body and held me to the ground. Digging my black claws into the fake dirt I crawled my way closer to the wall. It was the only thing I could do. One of the black lines had made it to my head and I instantly began receiving messages.
‘Don’t fight.’
‘You love the human.’
‘Give in.’
‘You are protected.’
‘you are friends.’

I shook the black line enough to break it away from its source. I was so close to the wall now, every breath I took was used to fuel my muscles to drag me even a millimeter closer. Another line had made it to my head delivering its messages.
‘You are tired.’
‘It is safe here.’
‘The human loves you.’
‘The human will protect you.’
‘The human needs you.’

I managed to cut that line from the wall with my black blade, ending the messages. I continued my struggle, desperate to be free. ‘Guah! If only Timmy were here, he could help me; he wouldn’t let me suffer like this… Wait, who’s Timmy!?’ I was starting to lose my mind. I’ve never heard of anyone named Timmy in my life! I inched closer to the wall, stretching my neck out as far as I could. The black lines tried to pull me back, but my rear claws held me firmly in place. I cried out in a mixture of frustration and agony as another black line attached itself to my head. “NO!!!” I yelled in rejection of the messages to come.
‘Forget your past.’
‘Your place is here.’
‘No one loves you except the human.’
‘You will no-

My nose just barely brushed against the wall and just like that… it was over. The black circuit lines released me.

“-Stage two incomplete. Process interrupted. Termination in progress.-”

The room became all white again as the hologram faded away. The black lines on the wall completely disappeared and the room went dark again.

The next thing I knew, I was once again outside of the pokéball. Inside of the ball it felt like forever, but I could hear that, that wasn’t the case. “AWWWW. Only two shakes! Why don’t you wanna be with me?? I want you, get in the ball!!” The little boy shouted at me as I rematerialized on the bridge. I was still a little dazed by everything that happened, but the one thing I absolutely knew is that I didn’t want to get sucked inside a pokéball again. I needed to run away; the kid in front of me was already preparing to throw another! Out of haste and without thinking, I leapt into the river. I didn’t even stop to think if I could swim in this body, I just had to get away from that little boy at all costs. I guess that kid didn’t want to waste his balls on me anymore as I started floating down stream. Since I had dodged one and broken another I would guess he would be running out of them soon.

‘I had successfully escaped the ten year old!’ Wow… never thought I would ever say that to myself. Now though, I was confronted with a new problem. This river was flowing pretty fast, and even though I found that I could swim, it didn’t help the fact that I was headed straight for a waterfall.

“OH Arceus!” I screamed aloud whilst paddling on the surface. I tried to swim my way towards the bank but after what happened in the pokéball, I was too exhausted to fight the current and was carried down with the water. Freefalling, the water droplets seemed to stop in mid air as I matched their speed. The thought occurred to me that there may be sharp rocks at the bottom of this waterfall and I began to panic. Still falling, I curled up in a ball, took a deep breath and hoped I could survive this.

I fell for at least six seconds and then the cool rush of water engulfed me again. My falling speed made me sink far into the bottom of the river. Luckily for me, there weren’t any sharp rocks waiting for me. Just the smooth pebbles formed from hundreds of years of water erosion. I resurfaced moments later and was welcomed to a slower moving river with shallow tapering beaches. Pulling up to a beach, I drug myself out of the water and collapsed to the ground panting hard.

I was cold, wet, dirty, tired and hungry too. The only plus side to all this is that I was pretty sure my pokémon would be finding me any time soon… but for now, I just laid there letting out small coughs every now and then.

“Welp, I think I have the physical abilities of an Absol, but what about the powers?” I lifted myself further up the sand bank to avoid being in the water at all. Thinking back to before all this chaos happened, I remembered what Mina had said; ‘I don’t know, I’m not sure…’ Fat lot of good that did me… I wish I would have asked her how she used her powers, or even my pokémon had talked with me like I wanted to. But really what happened is already done and there’s no use crying over it and I’m sure everything will work out.

With nothing left to do, I decided to pull myself out of the sand and set out into the forest.