A Semi-Unexpected Confrontation
Cass continued looking worried, but she stopped staring at Nurse Joy as if she was the cause of all of our problems and began looking at me. I could not help but return her gaze, but I only maintained eye contact with Cass for a few seconds before looking back toward the nurse. Cass seemed more silent than ever before as if she too had a secret that was in danger of being revealed, but I wanted to know just how much information Nurse Joy retrieved about me during my so-called physical. I knew that the information she already gathered about my body was enough to endanger both Cass and me, I also knew that the sooner we left the city, the safer we would become. That was assuming any city in existence could be considered a safe heaven after Nurse Joy's recent discoveries. "Is there anything else you need to tell me?" Cass asked.
At this question, Nurse Joy slowly shook her head from left to right before she returned her gaze toward Cass. "I am afraid that is all I know about Chase. However, I am certain if you allow us to keep Chase here for a little longer, we can discover more about him and his abnormalities." Nurse Joy said. "Of course, that option is your decision since you are his legal owner." The nurse added.
"That is completely out of the question!" Cass suddenly shouted a bit louder than she wanted to. Immediately after yelling at the nurse, she clasped her hands over her face and began blushing from embarrassment. "My apologies Nurse Joy, I didn't mean to yell." Cass said after lowering her arms as Nurse Joy began eying Cass suspiciously. "It's just that I have waited hours to see Chase again and I have been worried about him after he collapsed on the counter. Not only that, but he was back there for a rather long time and now you are telling me that there might be something else wrong with him. I just can't stand being separated from him any longer, especially after hearing all of this." Cass explained as my nose began picking up a strange scent from her body.
I slowly walked over to Cass's position and began sniffing at her shirt, when I inhaled the scent up close I backed away in disgust. Her body was beginning to perspire and while she had only begun to sweat, I could smell it as though she had been exercising throughout the last hour. I realized that Cass was afraid and I could tell that she was worried about me and wanted nothing more than to hold me in her arms for both her comfort and mine. I too was frightened, probably more frightened than Cass was and I only wanted to leave the city before anyone else discovered my secret. "Don't worry; I am almost certain that there is nothing wrong with Chase. However, since you will not leave him here for further examination, I strongly recommend that you have Chase looked at once a week or whenever you have the chance. A condition like his needs to be monitored to make sure it does not progress into something bad." Nurse Joy instructed and every word that spilled from her mouth filled every ounce of my body with even more fear than before.
"Alright, I will do my best, thank you for letting us know Nurse Joy, but we have to leave." Cass said and it seemed that she was beginning to tremble with fear of her own. I was afraid myself, but she looked like she was about to collapse. "Nurse, may I please have Amber's poke'ball?" Cass requested.
"Of course, here you are." Nurse Joy replied as she happily handed Cass Amber's poke'ball.
"Alright Chase, it's time to leave." Cass said after pocketing Amber's poke'ball.
I quickly leaped up onto Cass' right shoulder and positioned myself so that I would not fall off. Afterward, Cass turned around and walked toward the front entrance. During the walk, I rubbed my face into hers in an attempt to calm her down. Cass only frowned and sighed while she walked toward the door. I knew that there was something more bothering her other than learning about my body's possible instability. We eventually exited the building and made our way down the sidewalk. Cass stopped at a streetlight and waited for the light to change, during the wait she looked at me and sighed again. "I should have known you weren't an eevee Chase." Cass said solemnly, but I was not sure what she meant by that. "Your name probably isn't Chase either so I don't know why I should call you by that name anymore." Cass added.
"Chase, I read the newspapers in the poke'mon center while you were being treated and examined. Apparently, an organization once existed that performed illegal human and poke'mon experiments. The people who had chased after you the other day were part of that group, I am sure of it." Cass explained and I looked at her and listened to her intently, wondering if she knew what I was. If anyone was going to know about my secret, I wanted it to be her. "Fortunately, the organization disbanded after their lead researcher was arrested. Unfortunately, it was too late for the people who had been kidnapped because there were several human bodies discovered during a region-wide missing person search."
"The search covered every poke'mon center, gym, and research center. All of the bodies that were found had been horrifically altered and none of them survived the experiments. Ninety-seven people were discovered dead and their fused poke'mon and human DNA made it impossible to identify any of them." Cass said and as terrifying as the information was, I forced myself to listen to her. "Chase, I do not know why anyone would be so cruel as to do something like that. However, there is one thing that I am sure of and that is you were an unwilling human participant in the experiments and quite possibly the only one who survived." Cass said and suddenly I felt emotionally relieved that she knew.
The red light finally dimmed down only to be replaced by a brightly lit green light on the streetlight above. Cass almost began walking when someone suddenly walked around the corner and stopped several feet in front of our position. "Good evening Cassandra Follie." The six-foot-tall stranger said, sending fear running through my entire body when I heard him call out Cass's full name.
It was difficult making out the man's face because he was wearing a white top hat, which covered all of his hair. He wore a pair of stylish sunglasses over his eyes with a white scarf that wrapped itself around his entire mouth, nose, and neck. The scarf even managed to cover the topmost portions of the man's collar due to its irregular size. The man wore a large white overcoat that had several black buttons evenly displaced across the front. All of the buttons were securely fasted, making it impossible to see what he was wearing underneath of it. Either the overcoat had stiff shoulders or the man wearing the outfit was rather large underneath of it. Each of the cuffs on the stranger's overcoat had a set of three black buttons placed at the sides, which were also fastened. On the man's hands were a pair of white gloves, probably silk, but I could not be certain about that as I continued inspecting his appearance. He wore a pair of white cargo-pants, but only the pant legs past the knees were visible since the overcoat hung rather low. Lastly, he wore a pair of black leather dress shoes.
From the stranger's appearance, I could not help speculate that he was oddly dressed. However odd the man's appearance was, I still understood the seriousness of the situation and confirmation of my suspicions came quickly. "My employer has recently discovered your eevee's unusual properties and has hired me to retrieve it for him." The man quickly stated. "He is willing to pay handsomely to have your eevee in his possession. In fact, how would you feel about becoming a millionaire?" The man offered.
"I already know about Chase and even if I didn't, I would never sell him because offering money for poke'mon is an illegal act." Cass declared.
"Yes, my employer told me that you might be aware of the situation." The stranger revealed. "He told me that if you did, I am supposed to take you with me along with your eevee and any other poke'mon you may have in your possession." He added.
"How do you know about Chase? I was told that his medical information is confidential." Cass said.
"I am afraid that I cannot answer that question, cooperate and do as I have instructed you or I will be forced to fight you. If you choose to fight, I must inform you that I am aware of the fact that you are inexperienced as a trainer and only own two basic poke'mon. One is your eevee, but considering his situation, I do not think battling is a wise choice for him. The other is your vulpix, a fire type and while she may already possess her flamethrower ability, I decided to bring along a water type as insurance." The stranger replied and the information he had gathered about all three of us was both incredible and frightening.
I hopped down and slowly walked forward before I took a fighting stance by straightening my back, positioning my legs to prepare to run, and straightening my tail. I also lowered my ears because I knew that while I ran, they would slow me down unless I lowered them to allow the airflow across my body more aerodynamically. "Chase, you can't fight, your boy is too unstable." Cass said, but I stared forward, I was not going anywhere without a fight and if I died, at least everyone including my enemies lost. "Chase, please." Cass pleaded, but I stubbornly continued staring forward at my opponent.
"Don't worry, I am not going to fight your eevee, but he is coming with me nonetheless." The stranger said as he reached into his overcoat with one hand and brought out a black orb.
The orb was not a poke'ball; that much was certain, but I knew that I could not let myself be hit by it. The man suddenly tossed the tennis-ball-size orb toward me. I tried dodging it, but the moment I jumped into the air, the black ball broke apart into four different pieces and crashed into the ground around me. The sharp edges pierced the concrete while a net attached to the devise prevented me from jumping. Instead, it pushed me back toward the ground, forcing me to painfully crash into the sidewalk on my stomach. While experiencing some pain, I began hearing an irritating grinding sound of gears spinning. I pressed my ears to the sides of my head in a failed attempt to drown out the sound.
I turned my head just enough to see the white net closing in on my body. Something inside the surrounding quarter-orbs was retracting the net until I felt my body uncomfortably pressing against the hard sidewalk. I could not even crawl, let alone stand up and I felt that the tight net would cut into my skin if it retracted any further. Fortunately, the sound stopped, meaning that the net finally stopped retracting. However, I was trapped beneath a net not much larger than I was in my eevee form and even though I struggled to push the net off my body, my efforts were in vain. The only thing I accomplished was hurting myself as I felt the fine lining of the net nearly pierce my skin. I was only thankful that I had fur to cushion my body to act as minor protection.
"Cassandra, if you care for your eevee then you will accompany me to visit my employer. He is a generous man and will pay you one million dollars once he has what he wants even if you do not willingly cooperate. Think of it as compensation for your losses." The stranger said, but his words only infuriated me even though my anger would solve nothing during that moment.
At this question, Nurse Joy slowly shook her head from left to right before she returned her gaze toward Cass. "I am afraid that is all I know about Chase. However, I am certain if you allow us to keep Chase here for a little longer, we can discover more about him and his abnormalities." Nurse Joy said. "Of course, that option is your decision since you are his legal owner." The nurse added.
"That is completely out of the question!" Cass suddenly shouted a bit louder than she wanted to. Immediately after yelling at the nurse, she clasped her hands over her face and began blushing from embarrassment. "My apologies Nurse Joy, I didn't mean to yell." Cass said after lowering her arms as Nurse Joy began eying Cass suspiciously. "It's just that I have waited hours to see Chase again and I have been worried about him after he collapsed on the counter. Not only that, but he was back there for a rather long time and now you are telling me that there might be something else wrong with him. I just can't stand being separated from him any longer, especially after hearing all of this." Cass explained as my nose began picking up a strange scent from her body.
I slowly walked over to Cass's position and began sniffing at her shirt, when I inhaled the scent up close I backed away in disgust. Her body was beginning to perspire and while she had only begun to sweat, I could smell it as though she had been exercising throughout the last hour. I realized that Cass was afraid and I could tell that she was worried about me and wanted nothing more than to hold me in her arms for both her comfort and mine. I too was frightened, probably more frightened than Cass was and I only wanted to leave the city before anyone else discovered my secret. "Don't worry; I am almost certain that there is nothing wrong with Chase. However, since you will not leave him here for further examination, I strongly recommend that you have Chase looked at once a week or whenever you have the chance. A condition like his needs to be monitored to make sure it does not progress into something bad." Nurse Joy instructed and every word that spilled from her mouth filled every ounce of my body with even more fear than before.
"Alright, I will do my best, thank you for letting us know Nurse Joy, but we have to leave." Cass said and it seemed that she was beginning to tremble with fear of her own. I was afraid myself, but she looked like she was about to collapse. "Nurse, may I please have Amber's poke'ball?" Cass requested.
"Of course, here you are." Nurse Joy replied as she happily handed Cass Amber's poke'ball.
"Alright Chase, it's time to leave." Cass said after pocketing Amber's poke'ball.
I quickly leaped up onto Cass' right shoulder and positioned myself so that I would not fall off. Afterward, Cass turned around and walked toward the front entrance. During the walk, I rubbed my face into hers in an attempt to calm her down. Cass only frowned and sighed while she walked toward the door. I knew that there was something more bothering her other than learning about my body's possible instability. We eventually exited the building and made our way down the sidewalk. Cass stopped at a streetlight and waited for the light to change, during the wait she looked at me and sighed again. "I should have known you weren't an eevee Chase." Cass said solemnly, but I was not sure what she meant by that. "Your name probably isn't Chase either so I don't know why I should call you by that name anymore." Cass added.
"Chase, I read the newspapers in the poke'mon center while you were being treated and examined. Apparently, an organization once existed that performed illegal human and poke'mon experiments. The people who had chased after you the other day were part of that group, I am sure of it." Cass explained and I looked at her and listened to her intently, wondering if she knew what I was. If anyone was going to know about my secret, I wanted it to be her. "Fortunately, the organization disbanded after their lead researcher was arrested. Unfortunately, it was too late for the people who had been kidnapped because there were several human bodies discovered during a region-wide missing person search."
"The search covered every poke'mon center, gym, and research center. All of the bodies that were found had been horrifically altered and none of them survived the experiments. Ninety-seven people were discovered dead and their fused poke'mon and human DNA made it impossible to identify any of them." Cass said and as terrifying as the information was, I forced myself to listen to her. "Chase, I do not know why anyone would be so cruel as to do something like that. However, there is one thing that I am sure of and that is you were an unwilling human participant in the experiments and quite possibly the only one who survived." Cass said and suddenly I felt emotionally relieved that she knew.
The red light finally dimmed down only to be replaced by a brightly lit green light on the streetlight above. Cass almost began walking when someone suddenly walked around the corner and stopped several feet in front of our position. "Good evening Cassandra Follie." The six-foot-tall stranger said, sending fear running through my entire body when I heard him call out Cass's full name.
It was difficult making out the man's face because he was wearing a white top hat, which covered all of his hair. He wore a pair of stylish sunglasses over his eyes with a white scarf that wrapped itself around his entire mouth, nose, and neck. The scarf even managed to cover the topmost portions of the man's collar due to its irregular size. The man wore a large white overcoat that had several black buttons evenly displaced across the front. All of the buttons were securely fasted, making it impossible to see what he was wearing underneath of it. Either the overcoat had stiff shoulders or the man wearing the outfit was rather large underneath of it. Each of the cuffs on the stranger's overcoat had a set of three black buttons placed at the sides, which were also fastened. On the man's hands were a pair of white gloves, probably silk, but I could not be certain about that as I continued inspecting his appearance. He wore a pair of white cargo-pants, but only the pant legs past the knees were visible since the overcoat hung rather low. Lastly, he wore a pair of black leather dress shoes.
From the stranger's appearance, I could not help speculate that he was oddly dressed. However odd the man's appearance was, I still understood the seriousness of the situation and confirmation of my suspicions came quickly. "My employer has recently discovered your eevee's unusual properties and has hired me to retrieve it for him." The man quickly stated. "He is willing to pay handsomely to have your eevee in his possession. In fact, how would you feel about becoming a millionaire?" The man offered.
"I already know about Chase and even if I didn't, I would never sell him because offering money for poke'mon is an illegal act." Cass declared.
"Yes, my employer told me that you might be aware of the situation." The stranger revealed. "He told me that if you did, I am supposed to take you with me along with your eevee and any other poke'mon you may have in your possession." He added.
"How do you know about Chase? I was told that his medical information is confidential." Cass said.
"I am afraid that I cannot answer that question, cooperate and do as I have instructed you or I will be forced to fight you. If you choose to fight, I must inform you that I am aware of the fact that you are inexperienced as a trainer and only own two basic poke'mon. One is your eevee, but considering his situation, I do not think battling is a wise choice for him. The other is your vulpix, a fire type and while she may already possess her flamethrower ability, I decided to bring along a water type as insurance." The stranger replied and the information he had gathered about all three of us was both incredible and frightening.
I hopped down and slowly walked forward before I took a fighting stance by straightening my back, positioning my legs to prepare to run, and straightening my tail. I also lowered my ears because I knew that while I ran, they would slow me down unless I lowered them to allow the airflow across my body more aerodynamically. "Chase, you can't fight, your boy is too unstable." Cass said, but I stared forward, I was not going anywhere without a fight and if I died, at least everyone including my enemies lost. "Chase, please." Cass pleaded, but I stubbornly continued staring forward at my opponent.
"Don't worry, I am not going to fight your eevee, but he is coming with me nonetheless." The stranger said as he reached into his overcoat with one hand and brought out a black orb.
The orb was not a poke'ball; that much was certain, but I knew that I could not let myself be hit by it. The man suddenly tossed the tennis-ball-size orb toward me. I tried dodging it, but the moment I jumped into the air, the black ball broke apart into four different pieces and crashed into the ground around me. The sharp edges pierced the concrete while a net attached to the devise prevented me from jumping. Instead, it pushed me back toward the ground, forcing me to painfully crash into the sidewalk on my stomach. While experiencing some pain, I began hearing an irritating grinding sound of gears spinning. I pressed my ears to the sides of my head in a failed attempt to drown out the sound.
I turned my head just enough to see the white net closing in on my body. Something inside the surrounding quarter-orbs was retracting the net until I felt my body uncomfortably pressing against the hard sidewalk. I could not even crawl, let alone stand up and I felt that the tight net would cut into my skin if it retracted any further. Fortunately, the sound stopped, meaning that the net finally stopped retracting. However, I was trapped beneath a net not much larger than I was in my eevee form and even though I struggled to push the net off my body, my efforts were in vain. The only thing I accomplished was hurting myself as I felt the fine lining of the net nearly pierce my skin. I was only thankful that I had fur to cushion my body to act as minor protection.
"Cassandra, if you care for your eevee then you will accompany me to visit my employer. He is a generous man and will pay you one million dollars once he has what he wants even if you do not willingly cooperate. Think of it as compensation for your losses." The stranger said, but his words only infuriated me even though my anger would solve nothing during that moment.