HemengoaBakarrik nire heriotzannire ahoan aurkituko dutenongoa nintzen.Serve The Broken DeityAn electric shock surged through Sidäx's brain, immediately waking her up from her sweet dreams. It was time to serve. If only she could linger in the dream world, detached from the cruel reality. She wasn't that lucky and perhaps never will. Darkness surrounded her for a while, a tender and comforting darkness. She was hooked up to multiple wires all around her broken body, carefully nurturing her and prolonging her life. It was like she was in their embrace, it felt pleasant, but one by one they retreated from her body, thus bringing an end to this comfortable feeling. She was in a small confined place, the sort that could make some people mad, but Sidäx didn't mind it, the walls surrounding her were soft, it was like a padded cell. More than anything, Sidäx felt like the space she was in resembled a womb, a place where she was safe. But a child must leave her mother at some point and the same applies to Sidäx. The hatch in front of her whirred open, exposing her to the outside world. Sidäx's movements were stiff, a lot like what you would expect from a machine, as she stepped outside of the capsule where she had slumbered. She was welcomed by a crimson glow, the light of a devil as she had worded it. The humongous space around her was filled with this red light, the huge light bulbs that were scattered around were like crimson eyes, staring, following every move of the people. Many had been driven insane by it. It wasn't just the sleeping chamber, it was the same in the whole facility. Sometimes the lights flickered as if they were blinking eyes. It was a bad sign that would make the hearts of people tremble; if they had hearts anymore. Calamity was the worst fear inside these stone walls and any error would make the anxiety spread. Sidäx had to get moving. And so did so many others. The vast space was occupied by the sleeping capsules; people were almost constantly coming in and out of them. There were probably hundreds of them, neatly arranged in lines. Various platforms made from metal had been built so all the capsules were accessible. Some of them had already malfunctioned to the point of beyond repair, but that was quite alright; some of their residents had perished as well. Nobody remembered them, not even those who had seen them frequently. Short is the memory of people with rotten brains. Sidäx and a group of other people were walking out of the rest area, their steps being like an out of tune rhythm against the metal beneath their feet. They marched forward like a horde of undead, hunched and sluggish with their movements. The frequent clanking of metal was a loud constant noise, for a lot of people had lost at least one of their legs, including Sidäx. No one here was made of just flesh and blood anymore. Eventually one's body will get damaged and when it does, it will be fixed with mechanical parts so they can keep going and fulfilling their duties. Sidäx herself had gone through several procedures as her organic body started to fall apart. Her right leg and left arm were just cold metal now, granting her the ability to move. A complex clockwork has been installed into her chest to replace her heart and lungs. A couple of cogs had replaced a part of her brain. She had only one organic eye left, the other one was mechanical now. All the people within the stone walls were in this condition, more or less. Some people didn't even have minds anymore, transforming them into mere walking corpses that followed one purpose, the only purpose the people inside the stone walls had. Sidäx walked among these braindead individuals, pondering how much longer she was able to be in touch with her own mind; it had already started to slip away a little. It frightened her, because once her mind was gone, what would be left of her? A mass of flesh, mended with metal, perhaps still having a shred of identity left in her face, but nobody's home. Though, she was already forgotten by many, even those she saw on a daily basis, and maybe the same fate would fall upon them all; just ghostly remnants of humanity clinging onto their despair. Sidäx made the mistake to glance at the eyes of someone who wasn't really there anymore; they were dead and soulless. What bothered her was the fact she couldn't remember this individual being anything else, ever. Sidäx did recall seeing them, but the fragile sign of life was gone like it had never even existed. She realized that she was starting to upset herself for no good reason and focused only on walking forward, avoiding the eyes of others because of what they would reveal from them – and of Sidäx herself. The crimson glow guided the people to the heart of the mountain. Sidäx and the group of others reached the great pit, the most spacious chamber in the whole facility. And right there, in the pit, sat the great machine, the one that never rested. In the very bottom of the machine a hellfire burned, powering its infernal parts. The people who hollowed out the mountain dug too deep and unleashed the fires that could never be extinguished. But they also realized they could use the fire's power to fuel the machine, keep it going at all times. The hellfire was still burning, so the machine was still working. But much like the people who existed within the mountain, even the great machine had seen its better days. Some parts were rusty and the faulty wires were sparking. Sometimes there was smoke and the machine would tremble with such intensity that people were afraid the whole mountain would collapse, crushing them all. The great machine needed its care and the people needed the great machine. Even though the hellfire sustained it, there were some fragments that required manpower to function – and this necessity was constant. Many platforms surrounded this grand device, Sidäx being in one of the middle ones. She and the others who had come here in the same group kneeled down in unison in front of the great machine, an act they performed flawlessly. And on her knees, she watched how the mechanical parts moved, how the limbs that looked like the legs of a metallic spider shifted and creaked and weaved matter that kept them all alive. And she threw her arms in the air to show devotion; she was a fanatic just like everybody else. This was their deity, worshipping it was their only purpose in life. Sidäx and all the others had served the machine for decades or perhaps even a century. It allowed them to live so they could take care of it and make sure it was working properly. It was a cycle and so long it had been turning that no one could break it anymore – or even have the desire to do so. Sidäx lowered her arms but remained on her knees for a while. She could hear the machine speaking to her, through all the clanking and humming and creaking and sparking. It comforted her, shattering any doubts she may have harbored after waking up. Life wasn't so bleak as long as she served the machine. It spoke to her about the horrors she had escaped and told her how everything was alright here, within these stone walls. She was special, she was lucky, for millions had perished in the cold outside world. She was still here and had a purpose as long as her body could move – even if with no mind. And still, the machine would adore her. Sidäx felt the warmth coursing through her body as she listened to the gentle whispers of the machine as it told her it needed her. With the power of devotion, she got on her feet again and headed to a lower platform. She descended a few more platforms, getting closer and closer to the hellfire that blazed forever. Sometimes Sidäx pondered what it would feel like to throw herself into the flames, get her body burned beyond recognition, but most importantly; could she become part of her god? Would it allow that? She wasn't sure, so she continued to serve it as usual. There were many cranks on the level she had reached and they needed to be rotated constantly. This was her place, she had worked here since the beginning. Sidäx walked toward one of the many cranks here, currently being operated by a man whose body was mostly flesh; a rare trait, indeed. Sidäx gently tapped his shoulder and he glanced at her, understanding her message and let her take over his post. Neither uttered a single word and the man walked away; it was his time to rest inside the capsule. Sidäx started her shift and began to rotate the crank, just like many other people around her. Sidäx's mind tended to be a wandering one while on duty, she was just doing the same motion over and over again and had a lot of time to think. The many noises of the great machine felt soothing in her mechanical heart, she was glad she didn't have a human heart anymore because now the machine's and her heart were made from the same material, thus making her feel more connected to her god. But although she was basking in the radiance of the machine, she sometimes pondered on what could have been. It was hard to remember things after decades, but occasionally visions were visiting her deteriorating mind. Sidäx had served the machine for so long she couldn't really recall what her life had been like before becoming a dweller within the mountain. In her head, there were remnants of a different kind of reality, something that felt so alien to her now. There were groups of people, their whole bodies just flesh and blood, but they had no faces. Regardless, Sidäx felt like they were important to her somehow, even though they were just nothing more but ghosts in her mind now. She could also see strange places, something that weren't made of stone and metal. A vast space with blue above, green below; the sky and the grasslands, she had struggled to remember them and even now they were something she couldn't really comprehend. Maybe they were just pieces of her dreams, something her subconscious mind would conjure up while she was resting. She couldn't tell the difference anymore. Little by little it was getting hard to remember or even think. Her brain was rotting, slowly but surely. Part of her body was still flesh and after working some time it would start to ache. However, Sidäx would keep going for as long as she possibly could despite the pain. She would happily bleed for her god if she could stay in the vicinity of it, listening to the melodies it played for her. Sometimes she would hum in tune with the sweet music. It eased her pain and helped her to finish her shift. Her sense of time was pretty much nonexistent; she could never tell how much time had passed. Even now she couldn't tell if she had been working for just a few hours or even a couple of days. It was the moment when she felt a harsh tap on her shoulder when she realized that her work hours were done. She would leave her spot for someone else and sometimes, it disgusted Sidäx. It was her place, the way she could fulfill her role as a servant. She would leave with a bitter mind, because her body, her cursed body of flesh, it needed rest. She would then ascend from the pit, offering a little prayer to her deity before she would head to the chamber of sleeping capsules along with others who had to sleep. The further away Sidäx walked from her god, the more bitter she became. Decades had taken their toll on both her body and mind; she could recall some hazy memories of the days when she had been more vigorous. But she had chosen this path of devotion and she would walk on it until the day when she would perish. She and the others had to keep the machine running so disaster won't fall upon their mountain refuge. Everyone who had a fragment of their own mind still intact could, however, tell that they were heading towards a slow-motion annihilation. Their numbers had decreased over the years and they had no means to reproduce as they all were infertile. It had left the rest with an anxiety that made them seek for methods to prolong their lives so they could continue to serve the great machine. They just had to go beyond the limits of a human physique, that's all there really was. They had tampered with nature in order to worship god. Sidäx along with some others reached the chamber with the sleeping capsules. Weary steps made them seek their own designated rest space; the people were walking like ants in the massive chamber. Sidäx had to climb a couple of platforms before finding her own capsule. Its hatch whirred open as it recognized her touch and she made a quick turn to retreat inside her back first. The many wires attached to various parts of her body in order to nourish her while she would sleep and the hatch soon closed, the comfortable darkness concealing her once more. It was like she was already a complete machine, her consciousness was turned off just like that. She could still dream, however. And in her dreams, she would offer all her flesh and blood for the machine. She didn't need them anyway. She would become a whole machine herself, evolving from her fragile human form. Together she and other worthy would serve their deity until the end of time itself. And she dreamed of how the hellfire would burn even stronger, so strong that it could melt the frozen outside world. And the machine would grow from the confines of its pit and lead the whole world to a new age. Such visions of grandeur in a simple mind. And then there were the tiny bits of memories of the forgotten past that sometimes invaded her head as she slumbered. How the breeze caressed her face, how the rain soaked her, how the sun offered warmth. She dreamed of a bright and vivid world, something that was completely out of reach. But these visions would corrupt her brain as they collided harshly with her dreams of the great machine, leaving her in a resentful state. She couldn't remember them afterwards, but the longing remained. And then Sidäx would wake up again, the electric shock starting her up like a machine. She would begin her waking hours with misery, until the machine would speak and sing to her once more, giving her sense of purpose back. She would experience this over and over again. It was a vicious cycle, breaking free from it was near impossible. But in the end, Sidäx probably didn't even want to be free.Pokéumans: re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 9 "A new normal"“So, how did it go young pokéuman?” “…” The shiny toxtricity in front of me smiled warmly and cocked his eyebrow in curiosity. “Is there anything you need to talk about? I’m supposed to help you in these visits you know.” “Why didn’t my ability help me? I was destroyed back there, with everyone to watch… I-I didn’t even want this, any of this.” I pleaded. “How are you so sure it didn’t? Sure, just because you may have an advantage it doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically be good at something.” Kalled said. “But everyone’s supposed to be good at this… we’re pokemon, that’s all everyone seems to talk about a-and I don’t know but I thought maybe it was supposed to come naturally to me b-but-” Kalleq cut me off before I could continue rambling. “Ah, that’s not necessarily true, some pokemon are stronger than others in battle, sure, but that doesn’t mean every pokemon is meant for battle, some pokemon heal, some provide services and every pokemon has their own set of skills that make them useful, every single one.” Kalleq argued. “And what about toxtricity? Aren’t we supposed to be punks? Y’know, aggressive, tough, cruel fighters? I’m nothing like that and I don’t want to be like that!!!” I shouted, Kalleq’s smile seem to drop for a moment as he went lost in thought for a moment, he stayed quietly before speaking. “Well… I suppose you could say that about us.” He then took a deep breath. “But personally, between you and me, I never cared for it, I never cared for battle, for toughness or for any superficial aspects, I went through my own path, I may be a toxtricity, but I could be any other pokemon just as much! It doesn’t define me, and I don’t think it should you, I think… I think I understand what you’re going through young one, and frankly, if there are people out there like us who don’t put all of our value on our toughness or our ability to battle, then they’ll be the ones that will forget about the tournament the easiest.” I held my head down for a moment before looking up “Do… do you think there are others like that?” Kalleq chuckled. “There’s already two of us; there will always be more.” I couldn’t help but chuckle as well. “Yeah… I suppose you’re right.” “Till we meet again.” And with that, I woke up I woke up quietly, not a sound coming from the room allowing me to peacefully stretch and rub my eyes to be greeted by the artificial light of- WAIT! “What the- Where’s everyone?! What time is it? Did I miss breakfast or…” It didn’t take a lot for me to realise what had gone on, walking over to Demian’s alarm, the one that usually blasted at ultra-high volumes and woke everyone up, it was fully switched off, I also noticed everything else that could be shut off was shut off and every curtain and door and anything that could bring out light in the area was tampered with to ensure it did so as little as possible. “SHIT, SHIT, SHIT, I BETTER NOT HAVE MISSED BREAKFAST!!” I screamed as I ran down the halls, my worst fears only being confirmed as I didn’t bump into anyone while running at tiring speeds, telling me everyone had already left their dorms and were possibly even already at school, I walked down all the way to the cafeteria, to find it predictably empty... it was then my turn to run all the way back to the academy area, even if I knew I’d already miss my first class, but before I made it back to the stairs I bumped into a familiar figure. “Rodri?” I exclaimed, I stopped in my tracks almost like a car pressing the brakes at the last moment, causing me to fall face first into the chesnaught’s fluffy body, luckily it seemed like he had already noticed me, and I didn’t take him by surprise. “Hey Lex! I’m so glad to see you, wait, shouldn’t you be in class?” he asked, raising his eyebrow in a tinge of worry that he seemed to try (in vain) to mask his enthusiasm. “I-I know I’m happy to see you too but t-that’s the thing my arseholes roommates made me sleep in so I could miss my class…” At that point I couldn’t go on, I was too exhausted, and I had to put my hands on my knees and take a long minute to catch my breath. “Do you… have the time?” Rodri shrugged for a moment; he raised an arm to look at a small band he had on one of his spikes. “8:32, they definitely won’t be able to let you in class at this hour I’m afraid, you’ll have to wait until it’s 9.” He seemed to let out a guilty smile, showing off his large lower fangs in full glory… which I didn’t recall being right for a chesnaught but I didn’t want to give it much thought, I also noticed he displayed a new article of clothing, a golf cap. I sighed, Rodri decided to continue, seemingly realising I noticed his new attire he commented on it with a blush. “Oh, this was a gift by a… friend of mine, ahem, but regardless!” He said as he then shifted the topic to something that, unfortunately only made me feel worse. “While you’re waiting we can catch up on how you’ve been doing! I saw you in the tournament yesterday though I never got to found out how you did after it, I hope you enjoyed it at the very least!” I looked at him with the most dead inside expression I could muster. “I never want to enter a tournament ever again.” He stared at me with genuine shock, something which made me raise my eyebrow in confusion “W-w-what? Why?! What happened there!” “URGH!! I never even wanted to get in there in the first place!! I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, not after being lumped with all the delinquents and borderline criminals of the base!!! I know that stupid Demian signed me up to humiliate me and his stupid fucking plan worked and guess what!! It would’ve been ONE thing if I lost a battle, it’s another to make it to the second round without any motivation only to get absolutely decimated by a FAR more experienced fighter for EVERYBODY to see!! And all people will think is that I, a newbie who already has a bad reputation, has trouble with people and looks like someone who’d hold you at gunpoint on the street seemingly got cocky and arrogant and entered a serious competition without any training!!! T-t-they all p-probably think I deserve that h-humiliation, but I didn’t want any of this… a-anything.” I was at the verge of tears, but I forced myself to stop after I realised, I had been salivating and I didn’t want to risk releasing any potential acid or toxins, I took a deep breath and shifted to a neutral expression, wiping my tears as well, actions that felt all too familiar for me to do. “I… see.” Rodri spoke quietly, he didn’t seem to be in the mood to continue the conversation from that point. “I know full well you don’t trust him, a-and I’m pretty sure you don’t seem to like him at this point but, at the very least let the headmaster know about this, he’ll probably ignore it but that’s all I need, just… I need to stop thinking about this and head back to school.” I stated simply, the white-furred pokemon only nodded and left. I eventually made it back to class, luckily about time for the next one to begin, but it wasn’t any more pleasant than the rest of the day had been, the classmates weren’t even subtle with their murmurs and bickering, no doubt about the tournament, happening all over the classroom, several looked at me in disdain, others in preoccupation, but there was one exception, the Litleo that seemed to be my neighbour appeared disinterested at first, but as classes went on, I could notice him looking at me almost with an expression of pity? It… made me a bit curious as to what they felt, he didn’t seem like a bad person, but then again, he also hung out a lot with Raúl who I wasn’t looking forward to encountering in electric battle class. I could barely focus on any of the classes, despite waking up later it only made me feel even more exhausted and depressed, except however in social formation, where an interesting topic happened to be discussed: “We’ll be discussing the nature of Pokéumans, because yes, we are a lot more driven by instinct and our biology than humans, but it’s a completely normal part of us, a lot of us tend to feel wrong as humans because of how our behaviour is influenced by our physiology, but once our transformation happens most of us find ourselves comfortable with what we’re naturally wired for, you see a lot of fairy and psychic type pokemon at the medical staff, and that’s without even mentioning the amount of blisseys and audinos and comfeis that all flock to that job, but it’s in their nature, even when they were a human to gravitate towards helping and nurturing others, ground type pokemon are often a lot more comfortable in the sand, grass types enjoy the sun a lot more than other pokemon or humans, even individual species have their own patterns and behaviours that they naturally enjoy, cubones tend to be emotional and melancholic, and it’s something that comes naturally to them, alakazams tend to be intelligent and well spoken, so much so they’ve come across as arrogant to others in the past, but recent studies have shown that it is simply due to their brains being wired differently, and it’s normal for them, and it’s normal for you to, and what’s more, every single one of these abilities is helpful to our society.” The teacher explained. I scoffed, but I couldn’t help but wonder both through the same question that kept ringing in my mind then, What’s the use of “the punk pokemon”? All I’ve seen here is people be afraid or disgusted at me, and my own “kind” seems to do more harm than good. I swatted the thought away, surely this can’t be it, I’m not just naturally supposed to be rude and imprudent towards everyone and anything, I’m not gonna let myself be bound to what society has to say, especially Demian, we’re still human in the end and that’s what matters most! Only… was that really true? I had to catch my own thoughts right then and there, what if it is just natural for us? We’re another species, wouldn’t seeing this entirely through a human perspective be what pokextinction is doing? But then again maybe we shouldn’t let ourselves be controlled by our own instincts, we shouldn’t be told what to do, because that’s what they want. I had to put all of that on hold for the moment as I couldn’t reach a proper conclusion to that train of thought yet. Classes passed and I was surprised to see that even battle class was uneventful, for one Raúl decide to keep his distance which I found myself appreciating but also being intrigued by. By the time lunch rolled around I felt a sudden pang of hunger, I skipped breakfast sure but it still felt a lot stronger than it should, I considered briefly heading back to my dorm but I decided I should try to avoid confrontation especially when I’m this much on an empty stomach, I made it to the cafeteria with my supplies, fairly earlier than others, sat down in a table after being served a tray of breaded chicken, my favourite, it definitely lightened my mood and made me more approachable, I was about to finish when I was approached yet again by a familiar group of three. “Hey Lex.” Spoke the tatsugiri who seemed to lead the group, she was sporting a beanie with a cat themed design and a cute face, very different from her somber expression. “We wanted to apologise from what went on at the tournament, well, mainly Raúl.” The eelektrike rolled his eyes somewhat but did look rather upset at himself. “Look… I didn’t mean to shame you for your loss man, I just got curious about why you decided to participate in the first place and-“ “Raúl” Said Litleo. “Fine… fine, I’ll try not to pressure you further if that’s what you need, I’d like to apologize to Gael too but he mostly keeps to himself.” I couldn’t help but shrug. “I’ll let him know, I’m just tired at this point because I got signed up against my will but clearly no one’s going to realise that! But what do I care my reputation here was over from the moment I arrived.” I mused as I played with the little crumbs left over in my plate. “W-well in fairness you did have an unfair matchup and performed well on your first match, you did some unique things like using the English moves.” Whispered Litleo, looking away from the group, I couldn’t help but feel at ease, he was clearly the shier one of the group and I very much related, though it was definitely easier for him to appear as such compared to me and my grumpy old face. “I did also hear a lot of noise coming from your dorm the other day, they almost sounded like attacks?” Inquired Itzel “NO! W-well…” I didn’t really want them to get involved in something I’d inevitably want to learn how to deal with myself “It’s nothing you should be concerned with, I can deal.” “Well if you say so, but if you ever need somewhere to crash, we’re right in front of you.” I raised a brow, why were they all suddenly being so nice? They reminded me almost of how Gael acted when we first met, and like then I had no clue why that would even be the case, people see me as a bully now just by being alongside Demian and his associates, why did they behave differently? It was only Litleo who appeared to be amicable to me in class. “Well… I might actually, there’s some stuff going on today s-so mind if I-I… um, w-well, just for a few hours I think.” With that, the tatsugiri nodded and the group headed off to their own table and eventually the lunch period ended, when I made it back to my dorm, I looked over to the door in front of it, with a lot of nervousness, I knocked and I was allowed in, the atmosphere was tense for a bit and I was quiet, I stayed quiet even as everyone else slowly started to relax and ease off, chatting, playing stuff on the tv and generally hanging out while I simply stood in the corner, I couldn’t let myself relax, I had too much weigh in my mind, and eventually, after a slow hour, I left the dorm quietly and unnoticed. As I got out, I suddenly heard Gael’s familiar, albeit muffled, voice suddenly shout in what seemed to be pain, not having a moment to react, I practically banged the door’s touch activation open and I found Gael sitting alone on a bed, crying and holding his face in pain. “GAEL?! ARE YOU OK??!! WHAT’S WRONG?! ARE YOU HURT!!??!” I exclaimed, rushing to his aid as soon as I stepped foot inside. “L-Lex?!” Gael looked at me surprised, clearly he hadn’t noticed my arrival, and I saw it, a massive red bloody scar was present in his right eye, not only that, but similar scars were also present on his pincers, almost like sharp claws grotesquely piercing out of his body, his pincer tail was splatterd in blood as well, he also sported some shiny metal clips, one in his ear, two in his left wing. “What happened to you!! Did Demian hurt you?! Do you need to go to a hospital!!” I was practically grabbing him by the arm almost rushing him out of the dorm before he stopped me, clearly still agitated from whatever had been going on.“No!! No!! NO!!! No it’s just… It’s not blood it’s not anything painful it’s just… I think I might be developing hybrid traits, at the worst time possible…” The gliscor? Explained, as he was slowly start to find some composure. “Hybrid traits? Aren’t we already hybrids?” I asked, but before he could reply memories flashed in my mind, for a long while one could wonder how we could tell each other apart from others of the same species of pokemon and while people generally have different minor traits something that was common was for other pokemon to have certain aspects that set them out, that made them look like other pokemon, before I could continue my train of thought then, Gael shook his head and sniffled. “No, some pokemon well, it’s actually fairly common that, uh, we have traces of dna of separate species and combined that with our unstable combination of those genes and our human side, some of us develop mutations and develop traits of other pokemon we tend to favour… my second favourite pokemon is zangoose and well…” Gael started breaking down again. “I…I just sniff why now??? Why me??? Now I even look more predatory!!! I saw how you looked at me, I was covered in BLOOD, it may be a pattern but who’s gonna realise that?! It. Looks. Like. BLOOD!!!!” Gael continued to sob and I stood speechless, I found myself surprised yet also relating myself to him, I wanted to say something, but the part of me that was afraid of confrontation, of putting myself out there in fear of messing up was trying to suppress that urge like it always managed to do, and yet, there was something different this time that overpowered that urge, something that made me speak. “Gael… I’m sorry, I probably should’ve stood by your side today, you’ve been doing a lot for me all these days and I’ve been brushing it aside like it was nothing, I-I especially didn’t mean to ruin your cover with Demian, I let myself get carried away by my frustrations and well… I’m really sorry, and if it helps you… I don’t think you feel predatory, even with your new features, a-and I mean it!!! Whenever I see you smile I was at first surprised with how sharp your tooth were b-but it was honestly so sincere that it felt comforting, t-to me anyway, I never had that even as a human…” I looked away for a moment, feeling a little sheepish and, ashamed, to me it felt like I was doing more harm than good. “I-I want to be friends with you too y’know because… you’ve been so patient with me a-and I appreciate it like you have no idea and I r-really wish I was better at showing it!” To my surprise however, I saw Gael’s expression grow less weary, there almost seem to be a glinter of something in his eyes, admiration? Maybe? I didn’t allow myself to consider such possibility. “Y-you like my smile?” He asked shyly, I couldn’t help but chuckle “Y-yeah, honest! I actually think it’s a little ease-putting.” “W-wow… I never heard that from… anyone, I mean well, even I was trying to befriend you I’d never guessed you’d find me to be, well, assuring? I guess? I’m honestly not even sure I fully understand what you mean but I expected everyone would just see me as a hungry beast.” The gliscor sighed for a moment. “Especially now that I have claws shooting out of pincers, arceus, I look like an edgy internet OC, not helped by these stupid piercings Demian forced me to get… they both still feel painful, I had heard that developing hybrid traits is like a second transformation but experiencing it… it’s something else, it hurts, just like it hurts when I was first taken, when I was all alone.” “We’ve all been there, I’ve been there, you’re not alone, a-at least I’ll try to make sure of it, like you have for me, plus… I-I kinda like how the piercings look on you, n-not that you should keep them if they hurt or feel uncomfortable but you look cool, in an admirable way, not edgy or scary I think.” The gliscor grinned, in the same assuring way I described before he spoke with one single phrase. “sniff Thank you.” Gael sniffled once again, but quickly wiped away his tears (being careful not to accidentally hurt himself with his new claws) He then tackled me in a sudden glide-hug, which caused me to fall back into my bed, after we got up, we laughed and laughed, it was then I realised me and gael had truly something special, and that I should rightfully treasure it I just didn’t realise how special. “If I’m being honest, I’ve actually thought about getting a piercing myself, but my family wouldn’t even let me, not even an earring.” I commented “Really? Why’s that?” Gael asked, I rolled my eyes. “They thought it would look gay or some shit, it’s also why they don’t like getting me anything pink coloured even though it’s my favourite colour, it’s so stupid though like who cares if I’m gay!!” “Well… are you gay?” Inquired Gael curiously. “Nah, I just like pink man, and I’m just not really feeling like finding a girlfriend.” I commented “I see…” Gael added in a strange tone. “Well, neither am I.” A while after, someone knocked at our door, and slid a letter under it, we walked over and noticed it was from Rodri! “Huh… I think that might be for me.” I spoke “Did you get in trouble?” Gael ask with a much calmer than before twinge of worry “No, no, I think he might just want to see me, er…” I opened the card and excused myself to another part of the room to read it privately. To Lex I’m deeply sorry about what happened in the tournament, I offer my deepest condolences, and I hope it hasn’t brought you down, that said, I haven’t been able to keep your comment about having a dream messenger off my head, I feel like you might need some advice for training, I’m not saying you should enter a tournament again if you don’t want to be a battler, but it’s something to keep in mind, I’ll have to explain in more detail in person though, so please meet me at the cafeteria at 4pm, it should be vacant around that time so we should have enough privacy, with that out of the way, best of luck -Rodri “So… what does he want?” Asked Gael, I found myself thinking for a moment, should I tell him about my dream messenger? Even though I wanted to be better for Gael this time that sense of “inspiration” that kept me from taking the coward’s way out didn’t come, and I simply didn’t want to have to deal with a potential confrontation from telling a non prt member about this information. “He wants to meet up in the cafeteria at 4pm tomorrow, it’s just some… things we need to talk about.” “If you say so.” Gael spoke, we both decided to let the topic go and we focused on other things, we were talking about how we were doing at school when I ended up bringing up the topic of that day’s social formation topic “They were talking about the natures of pokemon and how they supposedly influence our behaviour, how cubones cry and alakazam seem arrogant and all that stuff, I’m oversimplifying but y’know.” I explained “I know what you mean, I also had a similar class, I scoffed at first in fairness but honestly? As time goes on, I’ve realised there’s unfortunately some truth to it, I can still get pretty aggressive and fierce at times, and I can’t deny how much I enjoy soaring through the air or burrowing myself in sand.” “Right… so what does that mean for me?” I asked, he looked at me in a slightly apologetic look. “Look man, I think it’s best if you just didn’t think about it, there will be stuff you can’t help but I’ve learned it’s best if you don’t just get carried away completely by what “feels right.” I merely nodded, we spent the rest of the day talking, up until Demian and Dylan returned, where the atmosphere immediately became thick, Demian almost tried to start a fight but with both Gael and I standing to challenge him Dylan ended up pulling him away, that didn’t me we were peaceful though as for what we couldn’t achieve physically we made up for it verbally, we practically argued with each other over the most minute things throughout the day, up until we were all too tired and dealing with massive headaches and we bitterly decided to call it a night. It took me a while to even feel a little restless, especially after being high on adrenaline and stress due to the arguments we had with our roommates, I found myself going back to Gael’s hybrid traits as a distraction, and then I slowly found myself going back to noticing several traits like these in other pokemon, Itzel I noticed seemed to have tiny little horns and blue and green spots all over, I wasn’t certain but they reminded me of a gastrodon? Raúl was a bit different, mainly sporting a greenish tint and slightly more translucent appearance to his skin, if I had to guess like of the reuniclus line but I wasn’t too sure, Litleo didn’t seem to sport any of this but, then again he was a base form pokemon, Rodri meanwhile had upside down fangs, and when I combined it with his general build, which wasn’t quite the one of a chesnaught, I realised he might have some emboar in him? I think I even noticed a red feather on his back, which was odd, eventually though, my eyes started feeling heavy and I drifted off. I was back in the cold northern-looking shore of the dream dimension, I was sitting holding my knees in my arms, waiting until I noticed him. “Young pokéuman?” Came from Kalleq’s voice, I turned over to look at the shiny toxtricity, I noticed however a new aspect about him, he was displaying a colourful necklace, lashes of several colours are hanging from his neck holding a large claw/tooth like figure. “I’m glad you appreciate this fine piece of jewlery, it was very important to the culture of my people when I lived among the living pokemon in your world.” “I… see, Kalleq.” Kalleq smiled. “I can sense you’re lamenting Lex, do not worry, I’m sure my culture still survives in the world in a certain way, the reason I’m showing you this is because I was able to feel your experiences in the woken world, it seems you’ve had a lot to think about?” I nodded. “Y-yeah um, you’re my ancestor, right? Do you happen to know anything about uh, that whole nature thing? What does that mean for us, f-for toxtricities?” “Don’t you remember what we talked about yesterday? It’s up to you to be your own self, and to be completely honest with you, you and I are very different people, you come from a culture much more developed in a way, millions of years past my time, there’s still a lot about you I’m still barely close to understanding, I have to rely on the connection I share with you to fully process it, but not only that, you’re way more than a pokemon, you’re a pokeuman, there’s a part of you that’s still human and still kicking as much as the part of you that is a toxtricity, and I even sense other parts too.” “Other parts? You mean I could potentially develop hybrid traits as well?” I asked. “Only time will tell, but what I’m getting at is that is that you aren’t just a pokemon, and you have greater potential that I or anyone from my time has, I can sense that you aren’t interested in battle but I still suggest you train your abilities, it will definitely help you in the future.” “But aren’t you supposed to help me with that?? I haven’t even gotten close at all to unlocking my ability?” I complained “And how are you so sure of that young pokeuman? I think you’ll find your ability will come more naturally to you than you think, it’s more like a great sense of determination that allows one to reach your goals easier.” The toxtricity put his hand on my shoulder. “But we’ll get there, I promise.” And with that, the space started glowing brightly white Once I got done with my default routine, which now included almost constantly getting into argument with Demian and Dylan whenever all 4 of us were in the room together, Eventually though time came for me too meet up with Rodri in the cafeteria, I grabbed the letter in case I needed anything from it and I walked on nervously not sure what to expect, encountering the green-shelled giant waving excitedly at me from a table. “Hey Lex!!! Glad you could make it.” I took a seat in front of the table. “What did you need me for?” I asked. “Well, first of all I’d like to say that I’m truly sorry about what happened in the tournament, still, looking over the footage of your matches I honestly feel like you’ve still shown a decent enough of initiative in your matches! Are you sure you really don’t want to become battler?” I groaned. “Ok, what’s this about? I really wasn’t that good in that tournament!! I had like, what, one good performance against a furret? Even I know that’s not impressive! if this is about the prt, I already told you I don’t want to be involved, look-“ “I get that! I get that!” Rodri interrupted. “I don’t want to suggest you do any of those things, you’ve made it clear to me before, but still, most pokeumans would not even come close to putting as well of a fight as you did this new into the base, I just need you to know that you can be a battler if you ever so chose to, you’ve got potential, heck, you’ve even got a dimensional messenger!! Surely that’s got to mean something for you! Lex… look, we’re all pokemon here, most of us tend to have an aspect of our lives we gravitate towards naturally, and I need you to understand something about me; even before I became a quilladin, I always wanted to be someone strong that could help protect others, but I never found the opportunity, because I struggled fitting in and I was alone, but then, when I became a quilladin, this need, this desire to help others who need to be protected, it became impossible to contain, it was then when I discovered who I really was, I found myself much more active, much more social, and I enjoyed it! It wasn’t like when I was a human at all, and then I evolved, I evolved and I realised more than anything I wanted to help the prt rescue other pokeumans so that they could be able to find their place in the world just like I did right in this base! Because despite all our problems, I still think there’s something special about being a pokeuman, and I know you have it in you as well, toxtricity or not.” We stood quietly for a moment. “Speaking of, anything new from that dream messenger of yours?” I thought for a moment. “Well… he did say I could use training more.” “Then I don’t see why it’s a bad idea after all!” Rodri excitedly spoke. “Look, this was nice and all but… maybe it’s just too early to tell? I-I really don’t want to have to think about any of this nature stuff I just… I just want to be myself.” “I never doubted that for one moment Lex, just think about it ok? It was hard enough getting some free time to talk to you about this, but I’ll try to make this a regular appearance, mainly because I am obliged to keep in touch in regards to your dream messenger.” The chesnaught explained before he stood up and left, not before smiling brightly. “I wish you good luck Lex, see ya!” “Wait, what about the headmaster?!” The chesnaught stopped in their tracks. “Huh?” “Y-you said you’d try to tell Nacho about getting signed up to the tournament unwillingly, h-how did that go?” “Oh I knew I had forgotten something! Look Lex, I’m gonna have to be direct with you here it… didn’t really go well he er, said it “was a claim that was hard to prove.” And that “it was a trivial matter.” I looked down in disappointment. “Right, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” “And see… between you and me… I don’t respect Nacho at all, he’s full of prejudgements that cloud his ability to run the base competently, arceus knows how he got selected as headmaster, but the important thing is that he won’t be kind to people like you, and I won’t lie, I’ve come to not trust him to keep a pokeuman like you safe so… take care, Lex.” And with that warning out of the way, Rodri finally left the cafeteria I took on that information quietly for a moment, this had been possibly the most open Rodri had ever been with me, and I knew understood his thought process more, still, something about everyone’s suggestions to keep training rubbed him the wrong way… didn’t Kalleq suggest he had used his ability in the tournament? Maybe he didn’t realise it? He hoped it would keep developing naturally, otherwise… he’d really hate to be proven wrong after so much defiance. From then on, life at the base would become pretty routinary, I would head to school in the week, luckily after the next two tournaments it seemed like most of my reputation vanished, including that of the new kid, and most people simply chose to keep to themselves as I once again became the quiet kid, only with a record, my situation with my roommates… didn’t improve, our arguments would only get more heated to the point we’d occasionally get kicked out of our dorms, Gael and I tried to find things to do but it became difficult so we’d often just wait by, I tried to stick alongside him as much as possible and he’d do the same, but I do have to admit that I on occasion took my neighbour’s offer to crash at their dorm, Raúl mostly stopped bothering me in electric class, but we’d occasionally partner up quietly, I even got to know Litleo somewhat, occasionally partnering up with assignments, he was very shy, but we surprisingly got along, I think of the three I understood him the most, I didn’t get to know Itzel as well, but I’d regular meet up with them during lunch, where they would chat and I would unwittingly eavesdrop on them learning some of their personal details, Raúl came from ecatepec (no surprises there), Itzel’s parents both came from mainland china, but she was born and lived her whole life in Mexico, she’s also really into anime it seems, and Litleo meanwhile mainly kept to himself, he did fully decide to change his name to Litleo, he didn’t seem too sold on it but he mentioned he was very uncomfortable with his original name, so well decided to respect it, in general he didn’t seem to be much comfortable with his past life as a human as he was expected to be the man of the house in his family. With Rodri, I would continue “bumping” into him (very quickly though we’d both realise he was doing this on purpose and dropped the act.) and he’d continue to inquire as to what I was doing, it was a bit annoying but, I can’t say that I didn’t miss his presence, he was the person who rescued me into the base and there was something so genuinely honest and caring about his smile, he stopped pressuring me about tournaments which was appreciated and when I brought up arguing with my roommates, he became concerned immediately and later I’d find out he had tried to get me to transfer out of my dorm and had an argument with the headmaster, but I decided against it, I didn’t want to abandon Gael after all, which he eventually, albeit a little reluctantly agreed to, he’d also continue to hand me those weird flavoured but delicious water bottles from time to time. I’d continue meeting up with Kalleq, at first he was a little disappointed I didn’t seem to manifest my powers again, but he’d continue showing me around the dream dimension, he started showing me various different landscapes from what he claimed was the pokemon world, preserved in the dream dimension, some reminded me a lot of real world locations, I got to see the northern lights at some point and it was magical. Days would pass and I would grow accustomed to how life worked at the base, I got to see how festivities and special events worked around the base as the months passed, Halloween wasn’t very eventful, it isn’t exactly much of a big tradition here especially now that the whole point of dressing up as something you aren’t loses some weight when you aren’t a boring human, however day of the dead was different, the whole base the days prior was decked to the brim with paper decorations, cempasúchil covered the edges of the floors and walls, there was a vendor that walked through the halls giving out “pan de Muerto” for several days (which was delicious) and most importantly of all there was one giant altar in the main hall of the base, people came all over to pay their respects to all the various people they lost, it wasn’t just dead pokeumans though, a space on the altar was reserved to those pokéumans taken and brainwashed by pokextinction whom we couldn’t save in time, I couldn’t help but remember Alan, Lázaro and Yulian, the pokemon that accompanied me when I transformed, I realised the day was for them too, only their spirits weren’t able to accompany us as opposed to those that had died, so if anyone ever were to argue that lack of free will is preferable to death, I’d slap them in the face. Still, it was a bittersweet celebration, despite the negative context I couldn’t help myself but be taken in by the music and the gorgeous atmosphere, Aldo Ledesma, the announcer from the tournament also performed a gorgeous ballad in the middle of a kiosk located at the centre of the big plaza, all while the ceiling lit up in a way I couldn’t figure out simulating a beautiful, clear, starry night, I sat on the floor alongside Gael and we both took in our experiences as a Pokéuman, at the end of it all day of the dead was a big party and just because we were in the middle of a war, constantly experiencing casualties and loss, didn’t mean that we didn’t get to be happy, to be alive, plus the food that day was amazing, Gael even commented that I was starting to put on pounds. “Dude, I’m not making fun of you, but pokemon tend to have stronger metabolisms than humans, putting on pounds is significantly harder unless your species is already of a larger weight.” “A-ah shut up.” I called out in embarrassing. “I mean you don’t look… bad, just it’s a bit admirable in a curious way.” The next holiday I would get to discover as a pokéuman would be the Mexican revolution, only I would come to find out that the celebration had a different meaning to the pokéuman base: Gael and I had been discussing what to do with our holiday, Demian and Dylan seemed to have plans that probably involved going to the common floor to harass people and so we stood there figuring out how to make use of our miraculous time entirely for ourselves, that was then when an announcement rang throughout the base. “Attention pokéumans, for those who wish to attend the official celebrations for revolution and foundation day, the events will start soon at the auditorium, please enter at 2:30pm” “What’s that all about? Why is revolution day treated as a big deal like it was independence day?” I turned to Gael, who had become much more comfortable in his hybrid-like appearance and even chose to keep the piercings (though he got ones that looked less like tags). “Well because in a way this is our independence day, pokéumans came to be around the same time as the mexican revolution started since both were in 1910, but this base formed shortly after the revolution and is actually one of the oldest bases in the world! There’s a whole legend about one specific figure, you recall that hawlucha that was in the headmaster’s door?” I nodded, Gael grinned excitedly, clearly talking about something that properly interested him for once. “Well, he’s sort of seen as the main founder of the base, he’s known as “El noble de milpa alta.” (The noble of milpa alta) it was said that he was one of the many pokéumans to transform during the first wave, although some historians debate that and claim he came from some of the later ways, but regardless, his human name has been lost to time, but he chose to go by his species and by a wrestler-like alias, it is believed that he was the first person to round up other pokeumans and directly fought back against the growing pokextinction organization in Mexico, in fact.” Gael suddenly hopped from his bed, gliding briefly across the floor before grabbing a book hidden that was hastily left under the bed, on the cover was an artistic rendition of presumably the same hawlucha we are talking about, only he didn’t look like a normal hawlucha, he was slightly bigger and bulkier, had more feathers, but most of all wore an impressive, shimmering, black and gold mask that covered even his shoulders and chest, it was a majestic sight and I was awestruck. Gael looked over my shoulder with a big grin. “I know, right? Well, as I was saying, according to this and several other writings we have of the events that lead to the foundation of our base, it is said that he eventually headed to Japan and worked closely with the pokeuman organization headquarters, which definitely means he had to have gotten in contact with mew, although we don’t know much about his personal life, we owe everything here to him.” “Woah…” I exclaimed, amazed and with a large smile of my own. “that’s so cool!!! Hawlucha is actually my third favourite pokemon.” “Yeah, hawlucha is a great pokemon, I’d say I would’ve love to be one but I’m happy as a gliscor.” “You’d rather burrow yourself in sand than be a big cool luchador?” I stated jokingly “Hey I’m not the one drinking stagnated water!” Gael rebutted, I was confused, however. “What?! Ew!!! I’ve never done that?!!!” “Oh really? Then what were in all those water bottles you keep drinking?” “That was… that… oh… oh arceus no…” “Wait you didn’t know?!!” “I…” I was startled, speechless, unable to speak, wait those are the same thing. “…They do taste pretty good.” Gael just laughed. “Well, it’s normal and even healthy for you according to the pokedex.” “Really?” I asked slightly incredulously, he merely nodded. The next major holiday I got to experience was Christmas, which was a bit more mixed, not because of the experience itself, it just wasn’t a holiday that was that important to me and Gael, before the day actually came the base did something interesting by having it snow through most of December using the help of the base’s ice types, this was amazing for those of us who were new as we never really got to experience snow in our lives at all! It was… alright, I mean it never got too difficult to deal with anyway, there was also a giant tree covered with pokemon themed decorations and several gifts, in the last day of the school year we had a gift exchange, both for our regular class and our battle class, I was unfortunate enough to get Raúl for the battle class exchange so I had to ask Itzel and Litleo what I should get for the slightly translucent eel, it turned out to not be as complicated as I originally thought as I really just needed to find him some trading cards for a game I didn’t recognize, as for what I asked for the exchange, I just asked for replacement school supplies as I was never good at keeping them for more than a few months without losing them. During December, I had tried to sneak away from my other roommates, who seemed to be particularly insistent that very day, to watch the junior Eurovision song contest of 2022 live, since I didn’t have the privacy to do it at my dorm I tried to head to one of the computers at the library, borrowing some headphones so I wouldn’t distract anyone who was actually there to study, especially since I knew I would be there for a few hours, I had gotten into the event earlier in the year and had been following most of the season, but then a little something called turning into a pokéuman and ending up living in a hidden underground civilization with crappy roommates ended up kinda taking my attention away from the event, but I was still determined to finally watch it live, I had followed most of the songs already with my money being on Portugal and the UK though I was saddened by the fact I was likely unable to vote given our circumstances as- “Lex? What are you doing here?” Came from the voice of the only one of my roommates who didn’t make my life hell, Gael, who startled me and, had it not been for the fact I was in a library I would’ve let out a scream. “U-uh I was just watching stuff, there was this one thing I was planning on watching today a-and I needed to get away from Demian for a few hours.” “Really? What are you watching?” He asked in curiosity as he turned to look at my monitor, which was currently in the middle of Portugal’s performance. “Cool, is that a kid?” “O-oh yeah it’s the junior version of the Eurovision thing I talk to you about, it’s p-pretty cool they’ve got unique songs even if definitely for kids though I guess I am technically on the age range for it still but u-uh well it’s very niche and all-“ “Can I watch?” Gael asked, taking me by surprise. “O-o-oh, w-well sure I-I don’t know if it’s y-your thing b-b-b-but sure” Since I was wearing string headphones I merely gave the one in my other ear (don’t ask how it works for my horns I barely know myself, at the very least I can’t produce ear wax anymore) for him to put on his ear.” “So what country is next?” “Serbia, actually, they’re one of my favourites, it’s a slower song but I do like the melody and her voice i-it’s very sweet, unfortunately she got sick so this is a rehearsal but I hope it’s still going to sound good. I didn’t notice it myself as the song began, mainly because I was likewise captivated, but Gael had been taken in by the performance immediately, when I looked over at him he has sparks in his eyes like it was magic, from the beginning with the slow music-box style tune, to the first instrumental break with the strings speeding up the pace of the song and featuring a ballet dancer, then through the second instrumental with the trombone, and then through the end of the song, we both connected to the singer’s sweet vocals for the three minutes she got to sing, we didn’t know a lick of Serbian, but we were pretty sure we understood the message of the song after that, Armenia and Ukraine came later, and though we had an appreciation for the Ukrainian message of hope and strength during a war, something we could relate to very as pokéumans, none of the songs, even in the recap resonated with us as much as the melancholic Serbian ballet did. By the end of the year Gael and I were looking forward to the next editions of the adult and junior contest, together. The day before Christmas, or “Nochebuena” As it’s known over here had a lot of events prepared, a tv speech, some festivities and events, but the only truly important part for me was the main dinner, a HUGE, delicious meal where every pokéuman that was currently at the base, because of course, nurses and those stationed outside the base were unable to join in, were all in the cafeteria, from civilians to the PRT, I sat in a corner with Gael and the more reluctant Demian and Dylan, but I was able to spot and wave towards our neighbours and Rodri, separately, mouthing merry Christmas at them, a gesture they shared back and I was able to understand now that I got used to all the bodily quirks of pokéumans after all this time, the cooks were cooking frantically constantly adding new dishes, complements and desserts to the table, almost all of it was too delicious for anyone to leave unfinished, pretty much no food ended up wasted that day, my favourite of them all? Definitely the flan. New year’s had probably been the most surreal holiday of the bunch, with 2023 on the loom, there wasn’t much to for most of the day however they did announce that curfew would be extended all the way till 2am to celebrate the passing of the year, some people went to the main hall to celebrate, but most of us stayed in our dorms and watched the countdown on tv, which included me, Gael, and weirdly enough Demian and Dylan, and that’s what made it surreal, all four of us were hanging out in the couch, telling jokes and laughing along like we actually got along with each other, though I think it was mainly due to the fact that the dark types were absolutely HAMMERED with alcohol they definitely didn’t have legal access to, but there really wasn’t much we could do about it. I yawned as I sat alongside Gael, since his species was more nocturnal he was nowhere near as tired as I was so by the time the countdown ended I was leaning on his shoulder pretty much about to faint like I had lost another tournament, my final thoughts of 2022 were that, things may have changed a lot, and though at first I thought I would’ve just had to deal with high school and a post pandemic world and not a secret war between creatures of myth I was suddenly a part of, I was glad I at the very least had someone like the gliscor to live this wild adventure alongside with. I woke up the next year with little energy, though I wasn’t as bad as the pair of hungover dark types, Gael had been resting though clearly more due to his nocturnal tendencies than anything, I walked over to the bathroom to freshen up and check myself on the mirror, Gael was right, I was definitely putting up pounds yet something about it felt natural, as I splashed some water on my face I was greeted by a new sight on my amphibian chin. A small tuft of fur, half black and half white, seemingly grew overnight.Pokéumans: re-lived part 1: "From parallel worlds" Chapter 7 "Routine"The hypno was busy doing fairly simple paperwork, filing and checking data either on the documents of his desk or on his pc, he wasn’t scheduled for his services for the rest of the day, so he decided to spend the time he had finishing extra work and studying personal matters. It was around 8pm, which only solidified his surprise when a knock came from the door of his office. ((Now who would come here so... Oh.)) The doctor thought to himself. “Come in, commander.” The door soon opened and a familiar chesnaught walked in casually in a friendly manner, yet one that also hid a hint of nervousness and seemed somewhat... unbalanced, as if carrying something. “Good evening doctor Luis. I hope you’re doing well after the morning’s test.” He said. “Yes, everything’s been in order and I’ve had time to focus on unfinished duties, oh and do sit down if you’d like, I know well you’re not just here to greet me and wish me well, an appreciated gesture as it is, I don’t need to use my mind reading abilities to suspect as to why...” Replied the hypno as he observed the chesnaught’s back, noticing the large object on top of his shell. “Now, would you care to explain why it appears that you returned from the civilian levels at far later hours than you should’ve? Beside your usual impunctuality, that is.” Rodri gave a nervous smile in response. “Hey… you don’t have to rub it in you know?” He didn’t fail to notice the hypno staring at the object on his shell, so he reluctantly sighed and explained himself. “I… alright, you see I wanted to make sure Lex adjusted to the base and so I decided to give him a little tour before taking him to his room because… well… he got room 175.” The hypno did a double take, but quickly composed himself. “Well… I did warn you about the headmaster.” “I guess I didn’t want to believe it, but he knows about what the kid has gone through!! He knows he needs help to adjust to the base! But he simply decided to lump him with our worst behaved students!!” Rodri complained, walking in circles across the office. “You do have to see it from his point of view.” The hypno mentioned trying to alleviate the chesnaught’s vivid emotions. “As biased as it is, this was a close breach of security that merely went miraculously in ways that weren’t in our control, and it was caused by your own recklessness, sir. Yes, I understand why you chose to act the way you did, I study the mind, there’s no need to attempt to convince me of it, but that also means I can get a sense to Ignacio’s actions as well.” The chesnaught looked frustrated for a moment and was close to retorting, but in the end decided to let it pass. “Well, I guess there’s no point in continuing to meander, I can tell you’re looking at my back, you see Luis, it was clear that Lex didn’t like the tour, I didn’t realise he wouldn’t enjoy having to deal with so many pokeumans all of a sudden and I think I overwhelmed him, so I hope to make it up to him as much as possible and I decided to buy him school supplies before arriving here, I’m planning to talk to his assigned teachers so that he’ll receive them on his desk.” The hypno raised an eyebrow. “And… is that all?” Rodri laughed nervously “Heheh, well… No.” Dr. Luis continued. “You plan on following him around the base in your free time to “check up on him” I know, it’s evident, my only concern now would be how nervous you are about it, it’s customary after all and you are his rescuer are you not?” Rodri looked to the side nervously, his composure shifted to a more worried and solemn expression. “Yes, well, I suppose so, but it wasn’t a normal rescue, the civilians may be told that but you know all of the PRT, including some who agree with the headmaster’s sentiments, know about Lex’s true circumstances of arrival, and I do worry it will look bad as the second in command of the base if I put my own time on a “security breach.” But I’m not gonna give up either because I know Lex is a good guy!! And I can’t help that I am still curious about his miraculous lack of brainwashing!!” The chesnaught gained more energy as he went on, explaining himself in detail and letting his emotions show. “When I first saw him in those horrid chambers, I knew there was something special about this toxtricity, and I do intend to figure out what it is.” The hypno put his elbows on the table and hands in front of his face. “In my professional opinion… I’ve already said what I can, I think it’s best that you discuss this with someone else in a personal level, like that miss… Ani? Was that her name? You two seem to be growing close, how are things with her?” “H-hey! Calm down!! we’re still just friends after all.” Rodri immediately responded, waving his hands in caution. “Still?” “W-well, I think it’s time I should be going, I have important matters to attend to after all.” The hypno chuckled. “If you say so, I could suggest getting Lex to join the PRT if you’re that curious about him, maybe after his first battle class tomorrow?” The chesnaught shook his head. “No, he’s made it clear he wants no part of it, and I want to make sure to respect his wishes.” He said as he opened the door of the office, but once he did, he froze, seemingly in thought. “Hmm…” “Is something the matter, sir?” Luis questioned, looking over to his chesnaught superior. “Nothing, nothing, just… thoughts, ideas. Well, have a good night doctor Luis!” Rodri finished before shutting the door to the office … I hated being here, I was getting sick of this stupid dark, empty void. “You must learn to be strong, young pokéuman.” Came from a voice, the toxtricity’s voice. I was frustrated, but for whatever reason I couldn’t bring myself to act in an aggressive way, it wasn’t worth it. “Just tell me who you are.” The toxtricity let out a warm and confident smile. “I am Kalleq, your dream messenger.” “Huh? W-what’s a dream messenger?” I asked. My frustration melting into curiosity. The other toxtricity let out a slight chuckle, amused. “Well on its most literal sense, it’s exactly as the name implies, messengers that come to you in dreams. Of course, what we actually are is an organisation of spirits who communicate with certain living pokeumans through the dream dimension. “Hold on... Dream dimension? An organisation? What for?” I asked, completely flabbergasted, eyes rapidly blinking as I struggled to process the information either out of tiredness or annoyance. “Woah, woah, easy with the questions. Kid.” Said Kalleq “You might’ve noticed that I’ve been trying to reach you for the past week, but unfortunately getting the dream dimension stable enough to have these conversations is very difficult, but, let me back up.” The shiny pokémon (was he even a pokéuman?) cleared his throat before continuing. The dream dimension is a special plane in our world created by our minds and our ability to think, to believe, to feel, it’s an entire world created by our mere consciousness, we think, therefore it is.” “Hmph, sure Descartes, but that makes no sense.” The logic sounded flimsy but after everything I’ve gone through I was willing to shut my brain up and roll with it. “Well, to be truthful, it’s hard to explain, and even harder to understand the dream dimension, but it’s related to all of us, every Pokémon and human, and of course, pokéuman. Every being capable of dreaming plays a part in creating this dimension, and every being gets to draw from it when they sleep, only they’re lead directly to the realm of chaos based on their own mind, but with the correct amount of training you can avoid getting swept up by the chaos and, well either have control of it, like when you have lucid dreams, or, reach here, the actual gateway of the dimension. The dream dimension is also where pokémon draw their power, of course it’s a lot more complicated with all the different specifications between moves, types, effects, etc.” The toxtricity explained. “So then... Are you like my consciousness or?” I asked, sorta starting to understand as best as it was possible. The toxtricity looked surprised. “Well, I guess I can’t blame you for assuming that but no, I was a living pokémon once, practically all of us were, you see, the dream dimension has connection to our spirits and what happens to us after we depart, I won’t go into detail, no spoilers after all.” “What, are you river song or something?” “No, but thanks for that bit of information.” He elaborated with a confident, somewhat cocky smirk. “being in your head seems to make me draw a lot of elements from your mind, anyway, I used to be a living person from the era of the original pokémon, and more over than that, I’m your ancestor, distant, of course.” My jaw dropped at that. “R...really?” “Yup.” He said. “This isn’t how it always is, but it is easier for spirits to contact relatives than full randos, although it fully doesn’t matter much, what matters is that my message is received, we act as somewhat of mentors, guiding people who we deem are going to be important in some way.” “We?” “The dream council.” He explained, suddenly the void started shining a bright, bright light seemingly coming from everywhere and nowhere. “And once again, time is not very favourable in the dream dimension, well, I’ll just end with this, there are many reasons why people are assigned dream messengers, several, hundreds even, but you, Lex?” He pointed towards me as he became less visible and faded into the shine. “You are more special than you know.” .... I woke up very badly rested, old habits die hard I suppose, I simply stayed in my bed without moving at all as despite having woken up the only part in my body that had any energy to act was my brain, nothing else willing to catch up, even my eyes, I thought on my dream, but frankly, I was starting to doubt it was true with how vague and confusing it was, especially with how tired I was, it wasn’t long before others woke up but I couldn’t catch who it was, that is until once again, the alarm from yesterday with that horrible banda music played again, just in case someone in the room was still asleep and forcing my body to respond by sitting up and rubbing my eyes, letting out a yawn. I could see everyone else getting up, Demian jumping aggressively from the top bunk and Gael gliding down to the floor, I went to the bathroom to freshen up, clean myself from any eye gunk or dirt, arceus know how toxic whatever my body produces is and I don’t want to find out. I left and was about to walk outside before I was forcefully pulled back by, who would’ve guessed, Demian. “EHEHEY- not so fast you little nature traitor, I’m not done with you yet just because of your little act of rebelliousness yesterday, now I know full well you’re not planning to join us, you’ve lost that chance anyhow, but I’ve figured out what the appropriate punishment for you will be.” He said with a malicious carnivorous grin, practically licking his lips at whatever he had in mind, I was undeterred however. “I can handle more of your attacks or whatever it is you’re capable of coming up with, which judging by your intelligence is not a lot, and if I’m not then you’d just be doing me a favour.” “Oh no, don’t you worry, the beatings will come later, but no, I have a plan that’s far, FAR more sinister than what you’d expect, appropriate for my typing isn’t it? I’m gonna make sure that you’re always going to stick with us no matter what, even if you’re not part of our gang I’m going to make sure EVERYONE thinks you are, and I’ll make sure everyone will despise you the most, because you’ve made a mistake in trying to defy me, and now I made the perfect punishment to make sure you regret it forever by ruining your reputation, killing your social life, FOREVER.” I couldn’t help but smirk, and chuckle, and laugh! I laughed like he had said the funniest joke ever, which threw everyone off, I could feel Gael and the morgrem looking over the entire discussion from the sidelines, Gael was worried and the morgrem had the same smirk as ever, but both, alongside Demian shifted to the same surprised expression that almost seemed like they were scared, even if for a moment. “I was worried I had underestimated you, I’m glad you’re as stupid as I thought.” “What is this?!” The obstagoon grabbing me growled. “You can’t ruin something that had no chance of happening!” I laughed. “And now you’re stuck with me.” “HIJO DE-“ “Stop, Demian.” As the obstagoon was about to charge an attack directly towards my face, before I could even react we were interrupted by someone I didn’t expect. Dylan, the morgrem, had ordered his leader in a loud blaring voice, completely unheard of from the usually quiet pokéuman. “Don’t waste your energy this early in the day.” And to my surprise, Demian listened, but it was clear his anger had not shifted one bit. “Gah, don’t think you’ve made me change my mind on what I plan for you, idiot.” He said through growled teeth. “I’m hungry and you made me waste time I could’ve used to get breakfast, next time you try to challenge me I will fuck you up good, te voy a madrear, you hear?” I just glared at him, he glared back, but quickly went on his way to the cafeteria, with the rest of us following, right as we exited the dorm room I could see Gael grab something of the corner of my eye but I was too agitated to try and figure out what. We made it to breakfast, once again it was packed to the brim with people, but Demian made sure to intimidate a few people sitting on a table forcing them to give us their space, and I could merely watch, it didn’t help that today’s menu was fairly bland, scrambled eggs of different kinds, molletes, chilaquiles, etc. I sat down to eat quietly, none of us really willing to have any kind of conversation, though it didn’t seem like Demian genuinely cared about it, though there would be times where occasionally another Pokémon, usually a dark type approached him and talked about stuff I’m pretty sure I was glad the loud conversations of the cafeteria made me unable to hear. As I was finishing my meal, I could feel something cold stick into my thigh, grabbing it turned out to be a sticky note that had “head to lunch directly from school, don’t go to the dorm to drop off your stuff I’ll try and see you there.” Written on it, at first, I wasn’t sure who had given me this but rapidly it clicked, and looking over confirmed it as I saw two things beside me, Gael and a pen, most likely the one he used to write the note, I grabbed the pen to reply “this u?” and he confirmed it with a nod. Demian however had then finished eating and made us go back to the dorm with him, forcing gael to carry the stuff he hadn’t finished with his claws, giving me the notes to hide from the obstagoon, eventually we made it back and split off to head to our own classes, to the dismay of Demian. I made it to my classroom, still slightly later than most of the other students who still noticed me with lingering stares as I arrived, I could make out a few unintelligible murmurs, I couldn’t help but worry that word about yesterday’s events had already spread. I started today with Spanish class, taught by a dewgong called Mr. Gustavo Ortega, interestingly for today’s class we focused briefly on pokéuman literature, starting from reimaginings of classic tales and popular folk stories within our universe, but occasionally name dropping a few original works I couldn’t recognize, but was intrigued by and I hoped I would learn more about in the future. Did you know apparently there’s a pokeuman equivalent to La Llorona? Some say she’s a water type froslass that was experimented on by pokextinction and lost her family, though granted it’s likely as much of an urban legend as the original tale. Next class became interesting as everyone, from every classroom was heading to battle class, this time poison battle class. Arriving to the correct arena wasn’t as welcoming as the day before, the door to the poison class was ridiculously blinded, it had the stylized symbol according to its type as all the other doors but it had several warnings for people who weren’t poison types, poison immune or heavily prepared, both in Spanish and English, the door was much harder to open, this one instead of a knob had the same locks as the dorm rooms, looking at a distance I could tell it wasn’t the only one, the fire one had it as well, I placed my palm on it and after a while of it scanning and responding, the door unlocked. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I had a lot of ideas and so I was very careful opening the door, I did not want whatever was kept inside that required such warnings to escape, and so when I entered I immediately shut the door not caring about how loud a noise it caused, only to find myself in front of another door. I facepalmed harshly, looking around I noticed that the room inbetween the two entrances weren’t very big but what space it had was mostly used by a bunch of air vents. “Of course, I should’ve realised they would have all these measures put in place, there’s probably some form of toxin inside that is kept in through these vents and the main gate!!” I stopped talking once I realised, I was rambling to myself. Truth be told, I was terrified heading inside, all my life I’ve passed through forbidden areas like these, were only qualified experts were supposed to enter lest you had a death wish, and suddenly I can just walk into these all fine and dandy because of my species? My nature? My mind still had trouble registering it, the cold room with the ventilation and my nervousness caused me to tremble as I finally I went inside the arena, and immediately I was greeted by a large purple haze across the massive room, a gas that was produced by a weird purple liquid that was collecting about in puddles looking almost like a swamp, puddles of toxic material that I couldn’t recognize, it looked to be fairly generic in nature, maybe this is the toxins us poison types produce? I could even see a few barrels of toxic waste in the corners of the arena, seemingly of the same stuff, the feelings I had inhaling the contaminated air weren’t too different from the feeling I had producing my acid spray, but what was different was the reaction I was having to the haze. My mind reacted in danger, it already knew I was not supposed to be here, at least under normal circumstances, and suddenly being exposed to poisoned oxygen it was screaming at me to get out, that it was dangerous, that I was getting sick. But my body reacted differently, it took in the air as it if it was the cleanest in the world, my mind was saying it smelled horrible, but my biology was saying it smelled great, my mind was raging that I was getting sick, poisoned, killed, but my body was actually healing, recuperating itself, this internal dissonance caused me to become disoriented, almost being unable to notice the swarm of poison type pokémon approaching me, with one particular figure at the front. A venusaur stood on its four legs in front of me. “It’s fine.” He spoke. “It happens to every new poison pokéuman, but your body will get used to it, in time your mind will figure out that this environment is healthy for you, right now we won’t do any physical training so you can sit down on the stands until you feel less sick while taking notes of our lesson. I nodded, carefully walking towards one of the stands in the sides of the room, truth be told the basic structure of the arena wasn’t too different from the electric classroom, it was still a large open, fairly rectangular room, with stands locating in the sides of the room. It was essentially the same design. I sat down on the stands with a chuckle, * The stands themselves were, not the cleanest, even a little corroded and aged, though I had to wonder if it was on purpose since a lot of poison types supposedly thrived on these kinds of ambiences, I mean there are several pokémon made out of pollution after all. The professor, introducing himself as Mr. Sergio Lopez, started talking about battle strategy, and, as someone who hadn’t played the games, I won’t lie, I found it a little difficult to keep up, I could get behind when he mentioned type match-ups, I particularly wanted to focus on my quad ground weakness, but by the time he moved to moves, abilities, how to combine them, how to work against other abilities it was all pretty much another language for me, I had fully underestimated how unprepared I was for pokémon battling, and I wasn’t even estimating much already. As the class went on, I was getting much more used to the tainted atmosphere, at least in practice, in concept I was still definitely not used to suddenly having to see this environment as beneficial. Beyond the physical qualities of the classroom though, the arena was strangely quiet, never did I have the chance or need to interact with any of the other students in the class, which there weren’t many, about like 7 people were in the arena scattered all over the stands all by themselves, yet unlike the electric class I couldn’t feel any hostility either, everyone simply chose to be on their own way and, it was unusual, but then again isn’t this what I want? We finished taking notes and the professor had us walk to the arena, summoning a bunch of dummies for us to fight, but unlike the electric class the professor gave us specific instructions for us, he had us first analyze what our strongest move was, in my case spark, and target it towards the dummy, then he had us work with poison moves, non-poison moves, status moves, etc. Eventually, the class came to an end, and I was pretty tired, all the students formed a very organized line, me at the back, and one by one left the room, standing at the space outside for a moment before the next one followed, I quickly realised it was very likely that we were being decontaminated so that we didn’t carry any dangerous elements outside the classroom, as my turn came I entered the space expecting a refreshing sensation but instead the “cleaning” procedure of spraying me with what I assumed was some form of disinfectant had me feel even weaker, draining my energy and only making me more tired. “Again, you’ll get used to it, don’t worry, it won’t do you too much harm, but if you ever feel ill, I recommend not assisting to poison class as the disinfecting is required for the rest of the base’s sake, but if you’re not well it will harm you significantly.” I did not respond out of exhaustion, I simply nodded and went on my way, but if I did, I probably would’ve expressed my sadness at having to essentially cause myself harm just to not be a hazard to anyone else, it really felt like my nature was more of a curse than anything. But… no, I couldn’t let myself think that, I’m still human, I still have the human part of pokéuman, I flashed back to when I was trapped by pokextinction, they saw us as inhuman, even when my transformation was only in my hands, we were already a lost cause, only… no, they are wrong, I knew it then and I know it now, to let myself think this is a mistake is to let them win, and I can’t let them win, for… them. With that mindset I felt a little better, and by better, I mean going from horrible to just kinda moping. I went back to my group’s classroom in time for history class, still taught by Mr. Izaguirre, which seemed to be going in chronological order so still discussing the prehispanic era, though we were getting close to the arrival of the Spanish to the Americas, boy would that be fun, can’t wait for the entire classroom to remember how stupid the cast system was, seriously, look it up and translate its names, it’s hilarious. Next up was P.E. I, and many others groaned as we realised we had yet another hour of physical activity not long after the first one, once again I had to walk all over to the gym, which looked very much like a human school gym. A large blastoise, who was expecting us in the middle of the year with a whistle collar on her neck and his arms on her hips, or at least as close as she can get, blastoise limbs aren’t very long after all. “ALRIGHT EVERYONE LISTEN HERE, SINCE I KNOW WE HAVE A NEW STUDENT I WILL INTRODUCE MYSELF AS COACH GISELA SOTO!!! BUT SINCE I KNOW HE’S ALREADY BEEN IN THE CLASS FOR A DAY I WON’T HAVE HIM INTRODUCE HIMSELF, SO I WANT YOU ALL TO START RUNNING 20 LAPS ACROSS THE GYM!!!!” And with that, with little time to process it we all began running in circles across the gym, it was obvious for me that my pokémon form had not changed at all how well I performed running, now I wasn’t the slowest but it was very clear that toxtricities were neither particularly fast or slow pokémon, not only that but my stamina was still as awful as ever, though I definitely felt like I had more energy than usual, I guess I hadn’t really ran much since I transformed that Saturday. As we all finished our laps, me being the last one to do so who was actually trying and not just walking around chatting with other people, and once everyone was done the coach continued by announcing that we would be playing dodgeball, which everyone was… interestingly excited for. Now dodgeball here is played fairly simply with cheap plastic balls that you can find at any toy store, not the seemingly sport specific balls that apparently hurt a lot and were used in the U.S. which meant that I did enjoy playing dodgeball, but people weren’t usually excited about it as people often preferred football than anything. At least that’s what I thought before we actually got to play. We formed teams, I got picked last, sounds cliché I know but I honestly didn’t care, and I noticed that the balls were completely different from the previous depictions I described, they looked sorta glass-like and were transparent in colour, suddenly, right before we could start the coach blew her whistle and began shouting. “ALRIGHT, SINCE WE HAVE A NEW STUDENT, I WOULD LIKE TO EXPLAIN THAT THIS IS A SPECIAL TYPE OF DODGEBALL, THESE BALLS GAIN SPECIAL EFFECTS FROM YOUR TYPES, AND SO YOU WILL HAVE TO PLAY DODGEBALL WITH KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR MATCH-UPS.” With that, she blew her whistle and the game began, I briefly raised my eyebrow wondering what coach Gisela meant by special effects, but I didn’t have the time to wonder it as I started making sure I avoided the incoming barrage of balls from the other team, luckily I had a special ability from my human self to blend into the background so much people didn’t notice me, so I simply did not get attacked at all, looking around I noticed the balls changing colours corresponding to the pokémon carrying them, and if they hit another pokémon I managed to notice the “special effects” coach talked about when a dark green ball suddenly grew vines on the pokémon it had hit, this made me curious as to what electric and poison type balls could do, but I unfortunately couldn’t land a single one, nor could I activate the poison ball. In the end I made it to the last 3, with the only pokéuman left in the opponent team being a quagsire who looked towards me, grabbed a ball, changed it to a dark brown colour… he threw it at me… It hit and exploded in a cloud of dust, and I was struggling to… to… s-stay c… conscious… I woke up as the bell rang for next class and everyone, but the coach had left the arena, the blastoise pokéuman approached me as I stoop up and handed me a few weird looking blue fruits. “Looks like you took quite the beating, eat these, they’re oran berries, you might’ve heard of them, I’ll let the students know to lay off using quad effective balls next time.” “T-thanks.” I became surprised at finding out the berries from the games were real, I guess they grow with pokéuman assistance, otherwise I can’t understand why we don’t just see them around overworld, and like in the games I ate them and immediately I felt myself recover from most of my injuries, though I still felt a lot of exhaustion and a little bit of aching across my body. I walked back to my classroom, definitely not almost forgetting my stuff on the gym. Maths passed by slowly, with me having an absolute venomous distaste for it throughout the hour, but, almost as if for consolation, English came, where I pretty much breezed through and even helped the teacher with her lesson with a few mistakes on the whiteboard, and like yesterday miss Isa was so surprised at my level that she could barely function through the class, I felt bad for her, it was clear I was likely the first student in a while to give a damn for her class. All classes eventually ended and listening to Gael’s advice from the morning, decided to head immediately to the cafeteria, which ended up meaning that I arrived early, avoiding a large queue and finding a completely empty table to sit on, it combined with having just came from an easy class meant that I was pretty happy, though unfortunately, I guess to balance out the food simply wasn’t it for me. They decided to go for local stuff, and by local I don’t mean Mexican food, Mexican food is great, possibly the best food of any country in the world, no I mean Mexico city food, which is 90% grease, often tastes horrible, and somehow has quesadillas without cheese. Since I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back in line, I got 4 large quesadillas, with cheese, still can’t believe I had to specify for it. I was served by the machoke server, completely forgetting I wanted to ask his name until it was too late and I had already sat down. I started eating, slowly watching and hearing the cafeteria get filled more and more with different pokéumans, all of them carrying loud conversations that all blended with each other into a blaring background notice, making me not notice the approaching murmur of a group of pokéumans approaching my table until one of them suddenly went. “Hey, you mind if I sit here?” came from an orange, sushi-like creature. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was directed at me, what with so many people being around, and even if it was, I would’ve liked to pretend it wasn’t, but one disadvantage of being a pokémon was what confirmed me as the intendent target. “You, The low-key toxtricity.” ((…Dammit.)) I thought, I reluctantly nodded, and I was surprised by finding both the eelektrike from yesterday and the litleo I had seen in my class sitting down alongside the pokéuman girl. “Hi!!” came from the sushi girl, “I’m Itzel Xie, I’m a tatsugiri by the way since you most likely don’t recognize my species, I heard they’ll add us for scarlet and violet though.” She explained energetically and cheerfully. my roommates told me about you, I’m guessing you’ve already met Raúl, and the Litleo’s name is Miguel.” “H… hi.” I said, looking down and subconsciously trying to ignore them. The girl continued. “So, is it true you leave with Demian and his gang? Man, and I thought we had it rough living in front of them.” She said with surprising sympathy. “Oh… um, well, I just got here, so.” “Right, right.” From then on, as crazy as it was to say, I pretty much stayed in silence for the rest of the lunch period overhearing the group’s conversation, or rather the eelektrik and tatsugari (?)’s conversations, with the quiet litleo very rarely chiming in himself. They didn’t feel like asking me anything from then on, I was simply there with them, it was awfully weird. Once I got done eating, I simply decided to say a quiet goodbye and leave towards my dorm. “Um… I’m done so I gotta… go.” “Woah… you really ate all that?” Said the eelektrik. “I don’t think I could even finish half of it.” I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, bye.” I went back to my dorm, still in shock for the unusually calm, yet still unwarranted social interaction. Unfortunately, things would get better as I arrived to the dorm room open and a very angry obstagoon standing in the doorway. “Where the fuck were you?” Demian asked. I rubbed my head front in frustration. “Lunch, it doesn’t matter to you anyway.” I was immediately hit with Demian’s fury swipes. “Don’t be stupid, I told you very clearly you were going to stick with me and my gang, and you did not return to the dorm after class, you disrespected me, and I told you I would beat the shit out of you if you did.” “What the fuck do you even know about respect?!” I got hit by fury swipes again. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!” He screamed, before starting to drag me out of the room, still carrying my supplies, not even calling the rest of the gang with him, he dragged me all the way to the civilian level, even when walking upstairs which ended up in me getting several bruises across my body, once we arrived he locked eyes into the first “weak” pokemon he found, a munna, making sure they noticed him noticing them, Demian then started chasing them down several corridors until finding another corner to trap them in, still dragging me along painfully where he suddenly started attacking them, practically letting out his rage on them, once he was done and the poor munna looked to be at the border of fainting he grabbed them by their entire body and started speaking to them, directly at their face. “When you tell others about what just happened, which I know you will do because I know you’re a pathetic little snitch, you will make sure to include, that the toxtricity behind me also attacked you brutally, if you do that, I might consider sparing you for the rest of your pathetic future, understood.” I was horrified, but I wasn’t strong enough to intervene, and when the munna nodded, I couldn’t be mad given what she went through. Demian let the munna go and she ran away immediately, the obstagoon then looked at me with a demented grin, as if celebrating this event like it was a victory over me. Although knowing my luck, there’s a good chance it will be. Demian and I walked back to our dorm, I a few meters behind him, by the time I made it Demian had already gone off with Dylan and Gael approached me extremely concerned, practically leaping at me. “Dude, what happened? Where did you go? Why are you all beat up?”I sighed out of tiredness. “I had a fight with Demian when I got here from lunch, and then he dragged me into one of his attacks and made his victim put the blame on me to attempt to ruin my reputation.” “Wait, he literally dragged you all the way to the second floor!?” Gael asked, a great expression of shock marked across his face. “Yeah, that’s why I’m all bruised up.” “Oh arceus! I’m so sorry!! If I had known this would’ve happened I wouldn’t have told you to avoid returning to our dorm after class!! I’m really sorry I really hope you’re ok I’m sorry!!!” Gael pleaded with a sense of desperation that took me by surprise, if I didn’t assume better, I would almost think he was on the verge of tears. “Look, I’ll be fine, I’ll live, if this is simply going to keep happening, I might as well build an immunity to it, let’s just…” sigh “let’s not focus on it now that he’s gone, please, just forget about it.” “A-alright.” Gael said. “If you say so…” “Let’s just chat, or something… gah, ow!” I exclaimed as I attempted to sit down but I felt pain due to my bruises. “Are you really sure you’re ok?” “Yes, yes, i- gahh!... I just need to lay down for a bit, oof.” “Well…” he said. “I guess we could try and get to know each other a bit more while you recuperate, y’know if we want to be friends and all.” “Hmm… what do you have in mind?” “I don’t know, maybe just talking about stuff we like, tv shows, games, etc.” Gael glided up to the top of the bunkbed as we continued conversing “Um… I suppose.” “Is something wrong?” Gael said, hanging from the bed frame upside down like a bat, it was kinda cute. “Nothing, it’s just, I don’t really like talking about what I’m into…” I said in a half-mumble. “Why?” the gliscor asked. “It’s just… people never really know the stuff I like, and I usually end up isolated and made fun of.” “It can’t be that bad, can it?” “It can and it is.” “I’d still like to know.” I turned my body upside down and put my face on my pillow. “Hmmmph… maybe.” “I mean my interests aren’t that common either.” Gael said as he went back to laying on his bed. “Really?” I asked, very much incredulous. “Yeah! I don’t usually meet people who are into sonic.” “You like sonic?” “Y-yeah… I know it has bad fame, but I’ve liked it a lot since I was a kid. “Hmmm….” “I’m into videogames in general to be fair, mainly Nintendo and esports.” “Esports? Like official competitive stuff?”“Yeah! I think it’s cool, It would be honestly a dream of mine to participate in those but I was never able to develop the level.” He said, I understood, like I’ve mentioned before, videogames aren’t exactly very accessible here, though that doesn’t seem to affect king of fighter players. “I’m obviously also into pokémon, and I used to be interested in playing competitive but it’s a little pointless not that real battles are a thing, plus like every pokéuman is into pokémon so it’s not really special.” “You’d be surprised.” I said, remembering Lázaro. “Wait, you’re not into pokémon?” Gael asked, surprised. “Oh no! I definitely am, I’ve just encountered pokéumans who haven’t.” I said, hoping I didn’t have to elaborate remembering that my circumstances of arrival to the base was kept hidden. “Ohhh ok, I didn’t know there were pokéumans who weren’t pokémon fans, though I guess there are simply exceptions sometimes.” “mhm…” “Let’s see…” Gael continued, laying back down on his bed. “I’m also really into geography stuff; I like learning about other countries and their cultures, I actually do pretty well in geography class.” “Oh! Well… me too, I love learning especially about obscure countries and cultures in different backgrounds, I feel like I’m learning more about the world that way…” I smiled. “I can’t help but wonder how pokéuman bases like this one exist all over, because there are pokéumans in every part of the world and our base definitely feels very Mexican with it’s architecture and reference, I wonder how it is in like, Japan, or the UK, or Africa or Oceania.” “I wonder that too.” Gael replied. “Heck, I even wonder how other bases across the country are, this base definitely feels a lot like Mexico City, which is appropriate given how it’s the city it takes pokéumans from.” “It’s not just Mexico City.” Added Gael. “I’m actually from Toluca, and the base sits in the mountains in-between both cities.” “Oh, really?” I said, this time being the one to stand up over at his direction. “Yeah! This base takes from a fairly large area, I’m pretty sure the nearest base is in like Puebla or something, I’m not fully sure.” “Ohhh cool.” I replied. “I’m not actually from this area at all though, I’m from Guadalajara, but I moved to Mexico City in 2019.” “Really? You do have kind of an accent to be honest.” Gael chuckled. “Yeah, my father had to move because he’s part of the military and you know how it is, if anything it’s a miracle we don’t move more often.” I explained, Gael’s mood seemed to sour hearing this. “Yeah… I can understand, my dad was also part of the military, we never moved, but he did, so I mostly stayed with my mum alone.” He said. “Oh… that’s pretty bad.” “Mhm,” he continued. “And the brief times I did see him he was always very demanding and strict; he wanted me to join the military like him, but I made sure to tell him off every time.” “Oh, that’s horrible!! My parents were never like that, they were more understanding, especially as I also made it very clear that I never want to join that kind of life.” “I guess you were luckier than me… but, honestly I don’t think this matters now, I made my choice, my promise, and even right now as a pokéuman I’ll make sure I never have to join the PRT or fight in this war.” Gael said with a sudden determined energy rising through him. I couldn’t help but smile. “Heh, me too.” “Honestly? I can’t believe we have that in common, but I’m very happy about it.” “Yeah… so am I, I guess I kinda expect people to look at me weirdly if I say I want nothing to do with the PRT, so I’m glad I found someone that feels the same way as me, it… doesn’t happen often.” Gael suddenly glided down from his bed and stood in front of me, startling me a little. “GAH!!” “Oof, sorry about that, I just thought it was better if we continued talking this way.” Gael explained sheepishly. “Right, right.” “Anyway, well, if there’s one last thing, I could mention that I’m into, at least for the moment, it would probably be the Zelda franchise.” “Oh?” “Yeah… not exactly a popular thing but I enjoy it a lot and I’m very knowledgeable on the whole thing.” “I mean it’s still very recognizable, just not popular, still more than what I’m into.” “Hmm…” Gael seemed to think for a bit, as he sat down on the bed in front of me, which didn’t seem to be very comfortable as I could see him flinch at the disorganized and unclean sheets. “Well… what are you into that’s so obscure then? I’ve already told you two of my interests, so I think it’s only fair if you tell me two of yours.” I sighed. “I really don’t know… I don’t wanna sound like I’m being arrogant but you’re probably not going to recognize them.” “You wanna bet?” “Honestly? I’d be win, and I’d be confident about it, I’ve literally never met another person in this country that is into what I’m into but, fine, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt… have you ever heard of doctor who?” “Ummm… the name’s vaguely familiar to me, I think.” Gael responded, clearly having to think deep about it. “I assumed so, and I doubt you know what Eurovision is in the slightest.” “Yeah no, I have no idea what that is.” Said Gael, sounding a little apologetic. I sighed, turning to the other side, still laying down on my bed. “Look, it doesn’t matter, I’m already used to is, I just don’t want to talk about it now, I’ve accepted that nobody is ever going to know about the stuff I love so I just want to drop it.” “I would like to know, though.” I turned back an attempted a raised eyebrow. “Seriously!! we already have so much in common, and you seem like an interesting person, I wouldn’t mind having you talk about it! I really wouldn’t! Because I really want to be friend with you Lex, and I want to understand you, I may not have any idea what those two things are but if it’s important to you and it means getting to know you then I’d be perfectly happy listening to you talking about it!!!” Gael exclaimed with a burst of excitement. I was conflicted, he sounded genuine but… could I trust him? I wanted to trust him, I wanted for his claims to be true, but, it’s never happened before, could I even be sure this would be possible? That someone is actually interested in all the different topics I have an unnecessary amount of knowledge about? I took a deep breath before responding. “hmm… if you say so.” “Look, how about this? We both take turns talking about random facts about our interests, and the other does their best to listen. We don’t have to get into each other’s topics but who knows, maybe we both gain an interest and we share even more stuff in common.” “I… alright.” And so, we began conversing for the rest of the evening, taking turns talking about the stuff we liked, mainly focusing on our two “main picks” as we ended up putting it, he talked about sonic, and Zelda and I talked about dr. who and Eurovision, and even though we had no clue about what the other was explaining, we both managed to follow, and we were each really comfortable explaining it to the other. “-nd so the doctor is able to regenerate itself after a fatal injury, this is why he’s so recast, but every incarnation of him has a different personality and is his own character who goes through their own arcs, giving different actors a time to shine, time lords are able to regenerate into anyone, regardless of race and gender.” I explained, waving my hands almost as if giving an invisible presentation “Ohh interesting.” Gael said. “M favourite incarnation is 12, sure, he doesn’t quite have the best stories on average but his actor, Peter Capaldi, a long-time fan like me is very clearly really passionate about it and always sells it, and he has a very unique charm and personality!!” “-o they’re not actually the same characters, unless the game is directly linked to a previous one like a sequel or whatever, all the links, zeldas and ganons are reincarnations, with link representing the triforce of courage, Zelda the triforce of wisdom, and ganon the triforce of power.” Explained Gael, much more composed than me but still grinning happily like an idiot, in an affectionate way. “I didn’t know that… is that why there are so many links in smash?” “Yeah, pretty much.” Sometimes we’d get pretty heated. “-nd they always claim that voting is rigged by politics, they always say oh everyone just votes for their neighbours on purpose because they hate us but like… no??? Countries and regions that share culture, languages, and music markets are o-of course going to lean towards each other, Irish people are going to vote for British music, Nordic countries naturally vote for each other, etc. It’s really not much more complicated than that!!” I ranted on about, often stuttering and having to collect my thoughts as I went on. “Dang…” Responded Gael “-nd like, most of the modern games just don’t get his character right!! he’s too flanderized, they literally made a rule that he wasn’t allowed to cry or emote in a way that wasn’t hero like or some crap, and this also affected characters like knuckles or shadow who often became pretty one-dimensional like, I like the boom cartoon, but they did both of them so dirty.” Gael complained about. “I thought knuckles was kinda funny there, couldn’t tell you about shadow though.” I responded. We spent the whole evening just talking, and talking, and talking about those 4 subjects, we talked in our dorms, in the queue for dinner, sitting in the floor at dinner, even with our mouths opened, so focused on our own little conversations we were we had no idea what the menu was. We kept talking until we simply got so exhausted from it, we literally needed to breathe. pant pant “Few… damn, that was long.” Said the gliscor “Yeah... pant but… well…” pant I was pretty flustered; I wasn’t used to talking about my interests let alone for this long. “I guess I did enjoy it, phew.” “Me too, I wouldn’t mind doing this another time, just uh… pant less exhaustingly.” “You can say that again.” “Hell… maybe I could even show you a little from it through the computer if you’d like…” Gael said, pointing his claws at each other like one would do their index fingers. “Sure, if… if I get to do it as well, though, how do you get access to it? I’m assuming websites are blocked off to avoid leaks or, something, anything the like.” “Oh well, it’s a complicated system, I don’t think I’d be able to explain it right now, we do have several streaming sites and consoles but unfortunately Demian likes to hog them for himself, which is a shame, I’ve been dying to play something for a while.” “That dick, though granted it’s not like I play much videogames in general, I honestly suck at them cuz of it, I struggled with plants vs zombies.” “What about pokémon?” “Too expensive, Nintendo.” I explained. “Hey speaking of, where does Demian go at these hours?” “Oh he just fucks off to the common area to hang around with other dark and poison types, including Dylan, honestly I just kinda leave him alone till he comes back at 11 for curfew… although, now that I think about it, we could start going there as well! there’s plenty to do, I’m pretty sure there is an arcade in there, like a proper arcade, actual games not just rigged claw machines and carnival prices, heck! I could even give you a tour if you’d like!” I quickly stopped him. “Ah- no need, I was given one when I arrived by Ro- my rescuer, is what I’m saying. Just before I got into this dorm, though it wasn’t a very detailed one.” “Well then, I could give you a more detailed tour of the common area, see all the different things we could do together!” I was a little unsure. “Um… if we don’t take too long that is.” “Oh of course, trust me, I don’t like going out and doing activities much either, but we should probably get out of the dorm as much as possible, I promise I won’t try and make it too tiring for the both of us.” “Well, alright then.” I smiled, then I yawned, it was getting late. “Good night, Lex, it was nice getting to know ya.” “Likewise, Gael, good night.” And with that, we both happily drifted off to dreamland. ... “Looks like we meet again, young pokéuman.” Came from the voice of the toxtricity, who slowly faded into existence. “Kalleq?” I asked, adjusting to the vision, instead of a fully empty void, this time it had a swarm of different shades of disorganised colours, hues of pink, purple and blue. The shiny toxtricity nodded, but didn’t speak. “Last time... W-w-what did you mean by more special than I knew?” I found myself asking. “Well, loads of things, some more literal and important than others, but, as your guardian I think it’s best that we both get to know each other before I can deliver my message, I can sense that you don’t trust me.” “And rightfully so, you’ve been appearing as short weird creepy visions and now suddenly you’re acting all wise and peaceful.” I retorted. “The act comes with the job, Lex.” He said. “As for the visions, it’s hard to stabilise the dream dimension which is why they were so short, it wasn’t exactly easy to reach you y’know? Luckily as we have more visits they slowly get longer and longer, but not too long of course, we wouldn’t want for you to sleep for a whole 24 hours now would we?” “I guess I have no way of disputing your claims...” “And yet you’re still skeptical, this is why I hope to use tonight’s visit to ensure you can trust me, so if you want to ask anything about me or who I was when I was alive, feel free to do so.” “Actually... Yeah, if you’re a spirit from the lost era, how come you look about my age? I’ve gone the point in my transformation where I can tell different pokéumans apart and you don’t look that older than me.” Kalleq smiled. “Because, as a spirit guardian, I imprint onto you, your emotions and your memories, and so you’re seeing me as somewhat of a mirror image to you, it’s not just in terms of appearance, I can understand things only you could and recall feelings you’ve had in the past, like for example, the embarrassment, yet comfort of talking to Gael about those TV shows you like so much.” “W-what the? Y-you can read my mind? H-how am I supposed to trust you then?” Kalleq sighed. “Like I said, I don’t read minds, mine just imprints on yours, it’s more of a side effect of being a messenger.” His demeanour grew more reserved and nervous, less like the confident facade he had been putting on. “Look... I’m sorry our introduction hasn’t been the best but, it is my duty to be your assigned guardian, s-so if you could just work with me for a little bit, I promise I won’t try to pry into your mind too much I just need to understand who you are so I can properly look after you and deliver your message, please?” He now said with a sense of desperation, which I was very keen to notice. “Are you new at this?” I asked. “Is this your first day or something?” “NO I- Ugh… f-fine, you got me, I’m not as wise and knowledgeable as I let on, b-but this isn’t some any old job!!! I-I can’t treat it like one!! I couldn’t help but feel a little more sympathetic now with his plight. “If this is so serious why’d they pick someone as… um, unexperienced as you? no offense.” “Because like I said, this isn’t some random job you get for experience, our messages are always serious, and since I am your ancestor, the reason you have the pokémon gene mind you, I was seen as the best candidate for the job regardless of my experience, a-and this is why I need for you to trust me before I can begin my job! because I need you to see me as someone you can listen to, otherwise, what’s stopping you from simply ignoring me? I can feel your emotions, you’re someone that really needs to be convinced, Lex.” I gasped in shock at first but later ended up turning my head down in awkwardness. “…Fine, you’re correct, but y’know? being honest is a good way to make me trust you so… thanks for that.” I replied. Kalleq seemed to calm down at this, smiling and stretching his arm towards me. “Then I’ll try to be more honest in the future.” I shook his hand, a little reluctant but I shrugged it off. Going back to his wiser and more confident persona, Kalleq continued. “So, is there anything you’d like to know about me? We’ve not got much time left but I’ve already prepared myself for any answers in case you ask.” I thought for a moment, having a little bit of trouble coming up with a question. “Um… I’m not sure, like I do want to ask questions about the pokémon times but I-I have no idea where to start at all!” Kalleq simply laughed gently, an expression that clashed with his toxtricity biology, his tired eyes and sharp mouth looked so happy and relaxed… is this what people saw when I was happy? I decided it was better not to think much of it out of respect. “Well, I guess I could start with a random “fun” fact as you seem to call it and you can work from it in the future, though probably not tonight as we only have so much time.” I nodded. “Sounds good to me, yeah.” “Well then, let me just tell you about a little something involving the pokémon language, unlike the games we didn’t communicate through animalistic cries, that much should be obvious, but we didn’t do like the anime where we spoke our names and everyone could simply understand us, no, we all had different languages that developed depending on the region, and these often mirror ancient versions of your current human languages, from Iberian vulgar latin to proto-germanic tongues close to old English.” “Woah…” Kalleq continued, proud of himself. “Now, my name in my language translates to “lightning” which is very fitting, yeah. But my people’s language is very close to proto-inuit vocabulary, with kalleq also being a Greenlandic name.” “Oh? Seriously? That’s really cool!!” I exclaimed. “I always had an interest in Greenland, seems like such a fascinating and unique country, I would’ve loved to go there some day.” Kalleq seemed surprised. “Really? Well, I can probably imagine why, if it’s like how my own region was, I’m sure it’s a beautiful place, though mind you, I’d be much more prepared for the temperatures than you.” “Meh, I’m sure I would have been fine, I’m usually good with cold, so much so I’m surprised I didn’t turn out to be a fire type.” “You have me to thank for that.” Said my dream messenger, suddenly the brightness that signified that the vision was ending arrived at the void once again. “Till we meet again, young pokéuman.” I woke up refreshed, something I had not experienced since that fateful Saturday. Today didn’t stand out much from all the previous days as I was starting to adjust to living at the base and I was starting to form a routine. Gael and I had to follow Demian and Dylan to breakfast, but we kept conversing secretly using the sticky notes and our pens. From then on class began and the only new class I had left was geography. That didn’t mean there weren’t any interesting new topics to study though, for starters: in history we already moved to the colonial period, which even though I had already studied before it was still interesting to revisit, although it’s still a shame that pokéuman history is still a long way to go from here. Geography then, was taught by, probably the most interesting pokémon appearance wise alongside our starmie teacher, a gigalith by the name of Bárbara Medel. Who seemed really passionate about her subject, clashing slightly with her harsh and rocky appearance, but it was interesting to see, it was here we found out that, though exact numbers are hard to come by, the country with the most pokéuman bases was china, which made sense, and I also managed to spot on a map a base located in my home city of Guadalajara, I couldn’t help but wonder how things would’ve been like had I transformed there. Unfortunately, however it was hard to focus as throughout class every single student seemed to focus on me, they whispered at each other while glancing at my direction, some looked at me with horror, others with disgust, and I even felt people throwing pieces of paper at my back all throughout every class. At first I wasn’t sure what it was but then I remember what Demian did yesterday, it was clear to me that the rumours were already spreading whether I liked it or not, and as more time passed I would be feeling the effects of my negative reputation even more, getting glares and paper balls thrown at was only the start.That said Maths and English went on as normal and in social formation we got a small explanation as to what the headmaster’s job was exactly, although it wasn’t really stuff we didn’t know already, we were still in the topic of legalities rather than ethics, which felt less interesting to me, though we did learn that since our base is much smaller in terms of population than a regular city, the parliament members and important ruling positions of certain sectors tended to be the same as the workers of that sectors, for example a lot of the cooks were part of the food managing department, a lot of the teachers were high in education sectors, etc. nepotism didn’t seem to be as common as in the human world, though I have to wonder how many people here have blood relation and how many choose to have kids, it was hard to dwell on it when you constantly had shit thrown at you breaking your train of thought, and it was getting to me as despite waking up well-rested my vision occasionally got blurry as if I was tired, but only really when I looked at both of my hands though, weird. Anyway, before all those classes though I had battle class, where I had to unfortunately confront two things. One being that it seemed like Wednesday wasn’t a fluke and just kinda having the students practice by themselves was this professor’s teaching style, which disappointed me and upset me, and two. Because today was the day I “promised”, mind the quotation marks, Raúl to have a spar. He greeted me pretty much instantly as I arrived, begging to have a battle, but I refused on the basis that I still hadn’t trained enough, he groaned but agreed to wait until the halfway point of the class, once we got there, we immediately walked to the most desolate part of the arena, which was still fairly small and crowded, and we got into position as well as we could. “How is a spar different than an ordinary battle?” I asked, Raúl had a prepared stance with his tail/body curled up kinda like a shrimp, but also as if he were preparing himself to launch himself, meanwhile I was standing around with my arms crossed still unsure about the situation. “Dude, it’s obvious.” He replied confidently, but his demeanour shifted once he noticed my expression grow frustrated. “R-really? No clue? Alright fine, we’re just going to use our moves towards each other but not at full force as usual, kinda like practicing karate and shit, I dunno let’s just begin.” I sighed for the billionth time in my life and improvised a battle stance, closing my fists and putting them in a closed, protective but also sorta-battle ready position. I took a deep breath and started charging a shock wave, using the same methods in my previous battle classes, I could feel myself generating the electricity for my attack until suddenly. “THUNDERBOLT!!!!!” I was hit by a sudden large bolt of lightning, sapping my energy and taking me completely by surprise. “Gah!!” When the attack was over, I could see the eelektrik levitating and moving around as he was in front of me. “Too slow!” He said as he hit me with another thunderbolt. “ARGH!!!” I recovered, I was fairly sure that electric types could resist themselves, especially given I was constantly producing harmless electricity, so either I was very weak or the eel pokéuman was a lot stronger than me since the attack definitely hit hard. I tried charging an acid spray, but I was hit by a: “DISCHARGE!!!” Which knocked me off my feet causing me to fall on my butt. “Ow…” I exclaimed as I slowly got up. “Bro, you need to learn to attack faster!!” Said Raúl. “Shut up.” I said in response, growing more and more irritated, I once again tried charging an attack, this time my spark which I was successful in starting but as I charged towards the eelektrik he dodged out of the way causing me to fall to the floor, then as I turned to my back he hit me with an acid that I actually did better at resisting. “Ow, wait, I didn’t know you had a poison move?” Raúl shrugged. “Meh, it’s pretty weak, I’m probably going to change it to a better move once I evolve.” He charged a thunderbolt, but I was able to dodge it in time and it slid past me. I started charging another acid spray, knowing he didn’t have a poison resistance like me, but I had to dodge several of his attacks once agains which didn’t allow me to charge, and I was even hit by a painful crunch. “OW!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!” “Hey don’t shout!!” Came from Raúl, I got even more frustrated that I ended up using scary face unintentionally, I knew it was a status move but its effect escaped me at the moment so I was praying that it would benefit me, I was lucky though as I noticed that Raúl’s movements and his ability to charge attacks was ever so slightly slower, and so I was finally able to land an acid spray from my throat, causing him to fall on his back for once. “Gah!! Oh, wow, that was powerful, but still not enough to beat me I’m afraid!!” He then with another thunderbolt I was narrowly unable to dodge that was immediately followed by another crunch I ended up blacking out. “Ughhh… What… happened?” I asked as my eyes fluttered open, and I adjusted to the light. “Looks like you experienced your first knockout, don’t worry, you’ll get used to it, here.” Came from the electivire teacher, handing me a weird candy bar, I ate it almost in one bite and I immediately felt a bunch of my energy restored. “I’m guessing that was probably a healing item of some sort… wait, shit! What time is it!?!?” I asked, suddenly noticing that everyone had already left the arena. “11:13, don’t worry, your professor knows you just had battle class and so he probably understands that you’ve been knocked out, don’t over exert yourself, also, your eelektrik friend wanted to let you know that he wants to meet you at lunch like yesterday.” ((Great…)) I thought to myself, I stood up and shook myself off before heading back to the classroom, where I had to deal with the rest of the classes I’ve already described. Once it was time for lunch, and still following Gael’s advice of not heading to the dorm immediately, I rolled my eyes and reluctantly took a seat on the same table as yesterday, expecting the group from that day to return, at least the food looked to be good, the menu was Italian and thus I grabbed three slices of wood-fired pizza and a large plate of pasta with a glass bottle of coke, one has to wonder how big that kitchen is if it can cook so many different dishes. It took a while, and I had already eaten a large chunk of the delicious pasta until I started hearing semi-familiar voices approaching the table I was sitting in. “So not mika then?” The tatsugiri pokéuman said, coming from a continuing conversation she was having with the other two. “Um… well I m-mean it… barely changes…” Responded the shy litleo. “Hey, look! It’s Lex!!” Exclaimed Raúl the eelektrik once he noticed me in the table, all three of them then turned over at my direction. “Oh! Hi there! Sorry we didn’t see you we were a little busy with something.” Said Itzel, the tatsugiri. “It’s whatever, I was almost done anyway.” “Are you always this early?” She asked. “I’m guessing so that he can stockpile a bunch of food, I mean look at that! Three slices!?!” Raúl continued. “Are you secretly a snorlax or something?” “Oh, lay off Raúl.” Spoke Itzel as all three of them sat down on the table with their own trays of food, notably smaller than mine. From then on, the conversation they had been having continued, and it was obvious enough that it was about the litleo who’s name I had currently forgotten trying to go with a nickname, I paid attention absentmindedly to them but without having any intention to participate in the discussion. “Do we know if you had a dad who got killed by an uncle to call you simba?” Raúl asked. “…shut up.” Said the Litleo in a whisper “Why not just go by your species name?” I found myself saying out loud without thinking, poking with my cutlery the last of my food. “Huh?” Exclaimed the litleo as he, and the other two pokéumans turned to look at me, startling me once I realized I had spoken too loudly. “O-oh… um, well, there are some people who go by their surnames and um, why would going by your species be any different? I-I mean unless there are other litleos I guess…” “No… you have a point.” Said the litleo, in an even quieter and softer voice than mine. “I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of other people doing that before, yeah!” Itzel exclaimed excitedly. “Sounds a little uncreative to me… but it’s your choice so I fully support it.” Said Raúl, taking a more empathetic tone of voice. “Y-yeah, well for now at least…” Litleo finished the conversation topic with a slight smile. Everyone else was in high spirits, and even I couldn’t help but smile after having helped with the fire pokéuman’s dilemma, even if I didn’t mean to participate, I had already finished my food so I was about to excuse myself and leave when suddenly- “Well, well, well, so this is where you’ve gone into.” Came from a voice behind me, a voice than even in the commotion of the mess hall I could so clearly recognize, me and many people more even in other tables as we found ourselves turning over in the direction of the hulking beast of an obstagoon that was Demian, with his lackeys Dylan and Gael behind him, the two dark types had a mischievous grin in their expression, but the gliscor looked over at me with a worried one. “What the hell are you doing hanging out with these weaklings?” the obstagoon said as he dragged me off the table and forced me to stand up. “And after having proven yourself yesterday? Just what exactly is it going on in your mind?” “Hey!! What are you doing here you big jerk!!!” Shouted itzel, suddenly jumping in-between me and the obstagoon, causing even more people to gain attention to our table, I could see Litleo moving closer towards Raúl terrified from the obstagoon. “It’s none of your business you pathetic wimp, you really think you can stand against me? You don’t even have limbs!! That’s laughable.” Said Demian. “I think you’ll find that I’m very strong AND I’m a dragon type, I wouldn’t go down in a fight easily.” “HAH! You think I wouldn’t have tried that if you really were worth my time? You live in front of us, you’re just so pathetic it’s not worth it at all, but you’re wasting my time, I didn’t come here for you, and I have no idea why you’re trying to defend this punk here.” “Sorry but no, I’m not just gonna sit here while you mess with the poor toxtricity, so leave him alone.” “POOR?!! AHAHAHA!!!!!” Demian cackled. “Are you even hearing yourself? Didn’t you hear how he mercilessly beat a useless little munna with me the other day? You’re really trying to defend another bully who’s exactly like me. My anger was boiling at this point and I couldn’t stop myself from responding. “BULLSHIT!!! YOU KNOW FULL WELL THAT’S BULLSHIT!!” “RAAAAAAAGGGH!!!! THAT’S IT I NEED YOU TO SHUT UP!!!!!” screamed the obstagoon as he charged an attack and was about to hit me when we were suddenly interrupted by none other than. “What’s going on here!?” Screamed a very familiar chesnaught, one who by making his presence known suddenly grabbed the attention of the entire cafeteria towards us, plenty of people suddenly started chattering loudly about the arriving pokéuman. “No way!!! It’s the commander!!” “I’ve heard of him he’s so cool!!” “What’s he doing in the common level?” “Whoa, he’s so strong.” “Let’s fucking go, he’ll show those jerks!!!” “Everybody calm down!!!” He ordered the classroom before looking at my direction and giving me a wink, I smiled happy that he was here and he could help me, though I was also wondering why he was here, especially with how recognized he seemed to be amongst people, I looked over at Demian, and I could see that he, Dylan and even Gael had grown terrified at the arrival of the hulking plant type. “W-w-why are you here?!!?!” Demian growled, but clearly scared and even trembling. “Am I not allowed to check up on the residents and students of our base? Then again, I guess I can’t ask you of all people what is and is allowed, we’re being lenient on you Demian, but there is a limit, and you are close to pushing it, now, you don’t want me to get the headmaster this time?” “Y-y-you wouldn’t!!!” Demian screamed, more in a plea than in a challenge like I expected. “Demian, you’re gonna leave me no choice, now I don’t want to see you harass other smaller pokéumans ever again, understood?” Rodri continued with his serious and professional demeanour. The obstagoon simply spat and motioned for Gael and Dylan to follow, leaving me be. “As for you Lex.” Rodri then said. “There is something I would like to discuss so you’re coming with me. I could physically cringe at the cafeteria’s “oooooh”s when Rodri made me follow him all the way to an empty hallway, reaching the dorms level. “Did I do something wrong?” “No! of course not! I know you and Demian pretty well and I’m very confident in knowing that you didn’t do what everyone’s been saying yesterday, but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you, really I just wanted to make sure you’ve been doing ok, which is the reason I walked down here, I hoped your roommates weren’t giving you much trouble but, well…” “It’s fine, I’ll learn to ignore them in time.” I said after a sigh, half lying to myself. “Hey! I’m sure things will get better.” Rodri claimed with a grin. “And if it’s too much, I will make sure to get the headmaster to transfer you somewhere else regardless of what it takes me I promise y-“ “No no no, really, it’s fine, I’m ok here, it’s just about getting used to it.” I said, remembering that although I would’ve preferred not to deal with Demian, I still had Gael. Rodri seemed a bit unsure but, in the end, accepted it. “Alright, well, apart from that, how’s pokéuman life been treating ya? everything good? Everything right? And I was getting happy.” I chuckled at the reference. Suddenly though switched his tone to be more interrogatory. “Is everything going normally? Or did anything… unusual happen?” Immediately I flashed to my dream messenger. “U-um… well…” Truth be told, I wasn’t sure if I should tell him about my dream messenger, even though Rodri was by far the pokéuman I could trust the most, would he even believe me? Would he even understand what I’m talking about? I wasn’t even too sure about what having a dream messenger meant. “N-no, not really, why?” I ended up responding nervously. Rodri raised an eyebrow at me, either disbelieving or just thinking I wasn’t sure, and his expression denoted less upset but rather… curious, but eventually just reverted to his usual demeanour. “Well… if you say so, say, how did it go in your first few battle classes? What moves did you get? It’s always an exciting rite of passage for new pokéumans.” “Oh, well, the professor told me I had good… power, I think? My attacks were powerful a-according to him, but he said I needed to work on charging them faster… um… let’s see I’ve got discha- no wait, thundershock, acid spray, scary face and spark.” Rodri thought for a moment. “Pretty normal for a newbie toxtricity I believe, although that part about your attacks being powerful intrigues me, though, really all that matters is that you worked hard, and speaking of battling, did you hear about the tournament that would happen on Sunday?” Rodri asked. “N-no, why?” “Well, I just though you could’ve been interested, that’s all.” “Um… in participating? Or…” “Oh! Not necessarily, no. you could just watch, most pokéumans enjoy it.” Rodri said, sounding excited for it himself “Hmm… I might pass, but we’ll see.” “Excellent!” he exclaimed, “Well, it was nice seeing you, unfortunately I still got a job to do, I really hope things get better for you man, I know there’s something special about you, I’m sure of it!” “T-thanks, I guess…” I said as Rodri walked back up to the PRT level while I walked down all the way to my dorm, which was empty by the time I arrived, though Demian, Gael and Dylan’s school materials were all in, indicating that they had already returned. I spent the time I was alone just browsing on the tv, curious about what it had, it had a variety of channels I was familiar with, both cable and satellite like canal 5, canal once, cartoon network, Disney xd, stuff like that. What’s weird though is that even though they were transmitting as usual, I accessed them through a menu more akin to those of smart tvs, I even found a weird channel called “Cadena Pokéumana DL” or in English “the Pokéuman DL network.” Or just CPDL for short. Since I’m assuming the acronym referred to our location. Clicking on it led me to several options, a streaming network, seemingly replacing any other site like Netflix, Prime or Disney-, a live channel dedicated to base news (for overworld news there were regular news channels and papers.) and an entertainment channel, which I’m assuming centered on shows, movies and sports. I was a little intrigued and browsed each one of them but none of them were noteworthy enough to point out, the news channel was like any news show but with a gabite and a camerupt talking about base menus, PRT mission news and- hey was that us on the news? “So today at lunch time we had a story that our base’s beloved commander Rodri Palagot the Chesnaught had been found breaking up a quarrel, between a known group of bullies leaded by Demian Pascual the Obstagoon, including a new member in the low-key toxtricity right there as you can see, and another group of pokéuman bystanders.” “Great.” I groaned to myself. “Not only will everyone now think I’m part of them for sure, but shouldn’t there be more important things to focus on for the news? This feels more like a school announcement than anything!” sigh “I guess this base is just to small to have stuff like this not draw attention.” I wasn’t in the mood to watch more pokéuman tv after this, so I ended up simply shutting my eyes and walking over to my bed, my mind briefly went to the tournament Rodri talked about, but it wasn’t something I found to be important at that moment. After a few hours, I heard the door opening, I startled awake before realising who it was that just entered. “Oh, it’s just you Gael.” I said before immediately laying back down in my bed. “Hey, sorry about the whole incident at lunch, I tried to distract him but I almost made it to obvious and I couldn’t stop it anymore.” “Don’t worry about it, I understand.” “Are you ok though? Because the last thing I saw from you was getting dragged by that Rodri to who knows what and I really hope nothing bad happened to you.” “Huh? Oh, no? He didn’t do anything.” “Really? Not even taking you to the headmaster?” “Nope, we just talked.” “Just talked?!” Gael exclaimed. “Wow, you’re lucky.” “Hm? Why’s that? Is there something wrong with Rodri?” “Not really... I just don’t like him much.” Gael confessed “Why’s that?” I asked, incredulous “I-i guess he’s just intimidating and he pretty much just sees me as part of Demian’s gang, I’m surprised he was nice to you, that little incident is going to cost us a lot.” I wanted to say it was fine, but given I had just seen that we got on the news it was impossible for me to commit to a lie like that. “Now where did I put the remote? I swear it was in its spot.” Gael mumbled to himself. “Oh! Sorry, I used it for a bit.” I said, handing the remote to him, from then on we somehow ended up talking about how internet and TV worked in pku. “Every site that has a chat is fully blocked an inaccessible, those that have the option to log in are simply used via sophisticated pokéuman VPNs to ensure we aren’t traced back, but for the sites that are fully blocked for the longest time we were simply unable to use them, but around the time of the pandemic an alternative was devised where we essentially created our own internet called the undernet.” Gael explained. “What’s like north Korea?” I asked, seeing the similarities.“Not quite, for starters ours is much more advanced and done out of necessity than because of a dictatorship, you see the undernet also secretly links itself with the existing internet but also createa it’s own unique and undetectable code, allowing for the creation of our own websites that also have the content of the existing ones!” Gael explained as he started booting up our pc. “For example, instead of YouTube we have PokeTube, creative name I know. But not only does it have a neat identical algorithm, for better or worse, but apart from containing original pokéuman content from all over, it also has every single video that exists on the original platform, so you can watch your favourite YouTubers if you want no biggy, it also has both human and pokéuman comments, you can only interact with the pokéuman ones though, the pokéuman ones are highlighted on blue and only appear on this site, it’s pretty much the same for most commonly used social networks, though for messaging sites like whatsapp or telegram we just use local ones fully.” “Whoa... That’s very interesting! And so advanced, I can’t imagine this would’ve been very easy to come up with or program.” “Ooh that’s the best part, I heard that although this was a foreign project the pokéuman who developed the undernet was a mexican!! And from this very base no less!! They plan on building him a statue.” “Wait for real?!?! That’s so cool!!!” “I KNOW RIGHT!!!!!” After that, we once again shifted topic our interests like yesterday, having access to the internet meant we now took turns showing each other videos about stuff we liked, Gael showed me a few Latin Spanish clips of sonic X, which was funny given how due to the location of the dub most characters shared voices with characters from avatar the last airbender, a few videos about Zelda, others about eSports that I had no chance of deciphering, and a funny fandub of the sonic games in English that I ended up understanding more than him, meanwhile after some convincing I ended up sharing some compilation videos with him about doctor who and Eurovision, mainly one about the doctor’s regenerations from first to twelve and another about every Eurovision winner, he actually seemed interested and watched both all the way through which I honestly had not expected, but then again I had done the same thing with all the stuff he showed me, we both even confessed to liking the owl hous and Steven universe, he told me he was a fan of a popular Chilean show called 31 minutes, and I confessed to also being into stuff like Ninjago and Power rangers, and to counteract to his incomprehensible esports enthusiasm (not because it was bad I’m just very videogame illiterate) I showed him a few football videos as I revealed to a big fan of the sport, but “Only in an international level though, I could not give a shit about club football and real Madrid and the liga MX and shit, but the stadiums are nice” his reactions at the matches were about the same as mine to the esports stuff. We left the pc and continued chatting to head to dinner, where like the news had said we ended up having several dessert options like crepes, lemon pies and, a personal favourite of mine, gorditas de nata, I pretty much just grabbed a handful of them and started tearing into them immediately, I love those delicious local treats, Gael looked a bit intimidated so I decided to tone it down but he told me he didn’t mind judging by how much I was enjoying and that, quote “I now understand why you’re that chubby.” I wasn’t sure how to feel at that remark, he didn’t seem to mean it as an insult. In the end, we both headed to our own beds in our shared bunkbed right around the time Gael said Demian would come back, we both said good night to each other, happy at the results of the day and drifted off to sleep... I was standing on top of a grassy field, completely flat, I couldn’t make anything else in the horizon, the view had an ethereal feel to it. “Hello, Lex, nice to see you again.” I turned over at the voice of my messenger. “Oh, hi Kalleq.” “Is something troubling you.” The spiritual toxtricity asked. I shook my head. “Nothing too major, just having to deal with crappy roommates., I’ll eventually just get used to them and tune them out, I’m sure.” “Very wise.” Said Kalleq. “I’m glad you’re in a fine mood otherwise, and I do hope things will get better and I will help you as much as I can, you have my word that you can have me as someone to confide in.” I smiled. “Thank you very much.” He smiled back before growing very serious. “Now unfortunately I cannot stick to the chit chat for tonight’s session, our time is shorter than usual, so there is something very important I must say to you.” “Is this about what you said about being special.” Kalleq nodded. “Yes.” “Lex there is something about you that makes you stand out even if you have only started developing yet, a special ability, something that will become very important to you and your life as a pokéuman.” “In the simplest way I can put it, Lex, you are a dream manifester.”Pokéumans: Re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 6 "Home, sour home"“Name’s Demian, and it looks like you’ll fit riiiight in to our little group~” the dark and normal type said, before letting out a sinister chuckle. “You better.” I was paralysed, I could sense from the get go that these guys were far from nice people, I was starting to suspect why Rodri was so worried about my dorm room, why would the headmaster send me here? “Well don’t just stand there paralysed, I thought you were an electric type.” The obstagoon said as he pulled me inside the room. It was fairly spacious, a large rectangular room with two bunk beds on each side a good amount apart from each other, in between was space for a sofa and a TV set, there were also a few desks on the corner with one modern looking pc, besides the TV there was an entrance that lead to a bathroom and a rather small closet like area, it took me a while to register how spacious it was though as it was extremely cluttered, there was a good amount of garbage thrown around, books, pencils, miscellaneous plastic containers, some thick strands of black, grey and white fur, etc. The walls were littered with posters of TV shows and videogames like dragon ball or fifa, popular stuff that I absolutely could not stand myself and gave me a good idea of how these people were like, I’m not exactly the tidiest person by far but this was infuriating. “Like it?” Demian sneered. “This is going to be your home from now on, newbie, and the first thing you should probably know is:” He said as he suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to look directly at him, changing his smile into a threatening glare as the other two Pokémon followed close behind him almost threatening me into being unable to escape. I was trapped. “I, make the rules here.” He grinned once again. “I’ll be nice however, you’re one of us after all!! So, where were we newbie?... Oh, right, Like I said, I am Demian Pascual, obstagoon, the morgem here is Dylan Martinez, and the gliscor is Gael Cabañas.” The morgrem grinned just like his leader, showing off his fangs and letting out a confident, but otherwise restrained chuckle, he seemed fairly normal and not so different from a typical morgrem, at least as far as I knew a typical morgrem looked like, the gliscor however merely stared at me with an angry and serious looking expression, glinting his eyes at me and looking at me from the side, his physical appearance was normal though it seemed like he was slightly taller and leaner than usual gliscor proportions, he also seemed to have slightly smaller claws and tail and slightly larger wings, i guess it figures not all pokéumans looked exactly like their basic species, I could even see myself that I had longer limbs, particularly fingers and toes than the average toxtricity and I was also slightly not as lean. Demian took the cake in that regard though, he still generally had the same form as a regular obstagoon but it was very obvious through his bulkier form that he had extra muscle than normal and very likely was muscular as a human. “Well newbie? What’s your name?” Demian asked as he stretched out a paw towards me, I very hesitantly, almost trembling, shook it. “L-Lex... Lex Mota.” Suddenly all three pokémon started laughing, and I rolled my eyes, I knew exactly what this was about and I’m not going to explain it here (if you’re a spanish speaker you probably know already) but it felt very insulting, I could even see tears fall out of demian’s hyena like cackling face. “HAH... heh... Oh arceus... You’re not serious, are you? You can’t be! No fucking way!” “Yes.” I replied bluntly. “Pbfft- HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.” There the three of them went, cackling like maniacs, Demian was practically out of breath at this point. “Wow... Sucks to be you then.” “You don’t have to be a dick about it.” I replied in an angered tone, I was expecting something like this to happen involving my name and I do recall a few incidents like this in high school but this was far worse than anything before. “Is that a challenge.” He said as he suddenly grabbed me by the arm and once again got my face close to his. “Because I’d like to remind you which one of us is stronger, has more experience on their true form and can easily outnumber the other thanks to my little gang here, and you’re not going to get away with trying to cross my path like that, understood?” He snarled as I could feel him almost crush my arm. “I’m trying to be nice here, newbie, because you’re supposed to be one of us tough, rebellious and cruel pokémon, but if it happens that you don’t have what it takes then you’ll get the worst out of our treatment, understood?” I nodded on instinct, terrified. “Ey, boss, don’t be too harsh on the newbie, I’m sure he’s got what it takes to be one of us, it’s supposed to be in his DNA and whatever.” The morgrem suddenly chimed in, still with his cocky grin. “I dunno...” The gliscor interrupted, still with his intense serious glare. “How can we be so sure? Are we certain he isn’t a wimp? Being a toxtricity isn’t merely enough to mean he can be in this group.” He said, starting to circle me slowly in an almost predator-like fashion. “He has to prove himself.” It was impossible to get a read from him, he looked at me almost as if he was studying me with a hidden intention that I simply couldn’t figure out. Demian stepped in to separate us. “He’ll have his chance, soon.” “W-what do you mean by that?” I asked in an attempt at a defiant tone, but instead it came of as terrified. “Really? You haven’t figured it out? I guess smart isn’t your strong suit, heh.” He replied smugly. I had to bite my lip to avoid reacting, as much as it felt like accepting defeat, he was right, he could definitely beat me into a pulp. “Well, I don’t mind having to explain it one last time, this is our fourth and final member after all.” Demian said. “Now all of us here are cruel, dark, and ruthless species of pokémon, enjoying tormenting others and being relentless is in our nature, but we’re seen as bad guys for it, heh, what bunch of losers, but if we can’t stop them from thinking that then it’s best for us to enjoy ourselves and show everyone else that they’re beneath our kind, ain’t that right boys?” “You got it boss!” Replied Dylan. Gael simply nodded along. “W-what? That’s ridiculous!!” I replied without thinking. “Ridiculous?! HAH!” The obstagoon laughed. “Listen here, newbie, do you seriously think you know how this world works? You’ve been here for a week at most cooped up in some little hospital room. But I know the rules of society, and the streets, pokémon like you and me are strong alpha predators who live to be feared and obey no one but our primal, dark desires.” ((Wow, this guy has 0 idea what he’s talking about.)) I thought to myself after his insane ramblings, even with how intimidated I was by his clear strength a spark within me seemed to be lighting up and I was starting to considering countering his arguments. But that got interrupted by a sudden loud gurgling noise coming from Demian’s stomach. “Ugh... I’m far too hungry to argue.” He looked over at what I noticed to be a crappy digital clock that was barely visible but marked 6:35. “Dinnertime’s in half an hour... Shit, we won’t have time for the initiation test today.” He rambled. “Well then, “toxtricity” if you really deserve to be one, looks like you’re chance to prove yourself shall be postponed, though it’s not looking good for you...” I looked at him in disdain masked by fright. “I suggest you start heading to the cafeteria, you don’t wanna miss food since you’ll need it if you’re going to continue trying to challenge me, I’ll leave you two be, let’s get out of this dump, Dylan.” “Hehehehe, you’ve angered the boss~.” Said the morgrem as he exited alongside the obstagoon. Once they left I ended up grabbing my things, which I had left dropped on the floor, picked up my map and placed everything else on the desk near the vacant bed (the only one that wasn’t a mess) and got ready to live before the only voice left in the room chimed in. “Don’t leave.” It said. I groaned loudly. “What. Now.” He simply approached me and circled me again, studying me with that lethal glare, yet serious expression. And then once he stopped, he began. “You’re different, aren’t you?” “The fuck?” I said, getting more and more irritated. “You’re different, than this group, am I wrong?” he continued. “That does not concern you.” “Yes, it does, now answer.” The gliscor stated matter-of-factly before adding. “Please.” “Fine!!” I screamed, defeated and at my limit. “Yeah, I’m different than your stupid group of arsehole imbeciles!!! I don’t know why I got assigned this stupid room to live in, it’s already bad enough having to live with other people and I got a trio of cunts, now please for the love of God... Or arceus or whatever simply let me go eat for fuck’s sake.” I turned away and opened the door expecting the gliscor to try and stop me or insult me but instead I was shocked with a reaction he didn’t expect. The gliscor let out a long breath of... Relief? “Oh thank arceus I can stop pretending then.” I turned around “What?” He simply sighed. “Look, I’m really sorry, I just had to really make sure you were actually normal.” “Huh??” “Alright, how do I explain.” The gliscor went on, his demeanour having completely changed. “I’m not actually like the other two, I don’t really believe their nonsense about nature and the rules of society and all that, but since the headmaster decided to throw me in this room, I’ve been essentially forced to join his gang otherwise I get beat up with nothing being done about it.” As he spoke, he honestly looked somewhat... Guilty, and genuine, even though I had already guessed the answer I ended up asking: “Why didn’t you say anything then?” He shrugged. “I wish I could’ve but it took me a long while to gain their trust again, so they’d leave me alone, plus I wasn’t sure yet if you weren’t like them, I had no way of telling.” I blinked. “Is that why you were looking at me like that?” He shrugged once again. “I mean, I guess.” “Again, I’m really sorry I had to act that way, really, but please understand why I need this, and I really don’t want to be in bad terms with the only other normal person in this dorm, ok?” he said with a slightly guilty smile “I- fine.” I ended up replying. “But on the condition that you try to get Demian to leave me be.” His smile faded. “I mean- sigh alright, I’ll try, but I can’t promise much, only so we can enjoy our pokéuman lives as we should.” I merely rolled my eyes in response. “Look, we definitely started in the wrong foot, but you need someone that’ll help guide you through life at the base, especially as the roommates of those two, and I wanna help you two, you already know my name but, for the sake of a good introduction and all, I’m Gael, Gael Cabañas.” He said as he stretched a claw over to me. I hesitated for a few seconds before taking it, both from lingering doubt but also from trying to figure out how to shake a claw, in the end I settled on grabbing it like a ball with my whole palm. “I won’t bother repeating my name.” “Is your surname really-“ “Yes, shut up about it.” I interrupted. “Ok, ok!!” he exclaimed raising his claws up. “I won’t bring it up, promise.” “Can I go eat now?” I asked, tired. “Oh yeah!” he responded. “We’re slightly late though, you want me to help you get there?” he asked, slightly nervous. I rolled my eyes again, “Whatever.” He nodded in understanding as we left the room. “Luckily for us Demian tends to go do his own thing after dinner before coming back for curfew, leaving us alone for a good bit and we could like, talk or something.” “I don’t have the energy to chat.” I replied groggily. “I mean me neither, I’m actually an introvert as well, but it beats having to deal with Demian’s bs.” Gael said. “Besides I wouldn’t mind the company...” he then whispered. “Wait how did you know I-“ I said before realising. “Oh, right, low-key form.” Gael smiled. “Heh, I’d say you’re a little lucky since people can tell you’re introverted simply from how you look, but people tend to avoid us anyway.” He spoke. I attempted a raised eyebrow. “Cuz of Demian?” “Partly.” Gael answered. “But I can’t help but feel like they’d avoid us anyway. I mean he’s a bully, but Demian mostly keeps to himself, and it kinda feels like people hate us just cuz we’re dark or poison types or, well, in my case, “predatory” pokémon.” “Oh...” I answered “Doesn’t help that we have a speciesist and typeist prick of a headmaster.” Added Gael. “Typeist?” “He hates dark and poison types basically, almost by principle, and other pokémon he sees as dangerous like me. He has his excuses of “nature” and that bullshit which Demian only makes worse because of course he does.” Gael remarked angrily. “Damn...” I let out softly. “He also says poison types are all dirty, unmannered and unhygienic.” Gael added. I was perplexed. “I shower every day!!” “Which is more than the average pokéuman but hey, they’re not “dangerous” so it makes it totally different somehow.” Gael explained. “Hate to tell ya this, but we’re pretty much on our own, it’s... Probably for the best that we stick together.” He said with a warm smile, it was strange, seeing it from his sharp fanged carnivorous teeth but you could tell it was a nice, gentle smile and even despite the intimidating factor it felt... Nice, and I couldn’t help but feel comforted even with all that happened, so I smiled back, a little nervously, he noticed and I couldn’t help but feel like he felt similarly. “Let’s be friends Lex, ok?” Gael asked. I nodded. We were in silence for the rest of the walk, but it didn’t feel awkward, at least for me, I was unusually and strangely happy. We eventually made it to a large cafeteria and woahhhh it was packed to the brim, it almost felt like it had the same amount of people as the main hall!! Every seat, of which there were many of different kinds was taken and the line to get food was gigantic. “Shit, we’re late.” Said Gael. “Sigh Guess we’ll have to sit on the ground.” I shrugged. “Meh, I get used to it, how late were we.” “About a few minutes, give or take.” Answered Gael as he looked around for the start of the line. “WHAT?! Oh don’t tell me it’s one of those places where we have to get super early to be able to do anything!!” I groaned. “I won’t tell you.” He responded as he grabbed me with his claw, surprisingly painlessly though it did sting a little, through the diverse crowd once he spotted the tail of the queue. “Ow, that hurt!” I exclaimed once we made it. “Heh, my bad, unfortunately not much I can do about it with these limbs, but you’ll get used to it! I swear!!” He said with a nervous expression. It was jarring seeing act so differently from how he began, but then again what hadn’t been jarring the past week and a half? We pretty much spent an entire hour waiting, we were both getting extremely hungry, tired, and agitated being around so many people, which I could tell made the pokéumans surrounding us uneasy, they started to keep their distance from us, eventually, just before I started considering violence we made it to the end of the line. The counter was huge, there were plenty of options, though a few had clearly run out, most were typical heavy dinner options like sandwiches, a few jellies, a few cakes, I could also make out coffee makers and kettles in the back. There were various pokéumans wearing aprons working at the counter. ((Huh, kinda reminds me of that one cafe game.)) I chuckled, before being interrupted by a sudden: “And what would you like?” Attending me was a large, machoke, an imposing figure, I found myself getting paralyzed once I turned to look at him, he was so big and muscled... He was probably really strong and could easily squish me into clay. “Are you new here, kid?” H-huh? Oh, he was talking to me. “O-oh y-yeah, just got here, um...” Trying to distract myself to not take too lon on the queue, * and feeling a bit too tired for anything heavy, and a little homesick too, I got a simple tray of pan dulce and a plastic cup of milk, the machoke handed it to me and I ended up nervously grabbing the tray, hands trembling, I quickly looked around to see if I could find Gael so I could get out and stop thinking about it, at first seeming like a fruitless task before I noticed him motioning what I first thought was a claw but then realised was his tail towards me. I followed him and saw him sitting on the floor, patting an understandably small spot that seemed to be saved for me. We tried to talk but it was impossible to hear each other amongst the loud conversations of so many people, well, mostly for me he mentions, and I manage to make out that he’s got enhanced hearing, mine seems to have gotten worse, or maybe I’m struggling more to focus, I’m not sure. In the end we decided to simply eat and go back as we were both tired from the day, albeit we still enjoyed each other’s company, maybe things wouldn’t be totally bad... We both headed and back and though clearly we wanted to interact more, we both looked at each other that we were exhausted having to deal with so many people, so we nodded simultaneously and called it a day, he glided up to the top bed in, huh, what do you know, the same bunk bed as me, while I went to the bottom, now previously vacant bed and I drifted to sleep not soon after... I found myself once again in that mysterious void, this time no longer startled, was I getting used to it or was I getting here more smoothly? Once again, from the direction in front of me, regardless of if I turned my head any other direction, the same figure as all the previous times that I could only barely make out approached me, another toxtricity, low-key form like me, only pink instead of purple, a shiny. “Lex, can you hear me?” “Who are you?” “I don’t think I can answer that yet.” “Why?” He closed his eyes and stood still for a moment. “We still don’t have enough time yet, but don’t worry, you’ll soon learn why I’m here, young one.” “We shall meet again.” He said as a sudden bright light enveloped us and before I could react... I woke up with a jump after a loud blaring noise, someone was playing... Banda music? “Wow, look at you jumping and getting all scared like a baby.” Came from a voice I didn’t recognise very well, it didn’t seem to be Demian or Gael. “I rubbed my eyes adjusting to the sudden light, and though I still struggled with being covered in eyegunk (some things just don’t change with the transformation I guess) I could then tell it had been Dylan, the morgrem, who said that. “Get up.” Came from above me, I looked up to see Gael in a stern and serious expression, right, he puts up an act with Demian. Gael slid from the stairs in a sort of half glide, while I stood up and went directly to the bathroom. “Hey newbie, where do you think you’re going?” I suddenly heard as the imposing figure of a bulkier than already normal obstagoon blocking me from any direction. “I have to pee.” I replied with eyes barely open. “Alright, gee, no need to get so aggressive newbie, remember, today you’ll get to prove yourself to our gang, understood? You better not disappoint runt.” I scorned, what a hypocrite calling me aggressive, I simply waited for him to move out of the way so I could go clean my eye gunk, looking around the bathroom I could tell it had pretty much everything necessary, though the toilet paper seemed a little different... Whatever, probably fireproof or something. I also noticed there was no shower ugh, although really, I didn’t really feel the need to shower, which was interesting since I usually don’t like the sensation of not showering, I hope this is a pokéuman thing and not a poison type thing... By the time I left I noticed that Demian and his gremlin goon had already left. “Why’d they gone?” I asked Gael. “Huh?” “Sorry, I meant why’d they left already?” I corrected. “Well, I mean cuz of school, I only stayed because well...” He stopped for a moment, put his claw on the back of his head and swept the floor slightly with his tail. “I... Was curious about what classes you were in and all, just so I can remember.” “Oh um... I dunno, I haven’t memorized my schedule yet.” I said as I then went to get my schedule from my things in our desk. “Who was playing that music by the way?” I asked as I noticed it had turned off while I was in the bathroom. Gael groaned. “Demian. It was his alarm; he likes the stuff.” “Uy que naco…” I whispered. “Wait, before anything I should probably ask how old are you since grades are based on age. I myself am 15.” “Oh, I’m 14, I turn 15 the 20th of December.” “Oh, cool! That means we could be in the same group! Let me see!” He said excitedly, jumping a little and hovering in the air slightly, it was a little cute. On hindsight, it was applaudable how well Gael slipped into the role of a serious, cold bully, when his normal demeanour was anything but, he was shy and reserved like me, but even despite looking like a vicious hungry predator his emotions were a lot easier to read than mine… having looked at the mirror in the bathroom I could tell despite being a completely different species… my facial expressions didn’t change much, I still had a tired and frustrated resting expression that struggled to emote, if it emoted at all. Regardless, I chuckled against myself looking at Gael before I went to get my schedule, opening it up so that both of us could read it. “Class schedule, group 3-AM” I read. “Ah crap, that’s not my group.” Responded Gael, a bit disappointed, but we kept reading the rest of the schedule Monday:Breakfast period: 7:00-8:00 Maths 8:00-9:00 Spanish/Literature 9:00-10:00 History 10:00-11:00 P.E. 11:00-12:00 Social formation 12:00-13:00 Battle class (Electric) 13:00-14:00Lunch: 14:00-15:00Free period: 15:00-22:30Dinner: 19:00-20:00Curfew: 22:00-5:00 “Do you already know what battle class is?” Gael asked looking over from the paper towards me. “Yeah, they explained it to me already, I think.” I replied. Gael nodded. “Ok, battle class is at the same hour for everyone, instead of having it with your group or class you have it with all the other studying pokéumans, it only really varies for dual typed pokemon, for example I alternate between ground and flying battle class and it looks like you’ll alternate between poison and electric.” Gael explained once we finished examining the Monday schedule. “I see.” I spoke. “Ugh, why did maths have to be the first subject of the day, I already don’t have the energy to deal with that crap let alone after just waking up. Gael shrugged. “I enjoy maths.” “You are insane.” I responded. Tuesday: History 8:00-9:00 Maths 9:00-10:00 Battle class (Poison) 10:00-11:00 Geography 11:00-12:00 P.E. 12:00-13:00 Various sciences 13:00-14:00Everything else about the non-class schedules remained unchanged. Wednesday: English 8:00-9:00 Maths 9:00-10:00 Social formation 10:00-11:00 Various sciences 11:00-12:00 History 12:00-13:00 Battle class (Electric) 13:00-14:00 “Seriously, why is maths so early?!!” I complained loudly. Gael shrugged again. “I’d worry more about English if I were you.” I snickered. “Nah, English is a piece of cake, I’ll have you know I’m practically bilingual, even got a certificate for it though… obviously my clone has it.” “Wait? Seriously?! So, you can speak it?” “Yes, well… I struggle with pronunciations a little due to lack of practice but, yeah, I’m very much fluent in it.” “That’s pretty cool!” Gael exclaimed. “I struggle with it a lot… you don’t mind if-“ “Provided I don’t end up teaching my entire class, then no I wouldn’t mind helping you with it, ok?” “That good?” He asked. It was my turn to shrug, it might seem as if I’m showing off but to our standards my English was decently advanced, after all, what language are you reading this story in? Thursday: Spanish/Literature 8:00-9:00 Battle class (Poison) 9:00-10:00 History 10:00-11:00 P.E. 11:00-12:00 Maths 12:00-13:00 English 13:00-14:00 “Finally, a day where maths aren’t at the very beginning!! And followed by English, even better.” I mentioned. Friday: History 8:00-9:00 Geography 9:00-10:00 Battle class (Electric) 10:00-11:00 Maths 11:00-12:00 English 12:00-13:00 Social formation 13:00-14:00All classes are suspended on weekends, vacation periods and other important dates. “Guess that’s going to be my schedule from now on, huh?” I muttered out loud to practically no one in particular. “Hey Gael, remind me what day it is today? Wednesday, was it?” I asked “Yeah, so your first class will be English, I’d help you go but I got P.E. which is on the opposite side of the level, I can still accompany you to the above floor if you’d like.” He said. “Sure, and hey, English first means I’ll have a good start, if anything.” I added. Gael nodded and smiled with his now iconic toothy grin; it was nice. We first went to go get breakfast, which still ended up in us getting there late due to taking a lot of time checking my schedule, so we still ended up eating at the floor and dealing with an extremely long queue, and due to it being early in the morning we were even more tired and barely conscious, I’m pretty sure I saw someone faint like that one kid when singing the anthem at school. And the machoke from yesterday wasn’t at the counter which I quickly took to notice, instead I got served by a wigglytuff, the food was very good though and almost made it work, a lot of sweet stuff such as pancakes, crepes, French toast, etc. I grabbed two waffles with bacon and Nutella and a plastic cup of chocolate milk, whereas Gael got three pancakes with honey. After breakfast we then walked together through the halls on to a large stairway where a lot of pokémon were walking mostly downstairs to class, including eventually us as we made our way to the floor below us, which was the academic area of the base, we very quickly parted ways as Gael quickly spotted the gym where P.E. was held, and I had to use my map to find my group’s classroom. I eventually made it to a door that had the label “3AM/3AV” I thought to myself in nervousness, I took a deep breath and slowly pressed my hand in the pad beside the door, it slid open, and I was immediately blown away by all of what was inside. I was used to the grey, monotone look of usual classrooms once you moved beyond elementary level but… by god (arceus? That’s what everyone seems to be saying) this was bizarre, many desks of different shapes and sizes, there appeared to be some form of organization between them, the larger ones were at the back and the smaller ones at the front, but it was still extremely chaotic to observe. I mean I could spot a waterway running from the back of the whole class to the left of the whole thing, and even at the ceiling I could see a few bird perches with upside down desks probably for flying pokéumans, though there were only a few of these, it was insane, yet it was magical. What wasn’t so magical, yet just as chaotic was all the ruckus that the many pokéumans already inside were making, throwing paper airplanes, shouting several conversations, I saw two fish pokémon splashing water all over, and the professor’s desk being empty, clearly, it appears that I arrived later than everyone else but earlier than the teacher, frankly I don’t get how everyone has this much energy at this hour of the morning, it was the exact kind of disaster I disliked school for, but I would’ve taken all of it over every single person turning to look at me once I entered. I walked slowly trying to avoid being noticed, despite that being impossible, I felt like the characters from that one scene in The birds, trying to look around the room inconspicuously to find a vacant and fitting seat, in the end I found one close to the back of the 3rd row. The stares from all the other pokémon continued however and I sat there uncomfortably, some seemed intrigued, some seemed judging, some were hard to read, I could spot a pineco, a kecleon, a jolteon, etc. but I was getting sick of it, luckily for me, slowly, one by one, every person slowly turned away and resumed whatever activity they had previously been doing. Once everyone went back to not noticing me, I tried to get a look at my own desk, it didn’t seem far from the ordinary, it even came with vandalization, lots of swear words and… male parts, even an among us drawn all over with pen ink, markers, carvings and, interestingly, a few scorch marks? ((Must be a pokéuman thing)) I thought to myself, as I also noticed a large binder filled with empty pages of graph paper, and a packet of pencils inside it, how curious, was this for me? Eventually, all the commotion quieted down, even if it didn’t exactly stop, once the teacher, a breloom wearing glasses, about 40 years old looking, no idea how I could tell that but still, arrived and, since this story is told in English for your convenience I’ll add a small indicator when someone is talking in English in universe and when something is interpreted from Spanish, only for scenes set in this class though as every other setting it can be interpreted easily what language people are speaking through location and context. EN: “Good evening class!! Hope you’ve had a good weekend.” Said the breloom teacher. The class didn’t respond, clearly barely paying attention and not comprehending any of the words she was saying. ES: “Sigh Alright… Let’s just take assistance.” She said, going through various names, interestingly mentioning their species on each occasion. The breloom teacher seemed defeated at first that the class wasn’t even pretending to be interested, can’t really blame her to be honest, people from Mexico City are terrible at English. ES: “Ricardo Morales the staravia… oh?” as she was getting done with the m surnames her tone changed once she noticed an unfamiliar one, and I had a very good feeling about who it was. ES: “Looks like we’ve got a new student with us!” She said, causing everyone to once again look over at my direction. EN: “Now, I am Isabel Cisneros, but you can just call me miss Isa.” She explained, jotting that info down on the whiteboard. ES: “Here, why don’t you introduce yourself to your new group young toxtricity? now as we are in English class I would recommend you to do it in English, but if you’re unable though then I suppose it is no problem if-“ EN: “Hello, my name is Lex Mota, Not Alex, Lex, I am a low-key form toxtricity, I arrived here just about a week ago, I used to live in Azcapotzalco, but I actually come from Jalisco, I moved to Mexico City in 2019, I’ve been a fan of pokémon since shortly before sun and moon came out um… I’m also a bit into i-international football a-and… um, w-well, not m-much else.” I cut the teacher off, confidently at first but as my introduction went on I ended up feeling a sense of shame well up towards me causing me to stumble across my words and get quieter and quieter, it didn’t help that it felt super weird to address myself as a pokémon, it felt like something that would only happen in a fantasy of mine, and to be honest that bit at the end was somewhat of a rehearsed lie, I’m into many things but it’s stuff that no one, especially here, knows about so I never bother mentioning that detail. I sat down expecting people to either laugh mockingly or look at me with a sneer seeing me as a show off, but to my surprise most people seemed strangely… amazed? And confused, it became clear to me that no one here had any idea what I had just said, this introduction also made me realise I know few pokémon terminology in Spanish, I’m so used to watching pokémon stuff in English I don’t even know the Spanish term for Low-key! None of the student’s reactions could compare to the teachers however, her glasses had comically dropped to the floor with her jaw wide agape in a way that definitely had to hurt like some sort of bad cartoon. She stood there in that exact pose for what I’m pretty sure was over a few minutes before eventually snapping awake with a “miss?” coming from a random student. ES: “O-Oh…!! Apologies, but your English level is rather impressive! Your pronunciation could be improved but you’re practically fluent!!” ES: “Ahh thanks, I learned very early.” I explained nervously as I tried to draw attention off from myself. ES: “W-well, if you’d like to you could take a knowledge exam to skip this class.” ES: “Um… I-I’m good, thanks.” I responded. ES: “Well, if that’s what you want, we shall continue, though you should probably introduce yourself in Spanish as well, I’m not quite sure your classmates quite got all that you said.” I sighed and repeated myself, having to embarrassingly whisper to ask miss Isa about terms I didn’t know in Spanish and only causing her to become more surprised once I explained that I only play and interact with pokémon media in English, ooh boy. This class was going to be easy, but definitely not fun. Miss Isa continued listing names. “Victoria Nava, vanillite?” “Here.” “Carlos Nieto, sudowoodo?” “Here…” “Miguel Ñañez, Litleo?...” Eventually the rest of the class came to pass and once the hour was close to being over the bell rang, 10 minutes earlier than the schedule said but I imagined it was so that there was a small break in-between classes for people to leave and come back if they needed to, possibly bathroom breaks, and mainly for the teachers to take their stuff and get out before the next professor arrives and sets up their stuff. Miss Isa herself had already packed her bag to leave the classroom, but not before walking over to my desk and saying, in English: “Thank you for staying.” I just replied nervously in response, and she left the classroom. Shortly after she left a new professor, an espeon, wearing a bipedal shirt, tie and fancy blue waistcoast, arrived and maths class began. Once again, we started class by taking attendance, this professor was much sterner and it was clear as the classroom was a lot quieter than before, once again as he reached my name, he drew everyone’s attention to me. “So, my name is Tomás Roblero, I teach advanced maths, I recommend for you to get the book “Algebra I” from the library if you hope to catch up young toxtricity, now, once I get done with taking list, I will need you to stand up and help me solve a problem on the whiteboard.” Oh crap. I gulped, he went through the rest of the alumni fast, then writing down a problem that I had no hope of deciphering, and when he inevitably asked me, I could feel the other kids’ snickering once I was told to sit back down after answering “I don’t know.” To every question the professor had said, it was horrible. Class ended and I could feel the professor’s anger, almost literally, his forehead jewel glew, that can’t be normal. The next class arrived and the professor this time, interestingly, was a starmie, who’s gem glew everytime she spoke. “Good morning class, I’ve already been brief on the fact we have a new student, and I presume he’s already been introduced to all of you, so just to make things brief, hello, my name is Natalia Ocampo. You can call me miss Nat. I will be this group’s tutor so should anyone need it I will be available for counselling and help with a duty of care to everyone here, I also teach the subject of social formation, you might be vaguely familiar with it, it’s usually presented under different names, but essentially, we’ll be discussing ethics and how the law and norms of our base work, there will be a lot of what you’ve already learned in the human world above us, but there will also be different subjects and situations to talk about, treat and discuss differently due to our situation as pokéumans, something that people in the human world know nothing about, from our struggles with pokéxtinction and the internal divisions that can sometimes plague us that come thanks to everything from our geographical location to our cultural background, even to our own individual species, I’m sure you can already understand what I mean by this.” I was taken aback by her last sentence; it was almost like she knew what had been going on with my roommates and the headmaster. “Umm… I-I guess so?” I replied. “Very well, and now that everyone’s been caught up to what this class will be teaching, we can now begin.” This class went by in a flash, miss Nat. was very straightforward with her approach, going through the topic fast and completely undisturbed from anything the students did, and the topic caught my attention, it was the first subject that was truly different from how it’s taught above, with our pokéuman selves finally making an impact, it was fairly standard though, just talking about the laws and norms about our base, mentioning a few articles of our apparently independent constitution that also appears to be designed to mirror the country’s, but with additions to accommodate for pokéumans. This class intrigued me, and I found myself taking notes, hopefully I’ll learn more about how this society works, and maybe I can use it to navigate the seeming typeism Gael mentioned. Social formations over. Now it was time for various sciences, which was a similar subject to the previous one, only talking about stuff such as basic biology, chemistry, and physics, apparently each semester would cover each one and we were at biology, my preferred of all of them, I was so no looking forward to physics. Class was taught by a Lurantis, who introduced himself as Enrique Del angel, or Mr. Quique, he seemed fairly excited about his subject, albeit he did seem to be somewhat younger and less experienced than the others, the topic was by far the most interesting so far, since we were in biology we talked about the internal functions of pokéumans, and it was kind of crazy with how little we knew about how pokéumans worked, we were studying specifically about water and normal type biology as according to the professor. “Normal and Water type pokémon tend to be some of the closest to the biology we are familiar with from species found above, from humans to animals, just behing bug types which have a tendency to be almost identical to insects and arachnids as we have discussed last week.” I took notes of everything, it was fresh and unique information that I had no idea about, it felt like I was actually learning for the first time since the pandemic! Alas, class ended before I was prepared for and as Mr. Quique bid the class farewell, I suddenly got a question from a random student sitting alongside me. “Yo, new kid. Lex, was it?” Comes from a hitmontop. “Uhh… um… Y-yeah?” I replied, unsure. “What room do you live in.” He asked. “Uhhh…” “Are you from room 175?” He pressed. “Um, how did you-“ “Oh by arceus you are!” He said horrified, before the conversation could continue a loud throat-clearing noise rang throughout the room AHEM, AHEM “Good evening, Everyone.” Came from a deep, raspy and aged voice of a Tyrantrum, wearing a bowler hat and a cane bringing everyone’s attention to him. “I’ve been made aware of our new student so for quick introductions, my name is Amadeo Izaguirre. Professor Amadeo for short, I teach history, now, this history is very different both from the history taught above, but also from the history taught in a lot of pokéuman bases all over, this course will attempt to do its best to teach all of you about the past and important events of four different subject areas, human world history, Mexican history, Pokéuman history, and the history of our very own base.” He explained. “Now yes, everyone, I’m aware of the irony in a fossil pokémon such as myself teaching history, but I shall have all of you know, I pride myself in who I am, I find it to be perfectly adequate, I pride myself as well in being the oldest pokéuman in this very base, and learning history, of whatever place, region or culture, has always been a passion of mine since my days as a young human child, which yes, I do remember very vividly, but you all aren’t here to hear me ramble on about my life, no sir, so let’s begin our lesson for today.” I liked the professor a lot, and history was already one of my favourite subjects back home, and on top of everything being able to learn about the history of pokémon?! I should be excited!! Unfortunately, while the class progressed, I could make out the hitmontop that had approached me earlier whispering to one of the fish pokéumans in the waterways while giving me a stare, I tried to focus away from them but not long after I also saw another pokéuman on the complete opposite direction whispering something to a litleo, and I had a very confident guess the gossip had traversed throughout the classroom, luckily it seemed to stop with the very disinterested looking litleo, who I could still catch giving me a glare, but a very short one as he noticed me noticing him so he quickly turned away. I felt frustrated throughout the whole class, knowing now that the rumour of me “being part” of Demian’s little group was inevitably going to spread to everyone, though it’s not like I planned to interact with any of them at any point; It didn’t help much that the professor was discussing prehispanic history rather than new pokéuman topics, I guess anything involving the war is probably mostly speculation and, it was probably taught first before anything else. Eventually class ended, at first, I was simply content to stay in my desk unmoving until I noticed that everyone, not just the professor and a few students, but every single pokéuman was exiting the classroom, making me remember: “Oh crap, battle class!” Saved for last, very conveniently, was Battle class, the most enigmatic out of all the classes in my schedule, and an important staple to pokéuman lifestyle from what I’ve heard. I won’t lie, even with all the stuff that happened the previous class, I could not hide my excitement for the upcoming subject. It took me a while to find the battle class arenas, even with the help of the map I carried, I really had no idea what to expect, knowing it was taught in an arena very clearly meant that it would involve physical activity, but to what kind was all left for me to guess, I mean I wasn’t even really sure if we had moves, and how much from the game translates into real life, how much can be inferred from the anime, do we have to learn competitive strategy? That would be awful, the one thing I avoid out of pokémon, but then again, who can be certain? There was one arena for each type, all of them making very sure you could tell which one was which, the name of each type, in Spanish, was ingrained in large text in all of them and if that wasn’t enough, logotypes and symbols were present in each of them making it very clear what type it corresponded, these symbols seemed to take a lot inspiration from a bit of prehispanism, and a lot of lance wymann’s design contributions which can be seen in the metro and the 1968 olympics topography… they looked like the logos of the subway, in a nutshell. I eventually found the room corresponding to the electric type, it was obvious with the clear lightning bolt imagery of its corresponding symbol. With a deep breath, echoing the one I had when I first got to class, and I first got my dorm room, I entered. Staying true to its class’s reputation, the electric arena was completely different from anywhere else I had ever gone to in my life, it almost felt like somewhere I would be barred from entering due to not being official personnel, and yet here I was. For starters, there were a few tesla coils in the walls and ceiling of the room, which was enormous, though I had already expected something among this size, but the look was still surreal, the arena looked almost warehouse-like, like an energy plant or something, the floor was completely rubberized, probably with absorbent materials, in the walls there two small stands where I saw a lot of people were leaving their stuff in, and was the stuff in the ceiling cables? whatever I went to the stands to deposit the mysterious binder I used, once I did I continued looking around, I saw several wooden dummies pop out of the floor and being used to train with, all the pokémon here, as I expected, were at least part electric type, morpekos, eelectrikes, manectrics, a bird one I didn’t really recognise, etc. it made me sad to see that there didn’t seem to be any other toxtricities like me, maybe they were in the poison class? I didn’t have too much hope. I walked around trying to avoid most people possible, everyone else seemed too focused either training or being in conversation with each other, which was fine by me. Suddenly, however, barging in from the large door and stomping from the entrance to the center of the arena was a large and menacing electivire. “EVERYONE STOP YOUR TRAINING OR CHATTING AND GET IN THE CENTER OF THE ROOM, NOW!!!!” he shouted, which echoed throughout the entire space, rattling my skull and causing me to get disoriented, which in turn made my already unfamiliar with everything self struggle even more at following what everybody was doing. The electivire crossed his arms and closed his eyes in a stern expression before clearing his throat and beginning. “Students, as of today we once again receive a new member of our class, as per tradition, we shall begin this class by allowing them to introduce themselves and to help them discover their moveset.” The electivire explained. Several of the students groaned loudly, making it clear that by this point everyone was tired of the same old routine. ((Huh, so they do use moves then)) I thought to myself, glad I got that question answered. “SILENCE!!” The electivire shouted before he suddenly pointed at me with one his large fingers. “You. Low-key toxtricity, get to the middle of the arena, NOW!!!” I could see small sparks of electricity come out of him as he shouted. I jumped and quickly made my way over to the center of the room where he himself stood, a little clumsily and I almost tripped from nervousness, and I could feel myself sweating slightly from it, something I wasn’t even sure I could do (I prayed to arceus it wasn’t poisonous). Once I arrived the electivire, with crossed arms, serious expressions and his tails flowing around him, looked me over. “Hmm… what is your name young pokéuman?” He asked. I gave out my name and basic introduction for the bajillionth time today, his expression remained unchanged as he continued. “Well, my name is Manuel Herrera, you will refer to me as Mr. Manuel, I am an electivire as you can see, and I teach battle class for all the electric type civilians of this base.” He then turned towards the rest of the class “Students! Pay attention as Lex here is going to demonstrate his moves to the rest of the class.” He said while placing his hands on my shoulders, before suddenly another of those wooden dummies just plopped up from the ground, which would’ve made me jump had I not been held in place by the professor. After panting a little and calming down, the professor let me go and walked back several steps, looking around I noticed the entire room was, yet again, circled around me and the dummy and looking directly at us. I nervously looked back towards the professor, expecting, hoping that he could explain what it is that I was supposed to do. Mr. Manuel looked disappointed, he sighed audibly and murmured: “…I swear could one of these kids figure it out on their own for once?” He then simply replied, raising his voice. “YOUR MOVES ARE BUILT INTO YOUR MIND THROUGH INSTINCT, JUST THINK DEEPLY AND DO WHAT COMES NATURALLY!!!!!” I nodded, half-understanding but not very trusting of his vague advice. I closed my eyes to mentally prepare myself, at first, I simply stood there, no idea how to even begin using my move, but eventually I simply tried to picture how pokémon seemed to do it in what I remember from the anime and other mediums, I tensed my muscles trying to charge some form of energy or, anything. I could feel how awkward it was when I couldn’t really feel anything happening and I had no idea how I could even tell if it was working or not. “CONCENTRATE, LEX!! PATIENCE, EVERYONE ELSE!!!” The electivire professor shouted. I flinched slightly from the noise, but kept trying to focus, even if it felt pointless, I knew I had to figure out another way around this because this wasn’t working, I thought for a moment. This was electric class, so I probably should start with an electric move, problem is I still had no idea how to even generate it seemingly out of thin air, I thought even more, I knew all people had some degree of electricity within them, and it was how their brain worked, at least with humans, I realised I was producing electricity naturally as well once I remembered my electric mohawk and so I tried to focus on the energy there, meanwhile I started trying to think of everything I knew about electricity, how it’s generated and how it worked, electrons, static electricity, friction… I-It was a lot of nonsense mumbo-jumbo, but I think I was starting to feel something, and then, something clicked, on instinct I started to strum on the protrusions in my chest and as I did, I suddenly found myself generating little sparks of electricity, with my mohawks glowing brighter and larger as the sparks multiplied and grew stronger and more connected, before once again instincts guided me to direct it, it took me a while but I was able to concentrate it into one direct beam towards the direction of the dummy, making the bolt stronger, as I did a name came to me, one I was very much familiar with, and for some reason I felt compelled to… to… “THUNDERSHOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!” I roared as I opened my eyes, and I saw the large bolt of lightning hit the dummy close to its chest before I saw the electric shock spread throughout its body. I panted once it was over, it took a lot of energy out of energy out of me, that was for sure. I looked towards the professor, and he seemed fairly impressed. “Good form, surprising precision for a beginner, but we need to work on charging the attack, it took you far longer than usual, it could also be more powerful but that’s what training is for.” Mr. Manuel remarked. It was a little embarrassing being confirmed that I was taking too long, especially giving how all the pokéumans within observable distance seemed bored and tired out of their minds, except for one eelektrike strangely enough, he seemed contemplative, and I could barely make out a grin of sorts? “Well, don’t just stand there, a pokéuman has to have four moves at your age, let’s see what else you’ve got.” I nodded hurriedly, not wanting to waste much more time than I already had, this time I tried to channel a poison move, this time my instincts worked a lot easier as I already had an idea of what to do, this time they guide me into gurgling my throat, I could feel myself producing some sort of substance, which rose up to my mouth, it was a little gross I won’t lie and I was worried I would end up throwing it up all over but instead as soon as I spat it out I could feel a kind of neutral energy helping me aim it towards the dummy, and it hit, causing it to melt ever so slightly. I felt proud of that one. Though I think everyone else was a little grossed out. “Acid spray.” The professor explained. “Not bad, again we need to work on your charging time, I’m not an expert on poison types but I’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to see you produce the acid deep in your throat, now let’s see what else you’ve got.” I nodded once again, slightly embarrassed after hearing the professor’s description of my previous move, but I decided it wasn’t important to linger on that for now, so I once again tried to search for another of my moves, this time, I wanted to focus on that “neutral energy” I sensed when directing my acid spray, trying to see if I had any non poison or electric type moves in my arsenal, which was very likely, it was a bit harder this time but my instincts once again guided me well, I felt more of this unfamiliar energy, this time centred on my facial muscles, making me alternate between different expressions until, once again guided by my instincts, I opened my eyes to directly stare into the dummy with a completely serious and stone cold expression, I wasn’t sure what I was doing but I could feel myself performing a move and the energy that came with it so I did not even attempt to shift expression until I no longer felt that energy. Once I finished, I was left confused, Mr. Manuel was quick to explain, however. “I believe that was scary face, well done, same as always though, you need to learn to use your moves more naturally, now, one left.” He said. I immediately began looking for my final move, the previous ones very present in my mind but I wasn’t reaching for them, but off of them it was easier to reach out to the remaining attack, I quickly felt myself generating more and more electric energy, better than the previous time, only this time my instincts did not guide me to shoot the attack but rather to start running towards the dummy, opening my eyes so I could look at it, and charge while once again shouting: “SPARK!!!!” I crashed into the dummy, which ended up breaking after having endured all the previous attack, and I carefully positioned myself so that I wouldn’t get hurt from fall or recoil. Though it only partially worked, I stood up and brushed myself off expecting the professor’s response. “Nicely done,” he spoke. “I can tell that this is your strongest move, it is unusual for a toxtricity to lack any sound based arsenal, I suggest working on that. I do have one question though, why did you shout your moves’ names in English?” I completely failed to realize I had done that until he asked, and I had no idea how to answer or explain that I’m simply more familiar with pokémon moves’ names in English. “Uhhh, um….” Prof. Manuel could clearly tell just how paralyzed I was and so he decided to just get on with class. “Well, I suppose that’s not important, for now, everyone shall start training, since today is a new student day, everyone shall be free to simply train in whichever way the like individually or through spars.” And with that, every pokéuman went their separate ways, with several dummies popping from the floor and many of them had already began using their moves on them, I wasn’t sure how to continue now so after a while of looking around I noticed someone having stopped using one of the dummies and moving away, so I walked over and tried to use more of my moves, wanting to draw little attention I used a few acid sprays and circled across the arena a few times and back. ((I hope this freedom to do whatever you want is only for today and we actually get taught stuff, otherwise this will just be like that one horrible dance class I took.)) I thought, suddenly I was approached by someone, that someone being the eelektrik pokéuman that I had noticed previously, and that someone was slithering mid-air towards me at a large velocity, causing me to flinch when he almost crashed into me. phew “So? Lex, was it?” He asked. “I… yeah, w-what’s going on?” I asked, a bit nervous and a bit uncomfortable with the sudden social interaction. “Nothing, ‘d just like to get to know the new kid, sooo… I did want to ask you something, well a few things.” He said, floating through the air curiously. “I- fine, but how the hell are you levitating?” I questioned, confused. “How do you generate that electric mohawk of yours?” he shrugged. “It just sort of happens, but that wasn’t what I was going to ask.” sigh “Fair enough.” I said. “Now, you live in Demian’s room, right?” “H-huh??” I stammered completely taken by surprise. “HAH! That’s a yes if I’ve ever seen one, is your last name really that?” “Y-yes, why d-“ “How did your transformation begin?” “H-huh?” “How did you get rescued?” “I’i-m not gonna answer that!!!” I exclaimed, insulted at the extremely personal question. He seemed to react to my anger. “Hey hey, chill dude, I’m just trying to be nice here.” He said while floating about. I was perplexed. “Who even are you?” “I live right in front of your dorm.” He replied, confidently, not thinking much else of his explanation. I blinked. “O-ok… wait that doesn’t answer anything, I don’t know you!” The eelektrik rolled his eyes. “Ugh… fine, if you want it so much, I’m Raúl Nowak, been living here for about a year now, like I said, on the dorm room right in front of yours, yadda yadda, whatever, let’s spar now!!” He said while suddenly reading himself into a fighting position, trying to advance the talk as fast as possible and revealing his first intention. “E-excuse me?” “You look to be about my level, so c’mon, let’s do it!” He said, excitedly. My mind started racing to figure out any excuse to get out of this situation. “L-look I’m sorry I just got here, and I’m simply not interested.” Raúl didn’t seem to give up, but still determined, started to think for a moment. “Hmmm… what if I helped you train your moves today, and then we spar on Friday?” He asked. I thought it over with a slightly defeated attitude just wanting to get this over with without much more resistance. “Fine.” And so, he decided for the rest of class, which wasn’t a lot due to me wasting time walking around, Raúl “helped” me practice my moves, but he didn’t really make a good job explaining how electric or normal energy worked and he had no idea how to even help with my acid spray. Eventually the bell rang signifying the end to class. Pant pant “Phew.” Said Raúl wiping his brow with his tail, which I would probably see as unhygienic if he weren’t levitating. “Well, guess that’s that, see you on Friday then, or not.” And then he simply just left. I found myself annoyed at the attempt of befriending and I secretly hoped I wouldn’t have to encounter him again, I grabbed my things and went back to my dorm, once I made it inside, I noticed the room was empty, and it was clear the other three already headed out to eat lunch, so I decided to catch up by myself. Walking there was pretty difficult as a lot of other pokéumans headed in my direction, I even bumped into a weird orange sushi-like creature, we exchanged quick apologies before we continued our separate ways. This time I didn’t arrive as late as before, but the queue was still time-consuming, this time the menu was fast food, so I got a few burgers and a large serving of fries with a coke, hey, I never said I was a healthy eater, ok? I walked over and tried to spot a place, it was still very packed so, the floor it was again, I did however manage to spot Gael sitting by himself and he excitedly waved over once he noticed me approaching him. I sat down beside him, and I started chatting and eating, it was nice to be with someone you’re comfortable with for a change, to the point where I was alright talking about whatever. “Man, that machoke cook sure looks terrifying, right.” Gael said. “Mhm.” I nodded with my mouth full. “He looked super buff, I’m surprise he’s doing cooking rather than battling but, then again I don’t really know him.” “Yeah…” Gael seemed to say distantly. “Did you happen to catch his name?” “No?” I replied confused. “Why would I? guy’s terrifying, I could barely move when I looked at him, I was paralyzed.” “Me too! Well…” He cleared his throat for a moment. “It’s weird though I hear that usually only happens with types you’re weak against, and you’re not weak to fighting.” “Well, I’m quad weak to ground but you don’t see me paralyzed over you, even when I thought you were part of Demian’s bullies.” I said, grabbing several of my fries drowned in ketchup and artificial cheese. “Right, right… I guess it must be something else.” Gael said drifting off into silence, before he spoke once again. “Are you really going to eat all of that? That’s a lot.” “Yuffh… nmph shfft hffp.” I said with my mouth full. “Alright, suit yourself.” After finishing we made it back to the our room all the way in the bottom floor, and despite being in a low mood, I couldn’t even get to enjoy the privacy and peace of my own living spaces thanks to, the very same person currently standing in front of me, that I was barely able to get away from throughout the day: Demian the obstagoon. “Took ya long enough, both of ya.” He said, grinning like a maniac. Gael changed expression to his quiet disguise, and I simply looked at him, straight in the eye, expecting him to continue. “Well, seeing as we have the whole evening to ourselves, I think it’s about time for your proper welcome into our “gang of troublemakers.” As everyone likes to call it, you better not fuck it up. Is. That. Clear?” “…Yes.” I replied. “Great.” He practically growled, as he left with Gael and the morgrem, Gael looked behind towards me, and briefly broke his stoic mask to give an understanding look and motioned for me to follow them, I did so reluctantly. “I’m really sorry about this but it’s best that you just play along like I do.” Whispered Gael, almost inaudibly for me. “You’re doing well at putting up a face though.” “I’m not putting up a face? this is my normal expression.” I whispered back. He turned away in silence for a bit. “…Really?” he then said. I decided not to continue our conversation. Eventually we made it to the commercial level, in which Demian walked in front of us, leading us and looking around almost like an animal looking for prey, or rather someone to mess with, I could see every single person in our paths try to avoid us as much as possible and look at us in disdain. We walked aimlessly through smaller corridors through areas I barely explored when Rodri gave me a tour, or ones that I didn’t even explore at all, I tried to take off my mind from all of this by looking around at the architecture, it was fairly impressive, yeah it was grey and slightly darker but you could still very much feel the artificial sunlight from above as if it were real and it wasn’t too hot, which was good for my linking, I always preferred the cold, I could also occasionally spot a few interesting changes to the landscape, like various murals, and even a few glass displays of archeological findings I had never seen before, probably ones that pokéumans got to first, they reminded me of the sort of museums that were in a few stations of the metro. I could sense that we were slowly going faster and faster at faster, and going in much more specific directions, until at some point we were practically running as if chasing something or someone, until eventually, we backed into a darkly illuminated corner, stopping to catch our breaths and in front of us was a small, and completely terrified alolan sandshrew. “Thought you could escape huh?” Demian said to the small pokéuman before turning over and walking towards me. “Just before on lunch time, while you weren’t with us, this little guy tried to get funny with me by trying to snitch on me after I took his lunch from him, is no one allowed to be hungry and want seconds without waiting in line now? Now, of course, this is your test Lex, I need you, to rough him up reeeeal good, to show him that he should never, ever, attempt to mess with us.” He elaborated with a dark, malicious, lethal expression, before pushing me directly in front of the sandslash, and forming a barrier preventing me from escape. “Don’t leave us waiting, newbie!!” Demian shouted. I was sweating, unsure of what to do, I tried looking over at Gael but he was looking away. “What’s the matter?” Said Dylan the morgrem. “Come on already!! Use one of the attacks you’ve learned in battle class on him.” He continued with enthusiasm, and the approval of Demian. I looked over at the sandslash, the creature had a look, not just of fear, but of disdain and hatred for what I was about to do, still, I ended up starting to charge an acid spray, which, like in battle class, and not helped by my hesitation, took a long while, which caused Demian to grow impatient. “Oh, for arceus’ sake, JUST ATTACK HIM ALREADY!!!” “No.” I responded. “I’m sorry, what. Was. That?” He said, still as angry. “No, I’m not going to fucking do it, I’m not gonna just sit around listening to your bullshit about being cruel to others just because of some nature rubbish!!!” “I thought I made it very clear that you shouldn’t try to be funny with me-“ “JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!!!” I shouted, interrupting him. “DO I LOOK LIKE I GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR PHILOSOFY, O-OR WHATEVER IT IS YOU WANT ME TO DO?!?!! Look, you can do, whatever the HELL you want, but I think I’ve made my decision, I’m not gonna be part of your imbecilic gang, so you can just leave me alone and-“ I was cut off myself by a sudden barrage of different charge attacks from Demian, which took me by surprised and I was unable to avoid them, to the point where I had no idea how many times he hit me and by the end I was very close to fainting, the sandslash had already escaped by this point and as I opened my eyes and barely managed to stand up and I wondered why he stopped, when I noticed Demian himself was debilitated… but how did- “Uarghhh…” He growled and pant like a desperate animal. “Arceus… fuuuuuuck, this is why I hate using take down, hnnngh…” We both stood there in pain for a while, mine was clearly worse than his, in the end with the help of the morgrem he ended up standing up and walking away, but not before giving me a final threat. “Once you get back to our dorm, don’t you dare leave it for the rest of the day, don’t even if I catch you outside no matter who’s looking I will continue, and I have three other moves I can use in case I get too exhausted, understood? I will have to decide what to do with you, but from now on, you are my number one target you disgrace of a punk.” He spat. “Gael, don’t follow him, my warnings go to you as well if you try.” Demian added, which meant he ended up having to follow him. I stood there for a while waiting to make sure they had been far enough, and I continued walking throughout the level trying to find a hospital, since I had no map, I pretty much walked aimlessly for what was probably a few hours, eventually I found it and I was quickly given a syrup the nurses said was made from oran berries, which helped me recover almost miraculously from my injuries and physical exhaustion, but my mental exhaustion from the entire day remained and so when the nurses questioned me about my injuries I just said it was a spar and I begged to leave. Eventually going to my dorm room which also took me a while to find without direction. Once I made it there Demian awaited me at the door with a hateful glare, and once I entered, he quickly hit me with fury swiped at my back, debilitating me once again, from then on all four residents of the dorm simply stood in awkward silence with each other for a long, long time, eventually dinnertime rolled around and the three of them left, with Demian looking back at me to make sure I didn’t leave. And frankly, I didn’t want to, I was tired. It didn’t stop me from feeling hungry however, and as an attempt to cheer myself up I used the alone time to check out the room a bit, I turned on the tv briefly to see what was on and checked the computer of our bunkbed to see what it had, but frankly it wasn’t much of either, and I did notice a lot of site were blocked off like youtube, probably to avoid getting leaks. But it made things much more unbearable. Eventually all three of them came back and Demian almost immediately and very harshly threw himself at bed and screamed at everyone to not bother him, which we already knew what would happen if we did, Dylan stood up for a bit in the corner with their own computer, I wasn’t interested in figuring out what he did, while Gael could do little more than give me an apologetic look, and give me a piece of bread he managed to swipe before gliding over to the top of his bed, I then proceeded to lay down on mine and just, shut my eyes for the rest of the day… I hated being here, I was getting sick of this stupid dark, empty void. “You must learn to be strong, young pokéuman.” Came from a voice, the toxtricity’s voice. I was frustrated, but for whatever reason I couldn’t bring myself to act in an aggressive way, it wasn’t worth it. “Just tell me who you are.” The toxtricity let out a warm and confident smile. “I am Kalleq, your dream messenger.”Pokéumans re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 5 "Welcome to the Desert of the lions pokéuman base"… Another vision. Once again I was in that empty void, I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I felt nothing. I was pretty sure I was dreaming. I could make out a figure, at first just a tiny pink blur, then a larger blur, then it slowly morphed shape into more of a silhouette. I could over time make out more details, like anothet colour, a blue, a familiar blue, a familiar shape, familiar patterns, familiar spikes, familiar- hang on. “You’re the toxtricity from those weird dreams.” I said calmly, I felt like I should’ve had a stronger reaction to this revelation yet I couldn’t bring myself to react in such a way, I didn’t even feel the words come out of my mouth, I simply heard them in my own voice. The toxtricity appeared to look into nothing, before eventually turning his sight to mine, or at least where I appeared to see from, I tried to look at my own body but couldn’t. The toxtricity examined and approached me, walking slowly, I tensed up a little, remembering how he had attacked me in all my other dreams, yet he didn’t, he only got closer, as he did I could tell he was very similar to my own toxtricity form, only there was pink where purple should be, he was shiny. “Hey.” He said. “You’re finally speaking?” I responded. The toxtricity seemed surprised at my reply, and with that my strange trance of calmness broke, I could feel myself blink, breathe, and move. It was as if I had snapped away from drowsily functioning on autopilot, I decided to get a look at my body now that I could react. “So you can hear and see me now? Look, Lex, there’s enough time, you need to-.” I looked at my hands before he could finish, and once I did, I woke up. “Gah!!” I woke up startled and not the best rested, once the initial energy from waking up dissipated once my mind cleared and I recalled my surroundings from what happened yesterday, I pretty much laid in bed mustering whatever energy I had left to at least uncover myself and sit up from bed to confirm it, eventually I managed to get up and yup, same hospital room as yesterday, and looks like I wasn’t alone. At the corner of the room sleeping on a small chair I could see none other than Rodri, the chesnaught Pokéuman who rescued me from pokextinction and is taking care of me, basically the reason why I’m here in the first place. ((God, I still can’t believe all of that I heard yesterday is true, but I also have a hard time doubting it either. Should I even be saying god still?)) I would think to myself until eventually I heard a noise the other pokéuman’s direction and turned to Rodri waking up. “Guhhh, oh hey er... Alex?” The thickly-armored pokémon said. “Lex, uhh close enough I guess.” “No no, it’s important to learn how people desire to be called for respect.” He stood up and brushed his fur and face in an attempt to look a little bit more decent. “If you’d like to know what time it is, I took the liberty of getting a temporary digital clock for your counter, it’s mine but you’ll be able to borrow it for these few days, you’re a bit late but it’s completely normal given your circumstances, plus there’s still about an hour left before your next session is scheduled.” I looked over at the clock. “10:37” was displayed on it. “Well.” Rodri interrupted. “We’ve still got some time left as you can see, and that brings me to the main reason I got here.” He said before going to the counter and reaching down to a small drawer where he pulled from a bunch of boxes. “Ere we go.” “I wanted to make sure you weren’t bored since unfortunately there’s not much to do for a civilian if you’re not on the lower floors, I mean you’ve seen the TV probably but it pretty much only has cable here, you can play videogames with it and at first that was what I was planning to bring but I quickly realised I wouldn’t be able to know what games you liked, in terms of videogames, well aside from pokémon, everyone here likes pokémon, still I decided to go for something easier to set up so I decided to bring a bunch of two player tabletop games! Given how there’s really only going to be two of us since the nurse can’t play, and I do still have stuff to do but I’ll promise to try and play something when I’m here.” Rodri explained, beaming with a smile on his face constantly as he talked, his energy and optimism could be felt throughout the room and I couldn’t help but feel happy and relaxed with him. “Thanks, Rodri.” I replied sheepishly. “Hey don’t mention it, really.” He responded with an even bigger smile. “So, we probably only have time to play a match of one of these for now, but we’ll have the rest of the day for the other, which one do you wanna start with? I’ve got Uno, Jenga, chess, checkers, guess who, battleship.” “Huh?” As he listed the various games there was one that stood out from the others, most were their regular, if a bit off brand, versions, however the guess who package look a lot more homemade, and in the box art instead of humans there were pokémon. It was a pokémon guess who. Rodri took to notice that I had fixated on the altered game. “Oh! Of course! Well since most of us are big pokémon fanatics we decided to make our own version of guess who to represent ourselves, rather than our human forms, it can bring bad memories sometimes... That’s besides the point however, so you want to play this one?” His explanation made sense, I nodded. “Sure, h-heck, it might even help me now that I’m probably going to see pokémon more than people- er, humans.” “Eh, don’t worry about it, one gets used to it, before you know it you’ll be able to tell tons of pokémon from the same species apart, trust me. Anyways, guess who it is then.” He responded as he set up the game, even with how easy it was to set up I was still surprised at how quickly Rodri put everything together, we played one round of the game, he had a blaziken and I had a delphox, interestingly the pokémon had human names alongside their species, I think the blaziken was called James or something like that, and guessing was interesting too as we often had to refer to non human body parts (does your character have wings?) or typing (are they a fire type) this actually made guessing easier though in the end neither of us got each other’s character right. As chesnaught was putting away the game the togekiss nurse show up. “Good morning Commander Palagot. Ah I see you’re awake as well.” She motioned towards me. “I’m just here to bring my patient breakfast and check up before he heads to his following session which I believe should be about... Now.” She then directed at Rodri, who responded but I wasn’t really invested in their conversation/discussion but on what I was brought to eat, it was simple chicken broth, yuck. She also brought that strange drink from yesterday, and like yesterday it was absolutely delicious, but I still don’t know what’s in it. By the time I finished my meal the nurse had left, I turned over at Rodri to find him looking away to nowhere for some reason as if he was avoiding looking at something, he then saw me though and as if caught changed his demeanour completely. “Oh! Well, we should be heading now.” He exclaimed nervously. “Why were you looking away like that?” I asked attempting to raise an eyebrow. Not exactly a developed skill of mine. “Oh, nothing important haha.” He said rubbing the back of his head. “I see... Um, do you know what was in that drink they gave me?” “Uhhh... No...... I do not.” He replied, nervously. I wasn’t willing to press further, I just sighed and walked the same route as yesterday to the hypno doctor’s office, this time the pokémon we came across tended to approach us more. “I’m telling you man, their defences were weaker than normal! I got in there far two easy.” Came from a rotom zipping past us in conversation with a Zoroark. “Alright, fine, I believe you. Oh! Hey there Rodri.” The zoroark said in a casual tone which contrasted with the rigid salute she was giving the chesnaught, the rotom also gave a slightly different salute, possibly related to his distinct physiology. “You guys really don’t have to do that.” The chesnaught chuckled as he made a stop to chat with the duo who seemed to know each other. The zoroark chuckled. “And I’m assuming the kid is the same from the mission.” She then said looking over at me. The rotom interrupted before any of us could reply “I-If what we heard is correct, he’s safe from basic pke brainwashing and experimentation, correct?” I gulped, Rodri seemed to notice my apprehensiveness and took control of the conversation. “Yup, I’m sure he’s all good, Lex, these are some of the prt members that I worked from the mission I rescued you from, and close friends.” He said turning to me, he then turned to the others. “We’re actually on our way to his next session so we’re in a bit of a rush, but I’ll catch up later.” Rodri smiled. “Right... well Lex, if you’re gonna keep hanging out with our goliath pal here you should probably get used to his relaxed punctuality, anyways, see ya Rodri.” And with that the zoroark and rotom left, I could only nod in reply. “Don’t listen to them, we’re mexicans, we don’t have a sense of punctuality, human or pokéuman.” Rodri said. “Right, right... Why did no one stop for conversation yesterday though?” Rodri raised an eyebrow “What do you mean?” “W-w-well I mean, w-we came across more pokéumans yesterday but most just looked, b-but they seemed to know you too.” Rodri was startled by my question, but he happily replied. “Well, people yesterday weren’t sure if you were fully trustworthy, and to an extent they still are but they now know that if you are brainwashed it’s at the very least on such a subconscious level that they cannot fault your conscious self, they pity you, somewhat.” “I see...” Rodri’s expression gloomed “Honestly, Lex? I wish you weren’t going through this, I trust fully well that you aren’t brainwashed and while I perfectly understand why we’re doing these check ups, I still feel bad that you couldn’t go live as a pokéuman immediately after having arrived here, this is a drastic change to our lives and you need to be around people your age and with your experiences to get through it, not stuck here in a hospital being treated as a potential security threat, I can only hope everything goes well and you’re able to put all this behind you, because you deserve to live as normal as a pokéuman is able to, not having to carry all this weight.” I could once again only nod in response, I was feeling the words of what he had explained, even if everything goes well, would I always be known as the former potential brainwashee? We eventually arrived at the office from yesterday, and once again we were greeted by the labcoat wearing Hypno, doctor Luis Rosales. “Ah, finally, come in both of you.” He said and we obeyed. The office was exactly as yesterday, online instead of having us sit down the hypno had us follow to the back where the strange machine was located behind a curtain, it seemed familiar and at first I couldn’t place it but I quickly remembered of a curious check-up I had as a kid, back when people started to suspect I was neurodivergent. “I hope you’ve had a good first day in our lovely base, despite the circumstances.” The pokéuman doctor said. “Oh yeah, it’s been nice.” I replied. As we arrived to a large machine on the wall with a small bed beside it, the hypno began introducing it. “This is a psychoencephalogram, a modified version of the electroencephalogram used in human medicine only this is to detect psychic energy rather than electric, our ability to channel different types allows us to make devices like these. It appears judging by your expression you’re somewhat with these.” “Oh yeah I remember having to go to one of these, don’t recall what for or what it did though.” I managed to explain as I sat down on the bed. The hypno continued. “Well, as you can probably guess this is what we’ll use for today’s session, we’ll hook up your head to this machine just like the human doctor most likely did, and then with it we’ll be able to get a read on your mind and trace any level of subconscious mind control, any questions?” “Yeah actually, um.” I raised my hand out of habit and quickly moved it back down. “Yeah so now that you mention the subconscious thing, aren’t I supposed to be unconscious when hooked up to this machine? I mean when I had the check up as a k-kid I was made to not sleep throughout the entire night so I could fall asleep for the check-up.” “You are correct.” Dr. Luis answered as he started waving his pendulum back and forth... Back and... Forth... “Now, given how you probably hadn’t have a good regular sleep cycle in that pokextinction base while your transformation progressed, we decided not to force you to stay up all night just for a short session, your body needs to rest properly, and luckily us hypnos are able to, help, shall we say, others fall asleep regardless of whether they’re able to, or want to.” The Hypno chuckled. “Do pardon my attitude, it’s in my nature to enjoy doing this as much as I hate, now, just relax, relax in your bed, breathe deep, in and out, and SLEEP.” ... Sleep... ... Huh? Another vision? What is... “Hu… N…..?” And then it stopped. “Lex?” “H-huh?” As I woke up and rubbed my eyes, I could make out the faces of Rodri and Doctor Luis staring directly at me. “The check-up’s done, Lex, Dr. Luis had you fall asleep with his pendulum and now woke you up.” Rodri explained. “Oh, um… How did it go then?” The hypno and the chesnaught turned to look at each other with a worried look. “Oh no, did it go badly?” I asked worried. “Far from it in fact, your sleep patterns, brainwaves and psychic energy remained completely normal at every point, at most we could detect an unusual spike for a fraction of a nanosecond, but it was too short and small to be significant.” The hypno answered, yet their expressions of concern remained intact. “However, that is unfortunately no less concerning, as much as it could mean that you’re in the clear, it could also mean that the conditioning, or even just any sort of experiment could be embedded deep, deep into your consciousness in unimaginable ways, with pokextinction one can never know.” He continued. “Well, regardless, the fact you seemed to be clear of pke’s mind control in both the previous and current test means you’ll only have to deal with one more, however this will be a very important test that, had you have shown any signs of brainwashing before, you actually wouldn’t have needed to go through as focus would’ve shifted to treating the conditioning, but since it didn’t this final test will be no longer focused on brainwashing, but on any kind of deep pke experimentation done to you as far as we’re able to detect, the results of the final test… could be anything, but it could also be another clear. I try to be hopeful but, do keep this in mind that even if just for the rest of the day, even if it’s a fluke, which hopefully it is, us pokéumans desperately need more of those, you’re right now a priority in the PRT’s research, this also means that instead of happening at this exact hour, the final test will be at the early hours in the morning, and it won’t be in my office but deep into our laboratory. Rodri, I trust well that you’ll be able to take care of him in the meantime and make sure he adjusts to what’s ahead of him.” I couldn’t even come close to comprehend all the information the hypno doctor was explaining, he said all of it with little to no breaths in-between at no point dropping eye contact while I couldn’t even remain in his direction. I could feel myself growing anxious at the prospect of the implications, I started breathing heavily and sweating and yet none of it, felt possible, it never felt like pokextinction had the time to experiment on me given what I know of the situation, but then again, one can never know with them it seems. Rodri’s expression of concern remained, and it was even more marked than before, he of course noticed my anxious state and tried to calm me down, seemingly understanding my own thought process. “Well, let’s not scare the kid just yet? It could like you said very well be a fluke, especially given the circumstances of his own conditioning, it’s very like he had just been placed in the chamber and he wasn’t even finished transforming so maybe that blocked the signal for him? And do you really think that a small outpost like the one we were in would’ve had the time to pull deep experiments like the ones the examination would suggest? I’m not doubting you doctor, I understand the concerns and I won’t stop it but I’m perfectly hopeful the kid simply went through a miracle.” Rodri argued, his optimism helping defuse the thickness of the air and helping me feel better as my breathing collected itself. The hypno argued back, “It’s not just a possible pokextinction experiment that we’re dealing with, it could be anything given our history across the bases of the globe, but I understand your concerns too, we promise we only have to do this as a formality than anything more and the chances of it being serious are very slim, still, such a perfect miracle is very unusual.” I cocked my head at the doctor’s second explanation, it seems he was keeping a lot of elements and details intentionally vague with no seeming reason and it was hard to follow. “Well, that should be all for now, see you two tomorrow at 5 am, rest well, young pokéuman.” The Hypno simply stated and with that we exited his office. “You’ll be ok, I’ll make sure of it.” Rodri immediately said once we were outside and walked a good way back, I wanted to believe him but there was a lot on my mind, we stopped occasionally with Rodri talking to some of his coworkers, some just there for him, but most were asking about my session, it seemed like word would spread about me here, whether I liked it or not. Eventually we made it to the hospital room again. “Well, we’re here...” Rodri said in a somewhat unsure tone. “I know how stressful it felt there, believe me, but I’m sure it’s going to turn out alright! And in case it doesn’t I’ll make sure you’re still able to live a normal life, because that’s what everyone deserves, ok?” He said from the doorway as I made my way to the bed. I smiled a little against myself. “Yeah, you’re right.” I said. He smiled as well “That’s the spirit, I’ll be a little busier today so you’ll mostly be by yourself but I’ll try to come back and accompany you as much as possible, I promise we’ll get to play more of the other games.” He said and with that he left. Rodri stuck to his word for the rest of the day, I would be left alone for most of the time, with the nurse occasionally showing up for small check ups and for meals, always giving me that strange drink that I never got told what it was of, but it was delicious and I chugged it every time. The times where Rodri showed up he stayed for a while and we were usually able to play a game or two, we managed to get through every game he brought and I even won battleship, Rodri won everything else though, specially chess and checkers, he says that he is a very good strategist and usually comes up with a lot of the plans for PRT missions, so I guess that’s why. At the end of the day though once we got through everything we ended up a little bored with not much to do. “What’s on the TV anyway.” I asked as I laid on the hospital bed with my hands on my stomach, I had to lay them in a way where the spikes on my wrist didn’t bother me to honestly I got used to them, having all this time to think it was weird how little it took to get used to my body, even the crazier stuff like my tail or my mohawk of pure electricity, which never seemed to shock anything, but I kinda figured everything was pokémon-proofed here. “Oh, just cable from the human world and a few channels from the base, hospital TVs are fairly limited compared to the ones in the dorms.” Rodri replied, relaxing on a couch, dangling his legs, I noticed how he always had to sit on a position where his shell didn’t disturb anything, which I can’t imagine would’ve been easy. “You talk of the base and the rest of the world as if we were from parallel worlds.” I chuckled. “Well I mean it practically feels that way, even as a high ranking PRT member who is given access to the overground for special missions we’re still very cut off from human society and we live like this for our whole lives, itself communication between bases is pretty weak compared to the connection human territories and countries have, I’ve heard it used to be better before the pke fragmentation but now practically everyone does their own thing without knowing much of what goes on outside.” “How many bases are there in Mexico?” I asked, curious about this new topic. “That’s gonna be something you’ll learn in your geography class once you have them, I’m not particularly good at geography myself, human or pokéuman.” Rodri admitted. “That’s a shame, I love geography and I’m quite good at it, it’d be interesting to know.” I said Rodri thought for a bit. “If there’s anything I can say is we definitely don’t have as many as the US does, like those guys have a base for almost every corner of their country.” “Because of course they do.” I added, then a question surged to my mind. “Wait, how do you go above ground without being noticed?” I asked Rodri, I realised there had to be away for them to hide and not get noticed as not only are pokémon sightings not really a thing but I was already made aware that seeing pokémon can cause civilians to become pokextinction sleeper agents. “Ah, right, I never explained that.” Rodri exclaimed as he reached to his back and pulled out a box. “With these.” He said as he opened it and revealed a silver ring. “This ring has the ability to disguise a pokéuman temporarily reverting them to their former human form, and how it would look had they remained human as they aged. Simply wear it on your finger or an equivalent and voilà, human in just a silver flash.” Rodri explained as he fiddled with the ring before putting it back in the box. I was about to open my mouth to ask the obvious question but he interrupted me “Now I know what you’re thinking, why don’t we give every pokéuman one of these so they can live normally? Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that, this ring is special and it cannot be mass produced for several reasons, from their main component being a super rare mineral that we on top of that have to keep hidden from pokextinction’s research and normal humans possibly discovering it by accident, it’s also the most complex technology we have, even for our standards, it’s so complicated that it cannot be made and forged by a machine and it has to be made by hand, only few of these are made a year, like I’m pretty sure the number is in single digits, most, practically all, are passed down or given away, including mine.” He said the mine on air quotes. “Oh...” I responded. “That’s a huge shame.” “Yeah... Only decently ranked PRT members are allowed these, some bases have these elite 4 things were they would get the four strongest pokémon in the base and give them a role where if you could beat them consecutively you’d get your own ring, but our base never did that as we always felt it was a waste of resources and personnel, since the elite 4 never really worked in the PRT and I have to agree it’s pretty pointless.” Rodri explained. I nodded with his explanation “Yeah that... Kinda seems like a dumb and risky system to be honest.” “That’s what I said! Anyway, yeah, that’s how we blend in the human world, in the mission we rescued you we had to disguise ourselves as a meetup between college aged young adults.” “I see.” I added. The conversation and later the day soon finished, and I went to sleep soon after. I woke up to a gentle yet persistent bleeping sound, however it took me a while for a single part of my body to respond. “Ugh... In a minute...” I turned off what I could now realise was the alarm as I was able to gain enough energy to stand up, even though I couldn’t open my eyes yet, whatever random dream I had was starting to fade from my memory, a welcome distinction from the previous vivid visions of the past weeks. “God what I would give to wake up well rested a single day.” With that complaint I plopped back into the bed, my continued rest wouldn’t last long however as the door opened with a familiar white bird-like shape entering. “Time to get up boy, I’ll bring you to your check-up as you most likely don’t wanna be like Rodri and arrive several minutes late-“ “Actually you won’t have to worry about that.” Came from a suddenly arriving voice, it was Rodri! “Well, this is a surprise, what made you suddenly decide to get up on time?” The togekiss asked the chesnaught. “Miss Angelina, I’ll have you know I can fully recognize my responsibilities and the level of importance each one has, if I need to get up on time, I will. Anyway, I’ll take care of Lex, he’s a lot more used to me guiding him I’m pretty sure.” Rodri continued. I smiled, I definitely trusted him more than the nurse who refused to tell me what she gave me to drink. “Very well, I’ll let you two be, I hope all goes well for both of you.” The nurse replied and left the room in a different direction, I walked towards Rodri and he looked at me with a warm expression before switching to a stern one. “This isn’t going to be easy for you, and you don’t have a choice on the matter, but I still want to make you are safe and as comfortable as possible, are you ready, for this?” He asked. I was about to nod, but I thought it over for a second. “I… d-don’t think so.” I ended up answering. “It’s fine.” He simply answered as he started to move and motioned for me to follow, at first we walked the same direction on the much darker hallways, clearly indicating the artificial sunlight wasn’t activated yet, but it wouldn’t be long till we started taking different turns until we eventually arrived at a small room guarded by a fierce looking, almost predatory pokemon, one that I couldn’t recognize, it looked to be draconic with mostly dark blue skin and light blue ice-like accents, said Pokémon simply looked at us before nodding and letting us in. Inside it was much clearer as the lights (regular ones) were on, and as we walked I saw a lot of pokéumans frantically moving across the hallways in every direction, through windows and doors I saw glimpses of some fairly indescribable stuff, strange machinery and research that most likely was not close to existing in the human world, and I couldn’t really make sense of any of it. One caught my attention in particular as it was more out in the open, almost as if purposefully being shown off like a science fair project, with a lunatone tending to it, and it wasn’t just me who seemed interest as Rodri also stopped to take a look. “Heh, check it out Lex, this is the original reason for the mission of your rescue.” He explained. “What’s all this?” I asked looking at the various test tubes, equipment and most of all tons and tons of notes and files. The lunatone, who had been listening to us responded to my musings. “This, young pokéuman, is our pokéuman base and our rivals at pokextinction’s top priority, G4L-R particles, particles of a special energy theorized to be involved with the hypothesized phenomenon known as dynamaxing, you might’ve heard about it, it was in the latest games.”“So that’s what it is…” I said to myself out loud. “Wait, so it’s real? Does that mean gigantamax could also-“ I couldn’t help myself, even if I actually wasn’t a fan of the gimmick in the games the fact I was a species who had access to one of these forms definitely made things more exciting for me. “Yes and no, like I said it’s highly hypothesized, but we haven’t been able to make any breakthrough yet, most of it is still just the piles of research and files we have.” The scientist explained. “Now, I would love to continue talking about all of this which we have certainly dedicated a lot of our proudest efforts to but I’m fully aware of where both of you are headed as I myself have been called to assist the both of you, so I know that you must be in a rush, I’ll catch up with you eventually, see you later then.” And with that, the lunatone headed to the opposite direction, Rodri and I continued to walk deeper and deeper into the laboratory until, in a less lit area we arrived at a door, Rodri looked at me, and then we entered. Greeting us inside was the very same hypno from the previous sessions, he wasn’t alone however, he was also accompanied by a large amount of other psychic pokéumans, too many to name. all working on various smaller monitors holding paperboards and most wore labcoats, it was a stereotypical scene. However, in contrast with that familiarity, the interior was very dark and underlit, compared to the usual whiteness of your typical labs, there were a few accents of artificial light and as I looked across the large room I could trace it back to a large tube-like machine, looked to be some sort of… well, I couldn’t really tell you, but it was very clear you were supposed to step inside of it, possibly a scanner? ((Indeed it is, young pokéuman)) . Suddenly rang inside my head, I looked around to hear where it came from before the voice rang again, much clearer. ((It’s me, Dr. Luis, i’m speaking to you through telepathy as you can probably tell, I’ve been reading your mind since you entered as we’re unfortunately forced to monitor the thoughts of anyone entering the room, including your chesnaught caretaker.)) the hypno communicated. Reacting to the voice out of reflex, I looked towards the direction where Rodri himself was and I could tell he also experienced what I just did, but he looked a lot more used to it than me. Dr. Luis cleared his throat and then spoke, without the telepathy. “Anyway, this is a deep scanner, one of the most advanced pieces of technology we have in this base, and by far the most complicated to use, to the point that, and I feel like it is important for you to know this information young pokéuman, we’ve never used it before, because we have never needed to beforehand.” Hearing that made me very nervous, knowing it was a scanner made it obvious what its purpose was for but, could we even know if it’s supposed to work? Suddenly the lunatone from earlier showed up right from behind us and spoke. “This device has been imported from an off-country base, correct? Even if we haven’t used it before we have enough trust in its production that we can assume it’s going to work just fine.” She added. “Exactly, Miss Vega. If this machine was considered too likely to have faults, we wouldn’t have spent so much of our resources on it." Rodri then added. “I myself oversaw when this machine was brought in not too long ago, so I do believe you don’t have anything to worry about, Lex.” He continued with a smile. “Regardless, Dr. Luis, please give us a quick explanation of what the machine is going to do.” Rodri then asked. “Well, in very simple terms, using our collective psychic energy to power and direct it it’s simply going to scan all the way into your DNA and basic biological composition for any detectable irregularity and distinction, this is so we could trace several things, brainwashing is one of them but since pke is also regularly known to make experiments to try and manipulate pokémon’s natural abilities beyond their limits to their advantage, the focus then of this machine is on detecting those experiments or, given your situation, any irregularity in you that could’ve caused pke to choose not to brainwash you, as unlikely as it is.” The yellow psychic type explained. “Now that explanations are over, please step inside the device so we can finally proceed.” “Yeah, let’s get this over with! we have places to be!!” Came from a random background voice, looking at the other psychic types in the room it was clear they were getting impatient from the explanations. “Yeah!! Let’s get on with it already” Came from another and several more. Rodri stepped in front of me and quickly got in the centre of the room, taking a much more commanding stance showing his position of authority and why he earned it “All of you quiet, give the kid a break, will ya? You all know why and how he got here and every single one of you understands you would act the exact same way if you were in his situation, becoming a pokéuman is a frightening thing and I expect all of you to make this as smooth of an experience as possible because right now that’s what all of us need the most, got it?” With that, the room fell silent, I couldn’t help but stand agasp after Rodri displayed such a commanding presence, it was admirable how he could balance respect and amicability so effortlessly. I realised, even with Rodri giving me space that it was not a good idea to waste time thinking despite my own habits, so I quickly approached the machine, it was a frightening experience, naturally it wasn’t the nicest looking thing to get inside of but it was fairly sleek, angular and modern. It was an eerie feeling, having to enter a machine that looked straight out of fiction, one can never really know what’s going to go on inside and it made me very apprehensive. The cell opened, I gulp, and slowly stepped inside and turned around, every single person in the room, from the Dr Luis the hypno, the lunatone, all the many other psychic types and Rodri, was looking into my direction from every corner. Then, in a flash of red light, probably indicating that the machine was ready, everyone turned away and started dispersing across the room focusing their psychic abilities to work on different areas of the room, seemingly in many different parts connected to the deep scanner. Then, I could feel a surge of energy rising through my body slowly, rising from the tip of my toes, through my tail and stomach, I forced myself to stay still throughout all of it not wanting to risk the possibility of disturbing it until eventually, after a very long and patient wait. I could sense the energy slowly vanish from my body, trying to get as best of a look at the rest of the room as possible without moving too much I could see many of the psychic types either working hard analysing the readings of several monitors and descriptors or channelling their psychic powers into the more mechanical looking parts of the machine, possibly powering it. Eventually however, the lights inside the glass dimmed, indicating it had finished, before the capsule opened however I could here a lot of loud murmurs discussing amongst each other from the scientist before Rodri and Dr. Luis had to calm everyone down, my hands trembled from worry, was this bad? Good? Too good? Eventually, once everyone appeared to quiet down, the glass opened, and I could walk out. I almost felt naked walking out of the tube-like structure to the cold sterile floor of the lab with a bunch of scientists directly staring at me. Rodri, taking charge, walked in front of everyone towards, motioning for the pokéuman in charge of this operation to follow. The hypno came forward, cleared his throat, looked over at his clipboard and began. “Well, Lex, I’m not sure how to begin, but just like in the previous sessions you appear to be clear of anything, congratulations.” “Wait, what? Really? Just like that?” I asked, completely and utterly bewildered, I could sense I was far from the only one who felt this way. “It does sound insane but, honestly, we’ve made it clear that you were only in pke’s chambers for a brief period of time, and I could always sense that there wasn’t any of their conditioning in you, I just knew it. The machine and everyone here did their job correctly and we now have the result we wanted, I don’t think any of us need to worry about this anymore than what is needed.” Rodri reassured everyone, putting one of his arms on my back and looking towards the crowd, there was a lot of force to his voice however, indicating than more than reassurance he was trying to avoid things getting out of control while trying to put up a kind and collected face, and getting the room to fall silent. One of the many scientists, a beldum, taking advantage of the silence used it as an opportunity to speak up. “If I may sir, this kind of feels like a waste of time and resources, no? couldn’t there have been less effort-consuming ways to achieve this? I mean this test required a complex machine that hadn’t been used before and almost all the PRT’s psychic personnel only for the results to prove completely negative.” This time it was the hypno who responded. “This young pokéuman arrived under unusual circumstances so it’s completely reasonable for his results to be unusual as well, he had cleared all previous detection tests so we have to use the deep scanner as one final confirmation, our base prides itself on our safety after all.” Suddenly several of the scientists started speaking up. “He cleared all previous tests!?” “No way, I don’t believe it!!” “Why were we not made aware of this?!!” “This should be public information!!!” “Absolutely not!!!” Rodri suddenly roared, startling everyone including myself before composing himself. “Sorry, sorry, but the reason we did not let anyone know of Lex’s results are both for his sake in confidentiality and because we do not want to cause a fuzz, in case of the very likely possibility that you are seeing right now mind you, that he’s completely clear of the brainwashing, because even with that confirmation for the general public outside of the PRT it will be impossible to avoid spreading and continuing rumours everyone, once again this base prides itself on the safety of its residents, which includes their reputation.” “That’s bullshit, you know how the headmaster is.” Came from another random voice. I couldn’t help but be curious at that, so I went to ask Rodri. “What does he mean? What’s with the headmaster?” “Hey look, don’t worry about this right now.” Rodri whispered over to me, he looked in the direction of the hypno for a moment, I was confused as to what was going on before it hit me. ((Oh! Mind reading)) The hypno then began speaking once again. “Everyone, you did a great job, you are now all dismissed, but it’s very important that you do not reveal anything about this event to the general public, this shall be kept as information confidential to the PRT, understood? We have full confirmation that our base’s security isn’t compromised, and that’s enough.” With that everyone started to leave, some with groans of annoyance, some with salutes in understanding, and some looked about to argue but gave it up. I was about to leave before I noticed Rodri wasn’t coming with me, so I walked back and found him having a discussion with doctor Luis. “The headmaster has to know about this, Rodri.” The hypno said. “Does he really have to?” Asked Rodri, who suddenly seemed worried and unsure. “Yes, look, I get your concerns, but he’s smart enough to not disclose Lex’s background to the public.” I jumped when he mentioned me by name. “But this means you’ll have to take him directly to the headmaster’s office, ok? Don’t draw attention to yourself and do not get sidetracked.” Rodri simply sighed in response. “Understood, doctor.” I decided not to speak up and make my presence known and waited for them outside the room until they finished, once they did Rodri took it upon himself to walk me back to my hospital room, it was clear time had passed as artificial sunlight started to light up the base. “How does it feel now that we’re done? You’ll finally able to become a proper citizen of our base!! Isn’t that exciting?!” He proclaimed, his enthusiasm seemed genuine all things considered. “Umm… not as good as I expected, Like I get why this had to happen, but it feels like it ended up being a bigger deal than I was made to believe.” I mentioned, walking beside him through the hallways of the base with a hunched over expression that was characteristic of my species. “Look, it’ll pass.” Rodri said as we arrived at the room. “They’ll forget about it in time, and it’ll be old news, especially given how you don’t plan on joining the PRT, don’t worry about it.” “Hmm…” I sat down on the bed, kicking my feet on the air as I processed all these events that were now over. “Well, in any case, what now?” “Oh well you’ll just have a few basic medical check-ups, measurements, blood samples, etc. nothing too major now, and then we’ll descend to meet with the headmaster at his office where he’ll register you to the base, sign you up for school, give you your schedule and assign you a dorm room that you will live in, the dorms are shared but, who knows, maybe you’ll like your roommates!” Rodri explained. I rubbed my shoulder in nervousness, which Rodri quickly took notice of. “Is everything all right? Look, don’t worry about the headmaster, Nacho might seem hard to deal with, but he’ll leave you alone, I’m sure.” There was a difference in his tone from his usual one, almost as if it were indicating that he himself felt unsure about what he had just stated, I wasn’t about to press this topic any longer, not after all these past few days. “It’s fine, I guess more than anything I’m worried about the blood samples than anything.” I didn’t lie, I absolutely cannot deal with syringes. The first few hours of the day came to pass, with several visits of the nurse taking me to all the basic check-ups I needed, Rodri was there to watch over me in all of them which was good particularly as the nurse was extremely far from gentle particularly when dealing with syringes, I will not miss her at all once I descend. By the time we were done it was around 4pm and we were getting ready to descend to the second floor of the building where the headmaster’s office would be, according to Rodri, we would be descending from an elevator directly into the office rather than into the “main hall” because of my unique circumstances of arrival. We arrived and then walked for a brief hallway before turning into an enormous set of doors, decorated with a complex mural depicting several pokémon, it appeared to be made out of materials such as cobblestone, marble and red pumice, though I could also see a little bit of... crystal sprinkled in, which made for a unique combination, the main pokémon depicted was a hawlucha, fitting for this base and this country, I couldn’t help but wonder how murals like these existed in other bases of other Mexican cities or even other countries. I was so caught up in my own mind that I didn’t notice Rodri speaking into a hailer, that is until I could hear the gates click open. Rodri looked at me before entering. “Come in, both of you.” Came from a very deep growly voice inside, I shivered. The inside of the office was fairly standard though it’s age clearly showed in the mismatching components and elements clearly telling of different periods and several rebuilds, no doubt related to the war situation, the most interesting aspect though would be the back wall behind the main desk, it had a fairly large door and around it there were several pictures of what I could tell as former headmasters and the current one. Said headmaster, currently sitting down on his desk was a Charizard, who was glancing at his computer and occasionally shifting into glancing at other documents of his before acknowledging us, I expected Rodri to introduce us, yet he seemed to somewhat paralyzed like I was, only with an unchanging smile. Eventually the charizard simply glanced at us from the side, snorted loudly letting up a puff of fiery smoke at our direction making us cough (though clearly Rodri had the stronger reaction, I’m assuming type matchups unless they’re somehow not a thing) and began to talk. “Stop gawking and make it quick.” I sat down on the chair facing towards the desk, I still expected Rodri to speak but I quickly realised he wasn’t gonna and out of fear I ended up speaking first. “S-so um, you’ve p-probably been briefed on our situation already so…” “Yes, I’m fully aware of how you got here, pokéuman, I’m perfectly aware of the very probable security breach we just got out of.” The Charizard interrupted as he directed his glare towards Rodri. Rodri seemed undeterred. “Well then, let’s just cut the chase, the kid’s gone through a lot Nacho, it’s a miracle that he’s here in perfect condition so go easy on him, k? just give him a home and I promise he won’t do anything; I mean look at him he’s totally inoffensive.” The Charizard then glared at me, he would not let go of his glare until he began speaking again with a disdainful tone. “My name is Ignacio Manriquez Bravo, Headmaster of the desert of the lions pokéuman base, that is my name and title, and you shall respect it and refer to me by it. Understood?” He spat in almost disgusted tone, he then snorted again. “A punk poison type like him? Inoffensive? A likely story, his miraculous condition is far too suspicious for our base to feel comfortable, you know I take our base’s security very seriously and I have perfectly rational reasons to be… apprehensive, towards the toxtricity you brought to us.” He continued before Rodri interrupting, dropping the uncomfortable smile that seemed stuck to him ever since we entered the office. “Hey, he deserves a space here as much as you or I do, everyone does, you know it full well, he doesn’t exactly have much of an alternative and, neither do we.” Rodri seemed to place a lot of emphasis on the last part of his sentence, which seemed to turn Ignacio around at least somewhat. The Charizard merely snorted again and shifted his direction to his computer. “Full name?” “Huh?” I exclaimed “Your full. Name, toxtricity.” The Charizard repeated now directing his eyes at me. I stammered a little before I gave him my full name. “Shortened name?” Rodri stepped in to explain what he meant. “We pokéumans tend to use shortened versions of our full names for our way of running things, I actually have three names, but you’ll mostly see me referred to as Rodri Palagot the chesnaught, a derivation of my first name, my first surname plus my species.” “O-oh, um… Lex Mota, not Alex, Lex, the er… t-toxtricity?” “Low-key toxtricity.” Added Ignacio. “We need specification for those with multiple forms.” He snorted and continued the impromptu interview. “Age?” “14” “Date of birth?” I gave him that info. “Male or Female?” “Male.” “Where do you come from?” “Uhhh, place of birth, raising or current, er, former residence?” I asked, all three options were varied. “Previous residence, federal entity and municipality/borough, given our lack of ties to the government all other information is trivial.” “A-ah, Mexico City, Azcapotzalco then.” “Current level of education?” “High school, first semester.” “Date of arrival?” “Umm…” Rodri once again came to my aid cutting me off. “I’ll handle this one, Saturday October 15th of 2022.” Rodri looked over at me and winked. The Charizard raised an eyebrow. “Yes… I suppose his true arrival will be kept secret to the base then.” “Only to non PRT members, sir.” Rodri responded. Ignacio typed a few more things, likely info he didn’t need me for before eventually going to a printer and bluntly handing me two pieces of paper. “Here is your schedule and calendar, you have been signed up for school starting tomorrow Wednesday to the group 5-AM, you’ll also have a calendar marking school and base activity for several different special events, you are also provided with a map of the three common levels of the base, which also has your assigned dormitory in it, your future roommates have been notified of your arrival.” I quickly looked at the map and saw “Room: 175.” Marked at the top of it Before I could look further, I felt it being snatched from my hands by a curious Rodri, who was darting his eyes across it until finding the dorm number and gasping in shock. “Ignacio, don’t you dare-“ “I have my reasons, and I believe given his… background it’s the perfect environment for him to reside in.” The Charizard cut him off. “I told you to go easy on him Ignacio!! The guy’s a kid and already a graver victim of pokextinction than most of us were when we arrived, I can’t believe you’d seriously belittle his situation so much to the point of-“ “I care for my base, not the feelings of one singular individual who can put our base’s hard-earned security into jeopardy with the slightest lack of carefulness, now let me do my job, you should be thankful I’m letting him stay here.” Rodri simply stopped talking but he clearly didn’t look too happy about the argument ended, the headmaster then turned over at me. “Now, where were we? You are now an official registered citizen of our base, head to your room for the rest of the day, and remember, young pokéuman, do not. Attempt. Anything, understood?” “R-r-right!!” I stuttered. “Good, you two are now dismissed from my office.” The headmaster concluded With that, Rodri and I quickly made our way out, as soon as we stepped outside of the office the large gates shut loudly, I looked over at Rodri who seemed very different from his usual cheerful self, but only for a second. “Well, glad that’s over. Now’s time for the good stuff!! Took longer than expected but oh well.” Rodri said, almost to no one in particular, with a shrug. “Wha- good stuff?? Huh??” I asked, completely confused and whiplashed after possibly going through one of the most stressful things in my life, which has a lot of competition. “Well, now that you’re a fully registered citizen, it’s only fair that you get a full tour of the base by yours truly?” Rodri exclaimed as he pointed to himself. “Now come on!! The sooner we start the better!!” He cheered as he motioned for me to start following outside.I followed him through several hallways, at first, they were all fairly monotone in their sleek metallic-ness, though I notice ther was a lot more emphasis on blue tones rather than the green of the PRT level above, they were also fairly modern looking, which contrasted with the early-mid 20th century looking mural from the headmaster’s office. It did not take long for me to start finding more life in the interior, suddenly as I ran and caught up with the chesnaught in front of me I started bumping into other pokéumans, a doublade, a flaafy, a ducklett, so many different species that looked nothing alike yet were all experiencing the same situation and were all once human, and then, I started seeing doors leading to multiple different places, some looked like shops, some like businesses, I could probably spot a few libraries or recreation areas all from simple stylized signs and doors. It was like a city! I was running in awe constantly turning from direction to direction, causing me to trip into even more pokémon, a heracross, a primeape, one that looked like a sinistea but different, and green. It was insane, fantastic, amazing! I lost Rodri for a moment but the figure of a running, excited and almost manic gargantuan plant-type wasn’t hard to spot even amongst the varied silhouettes of many different pokémon, especially once he slowed down to a stop. I stopped myself to catch my breath before Rodri traced his steps back to reach me. “We’re here.” “Huh?” Rodri smiled and walked up the continuing hall until suddenly entering a large space filled to the absolute brim with pokéumans. In it there were several objects including some fountains, several constructions mimicking landmarks and locations from Mexico City, with the walls of the space being filled with colourful murals and art of different styles all united under a common theme of pokémon, I could make out many entrances indicating more places and cultural centres. It was like a big strange cross between a mall, the zocalo, and a hall. Rodri followed me as I walked almost on autopilot through the hall, seeing all the various amounts of pokémon species that were all congregating in this large space, careful to avoid bumping into any of them but it was somewhat of a fruitless task with just the massive amount of them, but it was such a wonderous sight that I didn’t feel the usual fatigue I get when being on such large crowds, at least not yet. “You like it?” He asked once he was finally within audible reach. “W-where are we, Rodri?!” “This, is the main hall of our glorious pokéuman base, your new home.” He proclaimed. “It’s… unimaginable…” I said in awe. “I… probably should leave before I get exhausted, um… where would my dorm be?” Rodri’s expression shifted in an instant as I asked. “Oh no no no, we don’t need to get to your room just yet! It’s at the very bottom floor, just look at your map. Besides, we’ve still got the rest of the base to explore! You just got here after all.” He exclaimed, I however wasn’t excited at all by this point, it was starting to overwhelm me and I just wanted to rest after everything that had happened today. Rodri’s intensity quickly died down once he noticed my distress. “O-oh, sorry, look, I just want you to give you a proper introduction to the basic routes of the base, so you have less chances of getting lost once you have to navigate it by yourself, that’s all, I’m really sorry if it’s overwhelming you but I really need you to finish it, I promise I’ll try to make up for it by making the rest of the tour as relaxed and laid back as possible, ok?” I was not buying it, but I really just didn’t want to argue at that point, I felt tired. “Sounds like an excuse but ok.” Rodri held out his hand on my arm and tried to give me a softer comforting smile, it felt warm and genuine enough for me, so we simply decided to keep moving, this time at a more casual pace. And truth be told, after a while of calming down and settling in, plus with the new pace we were going I found myself really enjoying all the various locations, Rodri explained that the second floor was the recreational area, where cultural and commercial activities could be found and it was the area that resembled human cities the most, but also taking somewhat of a mall atmosphere like I myself suspected, and the locations we visited once we stopped rushing ourselves were much more interesting, we saw a stadium supposedly made to resemble the Estadio Azteca, but that could also easily accommodate for different grounds of different types, from indoor arenas to large outdoor-style venues, and even apparently an arena for pokémon battling! Rodri assured me I’d be guaranteed to see more of that in the future, it was fairly small in capacity however compared to standard stadiums but Rodri explained this was due to the small population of pokéumans. We also walked past the main auditorium that could hold the entire capacity of the base according to Rodri, where the headmaster and the PRT could speak and give out important announcements when needed, Rodri said I would definitely enter it someday. There were also opera and philharmonic-style concert halls and theaters, several cinemas, not of the usual brands you’d expect like cinemex or cinepolis but local pokéuman ones, like how my mother used to say cinemas were back in her day before they got monopolized. In fact, you could barely spot any kind of human brand or business, everything had a slightly similar feeling but its own, more genuine pokéuman flavour to it, it truly felt like a parallel world in a way. Walking back a bit we eventually found one of many large staircases used to descend across the floor being guarded by a strong looking nidoqueen. We descended to the third floor which as I looked at my map could figure out was the school level, and sure enough it definitely gave off the vibes of a large high school/university, only without any yard because we were all indoors, it was mostly hallways of classrooms which definitely brought back mixed memories from my years of school, there was also a small hospital, a large library, a few labs that were part of the standard classrooms, a large gymnasium but the part that intrigued me the most was the arena, which made me ask Rodri about it. “Check your schedule.” He replied. “Notice anything odd?” I checked my schedule and I found that almost all of the classes in it were fairly standard things, there was maths, spanish/literature, history, geography, P.E., English, various sciences and social formation, all mostly sprinkled either throughout the week or a few days, there was a single class however unlike any other, one that was present on every single day of the school week, and yet one that was completely unfamiliar to me: Battle class. “Battle class? Is this a pokéuman thing?” I asked as I turned my face from my schedule towards Rodri. “Indeed, as pokéumans all of us, no matter the species, have an innate instinct to battle that is important to us, from our moves to our abilities, it is something that we can’t ignore, and unlike humans who’s battling tends to be cruel and against human’s nature of cooperation, us pokéumans are much more attuned towards competition.” He clarified. “Of course, this isn’t the path that everyone’s going to take, and just as how maths can be the basis to plenty of things in the universe, but plenty of people as well don’t enjoy it, battling can’t be for everyone, but it’s still something that forms part of our standard education since to some degree it’s part of our nature.” He then added. I got stuck on his words on our nature, ((is it true? Am I destined for battle as well then? Or am I another exception)) Suddenly, another thought came to my head. “Rodri?” “Hm?” “W-what was the headmaster referring to, when he talked a-about my nature and background and type and… stuff.” Rodri seemed doubtful and calculative, there were points where he almost spoke up but clearly decided to think about it for a bit longer. “I’m afraid I wouldn’t be good at answering that, the responsibility is probably better suited to your biology lessons… and social formation.” He eventually settled on, rubbing the back of his head with his arm. “L-look don’t worry about it, things are going to be fine, let’s just continue with the tour! We’re… almost done.” He let out, seeming more like he was trying to convince himself than me. We eventually descended in a similar manner as before to the fourth and final floor, the dorms, this was by far the slowest, least interesting and quietest part of the tour, on occasion we’d walk past a pokéuman (a lotad, a litleo, etc.) but not much would really be said and by this point we already knew where things would be going, we did however spot a relatively large hospital, it seemed every floor, including the PRT level was equipped with one for obvious reasons. But beyond that it was just identical dorms. They were curious dorms as well, doors made of sparkling white crystal with a very futuristic digital panel alongside them and the dorm number above it, I’m guessing used to open and close the door and who knows what else, despite the repetitive environment it was still a wonder, and you’d occasionally find a few personal touches like objects or drawings in the dorms giving the rooms some amount of individuality, which was nice, it made it clear that living, breathing, thinking and loving people habituated them. I expected us to arrive at my dorm at any moment, yet we pretty much had to traverse the entire level for it and my legs were getting extremely sore for so much walking and I was starting to gasp, we were getting close to a final corner when suddenly Rodri walked in front of me, kneeled down to my level and spoke. “Hey, so, I just want you to remember now that I’m about to drop you off that… well…” It seemed he was having trouble finding the appropriate words to speak. “When I say things are going to be fine, I mean it, I know just by looking at you that you are capable of great things and so if anything happens, which is guaranteed not even as a pokéuman but just, as a person, don’t let it get to you, as corny as it sounds, ok?” I was a bit confused by the sudden talk, but I nodded. “Ok.” “Good, the third to last dorm is yours, I’d love to accompany you, but I think it’s best if you get a sense of your living space yourself, and I’ve kinda spent a lot more of extra time than I originally intended with this tour, so, I’m sure we’ll meet again, young tox.” He smiled. “Tox?” “Short for toxtricity, it’ll save you time.” “Oh, right, right, well, see ya then.” I told Rodri “Have a good day, Lex.” Rodri spoke and then he started walking back where we came from. I took a deep breath as I turned away and headed towards my dorm, it didn’t take long to find the correct door, third to last, like Rodri said, and I was eventually facing what I knew would be my new home for possibly the rest of my life, without even being sure of what was inside of it. “Well, here goes nothing.” I touched the screenpad, which beeped in recognition, I stood there waiting for a few seconds before the door opened and I was immediately greeted with the sight of an obstagoon with a mischievous and cruel grin, messy, almost wild fur and a malicious glint to his eyes. “Well, well, well.” The obstagoon was soon followed by a morgrem and a gliscor, all with similar appearances and attitudes. “Our new roomie, a toxtricity, the punk rock pokémon.” They came behind the obstagoon, clearly the leader of the group as they all glared at me with those grins. “Name’s Demian, and it looks like you’ll fit riiiight in to our little group~” the dark and normal type said, before letting out a sinister chuckle. “You better.”Pokéumans: Re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 3 "Kidnap"“We’re here. Now we can do this the easy way for you, or the easy way for us.” My kidnapper unchained me and got me out of the van by force, I yelped as soon as I was forced to stand up and I could feel the trigger of a pistol in the back of my neck.” “Quiet. Now follow.” I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I tried getting a good look at the men who kidnapped me, there were only two of them, the slightly taller one walking up front with me having to follow him and the second, slightly shorter one had the weird laser pistol pointed at me. They were fairly uniform and wore military/police like attire that made it hard to tell apart other physical features, it didn’t help that it was starting to get dark as it looked to be around 5 or 6 pm and our surroundings made everything look even darker. Speaking of my surroundings, we were deep in the forest, seemingly in the outskirts of the city as I knew we couldn’t go so far, honestly I was surprised my allergies weren’t acting up given there were trees as far as I could see, we walked for a long long while, my legs practically limping as I was fully out of energy but I could fully feel my kidnapper pressing his gun even harder at my neck anytime I slowed down so much as a milimeter per nanosecond, eventually I could start making out silhouettes of a few buildings and we made it out to a clearing. We walked until we arrived at the front of the largest building, which looked to be two floors high, I could see the man in front of me fiddling with a control panel to enter before the man behind me suddenly covered my eyes with his arm. “H-hey, what gives???” “Silence!!” The man shouted as I felt a kick on my back, we got into the building where even though I was let go the interior was so dark i could see about the same as when my eyes were covered, the most i could tell from the building was monotone cold grey all over, there were no windows and the environment was as sterile as a first aid hospital, as the man let go on me i don’t know what came over me but i quickly tried to run away from them. “HEY GET BACK HERE YOU FREAK!!!” I looked back at them expecting them to shot or chase me but instead they seemed to be saying something and fiddling with a device I couldn’t see due to the darkness, I ran across a few hallways, quickly getting tired and changing to a hurried, panting, walk and as I turned to a corner i suddenly felt myself getting sprayed by more of that purple gas once again, as I lost consciousness I could only muster a weak: Ack cough “N.. no…” “..o, he’s n… de…” “I… he wa… u…?” “Hey y…” “Hey!” I woke up with a startle, I instinctively tried to stand up but my body still felt paralyzed from the gas, there was a face right in front of me I couldn’t make out because of my blurry waking eyes. “About freaking time already.” “What the- w-where am- who are… you?” As the events I had just experienced came back to my memory I could finally process the image in front of me… But it wasn’t something I would’ve liked to see, at first you may think it was a kid not much older than me from its blurry silhouette, but look closer and you’ll find the person or creature in front of me had strange, black mammalian legs and an arm, with displaced patches of fur all over, two black ears with yellow rings and, most terrifyingly, in his otherwise normal human face, he had almost demonic like blood red eyes. “W-w-what the hell is going on with y-“ Suddenly, I realised what was going on, I looked at his eyes and then at his black and yellow fur with a sense of familiarity, I then I looked at my own hands and finally everything clicked. “O-oh… So I’m not the only…” “Yup, you better get used to it, if what I heard is correct there’s no going back once it’s done, of course, we’re first gonna have to wait see for ourselves.” I stared at him in perplexion. “But- but what’s going on!? Why are we transforming into pokemon?!?! My eyes blinked and I was in shock. The soon to be umbreon continued. “I can’t promises that I’m completely right or that I know the full answers, but if what I heard about from everyone else is correct, we are becoming pokéumans.” “Pokéumans… wait, everyone else?” I questioned “One at a time.” He answered, he seemed unphazed by our situation, though not out of indifference but out of custom, as if he were simply used and tired of this. “Yes, we’re pokeumans, seemingly we’re hybrids of pokémon and humans, and well, you’re probably aware of how you didn’t exactly come here through your own will?” That was an understatement “Uh huh.” “Well… Look at your surroundings.” When he said that I realised I had no idea where we were, for all we know I couldn’t even be in the samd building as i last entered, although I doubted it, given how similar the atmosphere was. I looked around and quickly realised we were in a small cage similar to the ones used to keep animals, because of course we were, and I could see plenty of other cages around us and also in front of us separated by a hallway, I could see stuff inside every cage but the darkness made it hard to make out what, but I had a reasonable guess. “Everyone here is a pokéuman? Everyone here is going through what we’re going?” “Yup.” “But… why? Why are we being kidnapped? And by who? And even so, what exactly are pokéumans?” The half umbreon sighed. “I’m afraid I only know the answer to one of those questions, and that is that we are being kidnapped by a secret organization called Pokextinction .” “Pokextinction…” I repeated unintentionally. “Yeah, I don’t know what their goal is, nobody here does, but it’s definitely not something good with a name like that and the conditions we’re in.” He stayed quiet for a bit, seemingly disappointed at the lack of information he had. “Look, I don’t know exactly why we’re here, what will happen to us or why all of this is happening, but there’s a lot of things that were pretty easy to deduce, and there have been people here that know more than we do, most of what I know is because my former cellmate told me, he told me we’re hybrids who are born human but eventually have their Pokémon form awaken from inside, this form is of their favourite Pokémon, mine as you could guess is umbreon. I gulped, this was a lot of information to take in and yet there were still so many questions that I unfortunately knew I wouldn’t get answers to, at least not from him, still i decided to be grateful for what little information he has, even if there’s no way to confirm it I have no option than to believe him and accept this information. Let’s just hope I’m not completely off the marks now. “I’m unable to tell what you’re transforming into though, I can’t even see a sign of your transformation.” “Oh!” I exclaimed, then showed off my hands “It’s these, I woke up with these this morning, they’re a toxtricity’s” “I see, one of the newer ones, You’re lucky that your pokémon already came out so you could recognise it and bond with it, some I saw were becoming completely unknown Pokémon.” “Uh huh…” I nodded as I processed all of this, then I realised an important detail i had overlooked from his explanation. “Wait your former cellmate? What happened to them?” The umbreon’s expression, already pretty unenthusiastic soured even more. “What happens to all of us once our transformation is complete, and unfortunately I don’t know what that is either as I’m only halfway done, you started just today you say? I’ve been here for about four days, and he was almost finished when I met him, he told me all about how he had been kidnapped after he started transforming and had been trapped inside a van, however he had been rescued by some fully transformed pokeumans who called themselves the PRT, who explained a lot to him before they were ambushed by polextinctionists and he was kidnapped once again and brought here, and once his transformation finished, the pokextinctionists that patrol this room took him out of the cage into another room, and I’ve never heard from him again, nor from anyone else who’s transformation has finished, nobody has the energy to fight back, or to escape, they make sure these cages are immune to anything we could throw at them, and they themselves get prepared as well when they take us, it didn’t help that he was turning into a masquerain of all pokemon. I gasped in surprise at the umbreon kid’s story. “Huh?” The umbreon replied in confusion “So those pokemon trying to help me… they were part of a group called the PRT?” “It happened to you too?” The umbreon asked with a bit of questioning and a raised eyebrow. “Yes!” I exclaimed enthusiastically “I was also taken by a large van, but then I was saved by a trio of pokemon, unfortunately we simply couldn’t avoid the barrage of lasers, but still, they’ve got to be the PRT if what you’re saying is correct.” Lex beamed. “Maybe they’ll come to rescue us the-“ “Not happening” interrupted the other pokéuman. “I had that hope at first as well when he told me about the PRT, but after he got taken i quickly gave up, they might’ve tried to rescue you and him, but they sure don’t try with everyone.” My expression fell “You mean you weren’t rescued?” “Nope” the umbreon responded bluntly, “I got gassed and kidnapped and at no point did anyone come for me, I simply arrived exactly as they intended and couldn’t fight back in any way…” “I see…” I replied, saddened yet understanding. “Look, I do still have some hope that maybe there will be an opportunity to escape, i just don’t want to be mindlessly praying for some miracle, although don’t tell the cellmate to our right that I said that.” I could only nod in response. “By the way, I never got your name, and I’m pretty sure you never got mine, I’ll try to introduce you to the others that are still here with us in hell once they’re awake so we can at least have some form community in this shitty situation and so we accompany each other on our transformations, I’m Alan.” The umbreon said as he extended his changing arm for a handshake. I was a little unsure of the idea of socialising even in a time like this, but I decided to be nice since he was my only source of information and so I shook his hand and breathed relief when I didn’t seem to poison nor shock him. “I’m Lex.” SUNDAY I wasn’t dreaming but I wasn’t conscious either, I felt a weird pain on my lower body, and I could vaguely make out muffled noises coming from who knows where, and they were getting clearer and louder until I could make out a CLANK of metal and a loud angry voice shouting- “HEY GET UP POKÉUMAN SCUM!!!” “Gah!! Where? …Oh.” I woke up startled and disoriented not recognising my surroundings, that is until the memories of before once again came back to me, although it was still fairly dark I could see a lot better and I could generally tell that it was roughly around the morning now. I looked at the entrance of my cage and could see a cruel human face smirking at us. “If you think you’re gonna get to sleep through your abominification, I’m afraid we’re not giving you the choice, freak.” The person, a polextinctionist I quickly realised, said “What the hell is wrong with you? Who are you and why are you doing this?” “SILENCE.” The extinctionist said. He then turned to himself as if we weren’t there to hear him “God above how I wish these creatures would lose the ability to speak once they started changing, it would make things so much easier.” ((Impossible… he sees us as animals?)) I thought when suddenly I was interrupted by a whispered voice coming from my side. “*Probably best to keep quiet for now, the guards can get very cruel if you provoke them, I’ve experienced it myself.” I turned around and quickly recognised the half umbreon kid from yesterday, Alan, whispering to me. “Please… please don’t use god’s name in vain.” Suddenly spoke another completely different, more timid and meek voice, i quickly realised it was coming from a cage beside us and so I quickly tried to look over who it was and I could make out a kid, who at first looked a lot smaller than me until I realised it was because he was shrinking and was really not a lot younger looking than me, his face had fully changed into a pokémon i at first couldn’t recognise but through the lilac fur and his half grown ears I realised he was about to become a noibat. I muttered expressions of shock with my mouth but my attention shifted to the extinctionist guard walking over to the other kid’s cage and talking to himself with a sneer. “Oh boy, it’s the “catholic” one again, listen to this kid, do you seriously still think your god is going to help you at this point? Do you even think he’s even real by now? Do you seriously expect god would have mercy or care for a creature who’s becoming a demon not to his image?”. The guard spat out as he shook the noibat kid’s cage with a kick, causing the kid to jump and cover his ears, I imagine they’re probably becoming a lot more sensible with the transformation. I could see the noibat starting to let out a few tears although it was clear he was trying his best not to audibly cry, this however did not stop the guard from noticing. “Don’t waste your tears, I know what you things really are and I won’t be manipulated by your attempts to act like us humans, and one day, humanity will show you creatures your place.” And with that, the guard exited the room, but not before kicking and shaking more cages. I walked over to the noibat who even though was alone at this point still tried to avoid crying audibly. “Hey.” The noibat jumped looked over at me in surprise. “W-who are you?” “He’s the new guy from yesterday remember? The guy that showed up unconscious.” Alan walked over to our conversation and explained. “He’s turning into a pokemon like us, you don’t need to worry, he only just started.” With that the noibat seemed to calm down a little. “A-ah, right.” “N-name’s Lex.” I said, a little nervous since I could understand why the little guy is so shaken up. “L-l-lazaro.” The noibat replied. “W-what are you turning into…” “A toxtricity.” I smiled a little. “It’s a recent addition but it’s always been my favourite ever since, so at the very least there’s one positive about this at least, I’m sure you feel the same.” “Ummm…” Lazaro seemed to reply unsure. Then I felt the touch of a paw tap my back, I turned around to find Alan staring at me and he whispered: “Hey so… Lazaro is a bit of a special case,” He began. “You might’ve realised this already from what you saw but his family was fairly religious and thus he never really played Pokémon, and was never familiar with any Pokémon aside from like Pikachu, I had to explain basically everything about what’s happening from scratch and that’s why it has him so distressed, from what he told me it seems his own family kidnapped him and brought him over to a bunch of pokextinctionist, poor kid, betrayed by his own family and was unfamiliar with what was going on at all, he really thought he was becoming a demon and I can’t really blame him.” ((His own family?)) I nodded in understanding and couldn’t help but look at him with pity, he possibly had it worse than any of us. Before I could even say anything I felt a sudden pain on my tailbone forcing me to fall down on the floor and scream, I could over hear Lazaro getting startled and praying quietly on the other cage. Suddenly I heard a small rip on my pants and could feel something moving. “Wha-“ “Hmm, I was starting to wonder when it would comtinue.” Said Alan. “Oww… what happ- wait… Is that what I think it is?” I exclaimed as I quickly figured what the pain was. “Yup, your tail is starting to grow. You spent a while seemingly without any changes, the last one I could make out was when you were asleep and your purple skin crept up more onto your arms.” “They did?” I looked over at my arms and yup, the changes rose to over my elbows. “At this rate your arms will be full toxtricity’s by tomorrow.” “Wait… How long does the transformation take?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “If the pokextinctionists are going to take us once we’re done I would like to know how long that’s going to be in. Alan answered “Honestly? No flippin idea, it seems to vary from person to person and completely randomly. Our best estimate seems to be around a week, often a little more or less, I started 5 days ago like I said, and most people here left seem to be almost done aside from us three, you see how we’re the only ones awake? Everyone else, despite the guard’s best attempts is sleeping through the painful transformation and simply waiting for whatever awaits them once it’s finished, they only ever wake up whenever they give us food not even because they want to eat but so the guard leaves them alone.” I nodded after hearing all of it, a little defeated at knowing there wasn’t really any hope for escape but understanding that’s simply how things were. “I see…” Then I turned over to Lazaro “How long have you been here Lazaro?” He replied nervously. “Um… Since last Sunday I think, we… we were getting ready to go church but then it… started.” I winced a little, church was by far one of my least favourite experiences but I knew I had to be respectful and I understood this was hard on him. “How many of us are there?” Alan shrugged, “I dunno, as far as I can make out this isn’t a very large room and it has about 4 cages for two pokemon but ours right now is the only one at full capacity, the rest only have one, honestly I don’t know if there aren’t many of us or our kidnappers are just not that good but there aren’t ever really many pokéumans here.” He said. The conversation then died after that, the rest of the day then passed panfully slowly, we chose a good time to end our conversation as the guard came back almost instantly afterwards and started kicking and shaking the cages where the other pokéumans were sleeping although not actually getting them to wake up, and checking on us three who were awake. I’m used to tuning a boring day out but that’s because I often have stuff to do, but now that I don’t really have any more questions to ask it drove me insane to simply lay on the cold floor as periods of time happened where the guard kept coming back doing the same things over and over, occasionally getting interrupted by one of us experiencing more of our transformation, my tail grew more, Alan’s own tail started growing as well and Lazaro’s ears fully changed into a noibat’s, which caused him a bit of strain as he wasn’t used to the noise amplification at first. And in other, much more rarer occasions he would arrive with food platters containing a weird disgusting mush and would put each one inside each cage, forcing Alan and I to share, it was horrible and didn’t do anything to fill our stomachs or be nutritious but we didn’t really want to starve either, I could see the other pokémon waking up and I was almost tempted to talk to them, but the guard being present made and I could tell they were barely awake with how almost robotic like they woke up, grabbed their plate and ate. Is this what this place does to people? I can’t say I blame them. Throughout the day I kept thinking back to my famiy, having the realisation that I might not see them ever again… Eventually we could see the already dark interior get darker and we realised it was becoming nighttime, honestly the interior is so dark and sterile I have no idea where the light comes during the day time but oh well, at some point and i don’t recognise when I ended up simply drifting asleep… MONDAY It was more of the same as yesterday, only this time I managed to avoid getting woken up violently by the pokextinctionist guard as my transformation did the job for them. I felt a pain in the top of my arms and yep, just like Alan predicted, my arms are fully pokemon now, with purple spikes piercing the shirt I was wearing, I guesd that’s the last I’ll ever see of those clothes. I looked around and saw everyone else was still asleep, I thought about waking them up but I realised there wouldn’t be a point in it. It wasn’t long until one of them woke up, being Lazaro, he too had seemed to change in his sleep as his body was starting to get covered in fur. He didn’t really notice the changes and once he was fully conscious he started a quiet prayer that I could vaguely make out but didn’t care much for, much later and after the guard showed up to check on us Alan woke up as well. There wasn’t much else for the rest of the day aside from how our transformations were developing, once my arms were done focus shifted almost entirely to my tail, which fully grew by the end of the day, Alan’s tail was close to catching up with mine and we could see his face starting to stretch into a muzzle, Lazaro’s changes were mainly on his body and one of his legs, becoming full noibat. I’m pretty sure we were all going insane, with the constant pain coming from out bodies, the monotonous grey exterior that was all we could see and the cruel treatment from the guard it was almost impossible any kind of energy or positive emotion, the only sounds that we ever made were the involuntary screams we let out as we transformed. That is until suddenly at the very end of the day the door to the room opened but instead of the sole guard a group of extinctionists in full of the gear they had while they kidnapped me and fought the prt barged inside with force. “*It seems one of us finished transforming and you’re about to see what happens once the transformation is done.” Alan whispered to me as he stood very still and tried to blend into the background, I copied him as well but I tried to see whay was going on. It was hard to catch what the extinctionist were doing as they were interacting with the cage in front of us, but I could make them out talking to the pokéuman captive, seemingly waking them up, then they opened the door and the pokéuman, a scyther, ended up following them the same way I did when i arrived. They then closed the door of the gate and exited the room but not before they all glanced at every single one of us left. There were no words between anyone after this, even the other pokéuman we never talked to (a wartortle) was awake and in distress like us, even Lazaro who I expected to pray simply stood quiet, I myself had originally wanted to ask why they kept me in the same cage and didn’t move me to the now empty one, but the words were never able to leave my mouth, I eventually rationalised that it was for if a larger pokemon arrived. Everyone knew this was what was going to happen to them and yet not knowing what happens beyond that was terrifying, for all we know we could be killed, or experimented on, or it could be something far worse. There was simply no way to tell. TUESDAYThis time we were woken up by the guards kicking and rattling the cage around, when I woke up there weren’t any visible changes to my body which meant that I was going to feel all of them. …Although that wasn’t exactly right, I did notice a few clumps of hair falling out and when I touched it I could feel it be a little… static-y? I don’t know if this is a completely unrelated reaction, given how I have very thick overgrown hair that I don’t really put an effort to take care of but also given how low key tox had a double electric mohawk I can’t rule it out entirely. At first it seemed the day would be like yesterday, but quicky another group of extinctionists arrived however it was clear they weren’t here to take anyone as they brought in another half pokémon, an Onix. it seemed like it was a normal onix but looking closer I noticed he still had a lot of human facial features, an arm and a half grown leg. The extinctionists looked like they were struggling to carry the thing, which didn’t look too big compared to most depictions of onix it seemed but it was probably very heavy still. The group sighed once they dropped the onix inside the cage (which even though smaller than normal clearly could only fit the onix now instead of two pokémon). “Ughh… Phew… What a heavy thing, ugh, how I wish normal society could appreciate all the crap we have to through here just to contain these creatures and keep the world safe.” Said one of the pokextinctionists. “Agreed, if we ever reveal ourselves to the world everyone better be fucking grateful.” Said another I couldn’t believe myself, these people realize all of us were human right? It’s not like we’re degrading into mindless dangerous creatures… Right? The group continued talking amongst themselves. “Hopefully once his transformation is done he’s a lot easier to control, doesn’t look like it’ll take too long for this one.” With that the extinctionists left, though not before giving us a glance that could probably kill us, and it was probably the intention. Once they left, Alan started to speak “Looks like they brought another one, although this one intrigues me, he seems to be over halfway done with his transformation.” I looked over at him with a confused expression, he noticed and elaborated. “Like you, the people that are brought here are often just starting their transformation, this is as they’re very quickly found by pokextinction, some might have already transformed a good amount if they had and kept or gained the ability to escape them, but with that species and a transformation that advanced I really doubt this guy could’ve evaded Pokextinction, so this is definitely unusual…” He explained. “Ah, I see “ I replied. We waited for a while and th guard even showed up to do his routinely check up until eventually the onix started to wake up in a… surprisingly high pitched voice. “Where am I? Mum? Dad?” It started saying. I tried to speak to him, but I felt a sudden pain near my tail, I started seeing purple spikes growing out of my skin and i realised i was developing toxtricity’s punk waist belt thing. Alan approached the newcomer instead. “Hey, kid, know you’re scared, but you’re with people like you, I’m Alan, this is Lex, and in the other cage beside us is Lazaro.” The onix looked at us very nervous, and as I examined his remaining human features I could notice he didn’t seem very… old. Before I could question anything the onix decided to reply. “My name is Yulian.” The onix replied, and after hearing his voice clearly there was no doubt in my mind, but as I was about to ask Alan quickly got ahead of me. “How old are you Yulian?” “I’m nine years old.” Yulian said in a very young sounding voice. “Nine years old...” Alan repeated out loud, and I’m not too sure I didn’t do the same thing. Eventually I decided to ask. “H-how did your transformation start?” He responded fairly slowly. “Ummm… It was… was a week ago, my legs started fusing and they felt like a rock and I told my parents and they got really scared and i think they didn’t know what to do but then they decided to hide me which I liked cuz I didn’t have to go to school and I realised I was turning into an onix, and I like onix, a lot, but it was sad because my parents got worried, and then today people came into my house and argued with my parents but then my parents stopped arguing and they came into my room and they spwayed a gas at me and I fell asleep and the people took me to a creepy van and I woke and I was very scared.” Lazaro seemed to jump as he hears yulian’s part about his parents, at first I was surprised he heard from all over his corner until I remembered what pokemon he was. “What happened when your parents stopped arguing?” Lázaro then asme “Um it was kinda weird cuz one minute they were like screaming and stuff but then they just stopped and came in and they were very weird they didn’t say anything and their eyes looked kinda gray.” Yulian replied. “That’s very similar to what happened with my mum!” Lázaro explained “She was very happy as we were talking and getting ready for church but then her behaviour changed completely and started telling me horrible things once we noticed my transformation, at first I thought she was simply scared of me because i thought i was transforming into a demon but…” Suddenly, I had a reminder to all the weird people who chased me down when I started transforming all of them seemed to be mindless and had grey eyes and the fact there were so many of them almost seemed like they were random bystanders, and so a theory sprung up to my mind. “Could… could there be some sort of brainwashing going on?” Everyone looked at me in surprise once I said it, and yet nobody could deny how much sense it made, before any one of us could speak suddenly yet another group of geared pokextinctionists arrived at the room, all of us quickly scattered apart from each other, aside from the young newcomer. “Hey!! What are you doing! Leave us alone!!” “SILENCE!!!!!” screamed one of them “You will quiet now or else we’ll use our weapons on you, understood?” Yulian seemed to be resisting the urge to cry, and I felt my heart ache at seeing the poor kid struggle, i quickly realised how young all of us were, aside from maybe alan, who i don’t see past 20 anyway, were kids. Why was this happening to us? And why did the pokextinctionists fail to realise we are children and treat us like animals?! The group of extinctionists then woke the wartortle of the other cage up, examined it and then opened their cage and made them follow the group like they did the scyther, and once again as they exited they looked at us with a sneer, it was genuinely horrifying, and the four of us looked at each other in terror, we were all that was left, and soon, the next ones to leave were going to be one of us. And now that brainwashing was an option, I’m pretty sure we all considered it as a possibility for what could happen once we left… The rest of the day went on as normal, but everyone was extremely tense after what had played our, the only noises were those of our bones readjusting and the screams we had to let out to deal with the pain, Alan’s tail finished growing and his muzzle was getting close with his nose changing into an animalistic one and his face grew black fur all over, this was by far the most graphic transformation so far as we could all hear clearly how his bones rearranged and all the KRIK s and CRACK s that came with it. Mine wasn’t that much better, my belt kept growing pushing itself out of my skin in a very painful way and I could feel my lower body’s bones constantly going SNAP and POP and I saw my legs starting to shrink, and my fingers… god my fingers hurt like i couldn’t describe, I could feel them fusing and growing into three identical digits. Lázaro and yulian’s transformations were a lot less extreme as they had already advanced a fair point, still seeing and hearing what was left of the noibat’s face and arm to change rearranging itself left little to be imagined in terms of pain, on top of that his lower body like mine also started to change, althoug his changed a lot faster and was quickly covered in fur in a FWOOOOSH . All that was left for him to change was his other arm. He was praying throughout the whole thing, I almost wanted to join. Yulian by far had the less painful transformation, but it was probably the hardest to percieve, his was minimal, but something that would stay on your mind forever, it was essentially seeing his human leg shrink into more rock like the rest of his snakey body, it was pretty gross. I, and I have a feeling everyone else constantly tried our best to distract ourselves from our transformation, but for me it simply became difficult as any kind of distraction served as a reminder of how I was ripped away from my family, home and enjoyments and was left purposefully with nothing at all, I’m pretty sure this counts as torture, and instead of distracting me all this thoughts only caused me to inclement the pain I felt and I eventually was left silently crying, I thought to my parents, at first I worried for them as they were probably searching for me and collapsing at my disappearance, but, given how there seems to be so many of us pokéumans, and now that we theorize Pokextinction has acces to some form of brainwashing, I kept coming back to the possibility that my parents and everyone could’ve been brainwashed to forget that I ever existed, and that made me feel even worse. In the end, I, and everyone else, cried ourselves to sleep. WEDNESDAY We woke up like we were used to, well, except for Yulian the newcomer, but still, we were all rattled awake by the guard (what kind of kick does he even get by doing this?). None of us really talked to each other as the discussion from yesterday still lingered in our memories. All of the noise that happened for most of the day was the sounds of our bodies continuing to morph unnaturally, the reactions of pain we all had and occasionally Lázaro praying, as the days went on his prayers notably went from the typical existing prayers you hear in church and into personal pleas to god, which I really couldn’t fault him for, every day everyone’s composure worsened in different ways and Lázaro, closest to finishing his transformation was also closest to breaking down. At some point I started hearing a skrik coming from my body and I could very well tell it was the start of my transformation for the day, my “belt” so to speak finished growing and my legs’ shifting size was also close to be done, though it made any position I took extremely painful and despite having woken up not long ago I had practically no energy because of it. Alan wasn’t much better as his face finished changing into an umbreon’s muzzle, fully getting covered in black fur, then, possibly the most painful part of anyone’s transformation began as his back suddenly starting cracking all at once, slowly shifting his stature from a two legged one to a digitigrade, this particular transformation lasted for practically the whole day with all of us staring constantly, Lázaro was in tears, Yulian looked disgusted and I was pretty much hyperventilating and Alan could not stop howling in pain. Even when the guard showed up he simply couldn’t hold his pain. “AAAARGHOO!!!!” “HEY YOU, SILENCE YOU HEAR?! SILENCE, OBEY YOUR SUPERIORS.” The guard’s efforts were fruitless however as there was simply no way Alan could keep quiet with a change like that, his size started to shift drastically, becoming smaller yet because of the way his bones were contorting his shirt ended up getting ripped a lot, luckily black fur spread rapidly on him keeping him warm in this cold environment. Yulian’s transformation was more of the same from.yesterday, only it was his leftover human arm this time that shrunk, we probably would’ve been equally disturbed if Alan’s transformation wasn’t also going on. Eventually, all of our transformations slowed down to their normal slower rate, we all gasped in somewhat relief, even if we could still feel ourselves changing, that is except for one of us, the person who’s final change had just completed, and was now hopelessly and desperately repeating prayers to himself until he simply couldn’t anymore and broke down “I… I… sniff I’m sorry… I-I just c-c-can’t anymore sniff I don’t… sniff I don’t wanna get brainwashed o-o-or die or wh-whatever they wanna do to me, I n-never wanted to be a pok-kemon and I never wanted to go through this… p-please sniff ” All of us wanted to say something, I wanted to say something to let him know he wasn’t alone in feeling like this, but in the end, the only one that did, the only one that could, the oldest between all of us was Alan. “Lázaro, all of this that has happened to us has been completely and utterly unfair, I understand it too and I think every single pokéuman that has been on this room understands it too, but… even if you’re certain that things are not going to end well, do not lose hope, even if it’s just dreams, that is the last thing we can afford, you lead a good life i can tell that easily, you were a good person and if your conscious or biological life ends here, know at least that you did good and no one no matter what can take that away from you. And maybe who knows, maybe in the future others will not have to deal with this, you did good in praying, regardless of what’s true or of what we believe in, it meant that you were alwahs reaching out and calling for help for you and for everyone like you, and who knows, maybe our dreams and our prayers might just get answered.” I couldn’t help but be moved by the speech, I would’ve loved to be able to say something similar but I simply wasn’t confident enough for such a statement, still I tried to add my piece as well. “I agree with Alan, I think it’s best to at the very least know we fell with honour, they may see us as mindless animals but we know we aren’t, we know we were good, and that’s all we need to know.” Lázaro did not cheer up after this, nobody would, but it’s clear that the words meant something to him as he was able to regain his composure and accept his fate. We waited for the inevitable for a while, at some point the door opened but it was just the guard again, he did seem to take a notice to Lázaro but it still took until it was seemingly getting close to night time before the group showed up. We had already gotten pretty used to their existence and what they came for, but now that they came for someone we knew the perspective shifted completely differently, instead of rapidly barging in the men entered slowly from the shadows like in a horror movie, we watched them completely silently as they walked in slow motion until they arrived at Lázaro’s cage, even Yulian who seemed like he was going to say something ended up quiet, but this time not out of shock, but out of solemn acceptance, the group of extinctionists slowly inspected Lázaro’s body to see if the transformation was confirmed, and for the first time I could overhear what they were saying to him, and to every other person before. “You are now entirely one of them, you will follow us, you will make no attempt at resisting us, if there’s any humanity left in you you will understand that this is for their good.” With that they opened the cage, and Lázaro walked out slowly, I could see his face, it was obscured, but I didn’t see worry, I saw firm determination on him, he followed the group with someone pointing one of their laser guns in his neck from the back, and then they all walked away from the room. Alan, Yulian and me stood in silence afterwards, all of us in our private thoughts clearly shaken by what had just happened, but one by one we remembered what Alan had said and kept our hope to honour Lázaro, we then decided to head to sleep, awaiting tomorrow, knowing this wasn’t the end. THURSDAY The day once again was more of the same, but this time we tried to remain tough, we didn’t try to hide the pain that came with our transformations, even as we knew one of us was leaving today, although everyone still processed this differently, particularly the youngest person in this group, and the one who was closest to completing their transformation. In truth, Yulian hadn’t really understood fully what Alan meant the day before, all he knew was that he had to remain strong, and even though he was in actuality very nervous, because of the way young self interpreted being strong, he chose to hide it rather than embrace it. All of us could feel the climax of our changes reaching us, my feet and legs finished changing, getting significantly shorter and making my pants finally fall off, I tried adjusting to walking but it was pretty hard with an unbalanced body like this, though it seems that wasn’t going to be for long as the next change was in my chest, pulling up my shirt I could see my skin getting blue and weird purple bumps starting to develop, I could also see my stomach get slimmer, closer to what i was like a few years prior, I prodded the bumps slightly and though it was faint I could make out a curious sound out of them, being familiar with toxtricity I already figured out what this implied. With Alan’s body and back finishing changing and adjusting, all that was left was for his body to be fully covered in black fur, with an occasional golden ring of fur growing qs wll, once again I could hear crack s and pop s as his bones finished rearranging, and I could see Alan’s whole composture becoming far more comfortable now from his wobbly shaky self to a lot more natural one. All that was left for him to change was his other arm. Yulian had the very last change happen to his body, his human remains on his otherwise onix face, his nose and teeth shrunk the rock of his skull, and his eyes, although a more subtle change, transformed too, it was very obvious that Yulian was in physical and emotional pain and yet he tried his best to not let it show at all, he had to be strong, he had to. In the end however it wasn’t the transformation that was the final straw in his self containment. SWOOOSH The door switched open and once again, the team of pokextinctionists entered. It was hard to tell if they were the same guys every single time, but right now it wasn’t important to focus on those questions as Alan and I watched as they slowly approached Yulian’s cage. Yulian was trembling, but he was not crying, his body was panicking, but he was not crying. The extinctionists told him what they told to Lázaro the day before, but he was not crying, they opened his cage, let him slither out, but as soon as one of the men cocked his gun at the back of his neck, Yulian simply couldn’t stop hiding it anymore. “AAAAAAAAAGH!!! NO!! LET ME GO!!! YOU ARE EVIL!!! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!!” Every single pokextinctionist in the group was fighting to restrain him, but Yulian did a pretty good job at resisting them all things considered, forcing the one holding the gun to resort to using it. PEW!! “HEY!!” I screamed “LET HIM GO YOU MANIACS!!!” Alan exclaimed The men simply ignored us and once the onix fell unconscious they dragged him away together, shortly after one of them closed the door but not before giving us one of the most chilling stares I’ve ever seen in my life. As if warning us to never ever do the same thing. … “DAMN IT!” Alan screamed as he punched the ground with his remaining unchanged hand, “HE WAS 9!!!! HE WAS JUST A KID!!!! HE DIDN’T DESERVE ANY OF THIS!!!!” I could see Alan starting to cry himself, the only one so far who hadn’t up to this point. “This is so fucked up…” I felt bad for stating the obvious but I genuinely struggled at trying to say something adequate for what’s going on, especially as I was also processing it myself. “It’s not fair…” He said, the day ended pretty much after that. FRIDAY I didn’t wake up because of the guard this time but because of my transformation again, my chest continued adjusting, changing colour completely into blue and the four bumps in my chest finished growing with a THUD into possibly toxtricity’s most notorious… Body part? I suppose? And for whatever reason as they finished and I looked at them I felt the urge to play them like a guitar or… no that wasn’t right, a bass . I had never played any of either instrument before, I’ve attempted acoustic guitars before but I was simply unable to focus on playing the notes and getting into a rhythm, yet when I played myself as a bass it came so naturally to me, I could feel how it was the static electricity and the percussion that helped make the noise, and I ended up replicating a riff I had from a song in the back of my mind. I had to stop playing as the guard showed up and woke Alan, the day somewhat went off as normal although there was a thick silence between us throughout it, we knew we were both close to transforming and we knew one of us would leave today, Alan was closest as he only had an arm to change left but the transformation was so unpredictable I could very well catch up and go first, my hair’s static went crazy, everything that wasn’t falling off was high up in the air as I could feel the electricity become less static and form almost solid shapes, which also meant that there were a lot of BZzzZzT s and KRRst s noises throughout the day. In the end though, as we could hear above all the buzzing from my electricity Alan’s leftover arm finished changing, his fingers shrunk and cracked becoming less dexterous and he lost his opposable thumbs, the rest of his limb shrunk and rearranged itself to be more like a paw and started getting covered in clumps of black fur, with a ring of yellow fur forming on his shoulder. He didn’t scream in pain from the transformation, it was probably not the forefront thought on his mind, but after it was completely and he knew it was only a matter of time before the guard came to check on him and then the group of extinctionists took him away, that’s when he screamed. “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!” Tears fell from his eyes and his breathing became irregular “WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!!!” There was very little that I could say “I’m sorry.” He cried silently for who knows how long, if it weren’t for our transformations our perception of time would be completely shattered, the guard showed up to his check up and once he left we knew next after him would be the extinctionist, in the meantime my hair either fell out or somehow dissolved into pure electricity, leaving me growing my blue double-mohawk, I could feel my back and the rest of my face starting to change as well, even if i couldn’t see it. Alan stood silently for a bit after his breakdown, but then decided to speak to me. “Lex?” “Huh?” “If somehow you manage to make it out of here, no matter how impossible that sounds, do us a favour and make sure to give these guys what they deserve.” I didn’t really know if I should be honest or go with it, so I decided simply on nodding, immediately after, the group showed up, this time they approached our cage, one of them glanced at me and pointed their pistol probably to indicate that I shouldn’t attempt anything and back off. This still didn’t mean that I could now see very clearly what they were doing, with their hands they checked all over Alan’s body, seemingly for the slightest proof that he was fully transformed, they even opened his mouth, I was furious at the sight, they were treating him not even as an animal, but as a monster. They once again told him the same rehearsed speech they told all of the others. “You are now entirely one of them, you will follow us, you will make no attempt at resisting us, if there’s any humanity left in you you will understand that this is for their good.” It was downright insulting to hear for the second time, how dare they question how little humanity we had left? We are the exact same people we were as we started transforming, and it was them who were putting our identities and selves at risk, I simply couldn’t take it anymore and as they opened and closed our stage and they made Alan exit, I shouted at them. “W-whatever it is you’re planning to do will fail!!! You hear?! You will fail!!! A-and only then will you realise how despicable you people truly are, and i KNOW you can understand this, don’t try to feign ignorance so you can see yourselves as superiors you-“ My speech got interrupted by a harsh kick on my cage by one of them “QUIET FREAK!! HOW MANY TIMES DO WE NEED TO REMIND YOU?!!! NEXT TIME WE WILL USE FORCE!!” Despite everything, I felt myself smiling, I knew full well that I had provoked them and thus to some degree my words managed to reach out to them, even if they were doing their best to ignore it, I looked over at Alan and could see him smiling as well before he left with the group. Once all of that was over, and even though I gave the extinctionists a piece of my mind, it was too much for me, my composture gave in and I fell to the floor crying, after all now it was only me left. SNIFF “No…. no… SNIFF someone… please, help us… help them. . . . I fell asleep shortly afterwards, it wasn’t particularly late but I just simply didn’t have the energy to keep myself awake, I could finally understand the scyther and wartortle, i pretty much slept throughout everything, the guard, meals, etc. I at the very least maybe thought a new pokéuman would arrive but it just never happened. I thought I would stay asleep until the next day, but in the middle of the night, when almost nothing was visible as I felt a great pain on my skull I was woken up, I recognised it immediately as my transformation, although I didn’t understand why I didn’t sleep through it this time. Still, I could feel my face rearrange itself, every little bone and organ shifting, parts merging, others separating, every little thing becoming something completely different, my mouth extended with my lips disappearing, my teeth shrank into my skull, except for my canines which merged with my skin exterior of my mouth, turning into an amphibian snout, I could feel the inside of my mouth growing larger as well, particularly my tongue, the blue of my stomach spread to my former bottom lip while the top started becoming purple, my eyes changed little, simply changing colour from dark brown to black, my ears had a very drastic change, they changed from almost flat and open structures, slowly morphing and shrinking into themselves becoming hornlike protrusions, I inexplicably could still hear for them but everything was slightly muddled, like wearing headphones, a similar horn also grew in my front inbetween the beginning of my double mohawk. Once it was all over and my changes slowed down again I was breathing heavily, for a moment I felt anxiety as I thought my transformation was over… but no, I could feel my back was almost done changing but there were still patches of human skin left, and none of my back spikes grew yet, there weren’t even any bumps. Suddenly the door to the room opened, and it was so dark I couldn’t even make out anything about whatever entered, I tried to blend in with the dark and pretend to be asleep, but I was also curious about who it was. “-nd unfortunately we haven’t been able to find new transformees yet, sir.” Said the one I could make out in the back. The other did not respond audibly. The first one then turned in my direction. “The one we have left is the one in that cage, it appears his transformation is almost finished, director.” The other said as he turned away and examined the rest of the area, the director, it seems, did not respond, I got very curious, especially as I wasn’t referred to as a in “it” this time, I tried to look towards the two of them, and I found myself looking at a silhouette that at first felt human but there was something slightly off… I couldn’t put my finger on it but it was somehow familiar. “Personally sir, I would suggest throwing out the guardian from his position, he seems to take unusual glee in provoking the transformees which only makes it harder for us to do our jobs.” Again, the way the other one talked was unusual, refering to us as transformees instead of creatures, monsters or freaks. Suddenly a shiver came down my spine, for whatever reason I could feel myself getting watched coming from the mysterious director, it was as if he was studying me, analyzing me, as if he were… curious?. The director said nothing and eventually both left the room, I felt a little bit of relief, but my head was swimming with confusion as one question prevailed among any of my thoughts. “Who was the director?” SATURDAY The day began very unusually. I didn’t wake up because of the guard shaking my cage, or my transformation speeding up, instead I woke pretty much as normal, I could feel I changed a little as I moved my hand through my back and felt several little bumps, but it was very obvious they hadn’t fully grown yet, I sighed. The most painful part of the day was waiting, there was no one here, nothing to do, nowhere to go, but I knew that this would change soon, once the transformation ended it would be my turn to leave, yet the transformation was taking long, and being all alone in a room devoid of everything made everything feel so much slower. There was something unusual about this wait however, even though I lost track of time I still realised and found it weird that the guard never seemed to show up, he never seemed to come check or get me food even if by this point it felt like he should’ve already done it two times. Was I being punished for yesterday? Was the guard being replaced? I didn’t really understand what was going on until suddenly, the door opened but the guard didn’t enter, and neither did the group of extinctionists, instead it was one lone person who looked to he a scientist given how he was wearing a labcoat, the person rushed into the room as if having to hurry up, he then looked over at me and i felt a cold feeling entering my back. He started opening my cage, he struggled a little with the keys as if he wasn’t used to doing this before as opppsed to everyone else who had opened the cells before, eventually however he managed to unlock it. “What are you- argh!! Hey!!!” I screamed as he suddenly grabbed my hand, which I could see was covered in some latex-like gloves, possibly to protect himself from my electricity and poison and dragged me outside the room in a rush. “SILENCE FREAK!” he shouted in desperation as his other hand pulled a pistol and shakily pointed it at me. “S-shouldn’t you take me out until my transformation is finished? My spikes have yet to finished gro-“ “I SAID SHUT UP!!!!!.” “As we got out and into the building I could then figure out why the scientist was so desperate, immediately inside the rest of the building I heard a loud alarm noise, and I immediately understood that there was an emergency, before i could figure out if this was good for me the scientist started dragging me again all over the building. “Ow- agh.. ah.. hey!” The scientist made many turns across several corridors and even walked some stairs before we entered a hallway that was filled with large thick doors that had a single window showing what was inside, the man however ran through all of them so I couldn’t really tell what was in any of them, I saw multiple words in inscriptions and notes but we went too fast to read them, then the scientist came to a sudden stop and he let me go causing me to fall head first on the floor. “Ow!” As I rubbed my head to soothe my pain, I didn’t manage to notice the scientist had opened one of the many rooms in the hall and then he suddenly grabbed me in the shoulders and pushed me inside the room he opened before the door shut in front of me. “HEY!! WHERE AM I?!?! LET ME OUT!!!!” I banged on the doors in desperation, before quicky losing my breath and falling on the floor tired, I realised I could no longer hear the alarm so nobody could’ve heard me, the room was in total darkness up until a blinding purple light came out in from of me, as i adjusted to this new source of unusual and captivating light I looked around the room which seemed strangely like a very tight dorm room, I saw a bed and a desk and I wanted to keep examining but I was too distracted by the blinding lights, it was so bright and eye-catching and pretty… and… m… mesmerising. . . . . The pokéuman had ran through the halls of the extinctioist facility, often switching from a bipedal and quadrupedal stance depending on the space he was in. He had come across a few pokextinctionists who tried to fight him once the alarm turned on and they noticed him but even with their mighty tech they were no match for the raw strength of a Chesnaught. ”We’ve managed to get a hold of the particles, and despite them being alerted and us originally believing the director was in the facility they haven’t made their presence known to us so it’s probably a good time for a retreat, we’ve got all the info we needed, over.” Came from the chesnaught’s hidden communicator. “Understood, I’ll meet up soon but I’ll scout for any leftover info just in case, there’s only one hallway left and the bottom floor seems to be devoid of people.” Just as the Chesnaught said that, he was suddenly ambushed by a trembling scientist who tried to threatened him with a gun but was quickly put unconscious with a vine whip attack. “Be careful Rodri, don’t try to do anything you’re not supposed to.” Came from his communicator. “Don’t worry, I’ve got everything under control. Over and out.” With that the Chesnaught continued, he quickly realised the hallway he entered was none other than Pokextinction’s infamous education chambers, or rather, brainwashing chambers, as he looked throughout the windows of the many rooms he found identical sights in all of them. Several different pokémon, some blissfully smiling, some had an emotionless look, but all of them were in a still, pacified position as they were drenched in the purple light keeping them controlled and turning their eyes into a cold empty grey. “I can never get used to this no matter how many times I see it.” Rodri mumbled to himself, he was about to leave as he came across one final room on a corner where he suddenly stopped as he realised there was something different about the Pokémon inside. ”No way.” Inside the last room was a low-key toxtricity, he was in the same pacified position as everyone else and at first it didn’t seem like there was anything different from him over anyone else, but the chesnaught could see one vital difference he had over the other brainwashed pokémon. His eyes weren’t grey.F.A.I.L.U.R.E.There was just darkness all around him. It was the first thing Starlai realized as he gained consciousness. But his senses were defective at the moment, it was like his head was filled with haze that prevented him from being in contact with his own body. Did he even have a body? He felt like he was just floating in a void, inside black nothingness. Starlai tried to move his limbs and he could faintly feel that he indeed had arms and legs. But moving them didn't feel normal, it was more like he was under water. It almost felt like the haze in his head was surrounding him as well. How was that possible, he didn't know. What did he know, though? A very high-pitched sound pierced Starlai's ears and distracted him from his thoughts. The sound managed to cut through everything, the blackness, the haze, even Starlai's brain. He opened his eyes, just a second before a bright red light began to flicker in front of him. Starlai's eyes were blurred, but as he stared at the light, his vision gradually sharpened. It was like the haze was now slowly getting out of his head. He realized that he was in some sort of confined space, it almost felt like a coffin. He heard another piercing sound and could feel from a slight tremble around him that wherever he was, it had started to move. Then his little coffin started to open, pouring in blinding light, and Starlai fell forward, on his stomach against a hard floor. He was a little dazed and remained on the floor for a moment, trying to get control of his own body. It felt heavy, but after a couple of attempts, Starlai successfully lifted his body from the floor, although his balance was a little shaky. He glanced at himself, noting that he was wearing some black and white outfit that resembled a space suit. It felt weird, like a second skin. Then he decided to look around, but couldn't be more confused. He had just emerged from a capsule of some sort. There were a lot more of them lined against a wall, but as far as Starlai could tell, they were empty. He was alone. He let his gaze wander and the bright rectangular lights on the ceiling illuminated the space so perfectly that it seemed like there wasn't even a single shadow around. The room was pretty much empty; there was just a console at the center and a door leading out in the opposite direction from the capsules. Starlai decided to check the console, but it showed just an "ERROR" with big red letters. He tried to get it to work, but in vain. It was stuck. It appeared there was nothing he could do, so he decided to leave the room, walking towards the thick metal door. It whirred open as soon as he came close to it, granting him access to the next area. It was dark at first. The door closed behind Starlai with a loud thump that ominously echoed in the dark space where Starlai had ended up now. He didn't know what to do, but then a spotlight suddenly lit up, revealing a singular screen in the middle of everything. Starlai started to slowly walk towards it and once he was close enough, he could see the message on the blue screen. “WHO ARE YOU?” Starlai was confused by this. He knew who he was, his name was Starlai. But the more thought he put into this, the more terrified the question became. He couldn't really tell anything about himself. His identity was a completely blank page. What did he like, what did he dislike? What kind of personality did he have? How old was he? Did he have any talents? And the worst of all, what was his past like? It was like he didn't have memories, just a few scattered small fragments floating in his brain that couldn't fit together, like an impossible puzzle. “I'm Starlai, a nobody”, Starlai said quietly to the screen. The screen turned off and went black. Followed by this, at the far end of the room a door opened, similar to the one Starlai had already passed through. A round green light got lit above it so Starlai could see it better. He figured that there was nothing else for him to do but to advance through this entrance and started to walk towards it. It automatically opened once it sensed his presence and Starlai noted that there was just darkness beyond it. But that's how the previous room had been like, so he wasn't worried. He passed the door and as it closed behind him, it left him in the darkness. Starlai waited. As if somebody had just flipped the switch, suddenly the whole room was basking in the bright light, almost blinding Starlai. He blinked a few times to get used to the illumination, then he looked around. He was now in an empty room with white walls surrounding the nothingness. There was just one thing, another monitor in the middle of the room. Starlai stepped closer to it, wondering what this one was saying. Soon he was able to read the question it had for him. “ARE YOU MALE OR FEMALE?” A simple question that most people could answer right away without having to think about it. But for Starlai, it was different. He looked at his body and could somewhat distinguish having breasts and a wide waist. Clearly feminine traits, but Starlai knew he was a male. He just had the wrong body. Had he always been like this or had someone transferred his mind to this body just to screw with him? Though, it made him question himself, was he right about being a man? Thinking about it was frying his brain, but in the end he came to the conclusion that at least, at that moment, he felt like a man. “I'm male”, Starlai answered. At this point he realized that even his voice sounded wrong. As soon as he had vocalized his answer, another door suddenly appeared in the opposite direction from where he had entered. It was like it had been invisible at first, gradually becoming visible. It was yet again a thick metal door and Starlai assumed that it worked just like the previous ones. He was right. Once he was close to it, it automatically whirred open and granted him access to a room that broke the pattern as it wasn't completely dark. The place was dim, bathing in green light. There were numerous screens hanging on the walls, showing nothing but glimpses to empty rooms of some sort of facility, and the screens glitched occasionally. The strangest thing about the room probably was that there were vines of actual plants slithering all around like motionless snakes. They were pulsating oddly and in a rather eerie way, Starlai noted. At the center of the room there was once again a monitor, so Starlai knew what he had to do. “WHY ARE YOU HERE?” Starlai didn't know how to answer. He had no idea where he was or how he had ended up here. There was nothing at all in his memory. It gave this extremely uncomfortable sensation inside his head, making him dig his nails on his scalp and he started to scratch himself violently, as if doing this would erase the feeling. Would he get the answer if he dug deep enough? Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. There was only one response he could give. “I don't know…” Starlai said quietly, but then he yelled: “I don't know!” A mass of vines that had gathered at the far end of the room began to suddenly move. Now they resembled snakes more than before as they slithered like they were alive, soon revealing another doorway. Starlai stopped hurting himself and for a moment he just stood there, looking with dreadful eyes at the entrance to the next room. It was very dark, but Starlai could see glimpses of dim lights that seemed to appear and disappear in a continuous cycle. The latest question had caused a turmoil in his mind and now he was afraid to continue forward. However, he realized soon enough that there was nothing else he could do. There were no alternate routes and he still didn't know where he was or what was his purpose in all this. He just had to keep going. With stiff movements, he began to walk forward again, all across the room of plants until he reached the next room. As he stepped into the darkness, the vines moved again, sealing him inside. This place was similar to the previous one, it just was a more mechanical version. Instead of vines there were thick and black wires that were like tentacles, spread around like a parasite. They were everywhere, at the ceiling, walls and floor, and they were holding onto screens that resembled the ones in the previous room. The footage they showed was cryptic, rotating weird shapes and objects that didn't seem to mean anything, but sometimes even people appeared, though they were way too blurry to identify. Some of the screens were cracked and even those that were in a good shape kept malfunctioning and glitching. Except for the one that was in the center of the room. It was held above the floor by a few wires, showcasing it like some ancient relic. Starlai walked towards it, noticing that his steps made no sound. He wasn't sure how to feel about that. He was a bit afraid to look at the blue screen. “WHERE ARE YOUR FRIENDS?” This confused Starlai more than frightening him. Friends? Did he have friends? Though, why else would the monitor ask him that if he didn't have any. But he just couldn't remember… But, he was all alone here. Where were his friends, indeed. Maybe they had all abandoned him into this hellscape. Maybe they had found a way out and were living a good life. Isn't that what he deserved? No meaningful relationships, just loneliness and being forgotten by all. Starlai didn't know who he was but he hated that person. And if he did that, then all the other people should too. “I have no friends”, Starlai said bitterly, his hands clenching into fists. Following the familiar pattern, a door appeared as soon as he had answered. It was once more a metal door that opened upwards, granting Starlai an access to somewhere… odd. He could see how the color crimson dominated whatever place lay ahead and he began to approach it. Once he was close enough to get a better look, he noticed that the doorway was leading to a corridor, breaking the pattern. He took his first step in the strange hallway, the door behind him rumbling down, closing him in. He could see nothing ahead of him, it was like the corridor was endless. Starlai began to walk forward, gazing at his surroundings. There were still wires intruding the structure from various spots, but they were dark crimson, not black like the ones in the previous room. They stretched far ahead, Starlai couldn't see the end of them. But as he walked along the narrow corridor, he noticed how the color of everything around him, the walls, the ceiling, the floor and the wires, they were gradually becoming brighter. From the dark crimson it transformed into a glowing red, the hue that brought violence, passion and blood and flesh into Starlai's mind. He wondered where he was heading to, if anywhere. Maybe he was in hell, walking through a corridor that had no end. As he progressed, he noted that the wires that had accompanied his lonely journey were slowly disappearing from the scene. For a while there was nothing but the empty hallway, until something rather disturbing started to appear around him. Eyes. Dark, bulgy, disgusting eyes were on the walls, watching his every step. It made him extremely uncomfortable, and it kept getting worse. More and more eyes appeared, some of them becoming bigger and bigger, and some fleshy tissue had started to replace the metal on the walls and ceiling. It truly felt like he was on a road to hell. But still, he had nowhere else to go, so he continued to walk. Starlai was relieved when he realized he could see the end of the corridor. Though his relief was only temporary as soon as he reached the room beyond the hellish hallway. The same kind of horrors were still surrounding him; the fleshy walls and the eyes, but in here, some of the eyes were absolutely gigantic, and Starlai felt like he couldn't hide anything from their gaze. All the eyes watched him silently as he insecurely walked forward, feeling so small and insignificant under their constant supervision. The redness of the place made him feel ill, it was like he was inside someone – or something – like a pesky little parasite. In the middle of all the redness was a blue dot, a monitor that had the next question for Starlai. It was held by a fleshy column; the tissue was framing the screen in a grotesque way. Starlai walked towards it, a little bit afraid of what it was asking him this time. “ARE YOU REAL?” It was an impossible question to answer. There was no way Starlai could know that. He could think, he could feel, but it didn't prove anything – he could be artificial, every ounce of him. Maybe all this was a simulation, somebody was testing him. The more he thought about it, the more distressed he became. “I don't know!” Starlai yelled, starting to nervously stomp around. “I don't fucking know! I don't want to exist!” The screen went black. His surroundings started to tremble violently, like an earthquake. But he didn't care. He could get crushed, buried in the flesh. He just wanted out and if this was the way, so be it. The eyes around him were getting bloodshot, frantically glancing all around. Starlai was just happy that they didn't pay attention to him. Something hit Starlai in the head. He wasn't sure what, because he could feel the impact, but not any pain. After that, he was devoured by pitch-black darkness. The sound of everything crashing down ceased. It was like he was floating in a void again; there was nothing and it was silent, being similar to the state he had started with. Had he died? He wasn't sure. But if he hadn't been real to begin with, it means he wouldn't technically die, either. He was suddenly blinded by a bright light, he couldn't look at it directly. It infiltrated his comfortable space of nothingness, but Starlai got the feeling that he had to reach for it. Somehow he got his body moving, like he was swimming through the void, floating towards it. Then he woke up again.Pokéumans re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 1: "Waking up from a dream"I am not happy. I suppose you’ll want me to elaborate on why, well, first things first, introductions: I am Lex, that’s what everyone calls me (or at least what I try to get people to call me) Physically wise I have tan skin and dark very unkept hair, notable eye bags on my face, unusually long limbs and I’m slightly chubby. I’m 14 years old and I currently live in Mexico City. It is the year 2022 and the month of September, Today is Monday of my first week of high school which I absolutely wasn’t looking forward to, I was barely able to graduate from middle school pretty much because of the pandemic and although i had high hopes to be able to recover myself in high school, the fact i basically chose my school at the last minute and i still have no idea what i want to study really doesn’t make me feel assured. Anyhow, I was woken up by my little brother’s alarm at 6 o’something while my mum was making breakfast, dad was preparing for work and my brother was... Not waking up, I felt a little disoriented as I’m used to having to be ready by this point but since high school is at the afternoon instead of the morning I didn’t need to yet, anyway, i waited until everyone was gone and the sky changed from night to day to eat my breakfast my mother left me and shower, I put on regular clothes, an interesting deparute from the uniforms I’ve had to wear all my life, though my wardrobe isn’t exactly the most... Flattering, I only wear what makes me comfortable in my weird autistic sensibilities, and spent the morning trying to prepare myself mentally for 3 years of hell, and that’s if all goes well and I don’t end up repeating a year, anyway, nothing really interesting happens in this point so I’ll just talk about myself more. I’m into a lot of things and not many things at the same time, it’s hard to explain but basically I don’t get into any kind of media beyond small hyper-fixations, however there are a few exceptions though, if I have to give an example of one then I’ll probably go with pokemon, I love Pokémon, although I’ve never been able to afford a single game, still I’ve enjoyed it since I was 8 right when pokemon go came out and just before sun and moon were announced, with my favourite Pokémon being toxtricity, a recent addition from a frankly mixed generation but still ended up quickly rising the ranks on my list of favourites and I honestly don’t even know what’s about him that appeals to me so much, maybe its design? Its ability? It’s connection with music (I always have a song stuck in my head after all) Or maybe it’s just the general vibe? Even though I’m not punk even in the slightest I still find myself connecting to him for some strange reason. Like he speaks to me somehow. Anyway. Back to home, My mum came back in time to cook lunch so that afterwards I would head to school, my high school is a decent 30 minute walk away from my home, and I can go there by myself however I only walked the route once and it involves a lot of pedestrian bridges which absolutely terrify me as I have a fear of heights. Still there weren’t any major issues as I went there and I arrived in good time despite not knowing where a single thing was on this new building. Classes went about as well as I expected. It was the first day so it was only introductions but I still struggled having to join each teacher’s Google class, writing down the names of the books i had to buy and organising my notes since we didn’t have the time and money to buy notebooks for each subject yet so I had to use an old folder. Classes ended (at 9 pm I might add Jesus Christ) and right as I left I encountered with an old friend from my old school that also decided to be in this high school. “Alex!” “Lex, you know I hate having to remind people about it right?” She corrected herself. “Oh right, Lex, so how are you doing?” “Eh. Weird dreams I suppose.” “Really? How so?” “Hard to describe, nothing special anyway.” “The usual huh?” I nodded. “You shouldn’t come to expect more from me, Fer.” From then onwards the conversation faded into simple noise as we left towards home, she with her parents, I by myself. Now I’ve been friends with this person since the beginning of middle school and even though she’s nice and energetic and really my only option for socializing I still don’t feel close to her like other people would wrongly (and overconfidently) assume. Especially now that we’re not in the same group and in general our friendship has gotten a bit distant since the pandemic, and I’m just not a fan of being social anyway, I keep to myself and generally dislike others, i did not learn a single name of my clasmates and teachers and i have a feeling i won’t learn any till I’m gonna guess next month, Anyway I came back from school, had dinner, went to bed and ignored my parents when they asked me how it went and the rest of the week went flying by both astonishingly quickly and irritatingly slowly, that is normal for me though as i’ve never really led an interesting life, I really just stay on my room on my computer and never leave the house unless I’m forced to or become desperate, and usually when I do it’s to the same places every time, if it ain’t school which I’m forced to go it’s either the nearby park/market or the centre of Mexico city and it’s usually because my parents want to eat outside and if I don’t go I don’t eat, otherwise I would just stay, I’m not the adventurous type and I usually don’t like to get out of my comfort zone because honestly? Why should I? It’s called a comfort zone for a reason, oh well, I’ll move on to the weekend that went as uneventfully as the week did and eventually it became night time of sunday, where I just jumped into my bed, sighed after a long 7 days that weren’t awful but I knew was just the beginning, i mean I didn’t even have homework but I knew things were going to chane as I doze off... Unfortunately I never knew how much things would really change in the next few weeks. The sound of the crowd screaming barely registers to me as I walked into the side of the battlefield, with a massive gyarados as my opponent. I don’t even need to hear my trainer shout a command for me to start attacking, not that I could with all the noise granted, although the details of the battle escape me since I was never really invested in that stuff, I was able to decimate my opponent and bask in the glory of my victory, granted it wasn’t the cleanest and quickest fight in the whole world but I was still the decisive winner none the less, I felt the people in the stadium cheer me on and I instinctually played a short bass riff using the protrusions while letting out a loud cry“TOOOOXXX!!!”. After that small celebration solo, I was quickly recalled into my pokeball to rest as I grinned to myself in uncharacteristic confidence… I woke up yet again to my alarm as my first conscious thoughts of the day were: “Huh, that was a weird dream.” Not weird in the sense that it was strange, far from it actually as my dreams often don’t have any cohesion and are meaningless bizarre images conjured up by my mess of a brain, honestly to have a simple and, quite frankly generic dream like that is unusual on my part but oh well, that’s irrelevant for now, I thought to myself as I washed my body with soap and other cleaning products while showering, expecting the dream to fade with time though it never happened. As the second week went by not much actually changed yet aside from the homework and getting more used to the route and the layout of the school like i predicted and, I dunno, breathing differently, I guess? In any case I went through all my classes of every day and met up with Fer once or twice on recess where we didn’t really talk about much and it was very clear we didn’t have much to talk about. “Hey Alex- sorry, lex!” Sigh “Hey...” “Just wanted to check up on you, homework is only just beginning and it’s already hell.” “Tell me about it.” From then on we just stood in silence, ate lunch and sometimes one of us would draw, I have to admit I don’t mind doing stuff in silence, but it’s clear I’m alone in that and I guess i would appreciate a deeper connection with someone but it’s just not gonna happen, I’ll difficultly find someome to be more friends rather than just barely not acquaintances. As the week passed and I suffered through stuff I didn’t enjoy, aka school, I thought back to my dream, honestly the fact I remembered the dream for more than a day shows how special it is, I was showing off impressive battling skills for everyone to see, I remembered the confidence I had during that dream, like I was used to the battle, like it was my calling, what I was meant to do with my life, and i was good at it! ... Of course, these feelings are not here in the present, I’m not a confident person in the slightest, nor am I talented or skilled in any way, even though most people i knew like my friend Fer or even my dad were not that much different from me I knew they have a lot of hobbies and pastimes and interest that they were fairly good at (enviously so sometimes) like for example, me and Fer liked to draw but she clearly has more talent and experience than me, she already has a developed style while mine only just graduated from stick figures, my mum and dad are grown adults who already have careers and jobs and stuff to do with their life, while I’m just here going through the motions. And I think it’s starting to get to me. The week ended, in the weekend mum and I decided to buy some of the stuff I still needed, i had barely been able to finish my homework and i was only able to get a few books and notebooks but not all of them so that’s gonna screw me over, but in the meantime I’ll just learn to deal with it, I went to bed on Sunday night, not looking forward to the future. Being a solo explorer was a though job, even for a medium-ranked one like me. Although I would often partner up with other teams I still preferred to go on adventures solo as I’m not the best at working with other people, especially at the guild, I won’t lie however that sometimes I would struggle with a mission and end up needing rescue myself, but I managed, I was keeping up and that’s what matters. While I looking for a special artifact deep in the dungeon I found myself battling a rampant Aggron standing in front of the artifact, possibly protecting it? now even though the aggron was a lot larger physically and seemingly stronger I was still beating him rather easily, dodging most of his attacks and giving a good punch here and there, I did still struggled with a few of his attacks, including an earthquake that almost wiped me out (darn ground type moves), but apart from that the aggron was putting up way less of a fight than I expected, once the aggron fainted I smirked to myself and I grabbed the artifact, which was an orb of unknown effect. I was about to leave the dungeon to inspect when suddenly: “Shock wave!!!” A wave of thunder suddenly hit my entire body, luckily since I was an electric type it wasn’t very effective against me but I was unable to look at my attacker until it stopped, and when I did I found myself with another toxtricity, who immediately charged at me before I could react and I blacked out. I woke up like last Monday, same hour, same way, but with yet another dream that wouldn’t escape my waking mind, however unlike the last one this had me a lot less intrigued, guess I was getting used to it, still, I found myself thinking back to it throughout the day, and the next, and the next, and most of the week until in the middle of it where i had a repeat of the previous dream... only I was a little less confident than I remembered, i ended up going back to the versions of myself from that dream, an explorer similar to the ones from the pokemon mystery dungeon games, and a pokemon more akin to the base games, I never found it weird that i was a pokemon in either dream, honestly I wouldn’t mind it if I was a pokemon in real life, it’s a weird fascination of mine that probably came thanks to the pmd games, like I said before I never got to buy them but i heard their premise and so I saw a lot of gameplays of them and I enjoyed their plot a lot, and I would often imagine myself as a protagonist of those games (though I would never be able to choose a pokemon form, probably because the toxtricity line didn’t exist yet), however I don’t actually have any aspirations of becoming an explorer in real life, with my allergies and my sedentary habits? Hell no. It’s a little weird to me how I can know things I don’t want to be when I’m older but not things I do want to be, I sometimes feel like i don’t know anything about myself and not knowing what to do with your life feels like a problem since it seems everyone should have this figured out and everyone else around my age already has. Except for me. Well, in any case, school started to get a lot more settled in and routinary, assignments started to become hell and the days faded into the same of always that I’ve experienced all my life, aside from the minor changes from this new school, I could not tell you how many times I’ve had the same breakfasts of cereal or eggs, or the same meals of badly cooked rice, or just the constant over and over mundanity of everything, I know I’m not adventurous, but I’m also tired of this repetition, it feels like i live in the background sometimes. And as for how I’m doing, well? Unfortunately I’m starting to fail to keep up with the many assignments and constantly having to get new materials and things, I’ve already forgotten to do several homeworks and it’s awful, not only that but I’m already starting to hear about the coming exams, oh well, at least the month’s over. Weekend passed and I was avoiding answering my parents about how I’m doing constantly, I’ve not talked about them much or my close family but while I love them and all I’ve slowly started to feel disconnected from them, on top of our current living spsces being so tight I’m just too used to having to tune them out constantly, I much preferred living back in Guadalajara in our own house, not in a single room of my grandmother’s house, having to share a two-floor bed with my little brother who i never got along with, luckily with my new schedule he and my parents are mostly not at home in the morning and I’m not at home at the evening, which helps in giving us space, but not in connection. Oh well, not much i can do about it. Sunday night came and I fell asleep but not before pondering if I would have another one of those dreams, they’ve definitely taken my attention as i feel something different from them, something from deep within me rising, am i going insane? Eh, who cares right now, although apart from that intrigue, another feeling washed over me that I’ve been feeling a little bit throughout the week when i was outside my home, I don’t know where this came from, I have no reason to suspect it and yet... Was I being watched? This time my dreams strayed further from anything I recognized from any of the pokemon games, I was still a toxtricity however I appeared to be in a hollywood looking high school, filled to the brim with locker rooms, and like me the students seemed to be pokemon too. As I was heading to class, waking aimlessly across endless halls, I was harshly stopped in my tracks by a massive paw slammed in front of me crushing the locker it landed on into scrap. “Well, well, well, look what we have here.” I looked towards the person talking to me and I quickly recognized him as a VERY imposing pangoro, who looked at me with a cocky yet hateful smirk. “Ughh, listen, can you just let me go to my class for once dude?” I responded annoyed, not wanting to deal with dumb artificial drama like this. “Woah, woah, woah, don’t you dare dude me, you know you’re an embarrassment to all of your species? instead of a proud and tough rebel you’re a weak and wimpy loser that everyone laughs at, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Where is he even going with this? “I don’t care?” The pangoro smirks “Well, since I couldn’t very well stand and watch your pathetic ass walk around freely, I decided it was about time to teach you a lesson.” As soon as he says that I notice him charging an attack, I immediately jump to dodge it, turning this encounter into a full-blown battle, unlike the previous dreams I was struggling much more to dodge and resist his punches, beams and other attacks but eventually I was able to paralyze him and using one of my moves I eventually made him faint, I looked to the hallway assuming the other classmates had watched this but the whole area was strangely devoid of anyone, the hall’s lights suddenly deemed and I could no longer see anything beyond a certain point making it look infinite, save for one toxtricity, the same one from the other dream, he immediately tried to attack me only I was able to move away from it just in time, he kept charging at me and I wasn’t able to keep dodging and resisting his attacks like with the pangoro bully so I wasn’t able to stop myself from blacking out. I had woken up slightly earlier than normally, sweating, this dream was FAR from enjoyable as the previous ones, and it got me worried, taking my attention the whole week. And it was so weird too, I’m not an idiot, I could clearly tell my previous dreams had some unexplainable symbolism involving some of my struggles, yet this dream was different, because being a toxtricity was the center of it, and how despite toxtricity being a punk I’m far from it, I mean, I have a resting bitch face and eye bags similar to toxtricity and that clashes with my reserved personality but it’s not something that I focus on much, and yet that dream and those emotions still managed to get my attention for this week. Why? And what a bad week to be distracted in. Schoolwork was absolutely infernal, with exams right around the corner suddenly every class was demanding homeworks, projects, guides, etc. And I completely failed to keep up I had nothing and I got nothing done. And to think that there was a time where I did average at school and never missed an assignment, heh, what happened to me? My parents got fairly angry with me but I really just ignored them and tuned them out extra hard. On top of that the dreams repeated again and more often, and this time I wasn’t as succesfull in them, I struggled in the battle and failed the exploration, I didn’t see the other toxtricity however. I was so stressed that I ended up doing something I very rarely do and directly looked for my friend to talk to, unfortunately she came with... Mixed news. “Fer?” “Oh! Hey Lex!” she ran over and hugged me, she’s touchy like that and I don’t mind, aside from the fact it makes people think we had a thing, frankly I’m not interested. “How have you been?” she asks. “Oh awful, this week has been so bloody stressful.” “I can agree, I’m not doing too well either, I talked about it with my parents and, well, I actually was looking for yoy to tell you about something.” “Hm?” This intrigued me somewhat. “So... My parents found this new private high school that focuses on the career I’m interested in, remember those tourism classes in middle school? It specialises in that, well I ended up getting in which means I’m gonna leave this school next semester.” “Oh...” I felt... Complicated, on one hand, it sucked that the only person I was somewhat comfortable with is no longer going to be in the same school and talking to them will get harder, on the other, we were already growing distant, plus this is a really good opportunity for her and I’m excited! Maybe this was simply meant to happen. “I’m happy to hear that, it’s a bit of a shame that we won’t be in the same school anymore but it’s good for you, I’m probably gonna stay here, don’t plan on going anywhere since there doesn’t seem to be a better option for me.” “Yeah... I’ll still miss you though.” She hugged me again and then the bell for next class rang so she started leaving. “Well, see ya!” “Bye.” I responded. The week eventually ended, the weekend was even more stressful as a bunch of extended family was over and I don’t even want to get into the drama of it all, I fell asleep on Sunday tired and not looking forward to... Anything. …Various gunshots could be heard throughout the night as various groups of pokemon could be seen attacking each other through the city, I was in one of those groups, an army that was currently on a battle against an enemy group where we used a brutal combination of firearms and moves, and when I say brutal I do mean it, whatever was left of the city we were in was quickly replaced with more and more rubble as everything was blown up by the crossfire, there were several casualties, I could notice each time a pokemon, whether from our side or the enemy’s, fell to the ground in defeat, I don’t even have to look at them to know that they didn’t just faint and would never recover. We moved through the ruined city trying to avoid as many enemies as we could, the recent fights had left us worn out and tired, but we could not give up yet, the war between pokemon has been going on for many years, more and more is the world losing any sense of order now that the legendary pokemon have abandoned us and any kind of hierarchy or the like has fallen into anarchy, none of us knew what we were fighting for anymore and even though we’ve been here since the beginning of the war all of the other soldiers were little more than faceless people that I was each unfamiliar with. We kept walking until we were able to set up camp for the night, tired and drained as I was it wasn’t easy to fall asleep and no matter how much I tried I was unable to get any rest, the outside of my tent got quieter and quieter until suddenly I heard a bunch of screams, I left my tent only to be blinded by a flash of light, the moment I was able to recover from the sudden burst I noticed that all of the soldiers were on the ground, in the same condition as the fallen soldiers from the previous battle. In a state of shock I unintentionally lowered my defences, which caused me to find myself attacked by the same toxtricity who’s been showing up in all of my dreams and who seemed to have been the one to attack and defeat my teammates, I was able to resist him a lot more this time and put up a fight however I was starting to lose stability due to exhaustion, I kept charging and kicking but I eventually fell to the ground like everyone else and as my vision blurred I was starting to black out, or rather, wake up… I was panting and sweating, I had woken up way early in the morning, and no matter how hard I tried to go back to sleep I stayed wide awake, out of all the dreams this is the one that stuck with me the most, then again it seemed to be a pattern as each dream got more and more intense throughout the weeks, which is the worst thing I needed for this particular one during my morning routine and before the exam I kept thinking on said patterns, what did they mean? They’ve got to lead to something, my body was feeling a little weird that day, the whole day i felt like i was having a constant allergic reaction, ugh, I went back to the dreams to distract myself, how I was never really myself in any of them, even the ones that weren’t about Pokémon had me as a toxtricity which admittedly never felt wrong, sometimes it felt natural, just not like my current self, and how I was in situations that I just never see myself getting into, like the exploration, the battle, the fight, and in the last one I was part of some sort of military, something that I would just never do. Even though I came from a noticeable military background with my dad and both my grandfathers from each side having worked in the army I always vowed to myself I would never join one, it’s just simply a life that even as a toddler i knew was too far removed from who I was and i always saw it as pointless, war was pointless, everything was stupid and I very much don’t look forward to military service and all of this I’ve made very clear to everyone since day one, luckily my dad, compared to most military types is very undestanding about as he’s really just there for the job, and he really can’t blame me for my beliefs (instead he blames having watched the ender’s game movie as a kid, could not tell you a single thing about the film though). As much as I would’ve liked to spend the rest of the week trying to figure out these dreams, what they meant, why did they exist, Where they symptoms of stress, etc. And even though it bothered me throughout the whole 5 days, especially since they now happened every day to the point where my eye bags looked even worse, I simply couldn’t focus on it as I had to pretend to pay attention to the exams, which drove me insane and I don’t think I did good in any of them... except English, there’s a reason you’re able to read this after all. I couldn’t even talk to Fer, and My parents definitely noticed my lack of paying attention, they chewed me out for it several times since they knew it was exam week, but i simply lied and told them I was doing well, I’m not proud of it but I’m simply not strong enough to deal with the consequences, I’m weak. And on top of all of that my sick feelings from Monday stayed and intensified throughout, it was horrible, and like before I started feeling like i was being watched every time I walked outside and I really didn’t understand why. I returned home on Friday night, everyone else was already asleep, so I quickly ate what was on the table for me, sighed loudly and dropped into bed, this time looking forward to the two coming off days, I was going to need it. I did not have a dream that night, Not just a new dream, which was expected since those usually come in Sunday, but any dream in general, which was bizarre after this past week of nonstop pokemon related dreams. And yet it still felt like I was dreaming, but it was all sensatiIons, sensations that I could not describe, it felt like I was changing somehow, like a part of me was escaping some kind of constraint, and it was oddly painful, like it wasn’t supposed to happen, like it should’ve been there from the beginning, the feeling kept getting worse throughout the night, it started as a tingle, but then it changed to an ache directed at my hands, i looked at them but I couldn’t see them, they were mere blurs of colours, and I saw another blur, was that... The toxtricity? Yet... it felt like something else... Then the ache slowly grew into a burning sensation, rising in intensity, burning more and more without me being able to do anything about it until… I woke up dizzy, Saturday morning, rather late, feeling unusually refreshed, maybe it’s now that I’m done with exams at school, at least for the moment, but still, it kinda feels like all of the feelings that have been building up since i came back to school are... gone, released, the stress, the feelings that came from those dreams. Gone. I noticed that my parents weren’t here, I panicked a little but then I remembered a tuned out memory from Thursday that they weren’t gonna be here for most of the day, my brother wasn’t there either, though I was able to notice a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the table near our tiny kitchen so it was safe to assume that he went downstairs with my grandma and whoever other family member was staying in our house at the moment. Although I’ve interacted with them fairly little and so this shouldn’t be much of a change I couldn’t help but feel calm in this peaceful solitude, I didn’t even have those allergic reactions anymore, I smiled against myself. I was feeling oddly happy, I wasn’t even tuning out the day anymore and I was perfectly happy to do stuff like walk around a bit before serving myself cereal as breakfast now being able to forget all about those strange dreams and simply relax on this weekend which feels like it’s the first true weekend since I came back from school, excited, I moved the covers away from my body, hopped out of bed… And then I saw my hands.A Prelude To Destruction - Chapter 2Chapter 2: The legend of three warriors “This way”, the short creature said to the trio, waving her clawed hand as a sign for them to follow. She began to walk through the village and the three beings, still confused about the world around them, figured that their best option was indeed to follow her. Wherever she was taking them, they didn't get far when one of the people in the village got the mole-like creature's attention by gesturing her to stop with his free hand; the other one was occupied as the man was carrying a bucket full of water. “Got some new recruits, huh, Nial?” the man said to her with a sly grin on his rather handsome face; he was a young man with a stubble beard, dark eyes and black messy hair, dressed in a simple and quite shabby tunic and pants. “No, not exactly”, the escort of the trio replied and the tone of her voice gave away that she had no idea what was going on with the three strange beings. She shook her head. “Lady Ihtiriekko found them lost in the woods.” “Wow”, the man whistled. “In the Forest of Cursed Cries? They had been really lost, then. Like, how's it even possible?” “Well, at this moment, nobody knows”, the short creature admitted and shrugged her shoulders. “I'm taking them to the manor. See you around, Markon.” “To the manor? They must be really exceptional guests in that case.” Markon raised his hand in the air. “Well, I'm not going to waste more of your time. See you, Nial.” He walked past the group, continuing on his way. But the three creatures gave some last curious glances at the man. However, soon they focused on their new acquaintance again. “So, your name is Nial?” the black cat asked. “Oh, sorry that I didn't introduce myself earlier!” She seemed a little embarrassed and smoothed down the pleat of her dress. “But yes, people call me Nial. Though my name is actually Flamenial.” Then she instantly looked like she had already got over her embarrassment and smiled brightly. “Pleasure to meet you!” “What did that friend of yours talk about?” the white raven asked. “About recruits?” Flamenial waved her hand again signaling for the trio to keep moving. Once the group was on the move again, she responded: “This is the Village of Newfound Hope. This is a place where criminals can get a second chance in life. Most folks are human, like Markon, since their laws are different than with other races and can be… well, less severely punished for their crimes. But here are some other races too.” “Like you and Ihtiriekko?” the black cat asked. “Well, I'm a dwarf and come from a faraway northern land. Most of my people like to remain within mountains where we have built our homes. I'm the only dwarf here, which is quite understandable if you know my kind.” Flamenial paused for a brief moment, focusing only on walking. It seemed like she wasn't sure how to word her next sentence. “Lady Ihtiriekko, she is an overseer. Her kind are one of the most powerful people in this world. In fact, they try to keep our world safe and they have the closest connection to gods than any other race. Lady Ihtiriekko is the one who's responsible of this village.” “Are you a criminal, too?” the raven boldly inquired. “Oh, of course not!” Flamenial denied immediately. “I'm just lady Ihtiriekko's assistant.” The three creatures were attempting to grasp all the information they had received. The world around them was still a confusing but also a very intriguing place. And maybe Flamenial would help them further to understand where they had ended up – and maybe even why, if they were lucky. So far their existence had been a strange one, like they had literally come to life at the moment Ihtiriekko found them from the forest. Knowing nothing, it was like they were little children that were unaware of the world around them. The only thing they were sure about was the connection between each other, like they had the same origin. It was an odd but also comforting link they shared and even though they were clueless pretty much about everything, at least they had each other. Flamenial continued to guide the trio through the village and they were able to take a better glance at the life of the settlement while walking through it. They came across a handful of humans, both men and women, young and old, and the three creatures weren't the only ones giving curious stares at people. They also gained curious looks from the villagers, something that Flamenial noted as well. “We are a close community”, she explained. “Everyone knows everyone. People are just interested in you, I hope you don't mind.” “It's alright”, the deer-like creature assured. “We are interested in the people, too.” “Well, you can certainly explore the village later”, Flamenial said. “But first, I want to talk to you a bit. And that is the best to do with a cup of tea.” As they continued to pass through the village, the small group could eventually see a large building peeking from behind other houses and a neat line of trees. It was different from the rest of the buildings in the village, its window sills and roof were decorated with delicate and beautiful patterns. While the other houses were mostly white, this one was purple. There was a balcony on the second floor that would give a perfect view at the village. It had a grand veranda where the entrance lay; black double doors were standing tall. It clearly was a home to someone important or rich – or both. This was, of course, just one more wondrous thing to the three creatures and they looked at the manor with awe. “This is where I live with lady Ihtiriekko”, Flamenial said brightly with a smile. “And I guess you can, too. I'm sure lady Ihtiriekko won't mind.” Once the small group had reached the doors, Flamenial pulled them open, and this looked a little heavy task for her tiny body. She let the trio in before she shut the doors behind them. They had come to a grand hall. Right in the opposite direction from the door there were stairs leading to the second floor. A beautiful chandelier which had sparkling crystals in it was hanging above the hall, the sunlight that was percolating from the huge windows made them gleam in a magical way. The whole place was decorated with portraits of important people of the past, forever guarding their home from their frames. Ornamental objects were also doing their job at brightening up the place, ranging from vases to statues of animals and mystical beasts as well as decorative weapons. There were two corridors going left and right and soon Flamenial started to guide her guests to the left one. “Come here, please”, she said as she headed deeper into the manor. The three creatures continued to follow her and their surroundings just kept fascinating them. All of this was so strange and new. Eventually Flamenial took them to a hall where a dark and tall wooden table was placed in the center of the room, numerous chairs surrounding it, and a couple of silvery candelabras standing on it. The table was well kept as its surface was shiny and one could see their own reflection from it. This of course intrigued the trio since it was the first time they could see their own faces. All three of them spent a couple of minutes looking at their own reflections and all of them felt like there was a stranger staring back at them. They were so occupied by this that they didn't even notice Flamenial was gone. “Just… who are we?” the deer-like creature muttered with a low voice, but the other two could hear him. They could ask the same question. Then Flamenial appeared back to the hall, but her return went pretty much as unnoticed as her disappearance. She was carefully carrying a silvery tray with four cups on it, containing hot beverages. She noticed how curious the three strangers were about their own reflections, being a bit confused by this behavior for a second, but then realizing the situation. “You have never seen yourselves, am I right?” Flamenial asked as she walked closer with the tray. The trio exchanged looks with each other, then nodded. The dwarf placed the tray on the table and sat down on one of the chairs. “Please, take a seat. You can sit wherever you want”, she said with a smile. Her guests decided to all sit on the same side of the table, next to each other – maybe they instinctively felt safer that way. Once they all had sat down, Flamenial shared the hot drinks with everyone. The three creatures stared at the contents of their cups and sniffed the drink. It smelled pleasant, it had a sweet scent that reminded them of a forest. The black cat dared to taste the beverage at first, taking a sip and licked her lips. The flavor was a little bitter, but it seemed like it had been sweetened by something. The other two soon followed her example and tasted the drink as well, all coming to the conclusion that it was fine. “What is this?” the black cat asked after another sip from her drink. “It's berry tea with a hint of honey”, Flamenial replied, seeming pleased that the beverage she had prepared was liked. She drank some of her tea before she started to talk again: “So… You three know nothing at all?” “No”, the white raven said and all three of them shook their heads. “It's like… we came into existence only a while ago.” “I'm sorry, but I just don't understand how you ended up in the Forest of Cursed Cries”, Flamenial stated, more as a pondering for herself rather than saying it directly to the trio. “It just… doesn't make sense. The whole place is cursed and it's filled with soul-devourers. One simply doesn't get lost in that forest.” “Well, we don't know how we got there”, the deer-like creature said. “Our consciousness began to work only after Ihtiriekko woke us up.” “Huh, is that so…” Flamenial looked very thoughtful for a moment, even her whiskers trembled a bit. “I suppose lady Ihtiriekko may know something more since she was there.” “Why don't we ask her?” the black cat inquired. “Where did she go, anyway?” “I… I think it's best to not bother her right now”, Flamenial responded, seeming a bit nervous all of a sudden. “She's probably meditating currently and shouldn't be disturbed. It's an overseer thing, I can't really explain it. But I'm having a hunch that finding you from the forest has stirred something within her. You're not ordinary beings.” “Not ordinary, huh…” the deer-like creature said quietly, staring at the contents of his cup as if he could find some sort of revelation from there. He wasn't sure what "ordinary" even meant. He and the other two had no idea what could be considered as regular in this world. The white raven and the black cat looked at him, probably sharing the same kind of thoughts as he did. None of them spoke for a while, they just drank their tea in silence. Flamenial remained thoughtful for a moment as well, but soon decided to steer the conversation to a different direction. “You know, you sort of remind me of an old legend.” This piqued the interest of the trio and they looked at her, eager to hear more. Their attention made the dwarf glad. “There were once great three warriors”, Flamenial started to tell the story. “Mengkai, a powerful warrior monk from the east, Kelith, a magnificent spellcaster from the north and Raiica, a fierce blademaster from the west. They joined together in order to annihilate a demon lord Pheleos that attempted to take over a human kingdom in the north, planning to spread his influence from there. Now, demons can be very powerful and dangerous, they don't have souls so they try to steal them from others, even the weakest demons are doing this. But Pheleos was mightier than most of his kind, making it hard to defeat him. The humans had an army that fought against his dark forces, but to take him down, they needed someone powerful. That's where Mengkai, Kelith and Raiica came into picture. Bravely they rose against him before he would become too powerful and managed to vanquish him. They became celebrated heroes in the region and even to this day, young warriors visit their graves in hopes of getting their blessing. Like I told you before, I come from the north so this story is well-known there. But in other regions, it's not that popular. I guess every place has their own heroes, though.” Flamenial paused for a moment, sinking into her thoughts. The three creatures drank their tea and waited for her to speak again. The dwarf tilted her head slightly as she examined the trio with her big green eyes. “You don't have names, right?” All three shook their heads. “Well, how about I name you after the three warriors in the legend?” Flamenial asked as a smile conquered her face again. The trio exchanged looks with each other, this time with clear excitement. If they had names, they would be a step closer to becoming someone. They all shifted their gaze back at the dwarf and nodded. “Great!” Flamenial exclaimed. “Let's see… You, green one.” She pointed at the deer-like creature. “You're the only male of your group, and so was Mengkai. I think the name suits you. And then…” Flamenial was bouncing her gaze between the raven and the cat. “I think Kelith would be a great name for the raven. And so, the cat can be Raiica. What do you think?” They all had names now. It was an empowering feeling for the trio who had entered this world without knowing anything, without being anyone. But thanks to Flamenial, they had got a piece of identity. “Thank you, Flamenial”, said Kelith. “I think I speak on behalf of all of us when I say that you have given us a great gift and we appreciate it.” Mengkai and Raiica nodded. Flamenial couldn't contain her joy and was wearing the most radiant smile the trio had so far seen on her face. But it didn't last long and started to fade slightly. “I'm terribly sorry, but I don't really know how to help you further”, she said apologetically. “I think only lady Ihtiriekko knows what to do. I'll consult her later. In the meanwhile… How about you get familiar with the village?” “We would love to”, Raiica said, being sure that the other two were on the same wavelength as she was. So far they had just been following someone around, first with Ihtiriekko and then Flamenial, but now they could have a chance at exploring the world on their own. “Great!” Flamenial drank the rest of her tea and stood up. “I'll prepare rooms for you. We don't often get visitors, so there's a few guest rooms available.” The trio followed the dwarf's example by guzzling down the remaining contents of their cups so Flamenial could take the empty ones back to the kitchen. She picked them up one by one and placed them on the tray and began to walk away. “I think you know the way out?” Flamenial yelled from the room where she had disappeared to. “Yes, we do!” Mengkai responded as all three were preparing to leave. While the trio was retracing their steps back to the entrance of the manor, they could hear a loud bang of metal from the room where Flamenial was. All three stopped on their tracks for a brief moment, exchanging confused looks. Was the dwarf okay? But they could hear, although just barely, low muttering with a colorful language. The three creatures assumed that she was fine and continued their journey out of the manor. The bright daylight welcomed them as soon as they passed the double doors. Mengkai, Kelith and Raiica were all glancing in different directions, overwhelmed by the many possibilities they could do. They could feel a tender breeze caressing them, like it was greeting them to this world, whispering their new names. Perhaps they didn't have a past, or identity, but they were real and existed. Their fates were somehow intertwined, but they wanted to figure out who they were as individuals. And from there, their journey of discovery would begin, in the small Village of Newfound Hope.Pawn [Lyric] (Chapter 12) [Ninjago FanFic] <center><br>Ever since I recruited you, <br>You're just another a <b>pawn</b><br>Of my father's goal. You're just a pawn ,Pathetic, so gullible, naive,You wouldn't last long enough. I don't care,You're just another pawn Not worth of my times. Why do you kept fallingThe most easily obvious trapThat taught you a lesson Yet, you repeat it overBacking to square one. I shouldn't be caring,You're just another a pawnOf my father's goal . This world is cruel,Yet you still show itWith your big soft heart . Don't you get it,This world is cruel It's not gonna listen to you,You're just another a pawn. ...I shouldn't caring,I am my father's daughter You're just a pawn of his goal. You've warming my numb heart,Showing me the family lovesThat my father never gave me,Despite all I did to you. Your heart never stoppedLoving the world despite,All cruel it treating you. You bighearted idiot.You gave me a family lovesDespite losing your family,You gave me a hope for futureYou're not just a pawn anymore.You are my savior. <img width="400" src="https://cdn.sheezy.art/696c83f2a55b7dc97d8c77db"> </center>