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.”gif