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hes a little doofy but i did my best
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Pokéumans re-lived part 1 "From parallel worlds" Chapter 1: "Waking up from a dream"I am not happy. I suppose you’ll want me to elaborate on why, well, first things first, introductions: I am Lex, that’s what everyone calls me (or at least what I try to get people to call me) Physically wise I have tan skin and dark very unkept hair, notable eye bags on my face, unusually long limbs and I’m slightly chubby. I’m 14 years old and I currently live in Mexico City. It is the year 2022 and the month of September, Today is Monday of my first week of high school which I absolutely wasn’t looking forward to, I was barely able to graduate from middle school pretty much because of the pandemic and although i had high hopes to be able to recover myself in high school, the fact i basically chose my school at the last minute and i still have no idea what i want to study really doesn’t make me feel assured. Anyhow, I was woken up by my little brother’s alarm at 6 o’something while my mum was making breakfast, dad was preparing for work and my brother was... Not waking up, I felt a little disoriented as I’m used to having to be ready by this point but since high school is at the afternoon instead of the morning I didn’t need to yet, anyway, i waited until everyone was gone and the sky changed from night to day to eat my breakfast my mother left me and shower, I put on regular clothes, an interesting deparute from the uniforms I’ve had to wear all my life, though my wardrobe isn’t exactly the most... Flattering, I only wear what makes me comfortable in my weird autistic sensibilities, and spent the morning trying to prepare myself mentally for 3 years of hell, and that’s if all goes well and I don’t end up repeating a year, anyway, nothing really interesting happens in this point so I’ll just talk about myself more. I’m into a lot of things and not many things at the same time, it’s hard to explain but basically I don’t get into any kind of media beyond small hyper-fixations, however there are a few exceptions though, if I have to give an example of one then I’ll probably go with pokemon, I love Pokémon, although I’ve never been able to afford a single game, still I’ve enjoyed it since I was 8 right when pokemon go came out and just before sun and moon were announced, with my favourite Pokémon being toxtricity, a recent addition from a frankly mixed generation but still ended up quickly rising the ranks on my list of favourites and I honestly don’t even know what’s about him that appeals to me so much, maybe its design? Its ability? It’s connection with music (I always have a song stuck in my head after all) Or maybe it’s just the general vibe? Even though I’m not punk even in the slightest I still find myself connecting to him for some strange reason. Like he speaks to me somehow. Anyway. Back to home, My mum came back in time to cook lunch so that afterwards I would head to school, my high school is a decent 30 minute walk away from my home, and I can go there by myself however I only walked the route once and it involves a lot of pedestrian bridges which absolutely terrify me as I have a fear of heights. Still there weren’t any major issues as I went there and I arrived in good time despite not knowing where a single thing was on this new building. Classes went about as well as I expected. It was the first day so it was only introductions but I still struggled having to join each teacher’s Google class, writing down the names of the books i had to buy and organising my notes since we didn’t have the time and money to buy notebooks for each subject yet so I had to use an old folder. Classes ended (at 9 pm I might add Jesus Christ) and right as I left I encountered with an old friend from my old school that also decided to be in this high school. “Alex!” “Lex, you know I hate having to remind people about it right?” She corrected herself. “Oh right, Lex, so how are you doing?” “Eh. Weird dreams I suppose.” “Really? How so?” “Hard to describe, nothing special anyway.” “The usual huh?” I nodded. “You shouldn’t come to expect more from me, Fer.” From then onwards the conversation faded into simple noise as we left towards home, she with her parents, I by myself. Now I’ve been friends with this person since the beginning of middle school and even though she’s nice and energetic and really my only option for socializing I still don’t feel close to her like other people would wrongly (and overconfidently) assume. Especially now that we’re not in the same group and in general our friendship has gotten a bit distant since the pandemic, and I’m just not a fan of being social anyway, I keep to myself and generally dislike others, i did not learn a single name of my clasmates and teachers and i have a feeling i won’t learn any till I’m gonna guess next month, Anyway I came back from school, had dinner, went to bed and ignored my parents when they asked me how it went and the rest of the week went flying by both astonishingly quickly and irritatingly slowly, that is normal for me though as i’ve never really led an interesting life, I really just stay on my room on my computer and never leave the house unless I’m forced to or become desperate, and usually when I do it’s to the same places every time, if it ain’t school which I’m forced to go it’s either the nearby park/market or the centre of Mexico city and it’s usually because my parents want to eat outside and if I don’t go I don’t eat, otherwise I would just stay, I’m not the adventurous type and I usually don’t like to get out of my comfort zone because honestly? Why should I? It’s called a comfort zone for a reason, oh well, I’ll move on to the weekend that went as uneventfully as the week did and eventually it became night time of sunday, where I just jumped into my bed, sighed after a long 7 days that weren’t awful but I knew was just the beginning, i mean I didn’t even have homework but I knew things were going to chane as I doze off... Unfortunately I never knew how much things would really change in the next few weeks. The sound of the crowd screaming barely registers to me as I walked into the side of the battlefield, with a massive gyarados as my opponent. I don’t even need to hear my trainer shout a command for me to start attacking, not that I could with all the noise granted, although the details of the battle escape me since I was never really invested in that stuff, I was able to decimate my opponent and bask in the glory of my victory, granted it wasn’t the cleanest and quickest fight in the whole world but I was still the decisive winner none the less, I felt the people in the stadium cheer me on and I instinctually played a short bass riff using the protrusions while letting out a loud cry“TOOOOXXX!!!”. After that small celebration solo, I was quickly recalled into my pokeball to rest as I grinned to myself in uncharacteristic confidence… I woke up yet again to my alarm as my first conscious thoughts of the day were: “Huh, that was a weird dream.” Not weird in the sense that it was strange, far from it actually as my dreams often don’t have any cohesion and are meaningless bizarre images conjured up by my mess of a brain, honestly to have a simple and, quite frankly generic dream like that is unusual on my part but oh well, that’s irrelevant for now, I thought to myself as I washed my body with soap and other cleaning products while showering, expecting the dream to fade with time though it never happened. As the second week went by not much actually changed yet aside from the homework and getting more used to the route and the layout of the school like i predicted and, I dunno, breathing differently, I guess? In any case I went through all my classes of every day and met up with Fer once or twice on recess where we didn’t really talk about much and it was very clear we didn’t have much to talk about. “Hey Alex- sorry, lex!” Sigh “Hey...” “Just wanted to check up on you, homework is only just beginning and it’s already hell.” “Tell me about it.” From then on we just stood in silence, ate lunch and sometimes one of us would draw, I have to admit I don’t mind doing stuff in silence, but it’s clear I’m alone in that and I guess i would appreciate a deeper connection with someone but it’s just not gonna happen, I’ll difficultly find someome to be more friends rather than just barely not acquaintances. As the week passed and I suffered through stuff I didn’t enjoy, aka school, I thought back to my dream, honestly the fact I remembered the dream for more than a day shows how special it is, I was showing off impressive battling skills for everyone to see, I remembered the confidence I had during that dream, like I was used to the battle, like it was my calling, what I was meant to do with my life, and i was good at it! ... Of course, these feelings are not here in the present, I’m not a confident person in the slightest, nor am I talented or skilled in any way, even though most people i knew like my friend Fer or even my dad were not that much different from me I knew they have a lot of hobbies and pastimes and interest that they were fairly good at (enviously so sometimes) like for example, me and Fer liked to draw but she clearly has more talent and experience than me, she already has a developed style while mine only just graduated from stick figures, my mum and dad are grown adults who already have careers and jobs and stuff to do with their life, while I’m just here going through the motions. And I think it’s starting to get to me. The week ended, in the weekend mum and I decided to buy some of the stuff I still needed, i had barely been able to finish my homework and i was only able to get a few books and notebooks but not all of them so that’s gonna screw me over, but in the meantime I’ll just learn to deal with it, I went to bed on Sunday night, not looking forward to the future. Being a solo explorer was a though job, even for a medium-ranked one like me. Although I would often partner up with other teams I still preferred to go on adventures solo as I’m not the best at working with other people, especially at the guild, I won’t lie however that sometimes I would struggle with a mission and end up needing rescue myself, but I managed, I was keeping up and that’s what matters. While I looking for a special artifact deep in the dungeon I found myself battling a rampant Aggron standing in front of the artifact, possibly protecting it? now even though the aggron was a lot larger physically and seemingly stronger I was still beating him rather easily, dodging most of his attacks and giving a good punch here and there, I did still struggled with a few of his attacks, including an earthquake that almost wiped me out (darn ground type moves), but apart from that the aggron was putting up way less of a fight than I expected, once the aggron fainted I smirked to myself and I grabbed the artifact, which was an orb of unknown effect. I was about to leave the dungeon to inspect when suddenly: “Shock wave!!!” A wave of thunder suddenly hit my entire body, luckily since I was an electric type it wasn’t very effective against me but I was unable to look at my attacker until it stopped, and when I did I found myself with another toxtricity, who immediately charged at me before I could react and I blacked out. I woke up like last Monday, same hour, same way, but with yet another dream that wouldn’t escape my waking mind, however unlike the last one this had me a lot less intrigued, guess I was getting used to it, still, I found myself thinking back to it throughout the day, and the next, and the next, and most of the week until in the middle of it where i had a repeat of the previous dream... only I was a little less confident than I remembered, i ended up going back to the versions of myself from that dream, an explorer similar to the ones from the pokemon mystery dungeon games, and a pokemon more akin to the base games, I never found it weird that i was a pokemon in either dream, honestly I wouldn’t mind it if I was a pokemon in real life, it’s a weird fascination of mine that probably came thanks to the pmd games, like I said before I never got to buy them but i heard their premise and so I saw a lot of gameplays of them and I enjoyed their plot a lot, and I would often imagine myself as a protagonist of those games (though I would never be able to choose a pokemon form, probably because the toxtricity line didn’t exist yet), however I don’t actually have any aspirations of becoming an explorer in real life, with my allergies and my sedentary habits? Hell no. It’s a little weird to me how I can know things I don’t want to be when I’m older but not things I do want to be, I sometimes feel like i don’t know anything about myself and not knowing what to do with your life feels like a problem since it seems everyone should have this figured out and everyone else around my age already has. Except for me. Well, in any case, school started to get a lot more settled in and routinary, assignments started to become hell and the days faded into the same of always that I’ve experienced all my life, aside from the minor changes from this new school, I could not tell you how many times I’ve had the same breakfasts of cereal or eggs, or the same meals of badly cooked rice, or just the constant over and over mundanity of everything, I know I’m not adventurous, but I’m also tired of this repetition, it feels like i live in the background sometimes. And as for how I’m doing, well? Unfortunately I’m starting to fail to keep up with the many assignments and constantly having to get new materials and things, I’ve already forgotten to do several homeworks and it’s awful, not only that but I’m already starting to hear about the coming exams, oh well, at least the month’s over. Weekend passed and I was avoiding answering my parents about how I’m doing constantly, I’ve not talked about them much or my close family but while I love them and all I’ve slowly started to feel disconnected from them, on top of our current living spsces being so tight I’m just too used to having to tune them out constantly, I much preferred living back in Guadalajara in our own house, not in a single room of my grandmother’s house, having to share a two-floor bed with my little brother who i never got along with, luckily with my new schedule he and my parents are mostly not at home in the morning and I’m not at home at the evening, which helps in giving us space, but not in connection. Oh well, not much i can do about it. Sunday night came and I fell asleep but not before pondering if I would have another one of those dreams, they’ve definitely taken my attention as i feel something different from them, something from deep within me rising, am i going insane? Eh, who cares right now, although apart from that intrigue, another feeling washed over me that I’ve been feeling a little bit throughout the week when i was outside my home, I don’t know where this came from, I have no reason to suspect it and yet... Was I being watched? This time my dreams strayed further from anything I recognized from any of the pokemon games, I was still a toxtricity however I appeared to be in a hollywood looking high school, filled to the brim with locker rooms, and like me the students seemed to be pokemon too. As I was heading to class, waking aimlessly across endless halls, I was harshly stopped in my tracks by a massive paw slammed in front of me crushing the locker it landed on into scrap. “Well, well, well, look what we have here.” I looked towards the person talking to me and I quickly recognized him as a VERY imposing pangoro, who looked at me with a cocky yet hateful smirk. “Ughh, listen, can you just let me go to my class for once dude?” I responded annoyed, not wanting to deal with dumb artificial drama like this. “Woah, woah, woah, don’t you dare dude me, you know you’re an embarrassment to all of your species? instead of a proud and tough rebel you’re a weak and wimpy loser that everyone laughs at, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Where is he even going with this? “I don’t care?” The pangoro smirks “Well, since I couldn’t very well stand and watch your pathetic ass walk around freely, I decided it was about time to teach you a lesson.” As soon as he says that I notice him charging an attack, I immediately jump to dodge it, turning this encounter into a full-blown battle, unlike the previous dreams I was struggling much more to dodge and resist his punches, beams and other attacks but eventually I was able to paralyze him and using one of my moves I eventually made him faint, I looked to the hallway assuming the other classmates had watched this but the whole area was strangely devoid of anyone, the hall’s lights suddenly deemed and I could no longer see anything beyond a certain point making it look infinite, save for one toxtricity, the same one from the other dream, he immediately tried to attack me only I was able to move away from it just in time, he kept charging at me and I wasn’t able to keep dodging and resisting his attacks like with the pangoro bully so I wasn’t able to stop myself from blacking out. I had woken up slightly earlier than normally, sweating, this dream was FAR from enjoyable as the previous ones, and it got me worried, taking my attention the whole week. And it was so weird too, I’m not an idiot, I could clearly tell my previous dreams had some unexplainable symbolism involving some of my struggles, yet this dream was different, because being a toxtricity was the center of it, and how despite toxtricity being a punk I’m far from it, I mean, I have a resting bitch face and eye bags similar to toxtricity and that clashes with my reserved personality but it’s not something that I focus on much, and yet that dream and those emotions still managed to get my attention for this week. Why? And what a bad week to be distracted in. Schoolwork was absolutely infernal, with exams right around the corner suddenly every class was demanding homeworks, projects, guides, etc. And I completely failed to keep up I had nothing and I got nothing done. And to think that there was a time where I did average at school and never missed an assignment, heh, what happened to me? My parents got fairly angry with me but I really just ignored them and tuned them out extra hard. On top of that the dreams repeated again and more often, and this time I wasn’t as succesfull in them, I struggled in the battle and failed the exploration, I didn’t see the other toxtricity however. I was so stressed that I ended up doing something I very rarely do and directly looked for my friend to talk to, unfortunately she came with... Mixed news. “Fer?” “Oh! Hey Lex!” she ran over and hugged me, she’s touchy like that and I don’t mind, aside from the fact it makes people think we had a thing, frankly I’m not interested. “How have you been?” she asks. “Oh awful, this week has been so bloody stressful.” “I can agree, I’m not doing too well either, I talked about it with my parents and, well, I actually was looking for yoy to tell you about something.” “Hm?” This intrigued me somewhat. “So... My parents found this new private high school that focuses on the career I’m interested in, remember those tourism classes in middle school? It specialises in that, well I ended up getting in which means I’m gonna leave this school next semester.” “Oh...” I felt... Complicated, on one hand, it sucked that the only person I was somewhat comfortable with is no longer going to be in the same school and talking to them will get harder, on the other, we were already growing distant, plus this is a really good opportunity for her and I’m excited! Maybe this was simply meant to happen. “I’m happy to hear that, it’s a bit of a shame that we won’t be in the same school anymore but it’s good for you, I’m probably gonna stay here, don’t plan on going anywhere since there doesn’t seem to be a better option for me.” “Yeah... I’ll still miss you though.” She hugged me again and then the bell for next class rang so she started leaving. “Well, see ya!” “Bye.” I responded. The week eventually ended, the weekend was even more stressful as a bunch of extended family was over and I don’t even want to get into the drama of it all, I fell asleep on Sunday tired and not looking forward to... Anything. …Various gunshots could be heard throughout the night as various groups of pokemon could be seen attacking each other through the city, I was in one of those groups, an army that was currently on a battle against an enemy group where we used a brutal combination of firearms and moves, and when I say brutal I do mean it, whatever was left of the city we were in was quickly replaced with more and more rubble as everything was blown up by the crossfire, there were several casualties, I could notice each time a pokemon, whether from our side or the enemy’s, fell to the ground in defeat, I don’t even have to look at them to know that they didn’t just faint and would never recover. We moved through the ruined city trying to avoid as many enemies as we could, the recent fights had left us worn out and tired, but we could not give up yet, the war between pokemon has been going on for many years, more and more is the world losing any sense of order now that the legendary pokemon have abandoned us and any kind of hierarchy or the like has fallen into anarchy, none of us knew what we were fighting for anymore and even though we’ve been here since the beginning of the war all of the other soldiers were little more than faceless people that I was each unfamiliar with. We kept walking until we were able to set up camp for the night, tired and drained as I was it wasn’t easy to fall asleep and no matter how much I tried I was unable to get any rest, the outside of my tent got quieter and quieter until suddenly I heard a bunch of screams, I left my tent only to be blinded by a flash of light, the moment I was able to recover from the sudden burst I noticed that all of the soldiers were on the ground, in the same condition as the fallen soldiers from the previous battle. In a state of shock I unintentionally lowered my defences, which caused me to find myself attacked by the same toxtricity who’s been showing up in all of my dreams and who seemed to have been the one to attack and defeat my teammates, I was able to resist him a lot more this time and put up a fight however I was starting to lose stability due to exhaustion, I kept charging and kicking but I eventually fell to the ground like everyone else and as my vision blurred I was starting to black out, or rather, wake up… I was panting and sweating, I had woken up way early in the morning, and no matter how hard I tried to go back to sleep I stayed wide awake, out of all the dreams this is the one that stuck with me the most, then again it seemed to be a pattern as each dream got more and more intense throughout the weeks, which is the worst thing I needed for this particular one during my morning routine and before the exam I kept thinking on said patterns, what did they mean? They’ve got to lead to something, my body was feeling a little weird that day, the whole day i felt like i was having a constant allergic reaction, ugh, I went back to the dreams to distract myself, how I was never really myself in any of them, even the ones that weren’t about Pokémon had me as a toxtricity which admittedly never felt wrong, sometimes it felt natural, just not like my current self, and how I was in situations that I just never see myself getting into, like the exploration, the battle, the fight, and in the last one I was part of some sort of military, something that I would just never do. Even though I came from a noticeable military background with my dad and both my grandfathers from each side having worked in the army I always vowed to myself I would never join one, it’s just simply a life that even as a toddler i knew was too far removed from who I was and i always saw it as pointless, war was pointless, everything was stupid and I very much don’t look forward to military service and all of this I’ve made very clear to everyone since day one, luckily my dad, compared to most military types is very undestanding about as he’s really just there for the job, and he really can’t blame me for my beliefs (instead he blames having watched the ender’s game movie as a kid, could not tell you a single thing about the film though). As much as I would’ve liked to spend the rest of the week trying to figure out these dreams, what they meant, why did they exist, Where they symptoms of stress, etc. And even though it bothered me throughout the whole 5 days, especially since they now happened every day to the point where my eye bags looked even worse, I simply couldn’t focus on it as I had to pretend to pay attention to the exams, which drove me insane and I don’t think I did good in any of them... except English, there’s a reason you’re able to read this after all. I couldn’t even talk to Fer, and My parents definitely noticed my lack of paying attention, they chewed me out for it several times since they knew it was exam week, but i simply lied and told them I was doing well, I’m not proud of it but I’m simply not strong enough to deal with the consequences, I’m weak. And on top of all of that my sick feelings from Monday stayed and intensified throughout, it was horrible, and like before I started feeling like i was being watched every time I walked outside and I really didn’t understand why. I returned home on Friday night, everyone else was already asleep, so I quickly ate what was on the table for me, sighed loudly and dropped into bed, this time looking forward to the two coming off days, I was going to need it. I did not have a dream that night, Not just a new dream, which was expected since those usually come in Sunday, but any dream in general, which was bizarre after this past week of nonstop pokemon related dreams. And yet it still felt like I was dreaming, but it was all sensatiIons, sensations that I could not describe, it felt like I was changing somehow, like a part of me was escaping some kind of constraint, and it was oddly painful, like it wasn’t supposed to happen, like it should’ve been there from the beginning, the feeling kept getting worse throughout the night, it started as a tingle, but then it changed to an ache directed at my hands, i looked at them but I couldn’t see them, they were mere blurs of colours, and I saw another blur, was that... The toxtricity? Yet... it felt like something else... Then the ache slowly grew into a burning sensation, rising in intensity, burning more and more without me being able to do anything about it until… I woke up dizzy, Saturday morning, rather late, feeling unusually refreshed, maybe it’s now that I’m done with exams at school, at least for the moment, but still, it kinda feels like all of the feelings that have been building up since i came back to school are... gone, released, the stress, the feelings that came from those dreams. Gone. I noticed that my parents weren’t here, I panicked a little but then I remembered a tuned out memory from Thursday that they weren’t gonna be here for most of the day, my brother wasn’t there either, though I was able to notice a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the table near our tiny kitchen so it was safe to assume that he went downstairs with my grandma and whoever other family member was staying in our house at the moment. Although I’ve interacted with them fairly little and so this shouldn’t be much of a change I couldn’t help but feel calm in this peaceful solitude, I didn’t even have those allergic reactions anymore, I smiled against myself. I was feeling oddly happy, I wasn’t even tuning out the day anymore and I was perfectly happy to do stuff like walk around a bit before serving myself cereal as breakfast now being able to forget all about those strange dreams and simply relax on this weekend which feels like it’s the first true weekend since I came back from school, excited, I moved the covers away from my body, hopped out of bed… And then I saw my hands.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.”