This is a somewhat sloppy prologue to "Human", which I actually meant to be the first chapter. It's not the best piece of literature out there, but it should clear up some questions people have. If you're seeing this first, feel free to check out the actual story!

I sighed. Walking through the forest, I was on my way back from a friends in the town north of mine. While I did enjoy the fresh air, deciding to go home on foot this late probably wasn't the best of ideas. I rubbed my folded arms together, trying to counteract the slight chill that floated in the air. Biting my lip, I quickened my pace.

As I did though, a loud rustling noise came from the right of me. I barely had time to turn my head before I was plowed into by a figure I didn't catch the appearance of. It made a cry that sounded somewhat familiar, flying into me with such force that the both of us went tumbling a few feet backwards. I groaned, pushing it off of my stomach. It cried out in pain.

Before I could examine my assaulter, another figure burst from the same spot the previous one had. I barely had the time to register it as a Mightyena before it threw it's head back, and with a loud roar, leaped at the two of us. My eyes widened, and I snatched a pokeball off my belt, hitting it right in the snout; stunned, it stumbled back a step or two. After a red flash of light, my Sylveon, Yuuki, stood there, ready to go. She quickly assessed the situation, before looking back at me and nodding firmly.

She cried loudly, and I watched as she Moonblasted the poor thing into oblivion. As the light and smoke from her assault faded, she trotted back over to me, helping me to sit up. I smiled, rubbling her behind the ear.

"Good job. Really saved me there." She made a happy noise. My attention was drawn back to the figure beside me, as it made more pained sounds. Finally out of danger, I turned to see that it was just what I had thought. A Gardevoir. But what is one of those doing out here...? It was then that I noticed the numerous gashes all over it's body. It's face in particular had a cut so big that I had to make an effort to avoid throwing up. It's eyes were squeezed shut, and it was holding what appeared to be an egg in it's grasp. It was a miracle it was still alive. "Hey, you can open your eyes now. You're safe."

It slowly relaxed one of it's eyes, opening it just wide enough to see that I was being truthful. After a second, I visibly saw it's muscles relax. A few moments later, I heard a woman's voice in my head.

'T-thank y-you... but I fear it d-does not m-make a difference... for me at least' I could see that what she was doing was straining what little energy she had left, as a look of pain made it's way onto her face. Her words became slower and more stuttered as she went on. 'I... I never r-really e-expected to survive t-this anyway.' She grunted, loosening her grip on the egg. 'But she... s-she can. She's w-what matters here... Augh!' She winced in pain. 'You. W-will you t-take her...? C-care for her?' I was a little surprised.

"You'd just trust me with... what I assume is your daughter?" A small smile made it's way on to her face.

'Oh, p-please... d-don't be modest,Professor. I've m-met enough g-good humans t-to know one w-when I s-see one... E-either way, I s-scanned y-your m-memories a-already. I k-know I can t-trust y-you. N-not like I h-have m-much o-other choice...' She let out a deep breath, which developed into a cough. I rubbed the back of my head, before placing my hand on her arm.

"Right... Psychic type... Anyway. Of course I will." I carefully took the egg from her arms, which then went limp.

'T-thank... y-you...' Her smile disappeared, and her eyes glazed over. There had been more I wanted to ask her, but she must have used the last of her strength to ask me what she did. Yuuki whimpered, trotting around me and over to her. She pawed at her shoulder, making little yipping noises. I closed my eyes, and sighed once again.

After coming to terms with the fact that I was a terrible person for not even TRYING to save her, I placed the egg in my bag, lifted up her limp body, and slowly and painstakingly made my way back home. I placed the egg down on the couch, which Yuuki hopped onto and then proceeded to cuddle up to. I went into the garage, and placed the poor mother down on my workbench.

I decided I'd bury her. It was the least I could do, after she entrusts me with her only kin. But that would be tomorrow. It was past 12 o' clock, and I was in no shape to do anything of that sort. I dragged myself inside, and collapsed onto the second couch in the living room.

I passed out almost immediately.

1 Week Later...

I sat at the computer, typing up a report about my latest research project. I sighed, leaning back in my chair. Turning to my left, I glanced over at the egg on the table next to me. It was placed on a pillow, with a blanket wrapped around it. Since I'd taken responsibility for it, I'd tried to keep it close to me.

I got up, groaning. Walking over to where I'd placed it, I picked it up. Sure, I'd raised plenty of pokemon before. But not from an Egg. I'd caught all my pokemon back when I'd been a trainer, all of whom were at least a few years old. I'm not really sure how to feel about it.

Focusing back on the object in my arms, I noted with surprise that it seemed to be much warmer than the last time I'd picked it up. Before I could consider the ramifications of that, a crack appeared on the very top of the egg. My eyes widened, as it started glowing. I closed my eyes, and after a few seconds, the light faded. I looked down, and in my arms was a baby Ralts. I adjusted my grip on it, to compensate for the shape difference.

It's bowlcut of green hair got in the way of it's eyes, and I brushed it to the side so it could see me. It stared upwards, and her big red eyes stared into mine. After a moment or two, I heard a voice.

'Daddy?' I gulped. Well, I'd always wanted a kid of my own; right?

2 Years Later...

Siera (the name I had decided on for her) learned quickly. Being from a relatively intelligent evolutionary line, it really shouldn't have surprised me. Eventually, she took note of her mother's absence, and I was forced to tell her what had happened on that one night. She took the news better than I thought she would, but she still was down for a day or two.

Even though she was a pokemon, I found myself often raising her no different than a father would his daughter. This may have been why she saw herself as a human girl, just like any other. One day, she even caught me completely off guard when she spoke to me in fluent English (for a two year old, at least), claiming she'd taught herself over the last few months. I was amazed.

Annoyed by her permanent bowlcut, she recently attempted to give herself a haircut. She wound up with a cute little pixie cut she'd found off the web. I just laughed when I saw what she'd done.

4 Years Later...

As the years passed, she became progressively more frustrated with being so different, yet so similar to all the girls around town that she would play with. She watched the same TV shows, played the same games; even ate the same things, as there came a time she refused to eat pokemon food anymore.

While she was only five years of age, her intellect equaled that of a 12 or 13 year old girl easily. A month ago, she actually evolved into a Kirlia. She was happy, apparently because it gave her a more 'human like' appearance. The size difference between her and everyone else was still an issue though. That is... until she decided she was going to mess around in my lab. *Sigh*

I swear, when that girl is set on something, there's no stopping her. After a ridiculous amount of begging and research of her own, I agreed to help her with her idea. She decided she wanted to grow like a human; get rid of her evolutionary stages all together. I told her it was improbable, but she was... VERY INSISTANT.

I only hope that she isn't too disappointed when it doesn't work out.

2 Years Later...

She never ceases to amaze me. Siera ACTUALLY (with my aid) figured out how to splice her and my DNA together to replace the evolutionary genes in her body. She was still just as much a pokemon as she was before, as creating a Pokemon-Human hybrid is just... I won't even get into why it wouldn't work; but she is now growing into her Gardevoir stage, instead of just jumping from one to the other. She's almost as tall as me now; I'm not a tall man, but that's honestly besides the point. The little red spines on the top of her head had started going down, and the one on her chest poked out maybe an inch or two. She was an odd sight, to say the least; but she was happy, and I guess that's all that really matters.

As of late, she's been bugging me to send her to the local school. I gave her a maybe, mostly because I have no idea what to answer. She's certainly smart enough to pass, and acts enough like a human to fit in, but she's still a Pokemon. And that's just a plain fact.

1 Year Later...

Well, I finally agreed to enroll her, and it's been... interesting, to say the least. I feel it has probably been more good than bad, but it has caused a handful of stressful incidents.

She's loved learning about all kinds of things, especially alongside others of her maturity level. She has a handful of friends that come over occasionally to play, and she's definitely happier than she'd previously been.

I think the fact that she wasn't wearing any clothes finally got through to her, and boy did it hit her hard. The blush on her face when she realized made her look like a fire type. After that, she went online and dumped a large sum of the money she'd been saving into clothes that would fit her slim body. When they finally came, she grabbed the box, squeeing, and ran up to her room. After a little while, when she still hadn't come out, I went up to check on her.

Apparently, the clothes hadn't fit because of the little skirt-dress that flowed off her midsection. So she'd decided to... *ahem* make some bodily changes.

It's safe to say that when I opened the door to find her and her skirt flaps laying cut off on the floor; with blood everywhere... I had a heart attack and a half.

After a quick trip to the pokemon center, she'd regained consciousness; and I proceeded to scold her for making such a rash decision. Apparently that just set off a wall of emotions that had been already building up, and she just full out bawled. So in a span of five seconds, I'd gone from yelling at her to hugging and reassuring her. Girls...

The nurse who'd taken care of her informed us that the flaps would likely not re-grow, especially since Siera was incapable of evolving anymore. They were like arms or legs. The stubs would heal, but not come back. She was delighted to hear this, saying that now all her clothes would fit her. I just sighed, rubbing the back of my head.

So from then on, she wore a full outfit every day. Hats, Shirts, Jackets, Jeans; you name it. She had a pair of everything for any time. Honestly, with her body structure and size, she could almost pass for human with her favorite outfit. It was surprising, but also nice in a way.

At some point, plastic surgery got brought up among the girls at school. That was pretty much all Siera needed to hear to beg me to get her it. She saw it as an opportunity to finally look human. Sure, she couldn't change her skin color, but they could reconstruct her face and perhaps some of her body to match a human's. I tried to assure her that she looked fine as she was, but she just won't let up. I'm not sure how many more pouts and sad whimpering I can withstand.

8 Months Later...

I finally gave in. With her 10th birthday up and coming, she'd decided what she wanted to do. She'd found out about my days as a trainer, traveling the world with my team, and was fascinated by the stories Yukiko told her about. To be honest, I'm surprised she'd not found out sooner, considering she could talk to any of the pokemon on my previous team; whom all lived around the house and the lab.

She wanted to be a trainer. And that... I was shocked when she told me, considering she was a pokemon herself. I didn't exactly feel safe about it, because though the people in the small community we lived in were comfortable with who she was, I didn't really know what others around the region would do or how they'd react when they met her. Then there was also the fact that she was technically still a wild Pokemon, and could be caught with a ball if a fellow Trainer was feeling particularly nasty.

Back to the plastic surgery. I agreed to let her be a trainer, but only if she did her best to keep her species a secret. We'd get her the modifications, and then get some skin tone paint that preformers and such use. If she took enough care, it might just work.

She agreed to my terms (of course), and we scheduled an appointment with a doctor. He told us that what we were asking was quite the task; something like this had only been preformed once or twice before, and that they were mostly just reconstruction; helping a pokemon who'd been injured recover. He said us that they'd definitely be able to do her face and hands just fine, but her body and limbs would be more difficult. We both kinda expected that going into this, so we set up a date for the surgery, and left.

1 Month Later...

Well... It's done. Going over there, saying I was nervous was an understatement almost as much as saying she was excited. As they led her into the operating room, I'd been doing my best to stay calm. Time ticked by slowly, and I found myself fidgeting more and more as it passed. When the doctor finally came out, I was on my feet and walking over to him within seconds.

He smiled and told me that it had gone just fine. He did note that they didn't touch her red bulges on her head or chest, as that would have messed with her psychic powers. Leading me through the doors, I saw her; and was dumbfounded.

She looked...well... Human. Her eyes had been slightly reshaped, to fit more of what a human looks like, and she now sported a little nose in the middle of her face. Her lips came out a bit more, and her eyes were a deep blue; I'm assuming they were contacts.

Her body had more feminine curves to it, though it was hard to tell underneath her clothes. Her chest came out just far enough now to both make her look like a human female, as well as hide the little red spike growing there.

She had on a new outfit I'd never seen her in before, but the sleeves and pants on them were a lot thicker than any of her other clothes. My best guess is that they were able to thicken her arms and legs a bit; give them some shape; which was good, because it would have looked odd otherwise.

She was fidgeting with her newly acquired hands, examining her little fingers. Her heels were still struggling to stay on the ground, but it seemed like she was having a much easier time than she used to. Someone none the wiser would just think she's bouncy on her feet.

She smiled, looking up at me.

"Hi dad."

~SieraAurora~