Grass rustled in waves in the oncoming breeze, the trees swayed casually in the night, the relaxing sound of leaves and forest creatures flowed through the cool air.
With a soft crunch, the atmosphere was broken. A Pikachu, lying face down in the grass. It breathed hard, whimpering in what seemed like pain, the electricity in its body going haywire as it crackled out of his cheeks. The yellow creature stayed like that until a growlithe wandered up to it in concern. It whined and nudged it, turning it over so it could breathe in something other than the grass and soil.
It immediately wished it hadn't. The Pikachu's face was sunken, its lips were pulled back over sharp teeth in a snarl, its body was emaciated and diseased, and its eyes were sightless like the dead. The crackling electricity immediately tried to hit the growlithe, which pulled back and ran away, yelping in terror away from the abominable creature.
The Pikachu pushed itself up and stumbled, growling mindlessly as it lumbered back into the forest, the fever and pain gone.
Natalia sat silently by a campfire, keeping vigilant watch for her little growlithe, which had gone off into the forest to chase a Ratatta. She knew the little dog-like creature would be back soon, it never lost its way. In her lap, her Pidgeot slept peacefully, making little cooing noises. She figured it was a good idea to go camping that night with her pokemon, which she had brought eight of. Her favorites, the ones who she had bonded closest to. Her Feraligatr slept curled by the fire on the opposite side with her Crobat resting in its head, sleeping as well. She leaned her head back on the tree behind her, closing her eyes and sighing contentedly. She felt something nudge up against her arm and she looked down, petting her Togetic on the head softly, lulling the sleepy creature to sleep.
The peace wasn't meant to last. Her Growlithe quickly came barreling out of the bushed yelping in terror. It crashed into her and put its little orange paws on her chest, yelping and crying.
"Ellie, what's wrong?" she asked it, petting it softly on the head to try to soothe it. The dog-like creature bounded off and barked, signaling for her to follow it. She got up, her pokemon had already been awakened, and the small group followed her deeper into the forest. Her Lucario, David, held on to her arm protectively, listening for any sort of dangerous sound that could hurt his master.
The Growlithe stopped at a spot where the grass seemed to have dried up, barking loudly. The sleep-deprived Crobat went to check on the terrified creature, but stopped, turning quickly towards the forest to their side. David turned his head and protectively got in front of Natalia, growling.
She smelled burning hair, burning leaves, had someone gotten caught in a forest fire? She grew concerned, but her pokemon crowded in front of her protectively. They knew something she didn't, and she had learned to trust them.
A ball of fire came bursting out of the forest, screeching and running towards the small group, it wasn't hard to see what it was: it was a Ponyta, and it was on fire. Every inch of its body was being consumed in flames; it was squealing and barreling towards them in a mix of blind terror and desperation.
"Water gun, Viktor!" she ordered her Feraligatr. It spewed water at the screaming equine and it immediately fell, its fiery mane receding back to where it was supposed to be. The Ponyta looked healthy, other than the fact that all its fur had been singed off and it had third degree burns all over it. Natalia approached slowly, her Feraligatr in front of her, and she gently lobbed a pokeball at it, effectively capturing it without a fight.
"Let's go, guys. Lets get this one treated." She frowned, disappointed that her camping trip had been interrupted, "did you put out the fire?"
Her Togetic raised its stumpy arm in affirmation.
"Good boy, Tyler." She smiled, "Kyle can you take us home?"
The Pidgeot crowed and allowed his master to mount him for the flight. She recaptured all her pokemon into their respective pokeballs and they took off. She held the Ponyta's pokeball gingerly, as if the slightest movement would injure it further.
"What the hell happened to it?" she wondered.
"Professor!" she called, "Professor!"
Professor Elm opened the door slowly, hair messed up and his glasses hastily put on his face.
"What is it, Natalia, it's four AM." He frowned.
"Sorry but it's an emergency. Can I come in?"
"Sure." He opened the door wider and led her to the rear of his lab, where he had evidently fallen asleep on his computer for the umpteenth time, "what seems to be the problem?"
"Well… it's a long story…"
She released the Ponyta onto the exam table, where it immediately fell over, whinnying in pain.
"What the-"
"Exactly. It was on fire. Not just the mane but it was actually on fire."
"How did that…"
"I dunno. Elli came back from chasing a Ratatta all panicky and whatever." She shrugged, pulling back her platinum blonde hair out of her face.
"Let me call professor Oak, I'm sure he can do something about it."
"Cool."
She reached out to brush the Ponyta's head and it made a pained whinny, but it didn't struggle. She released her Feraligatr and gently told it to give it some water over its burns.
"-But this Poyta has burns on it, Professor, burns. You of all people should know that fire types don't burn." He argued.
"Well… let me see it."
He carried the laptop over and pointed the camera at the injured Ponyta, which seemed fine now except for the raw spots and the Feraligatr fussing over it with small icy drops of water.
"Oh my." Was all the senior professor said.
"Oh my is right, Professor Oak." Natalia frowned, "Found it on fire."
"So I heard, but… what could be causing this?"
She had thrown out the rest of her pokemon, seeing as they were all curious. Her Haunter floated towards it, careful not to scare the already terrified creature, and floated around it slowly, checking every inch of its body.
"Careful, Lars." Natalia advised. The Haunter backed away.
"-I've been hearing similar stories in the Sinnoh and Kanto regions, in fact, peoples' pokemon are acting strangely…"
"What do you know?"
"Well…"
There was a knock on the door and Natalia went to answer it. Her Crobat flitted behind her, watching.
"Hello?"
"Natalia!"
"Liam? What's wrong?" she asked the small child.
"My Pikachu, i-it's gone! I-I don't know what happened to it, i-It was sick and it just ran off somewhere a-a-and I couldn't find it!" the small child sobbed.
"Don't you worry, we'll find it…" she pulled the child inside and sat him down next to her ditto. The ditto blinked and inched up to the crying boy, crooning curiously.
"I-I heard lots of peoples' pokémon were sick, too, and I-I didn't think it would happen to mine… Sparky never did anything…" he sniffed.
"Really? What did they do?"
The child collected himself shakily.
"W-well they'd start to bump into things, like they couldn't see… they wouldn't eat, they'd get real sad and they'd get close to their trainers… b-but then they'd get a real high fever and then… I-I don't know…"
The ditto next to him cooed.
"C-can I hug your ditto? I-I'm so scared… I miss Sparky…"
"Go ahead, it's alright, Grant wants a hug anyway."
The ditto transformed into a fluffy Pikachu and was immediately squeezed by the sobbing child like a stuffed toy.
"Hey Oak, you hear that?"
"Yes, it seems like it's an epidemic, now…" the older man sighed form his end of the video feed, but-"
Ther ewas a scream from outside that got Natalia running out. Crackles of yellow electricity and that growling that sounded like a child screaming. It was latched onto a woman's Machop and she vainly tried to beat it over the head, and she succeeded in smashing its face in, but it held on.
"S-Sparky!" Liam cried out, "What are you doing? Stop!"
The diseased Pikachu let go, the Machop fainted backward into the woman's arms, and immediately charged for the young boy, electricity crackling and teeth bared.
"Liam, watch out!" Natalia yelled, pulling the boy out of the way of its rampant charge. The Pikachu didn't seem to know its target had been pulled out of its line of impact and kept running until it hit the wall over the neighboring house. Natalia's house. It turned around and hissed. Elli the Growlithe whimpered. It was the same Pikachu that had been lying in the grass earlier that evening. It had blindly returned home.
"Sparky!"
"Shut up, he's going to-"
The Pikachu turned towards the sound. Its cheeks were burned with the electricity sparking out of it, its yellow fur was standing on end. White sightless eyes were trained in the direction of his master's voice, and with a scream, it charged again.
Elli blindy ran in front of it and breathed a scorching fire at the yellow creature. The Pikachu's child-like scream echoed as it turned and ran off.
"S-sparky! Come back!"
"Liam, no. He's gone, he's infected, didn't you see him?"
"B-but-"
"He's gone." Natalia barked, "He's not coming back to you."
Liam began to cry again, still squeezing the Ditto-pikachu as tightly as he could. Professor Elm peeked out.
"What was that?"
"Sparky caught it." Natalia frowned, rubbing the small child's back comfortingly, "Ellie had to burn him."
"Oh… I'm sorry, Liam." He waved them back inside.
"Natalia!"
The girl turned, looking at the woman who cradled her Machop gingerly.
"Miss Lily." She replied.
"Wh-what'll happen to Marik?" she asked fearfully.
The Machop in question had a tearing bite wound in its left arm and electricity burns around each puncture.
"I… don't know, we think the Ponyta we found had it but… it isn't going crazy."
"Will he be alright?" she sibbed, "is it like rabies?"
"Worse, I'm sorry. Come on, let's get him treated." Natalia led her to the Professor's house, closing the door behind her.
"Lily." The professor greeted, "is Marik okay?"
"No…" she showed him the bite wound.
"Oh dear." He frowned, "Put him next to the Ponyta there…"
The exam table had enough room; she put her Machop next to the Ponyta, which lifted its head slowly to look at the Machop. It whinnied again, flopping its head back down onto the table.
"I think I know what's going on, now." Professor Oak said gravely.
"What?" Natalia pressed, "What's going on?"
"I think there's an infection going around in the pokemon almost like a strain of rabies." He pulled out a paper and posted it on the opposite wall, beginning to draw.
"I have heard dozens of reports of people being bitten by their pokemon and having people's pokemon attacked, but nowhere have I found any reports of the people themselves being infected in any way."
"So… this only affects pokemon?"
"Correct. This infection…" he drew a Pikachu, "atrophies the muscle and any restraint for the respective pokemon's power. For instance, that Ponyta you found couldn't keep the fire in its mane under control because there was no restraint there to hold the fire back. In a healthy Ponyta," he drew a ponyta's mane and back, "there is restraint so the fire keeps to one area for use. However, in this Ponyta, the restraint has decayed away."
"But it seems to be under control right now."
"I think this has to do with the fact that there have been no reports of fire types becoming infected. Nor have there been any reports of ice types becoming infected either."
"So the fire burns away the infection… like a fever?" Elm guessed.
"Yes, the advantage is that fire types can heat themselves far higher than other pokemon can. This eliminates the infection more efficiently. Ice types cannot get this infection simply because the virus cannot survive in such cold climates."
"So what's your suggestion?"
The senior professor turned around.
"if you see an infected pokemon… destroy it immediately and burn the remains as well as you can. Carry a fire type with you, or any pokemon that knows a fire attack, and keep it with you at all times, next to you, walking with you."
Ellie shivered.
"But… What about Marik?"
"Keep him contained. If he tries to attack you pokemon, you may have no choice but to destroy him."
Lily choked, rubbing her Machop's arm comfortingly. Liam squeezed Grant even closer to him in fear.
"So Sparky…"
"Will have to be dealt with, I am sorry, Liam." Oak frowned, "I know how hard it is to lose a pokemon."
Oak turned to Natalia.
"Natalia, I need you to help us."
"Do what?"
"Find as many infected pokemon as you can and spread my message, deal with them. You've already beaten every gym in this region and the Kanto region, I am confident you can do it."
"But… alright." She sighed.
"Much appreciated. If your pokemon become infected, keep them away from other pokemon." Oak warned.
"Alright…"
"And remember. Fire types and ice types cannot become infected, but any other type can."
"So if I run into an infected Gyarados?"
"Freeze it to the core. Do away with it as much as you can."
"And what should I look for?"
"Any sign that the pokemon is decaying form the inside, or otherwise emaciated or unhealthy."
"Got it. When do I go?"
"Tomorrow, I'll keep in touch with you via Pokegear."
"Got it."
"Good, I wish you luck." The senior professor signed off. Elm closed his laptop, sighing.
"This is terrible… I can't believe you're forced to kill your own pokemon if they're infected…"
"The infection doesn't reach humans. It's for the safety of the people so they aren't mauled." Natalia sighed, thinking about what to do if any of her pokemon were ever taken by that infection.
"We're lucky for that." Professor Elm shrugged, beginning to treat Marik's arm.
"I can't imagine… you're so brave, Natalia…" Lily whispered with tears in her eyes.
"No, I just have to do this before it gets out of hand…"