(Please note that this is labeled T for a reason. If you are okay with blood, sickness, and death, then please continue. If not, then I wouldn't suggest reading this story. The age group I recommend for this story are older teens, but I am not going to force you to not read this. You have been warned.)

In the peaceful region of Sinnoh, eleven years after the events of Team Rainbow Rocket...

"Another one?"

"Yes," I replied to him. Beside me stood my Espeon, Astrid. Her coat was a strange violet color, much unlike the usual lavender color of any other Espeon. She stared up at me as if waiting for me to explain.

"How many has it been so far?" The scientist asked, poking his head up to look at me. His black hair brushed against his face, and he pushed it to the side with his hand.

I took a deep breath, thinking whether to tell him or not. I eventually made my mind. "This is the twentieth case this month. No fatalities have been reported yet, and people are getting nothing more than a few minor scratches."

The scientist glanced down for a second, in deep thought. Finally he spoke up. "Mr. Fletcher, don't you want to find out what is causing this sudden change in Pokémon? Nothing has ever happened like this before."

I sighed. "Of course I want to find out the cause. That's why I am looking at these Pokémon, trying to discover why exactly this is happening." Beside me, Astrid whined a tiny bit, but I ignored her.

"What was the last Pokémon affected?" He asked, moving on from my short speech.

I went around the desk and tossed him a few papers. "The last case was a Pidove, and that was a few hours ago." I noticed him filing through the papers I had given him. "Two days ago was a couple of Bidoof and an Eevee." Beside me, Astrid winced upon hearing that one of the victims was an Eevee, her basic form.

"Have there been any cases of a nonbasic Pokémon becoming affected?" He set the papers down and gave me a cold look.

"No, there haven't... sir." I had to win some favoritism from him. He was second-in-command here after all. To be honest, I was a bit surprised when I was hired for this job as a scientist, despite my young age of sixteen. But I guess that's what being homeschooled until age ten, and then graduating college at thirteen could do. Yes, I'm not ashamed to admit it; I am very gifted.

A small smile formed on his face; whether it was because of the news I had given him or me calling him sir, I couldn't be sure. "Then this is okay. So far, only basic Pokémon are being affected by whatever this is. This means that whatever is causing this to happen isn't strong enough to affect stage 1 or stage 2 Pokémon."

I glanced away, my gaze locking on Astrid. "Yes, however..."

"However...?" He pressed.

"However, basic Pokémon make up about two-thirds of the entire Pokémon population. And on top of that, it's spreading rapidly. An average of two cases a day."

If he heard me, he gave no sign of it.

"Mr. Fletcher, Mr. K." Both of us looked up at a woman carrying two metal crates in her hands. They shook violently from the creatures inside.

"Professor Rose," I greeted her. From the corner of my eye I noticed Mr. K give her a nod of acknowledgement. I blinked and directed my attention to the crates she was holding.

"These are several of the Pokémon that have been recently affected," she informed us, a bit out of breath from having to carry them all this way. With a single nod to Astrid, my Espeon lifted the crates from her hands using Psychic. "Thank you, Astrid," I heard her sigh in relief.

Astrid nodded at her. "Esp."

The crates were brought and lifted onto a large table in a corner of the room. I followed them and peeked inside, curiosity getting the better of me. Immediately I was met with violent growling and vain attempts to attack me. I drew back, startled.

I glanced back at Astrid. "Use Yawn," I instructed. She nodded and jumped onto the table in front of the crates and gave a huge yawn. I could hear yawns echoing from the crates and I knew it was only a matter of time before the Pokémon inside fell asleep.

Sure enough, the growling eventually stopped, and the banging upon the door ceased. "They're asleep." I waited a few more moments before opening the door and looking at the Pokémon inside.

A Starly and Buneary were in the first crate, and a Shinx in the other. "This is getting out of hand. With the first case reported nearly a month ago, and these are our twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third Pokémon since then," Professor Rose said and brushed her hair away from her face before getting a red lock and twirling it on her finger. I had discovered that she does this when she was worried or stressed.

I picked up the unconscious Shinx in my arms and looked at her. "Yes, it is. But with any luck, these Pokémon could be the key to finding out what in the world is going on."

I turned and started walking towards a door to another room. Astrid picked up the remaining two Pokémon using her Psychic and followed me out. "Thank you again, Professor Rose. You've been a great help in all of this."

Professor Rose smiled at my praise. Yes, I was a few years younger than her, but my smarts are what got me in this job in the first place. My words meant a lot, especially to someone like her. I noticed that she was no longer twirling her hair, and smiled to myself before exiting the room. Everybody knew exactly what I was going to do anyway, and trusted me. Well, almost everybody. Mr. K still seemed to hate me for some reason. And besides, I had Astrid with me. What could possibly go wrong?

I placed the Pokémon on a lab table and put on a pair of gloves and a mask for myself. After glancing quickly over the three, I found that they all had one thing in common; there was a huge mark somewhere on each of them, deep enough to have drawn blood. Then I fetched some small oxygen masks and placed them on the Pokémon to make sure they were breathing. I gave them each the smallest amount of anesthesia to guarantee that they would remain asleep. I then placed heart monitors over them to keep track of their heart rate.

I worked for a long while by myself, my only help coming from Astrid as she handed me the supplies I needed. I preferred to work alone, rather than with someone else. Besides, it's not like I was doing anything too severe.

Astrid brought over a small tray, which I gratefully set the blood samples onto. I had them all labeled, along with the date and time. This was necessary to determine what exactly was going on. I glanced back at the heart monitors. All good.

I called the main lab area on the speaker and the door opened a few moments later. "Hello?" Professor Rose said to me. I nodded to her.

"Can you please bring the crates in here; we need to get them into there before they wake up." Of course I knew that they weren't going to wake up anytime soon; it would be at least another hour or two at the least, but I wanted to have them out of my sight.

Professor Rose nodded and left the room.

Yes, I was a scientist. And yes, I have a doctorate degree, but that doesn't mean I like to see others hurt. Part of being a doctor- one who heals others- means hurting them first. It still bothered me every time I had to do something like this.

Professor Rose came back in, carrying the two crates. We opened them up and carefully set the first two in the crate together. When it was time for the Shinx, though, I hesitated.

"Professor, do you know if all of these Pokémon were Wild?" I asked slowly, my gaze never leaving the blue lion cub Pokémon.

She seemed confused at first, but sighed. "Not all of these were wild, no. There are a few so far that were owned by Trainers."

I nodded slowly. "Alright... thank you for that information." I picked up the Shinx and placed it down in the crate as gently as I could. Still I looked at it.

"Mr, Fletcher? Is something bothering you?" The Professor asked quietly. She began playing with her long, red hair again; she was nervous.

I quickly shook my head. "No, of course not." And then, just to prove it, I placed a hand on her shoulder lightly. Then it was gone as I moved away and towards the computers, bringing the three blood samples from the Pokémon here. "Just out of curiosity," I began as I entered the first blood sample into a machine hooked into the computers. "Do you know if that Shinx belonged to anyone?"

The computers began to read the data and she nodded. "Yes, it belonged to a girl. I believe her name was-" she stopped short as a quiet wheeze caught our attention.

I ran to the crates and opened them up. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. I scooped up the Shinx; it was the one in critical danger. "Oxygen mask!" I shouted to Professor Rose. She darted to get one and pressed it to the Shinx's muzzle. Its breaths were short and barely noticeable. "No, no..." I muttered quietly.

The Shinx was suddenly still and silent. I felt around for its heartbeat in fear, but was unable to find it. "No!" I yelled loudly. I checked everywhere for a pulse, breath, movement, anything. Nothing.

I lowered my head in defeat. "It's dead..." I murmured. "The first death since this plague, and it's all my fault."

"Hey," Professor Rose said gently and wiped a tear from her own face. "It's not your fault." And then she surprised me by wrapping her arms around my back in a hug. It was sad and full of pain, but I was grateful for her support.

I set the Shinx down carefully on the table and petted its long, soft fur. Still warm... My eyes closed in anger at myself, until I felt something wrap around my hand. Beside me, Professor Rose was looking at me worriedly, her hand holding mine. We looked at each other in a grief-filled silence for several moments.

And then the computers beeped, letting us know what it had found from the blood samples. I looked through it and blinked. No, this can't be right. I read it again in disbelief.

I shook my head and typed into the computer for it to redo the test; something must've happened because that answer doesn't make any sense at all.

A few more moments passed and it beeped again. Same result. Still unable to accept this, I redid the rest, but with a different blood sample.

It beeped and I dared to read the words on the screen. There, in large words was a simple word that made no sense whatsoever. Pokérus*.

How? Pokérus is used for making Pokémon stronger. It never affected Pokémon negatively, so why now? Then I noticed the star next to the word.

"What did you find?" Professor Rose asked gently, and I started, forgetting that she was there too.

"Pokérus," I answered. "That's what's responsible for all of this."

"What?" She put a hand to her mouth. "But how? Why? I thought it was a good virus."

I shook my head. "No."

She thought slowly. "Unless..." she trailed off and I looked at her to continue. "Unless it mutated somehow, like other viruses and bacteria do to resist medicines."

"But there was never a cure for Pokérus in the first place. The only thing people suggested was to wait for a few days." I countered.

"And maybe that's the reason." She looked to me as realization came upon her face. "It might have mutated within a Pokémon, and that parent passed it down to its child, where it mutated again. So now we have a strange virus that affects Pokémon negatively, making them deadly, and apparently..." she glanced at the Shinx sadly.

"It can kill them as well," I finished for her. Then I thought. "But then why are there new cases every day? We bring in every infected Pokémon here to keep it away from others. They're all with Boss."

"That, I don't know exactly," she admitted. "But for now, we need to get these two to him. He will want to see them and keep track of all infected Pokémon."

I nodded. "And also, we need to spread the word. Pokérus is deadly, and no longer a useful tool for Trainers." My gaze lingered on Shinx and I felt a fresh pang of sympathy as I saw it, dead. Astrid rubbed her side against my leg, but I hardly felt it. "People need to know."

Professor Rose nodded. "Yes, and I know exactly how to spread the word..."

2185 words

I don't know if this seems like a good story. I came up with this idea a few days ago, and now, here I am, writing the creepiest story about it- and this is only the intro.

Also, please note that THIS IS LABELED T. The reason is because of blood/violence, death, sickness, and a lot of other things.

Chapter one will come out soon.