Welcome back to this story! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far; I really appreciate it. Reviews keep me going.
I hope you enjoy this chapter. It was a fun one to write, and, thus far, writing two stories at once isn't completely and totally overwhelming. It remains to be seen how long I can keep up this pace for, but, for now, enjoy!
The rest of the day felt interminable to Lance.
Of course, that wasn't entirely due to factors that had only started to exist today. He genuinely disliked school, finding it quite boring. He understood the importance of getting a good education, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it along the way.
Now, he was a Lucario, and that meant that everybody was staring at him. Lance, often the relatively shy guy who didn't like to be the center of attention, was now the center of attention. And this was his worst nightmare.
Thankfully, most of the teachers didn't allow the use of cell phones during class, which meant that the other students couldn't take even more pictures of him to post on social media. Which was great and all, but there were still plenty of pictures that were no doubt circulating on the Internet at the moment.
Finally, the day ended, and Lance could at last get out of class. He took the back stairway of the school in order to avoid detection. Avoid detection might not have been the best phrase to use, simply because it was a large school, and it wasn't like he could make it so that nobody saw him. Things just didn't work that way.
Because Lance only had his learner's permit, not his license, he had to walk home from school. This wasn't a problem, since it really wasn't that far away from his house. Even so, he decided to take most of the back streets, just because he didn't want to be seen.
Even with all of his most careful precautions, he heard at least thirty or forty snaps as he walked past people. While Lucario were native to Sinnoh, most of them lived in the mountains north of here, not in the suburbs of Pastoria City. As a result, when the people came across the Lucario walking along the avenue, they had good reason to assume that it was the guy who had transformed.
Do they all know that quickly, though?, Lance asked himself. Surely the other students at his school hadn't had the time to upload the videos to PokeTube yet, had they? It took a while to do that...but long enough that nobody would have had the time to?
It didn't matter. If he had luck bad enough to turn into a Lucario in the middle of English class, his luck was surely also bad enough that it could be known around the world at this point.
"Hey, Lance!" his neighbor, Mr. Bradley, exclaimed. "I heard of what happened today. Sorry to hear that".
"It's fine" the young man said. "Really, it's pretty cool being a Lucario. For one, I love having this chest spike; I can use it to maul people".
Perhaps those had been the wrong words to say to his neighbor. For a second, Mr. Bradley looked as though he was going to swing his shovel at Lance, in order to try and knock the Lucario boy unconscious.
Then, he said, "That's pretty cool. I hope that you don't try and do that to any of us, though; I don't think most people would appreciate getting mauled".
Lance chuckled. "No, I really don't think that they would".
After that, he left his neighbor to his own devices and walked up to his home.
His younger sister, Michaela, typically wasn't home by this point; she always stayed late at school for play practice. She went to different classes and had a different lunch hour than him, so they hadn't seen each other over the course of the school day. That said, she did have well-connected friends, so it was a certainty that she had found out about her brother's transformation.
I don't care what Michaela thinks, Lance decided. She's my sister, and I love her, but it doesn't go any further than that. I just hope she's willing to accept me for who I am; a Lucario now.
The thing was, Lance found it fairly cool to be a Lucario. He might not have been able to use a lot of aura-based moves yet, but he could still speak. There was one downside, however.
As a Lucario, he was essentially wearing a large blue-and-black fursuit. The weather outside was quite hot, perhaps ninety-five degrees or so; the previous day had been the hottest one of the year thus far.
As soon as Lance got inside, he went into the kitchen and retrieved the pitcher of iced lemonade from the fridge. He poured himself a tall glass of it, gulping it down like a child dying of thirst. It tasted so good in this weather, and in his current condition, that he considered pouring himself another glass. However, he decided against it.
He went to sit down on the couch, but he accidentally sat on his tail.
Eyes watering, he yelped in pain. Sitting on one's own tail was a sensation that he didn't want anyone else to experience, ever, no matter how much he hated that person. It was immensely painful.
As soon as he had gotten his tail out of the way, Lance turned on the TV and decided to watch his favorite movie, based on a true story: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. After putting it into the disc drive, he waited for it to turn on.
I hope the reporters don't come here before the movie's over, he thought. That would be very bad indeed.
Pushing that thought out of his mind, Lance attempted to just enjoy the movie. After all, it was his favorite, and he figured that it might help him to get past the reality that was his life.
He tried to get absorbed in the setting, but the thought that the news media would come to his home to capitalize on the story was just too pervasive.
Even so, he was able to laugh as Meowth said, "Personally, I prefer dining to dancing". He'd seen the movie many times by now, but that line always got to him.
Unfortunately, it was also the last line that he heard before the knock on the door.
It's a little early to be Michaela, and my parents aren't supposed to be home from work for a while...which can only be one thing.
The news media.
Reluctantly, Lance got up off his very comfortable couch and walked over to the door, head down.
The very instant he opened the door, that was the very instant he was bombarded with cameras.
"I hear that you transformed into a Lucario" one of them, the one from SNN, said. "Can you please tell us more about what that transformation felt like?"
Lance was seized by a sudden urge to say something that he knew was false, but might keep them off of him for at least a few seconds. Impulsively, he replied, "That's fake news!"
"Excuse me?" a man from Vulpix News asked. "Fake news? We have a Lucario right before us who lives at the same address as Lance Grant, and you're telling me that it's fake news that he transformed into one?"
The gig was up, almost as soon as it had been started. "Okay" he replied. "I'll admit it; it's true. I turned into a Lucario. What's the big deal?"
"It matters", the man from Vulpix News said, "because there are a lot of things going on in the other regions. You might live in just this small corner of Sinnoh, but things are much larger and greater than just the Pastoria City area".
"I would know that very well" Lance replied. "My family travels quite a lot. I've been to Kanto and Johto before".
"That is not what we asked you" a woman from the LAB network said. "What we wanted to know is, how did you manage to transform? What kind of drugs are you taking?"
Lance listed the medications he was currently taking for anxiety. Somehow, he didn't think those would interest the woman. And he was right.
"I'm not talking those kinds of drugs. Prescription drugs do not count. I'm talking drugs that are generally illegal".
"Then no" he replied. "I have not been experimenting with drugs". And maybe you have, he thought but did not say. To suggest that I have been doing that is quite outlandish.
"Let me take over" the man from Vulpix News said. "Mr. Grant, what did it feel like to transform? Did it hurt?"
"A lot, actually" the young man replied. "Imagine a white-hot knife sticking its way through your chest the whole time, and your bones elongating, and hair sprouting all over the place...yeah, it's generally not the most fun way to spend a day".
"Ha! I like that" the man said. "That's actually really clever".
"Um...I was being dead serious" Lance replied.
"What did you do after you had transformed?" the man asked him.
Lance saw no reason to lie about that. "I went to the bathroom in order to make sure that it really had happened, to look in the mirror. After that, I went to the nurse, who took some of my blood".
"And after that?"
"I went back to class. I think that will be all - I'm kind of sick of talking to you guys. The news media is always so annoying sometimes".
"We're just trying to help" the woman from the LAB network replied.
"If you really wanted to help me", Lance replied, "you would leave me be. After all, I still have some homework to do, and I have a life to live. So I would appreciate it if you let me have some "me" time right now, okay?"
"Of course, sir" the man from Vulpix News replied. He stepped away, meaning that the woman from the LAB network was now the only one standing in front of Lance.
"So, Lance", she said, "is there any way that you can tell me anything else? Or do you just want me to leave?"
"Leave" the boy replied. "Leave, and don't ever come back. I don't have the answers to your questions. Maybe I never will. But you need to give me some space, okay?"
"Okay" the woman from the LAB network told him. "I guess we'll be going now".
"That's very nice of you, thanks" Lance replied. He considered making an Aura Sphere in his paw in order to persuade them to leave faster, but he reminded himself that he didn't really know how to use aura yet. It would certainly take some getting used to, so he could be excused for not wanting to try that.
As soon as he was confident that the reporters had all left, their various vans having disappeared into the distance, Lance headed back inside. He didn't really know what was going to happen now, but it caused him more than a little anxiety.
They'll all know that I'm a Lucario now, he thought to himself. If things had seemed bad before, they were ten times worse now.
My location just got broadcast to the entire world! If there are any poachers around watching that, they'll make mincemeat out of me!
Lance ran through the house to his backyard. Looking into the distance, he noted that a fence blocked the next yard from him being able to run into it. Of course, he could probably have jumped over the fence in the state he was in, but he wasn't going to do that.
He'd been tired before he had gotten home, but the knowledge that everybody knew where he was, as well as that he was a Lucario, gave him the adrenaline he needed to spring off the deck and start running laps around the yard.
Lance wasn't particularly one for running, only doing it on their treadmill to stay in shape. He didn't like to run outside, particularly not in weather this warm.
Even so, he began sprinting around the yard, around where their swingset had used to be, past the trees that lined parts of it.
He only stopped after fifty or so laps to collapse in the middle of the yard, his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a dog. He was exhausted, completely unable to do anything else.
For a while, he just looked up, careful to avoid staring at the sun. He didn't know if his new Lucario eyes would be able to withstand that, but he didn't want to risk that. Nothing was worth risking that.
Oh, boy, he thought. I really am a freak. I can't believe that this actually happened.
He must have been lying there for about fifteen minutes, completely drained, when he decided to head inside in order to check his phone.
They can't be tracking my phone, can they? Isn't wiretapping illegal in Sinnoh, or pretty much anywhere else, for that matter? I really don't want to risk that, but at the same time…
Eventually, Lance decided that the potential reward would be greater than the risk. He could go and see what sort of impact the news of him turning into a Lucario had had on the rest of the world.
Actually, I might as well check my computer, he decided. That's going to give me a lot more answers.
His phone could surf the Internet, yes, but it was a lot slower and harder to use for this purpose. Really, his laptop was far superior.
Grabbing his MacBook Air from his backpack, Lance went over to PokeTube and typed in, "Guy turns into Lucario".
Almost immediately, several results came up. The first one must have been filmed by Xavier, the same guy who had been throwing paper airplanes in Mr. Ayer's class. At least, that was the vantage point from which it appeared to have been filmed.
Lance clicked on that one. It took a few seconds to load, time Lance used by thinking despondently about how he could not yet create an Aura Sphere. A real tragedy, that was, although he was sure that it wouldn't last for too long. Either he'd figure out how to use aura, or how to turn back. He was pretty confident in that.
As soon as the video loaded, Lance sat back on his couch, thinking about just how alarming it was that it had happened.
The video perfectly captured every detail of the transformation, even though the quality wasn't the best. Hopefully, some of them might think it's fake. Maybe...a guy can dream, right?
Right?
He had hopes, but he also had fears that those hopes would be dashed. The video already had a pretty sizable number of views (into the millions), and, according to the number at the bottom of the video screen, a little over six thousand comments.
Lance was absolutely flabbergasted by this. It had only been a couple of hours since his transformation, and yet news had already gone viral. Already, it was likely that it would be on the evening news.
He went back to the TV, where the movie was still paused at the sight of Meowth tipping a plate of food into his mouth. Don't worry about it, he told himself. It's going to be fine.
Lance changed the channel; after everything that had just happened, all he wanted to do was to look at the 4:00 news. If his story was the first one that appeared...he wasn't going to be happy about that at all.
Sure enough, the news anchor was going over a clip of him transforming into a Lucario. The headline was, "STUDENT TRANSFORMS INTO LUCARIO IN MIDDLE OF ENGLISH CLASS".
He saw that his best friend, Tom, was being interviewed on the situation. "Do you know what happened, Tom?" the other boy was being asked.
"No, I really don't" Tom replied, looking at the news anchor over his glasses. "I just saw him groan in pain as he stood up, and he had transformed into a Lucario. As to why it happened, your guess is as good as mine".
"I see" the anchor said. "Well, I suppose that we will have answers soon enough. After all, that is the way it works with developing stories, and this very much is a developing story".
Tom looked genuinely dismayed. Lance knew that he cared about him, and he wouldn't like for me to be gawked at like some animal in a zoo. Unfortunately, he was afraid that he would have no power to stop that from happening.
Whatever, Lance told himself. Once the DNA test comes in, we'll know what happened...hopefully. Maybe. I don't quite know.
One thing was for sure: If he ever became a human again, he wouldn't take that for granted. Because things could always be a lot worse, and he was finding that out for himself right now.
Just then, the phone rang. Lance was seized by the usual urge to say, "I'll get it!" However, he remembered that he was the only one home, so it would have been a little weird to do so.
Picking the phone up, he said, "Hello?"
"Hello, is this the home of Lance Grant?"
"Yes" Lance replied. "If you don't mind me asking, what do you want from me?"
"Your DNA test came back. There is absolutely no evidence that Lance Grant has ever been anything other than a Lucario. He's a full Lucario, and it doesn't seem to matter that he wasn't one only a few hours ago".
Those words were fairly chilling to Lance. He didn't want to think that all of his ties to being a human were completely gone. At the same time, however, he wanted to believe what was true.
"Okay" Lance replied.
The woman from the hospital kept talking, and Lance eventually hung up, sick of all of it. He was sick of all of this; he just wanted to get upstairs and do his homework, as if it was just a normal day after school.
Of course, things were anything but normal now.
Yep, so the news media now knows that Lance has transformed into a Lucario. I think that things are going to go just perfectly for him from this moment forward, don't you think?
Of course, if it really was that way, it wouldn't be Poké Wars. Believe me, things are going to go wrong very, VERY fast.
