Slowly, I opened my heavy eyelids, and found everything to be blurry. I closed my eyes again and tried to rub them, letting out an inaudible yawn. Once I opened my eyes again, the blurriness had gone away, and I realized I had no idea where I was. I seemed to be lying the wrong way on top of a small but comfy bed. Looking around further, I noticed that I was in a tiny room, so small that the bed took up nearly a quarter of it. The walls were painted blue, there weren't any windows, a plain wooden door with a knob stood on the other side of the room, and there was a fancy fan spinning on the ceiling. Looking back down, I was momentarily surprised to see the paws of a Glaceon right where I thought my hands were, but then I remembered the experience I had with my transformation into a Pokémon. Not having any motivation to stand, I found myself drifting back to sleep.
Some time later, I heard the sound of a the door opening. Looking up, I saw someone standing in the doorway. The person looked like he was only eighteen, and seemed to be very nervous, made clear by the expression on his face. His hair was colored a muddy yellow with two flashy red tufts that were supposed to represent Pokémon ears... but the hair was severely lopsided to the right, blatantly showing he was wearing a wig. He was wearing a plain yellow t-shirt, yellow gloves, baggy blue jeans, and... no shoes or socks. Needless to say, I had absolutely no idea who the wreck standing in front of me was.
The strange guy walked up next to my bed, and knelt down in front of me. He extended his trembling arm out to me, and slowly rubbed the top of my head.
"H-Hey, A-Akia..." He muttered, his voice unsteady. I opened my mouth to respond before closing it again, remembering the syringe's silencing effects. "Ha... R-Right. D-Don't worry about t-that, w-we'll get you your v-v-voice back."
I smiled at the guy, for two reasons. First, it was dead obvious the guy, no matter what his job was, was fresh from the assembly line. He didn't know how to interact with me whatsoever. Second, just looking at the guy told me he was going to be a weird person to be around, for better or for worse.
"C-Come along!"—He stood up and walked to the door—"O-Oh, and my name's H-Houne, by the way! N-Not that she'd be able to say it..."
And with that, he was gone. Still slightly bewildered by Houne, it took me a bit before I got my bearings. I stood up awkwardly and jumped off my bed, somehow managing to land on all fours perfectly on my first go. I practiced walking around the room slowly for a few minutes, getting used to moving my alien limbs in the way I wanted them to. I stopped momentarily when I looked down; I expected a fully clothed, teenage female body, not a pair of furry white and blue arm-legs with paws that couldn't grip anything! I started trying to forget about my appearance as a human, as I knew it wouldn't be coming back anytime soon... or maybe not at all.
"H-Hey! A-Akia!" Houne yelled from outside my door, "C-Come on, we've got b-breakfast!"
Almost like a response, I heard a growl from behind me. I frowned, knowing that the growl should've come from underneath my head, not behind it. I trudged to the barely-open door, tired from learning my limits with my new body. Using my head to open the door, I walked out into the hallway. It looked just like the hallway of a hotel, with drawings on the soft carpet, lights on the red, wallpaper covered walls, and numbered plaques of gold next to the doors. Turning around to look at the number of my room, I saw: '[5]'. Looking to my left, I saw Houne again, and he was turned away from me. He opened the door and turned around to face me, holding the door open. I slowly walked through, keeping my eye on the strange man.
On the other side of the door were two individuals. There was a woman in her forties with short, lime green hair, some wrinkles, and ocean blue eyes... as well as a Pokémon. One that was surprisingly similar to myself, but different at the same time. It had spiky yellow fur, stood on four unsteady legs, and had an angry expression on its furry face.
My district partner, Kyle, stood in front of me as a Jolteon.
I glared at my partner with unmoving eyes and a smirk. His fate of becoming a Pokémon was exactly what he deserved. He was infamous at school for bullying so many kids, including me, and he actually nearly killed one of my classmates. Kyle, on the other hand, saw this as an insult. He bared his teeth at me, and opened his mouth as if to yell... only to realize the same thing I had: The injections were still in effect.
"H-Hey, come on K-Kyle, it isn't so b-ba—" Houne started to say, being interrupted by a index finger to the mouth from the woman.
"You know what? Come on, you two, it's time to eat!" The woman said with a trill.
Pushing the two of us along, the woman slapped Houne on the back of the head, causing him to yelp in pain. Looking to my left, I saw a grin on Kyle's face, who must've found the introduction funny. We continued to walk down another identical hallway, until we came up to what looked like a dining room. A large table stood in the middle of the elegantly detailed room, with a stylized gold-and-maroon rug laid underneath it. A chandelier with four candles hung from the ceiling while swaying slightly. A total of ten chairs surrounded the table... And two golden bowls were placed on the floor, filled with a wide variety of berries.
I was suddenly overcome with a new, feral instinct to lunge for the bowl, filled with all its delicious contents. I was halfway to the bowl when I came to my senses, and stopped dead in my tracks. Realizing what I'd done, I took a few steps back, and tried to calm myself down, not wanting to lose what humanity I had left. Kyle, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. He charged for the bowl on the left and pushed his face into all its contents, sending berries flying everywhere. I backed off, deciding to wait until Kyle was done with his. The floor was a mess, with juices of all colors leaking out of the ruptured berries. I was hungry, sure, but I would never have made a mess like that, being a Pokémon or not.
Once Kyle was done with his bowl, I ran up to mine so Kyle wouldn't attempt to take it. I reached out my front right leg in an attempt to grab an oran berry, but stopped when I looked at its paw. My head drooped in shame, knowing I would have to eat like a Pokémon as well. Looking at the bowl and its contents, I slowly lowered my head, and bit the leaf of a yellow-and-orange leppa berry. I couldn't taste it except for a slight, subtle sourness. I reached down further and bit into a tan-and-blue chesto berry. It was incredibly tough, like trying to eat half the food at my school, so... it wasn't really that bad. It was very dry though, not being very juicy at all. On the bright side, its effects were similar to drinking coffee; I was quickly becoming less drowsy, and I felt like I had a lot more energy.
I kept on eating the berries very slowly, savoring every single one as if it was my last. After eating about ten of them, I started eating two at once for double the flavor! During my meal, I heard someone walk up behind me, and felt a needle penetrate my leg. I opened my mouth and yelled...
"GLAAEE!"
I quickly shut my mouth and blushed in embarrassment. I was suddenly able to talk... But I was speaking like a Pokémon; speaking the name of the species I'd become. I wouldn't be able to talk to humans anymore. I could understand them, but they couldn't understand me. I started feeling like a pet... Under the command of the master, and having no free will, ever. I felt trapped, locked from the rest of the world... Because no one could understand me.
And I was trapped. In the games. And, later, in the arena. And even if I won, I would still be kept apart from my friends, since I would be released into the wild, and even if I managed to find my way back home, no one would understand me. My old life was completely gone, taken away by the games, never to be returned.
At least a minute passed before I stopped thinking about what my future could've been. No longer hungry, I slowly backed away from my bowl and looked over my shoulder. No one was there. I peered around the table, looking at the other side of the room. Absolutely no one there. I pondered what to do, as I had nobody to guide me. A tiny smile formed on my face.
Why not take a look around?
Turning around, I went through the hallway that led to my tiny bedroom, and came across another door that was barely cracked open. Nudging the door open, I found an extremely cramped room with another door right next to it. I lifted an eyebrow, wondering where the heck I was. Passing through the door, an old habit reared its ugly head.
Using my right hind leg, I closed the door behind me.
Craaap.
Realizing what I'd done two seconds after doing it, I tried reaching up to the door handle. Annoyingly, I somehow couldn't keep my balance for even a second on two legs. This absolutely infuriated me, knowing how mindlessly simple opening a door used to be as a human. This became much worse when I realized I could probably open the door if my body allowed me to stand on my hind legs, since I probably would've been able to grip the handle, even with Glaceon paws.
Looking around the room for an exit, I realized that both the doors were completely shut, leaving no room for escape. I hurriedly glanced at every part of the cold, tiny room to see if there was anything I could use. On the cold, hard, metal ground, there was a long, coiled up rope that I could possibly have used later. There were a lot of sandbags as well, which were unbelievably heavy, mostly because I still wasn't quite used to my body yet. Moving them aside took a lot of effort, but when I did, underneath them was...
...a selfie stick.
My paw slapped my forehead. Why, of all things, was a selfie stick there? It didn't make sense to me... at all. Regardless, I dropped my head down, and picked up the stick by its handle. Slowly walking over toward the door, I cocked my head to the side in order to make the stick line up with the handle. It was incredibly weird trying to push the handle down, but a few moments later, I managed to push the door open. The door slowly swung open, and I was greeted with another hallway, but this time with wooden walls. I'd opened the wrong door. I didn't really care, though, since I still wanted to check out the place.
Trudging through the hallway, I heard something. Coming to a stop, my ears shot straight up, and I listened closely. I could hear an old man's voice coming from the other side of the left wall. Pressing my ear against the wooden wall, I listened in. I was extremely curious, and wanted some more information of... anything, really.
"Yeah. I know, it's a really big problem. What will we do without a president?" A younger, male voice said, apparently replying to the older man.
"Just give the role to the Vice President, Seo Zakara. We'll say there was... suicide," The older man replied with a deep, gruff voice.
"...What?!" I whispered in shock, being completely confused. I wanted to continue listening, hoping that I would be able to understand what was going on. And the younger man... he sounded like Houne!
"Are you kidding me?! That's stupid! That would start a load of controversy! If we told people that the president actually committed suicide, people would lose their minds!"
"...Yep. Said that to them. They say they're working on a reason... But it's going to be hard to do. After all, Viscoshi has only been in office for three years, and he's already going to resign!"
"You know the reason, right?"
"Yep. I still can't believe anyone in District 7 would actually do that... I feel terrible for Denak."
"Me too. Freaking scumbags. Trust me, I'd take his fate if he could survive..."
"Of course you would, but you know that can't happen."
"Yeah... I know."
I jumped when I heard a click from the door, and it slowly opened. Houne stepped out, and looked in my direction. I was caught red handed, with my ear still against the door, and the selfie stick still in my mouth. The look on his face was one of astonishment and anger. He'd forgotten to put his wig back on, so his short, brown hair was showing instead. He was wearing the same attire, except he was actually wearing tennis shoes. Houne slowly walked up to me, knelt down, and held my chin up with his thumb.
"Akia... You're freaking clever. But... we need to head back, okay? I don't know how much of that you heard, but I can't tell you any more of it for now, okay? I hope you understand..." He explained, looking me in the eye.
Standing back up, he walked right past me, and I followed right behind him. Coming up to the door, Houne turned around, and knelt down again.
"Alright, Akia. Please, cooperate with me here," he said with a very serious tone, "I'll talk with you later about all this... If you do what I want you to. Will you?"
"Sure!" I replied while nodding. Houne put his right hand in his pocket, and pulled something out. It was a red and white sphere with a button on the front. A Pokéball. He pressed the button, and the ball grew. Houne set the ball on the carpet, right in front of me.
"Please... Touch this." He pleaded, looking me in the eye with desperation. "I really don't want to get chewed ou—"
Without any hesitation, I reached my paw out and touched the ball. The effect was immediate. My vision went entirely red, and my body seemed to dissolve. Everything around me went completely black, and everything went completely, utterly silent. Then, slowly, I started feeling my body again. Almost out of nowhere, a podium with a big red button on top faded into existence five feet away from me. If I wanted to, I could run up to the podium, press the button, and I would be let free. The podium seemed to be floating away from me, but I stayed perfectly still.
A bell rang once, echoing forever in the endless void. Soon, I could no longer see the podium, and I was once again left in complete darkness.
The bell rang twice, letting me know I was nearly captured. Everything seemed to start glowing whiter and whiter...
And the bell rang thrice.
Author's Notes: So... What did you think? I really tried to make this chapter great while also coming out the week after the first one, but I don't think I'll get that lucky again. I'd love some feedback on this chapter, to know if I made any mistakes, if there were any boring points, or maybe if there's something you really, really liked! Also, if you want to have an impact on the story, send me an OC! I'd love to see any characters you come up with! Thanks for reading this, and have a great day!