CHAPTER 3: After burn
I grabbed my head in pain with my hands.
I moaned from all of the pain I was going through.
I barely managed to open my eyes.
I was in a cage.
A very small cage.
I panicked however as I saw my reflection in a mirror placed at the door of the cage.
I couldn't believe my reflection.
I feebly crawled to get closer, then felt a grief take over.
I was... A Riolu.
A Pokemon.
I didn't need to hit myself.
I was in enough pain as it was to realize this wasn't a dream.
"Lu! Riolu!"
I was shocked to not hear my own voice anymore.
"Well hello Damian. How are you today?" a woman's voice asked.
The cage door opened and a pair of thin, pale arms entered the cage.
I was pulled out of the cage and was being carried by a brunette haired woman wearing safety goggles and a lab coat.
"Okay. I'm just gonna do some tests here."
I was placed on an operating table, surrounded by other people in lab coats.
"Is it him though?" Lewis asked.
"Only one way to find out. Damian, I am Doctor Gregory. Can you spell my name into the table? Here. Use this paint."
I put my paw into the black bowl of paint.
"Just write Greg if you want," the man added.
"RI... Riolu!" I replied.
I looked at my paw, then came up with an idea.
I simply smeared the paint all over the table instead of rather writing his name.
One woman wrote on a clipboard.
"He may be suffering a bit of memory loss. His intelligence may have decreased."
Lewis stepped to the table to confront me.
I looked into his eyes with a hard stare.
"No... He's faking. Its definitely Damian. Do something else," Lewis retorted.
"Hmm..."
Doctor Greg pushed one of those shape cubes that babies use, along with five different shape blocks.
I tried to pick up the cylinder, but remembered I no longer had opposable thumbs.
I picked it up and looked at the baby toy.
My gaze locked onto the only steel door in the room.
No one was leaving or entering the door.
"Please don't run. We'll use force. Just cooperate," one of the scientists said.
I had half a mind to use my new Pokemon strength to pound Lewis' face in.
I growled as I purposefully put the cylinder into the square hole.
"Yes. I do see your point Lewis."
"Exactly. Any Pokemon would know how to do that!"
'Damn.'
"Let's try one more thing so I can prove it."
Lewis removed my phone from his pocket and twiddled with it.
He turned the screen to me.
My mom, dad, sister, and me holding Torchic were on the park bench.
Just the thought my family was gone.
Out of my grasp.
I began to cry softly.
I buried my face into my furry arm.
Doctor Greg stroked the ears on top of my head.
I pushed his hand away and continued crying.
"Can I take him with me now?" Lewis asked.
"Not yet. We still have more tests to perform. Take him to the holding cells for now. Amber, bring in the next subject."
The brunette left the room, and one of the male doctors placed me back into the cage.
I could feel the cage being lifted.
As I was being moved, I curled into a ball and began to sob.
Saying my Pokemon name as I cried.
I had so much to cry about.
No longer being a human.
Knowing I'm probably going to be a lab rat for the rest of my life.
My family never even knowing what really happened to me.
But of all of it...
The betrayal of Lewis Frederick, was by far the worst.
98 percent of my anger and sorrow was from his betrayal to his best friend.
His best friend all through high school.
We were the dynamic duo.
We did everything together.
He would take a bullet for me.
Or so I thought.
That conniving bastard screwed me over.
Turned me into... This.
I'll get him back though, I will.
But I'll let him know, that regardless of all of this... He is still my best friend, and I will never forget him.
His betrayal was wrong, but he is still my friend.
Still my friend.
My friend.
I began to have different memories of what we did throughout the years.
Thinking of the good times just forced me to sob louder.
The cage thumped hard, most likely from being dropped onto the ground.
The cage opened, revealing light.
"Okay, come on out."
I wiped my face and left the cage into an empty, white room with other Pokemon inside.
The scientist put some kind of device around my ankle and pressed a button.
A shock went to my leg and I flinched.
"Behave," he muttered.
The man left the room with my cage, the reinforced steel door closing behind him.
I turned to face the others in the room.
There were 14 Pokemon.
A Munchlax, a Kirlia, Bagon, Machop, Pichu, Pidgey, Zorua, Dusklops, Meditite, Pawniard, Poochyena, Gible, Piplup, and a Cyndaquil.
"Hey..." one of them said.
I was a bit shocked to hear a Pokemon talk, but at this point, I didn't care.
"You new?" the Zorua asked.
"Y...yeah," I replied.
"Don't be surprised. We were humans too. Apparently when they transform you, you get the ability to speak Pokemon," he added.
The Zorua offered a paw outward.
"I'm Josh. Well... I was Josh. Now I'm subject 221. Call me Zorua since all of our names are gonna be hard to remember. What's your human name?" he asked.
"Damian... I used to be Damian."
My eyes began to well with tears again.
"Hey hey hey, dude. Its fine. Hope is not lost. We can still escape!"
"No Josh! I'm sick of your stupid little escape plans! We all are! I can't take another beating!" protested the female Kirlia.
"We just gotta get our strategy right! We got another player for the team. Who knows, he could be a great asset!" Josh retorted.
"I agree with Kate man. I'm sick of getting beat to a bloody pulp. Just give it up... We're stuck here," added the Meditite.
I tried to clear my head of everything to focus on my own escape plan.
"What have you done so far to try to escape?" I asked Josh.
They all seemed surprised at my question.
"We've tried... A lot..."
"What haven't you tried?"
"Well... I've been trying to learn Pokemon attacks. But I have no clue how to do anything."
"Hmm... I have a plan. There's a small chance it'll work."
Everyone groaned.
"Great! Another Josh! Why!?" the Piplup complained.
"Now now guys. Lets hear em out. What'd ya have in mind?" Josh asked.
I sighed.
I explained my entire story about Lewis being my best friend and betraying me. About the news report, about everything.
They all had sympathy in their eyes.
"But the thing is, now call me crazy... I still think of him as my best friend. If I do get outta here, I'm gonna confront him myself. I'm going to look him in the eyes and tell him how his betrayal harmed me. But I will thank him. Thank him for being the best best friend ever."
Everyone was silent for a moment.
"Dude... That's deep," Meditite croaked.
No more tears came to eyes.
"Jeez man... I'm so sorry. I think you got it worst than all of us," muttered Zorua.
"I just can't believe his best friend would do that. If it were me, I would've pounded his face in," Duskull added.
I stared blankly at the white ground.
"Anyways... I heard him say something to the doctor. He asked if he could take me home yet. The doctor said he had some more tests to run."
"You mean he's gonna keep you as his own Pokemon!?" Josh asked.
"As far as I'm concerned, yes," I replied.
"Now for my plan. I don't even want to go with that evil bastard, so I need to think of how he plans on keeping me. If I can get to my house, I can try to get my mom and she can help fix this."
"Good luck with that. Humans can't understand us. Only..."
"Pokemon," I interrupted Pidgey.
"Pokemon. Only Pokemon understand us!"
"So?" Piplup scoffed.
"So... I can get my team to help me out!"
"Yeah, but how're they gonna know its even you? And for all we know, he might hold you in some of unbreakable cage so you can't escape. Put one of these babies around your ankle."
"Hmm... Good point..." I replied.
The room was silent again.
"Wait! They'll be looking for me at Lewis' house. My mom, dad, even my team should be there."
"They might've already done that," Cyndaquil said.
I thought hard.
"What if you-"
"Hush! I'm trying to think!" I snapped at Zorua.
My mind was focused on finding anything to get myself out of this situation.
An idea sprung into my mind, giving me a smile.
"I got it! My Staraptor takes a fly every morning. If I can get her attention-"
"Do you even know where she flies to?" Pawniard asked.
"Yeah. She actually flew me with her on her route. Every time she takes me, she passes Lewis' house! All I gotta do is get her! It's foolproof!" I said confidently.
"Listen Damian... I'm sorry... But... Your plans... You're thinking on the bright side. You're so confident you can escape, but its not gonna work. I understand you're excited that you're leaving, but what're the odds of you even being outside? He'll have a shock collar on you so you can't leave the house! Team Plasma is smart! They will always be twenty steps ahead of you!" protested Bagon.
He was right.
I'm thinking of the inevitable.
I'm hoping.
After all, that's all I had left to rely on.
Hope.
But even hope seemed to be failing for me.
"I'll get out... Believe me. I will escape from him. I will get my team to help me. I'll come back for all of you. I'll save all of us."
"Man... Y'know what? I appreciate the offer but... We'll stick to my escape plans," Josh joked.
I laughed, as did the others.
"We'll be dead before you get back if we keep following Josh' plans!"
A scientist came into the room.
"Damn. Who's up this time?" Bagon swore.
The scientist lifted Kate and placed her into a cage.
I started to panic.
"What're they doing!" I yelled as left the room.
"Wish me luck guys!" said Kate.
Zorua sighed.
"They're gonna do some more tests on her."
I rushed after them, as I almost made it out of the door, electricity pulsed throughout my entire body.
I screamed in pain as it shocked me.
The door shut behind me.
"Don't worry. They're just doing vaccinations."
When I regained my strength to stand, I asked, " V-vaccinations? For what?"
"It's a medicine that keeps us from getting any sicknesses," replied Pichu.
"Say, how old are you? Just curious." Poochyena asked.
"Am I that handsome of a Riolu?" I joked.
"Save it for the day care center dude," Pichu laughed.
Everyone became grossed out by his comment.
"I'm 17, gonna be 18 in April."
"Oh, well happy birthday then," Meditite said with a smile.
"Hey! Its March right now!" I blurted.
The lights in the room turned off, leaving us in pitch black.
I started to panic again.
"Hey, relax. Its just bedtime, that's all. Arceus, you are so jumpy."
He hit the nail on the head on that one.
I closed my eyes and gasped.
"Woah... Cool," I muttered.
"What?" Pichu asked from nearby.
"I can... I can see you guys. I have like... Night vision or something."
"That's the aura vision thing. That's a Riolu's ability," added Poochyena.
I looked around and could see different color blobs of light surrounding everyone in the room.
It was like standing inside of a lava lamp.
I looked at the wall and could see a dim red blob of light that resembled a human.
"Hey! I... I can see someone! There's someone in a room next to us!" I exclaimed.
"Probly the surveillance guy. Watching to make sure we don't escape."
"Just go to sleep bro," said Josh.
"Okay."
I dropped to the ground and lied on my back.
"Damian?" asked Pichu.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Good luck out there. If you do escape, we won't forget you. Even though we've only known you a little bit."
"Don't save us if you think you can't," Meditite added.
"I'll come back guys... Don't worry. I'll take out every Team Plasma member one by one if I have to."
"Good night guys," Bagon said.
We all replied with a good night.
I closed my eyes, my vision still being the colorful vision, but I managed to fall asleep in a flash.