Pokethropy

Chapter 4: The Revelation

May slept until morning. Not long after the sun came up, she woke up and yawned. 'Here's the first day of investigation,' she thought. She quickly changed into her traveling clothes and went to get breakfast. To her surprise, Max was already there and eating his breakfast. Max briefly turned to her to say, "Morning May," and then went back to his eating. May was unsettled by his abruptness as well as he was eating just meat. Then another thing occurred to her. Max was taller-looking than last night. No, not just taller, older. He looked like he couldn't be much younger than her. His hair was also longer, almost touching his shoulders. "Max," she said, "Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay," said Max, "I'm better than okay. I feel great." He quickly finished the last bit of his breakfast and stood up. May saw that he was only half a head shorter than her. He was wearing his normal clothes, but they looked tighter on him.

"You look different," said May.

"Guess I had a growth spurt last night," said Max shrugging, causing his shirt to strain a bit. "So what do you want to do today?"

"Well, I thought I'd call Professor Oak today. I want to ask him something."

Then, to May's great astonishment, Max moaned and said, "That's boring. I was hoping we'd do something exciting today."

"But, I thought Professor Oak was your idol," said May, scarcely believing it.

"Well he may know a lot, but he doesn't really do much," said Max, "Not like Professor Birch, he actually gets out into the wild to his research. That's what I like about him, a real outdoorsman."

"Oookay, in that case, how about after I call him, we go find someone to battle."

"Now that sounds like fun," said Max energetically.

May was pretty disturbed by this. This is nearly the opposite of Max's normal personality. 'I hope Professor Oak might have an answer for this,' she thought.

"What do you mean you don't have an answer for this?!" exclaimed May over the videophone.

"I'm sorry, May," said Professor Oak, "but I don't have any data regarding extended effects of Pokemon bites on humans. With most Pokemon, it's simply some swelling and soreness, unless it's a Poison-type in which the case may be more serious. But Mightyena's a Dark-type and shouldn't have any more of an effect on Max, so I don't believe that's the cause of this."

"But Max is not acting like himself at all, he's being rude, aggressive, and he ate all of Munchlax's food, which along with being rude and aggressive is pretty disgusting. Not to mention he's taller than before."

"Well, Max is a growing boy and you can't expect him to remain the same forever. I'll try to see if there's anything unusual about Mightyena, but other than that, all I can tell you is to keep him from eating Pokemon food. That's not the kind he needs right now." Then Professor Oak hanged up.

May sighed, "Now what am I going to do? I don't care what the Professor says, this isn't natural. There's got to be an explanation for this."

Max was waiting impatiently for her. "It's about time, are we going to do some battles today or what?" he said.

"I guess so," said May in a disappointed tone.

"You'll hard-pressed to find someone to battle today," said a voice.

They turned around to see an older boy. Judging by his traveling clothes, he must be a Pokemon trainer.

"What do you mean?" asked May.

"Haven't you heard? Most of the local trainers' Pokemon are recovering in the Pokemon center right now. You'll be lucky to be battling a Magikarp."

"Why? What happened to them?" asked Max.

"Can you tell us?" asked May.

"Oh, I can tell you alright, because the same thing happened to me. I was training with my Machop last night when we saw this wild Poochyena. Since Fighting-types are strong against Dark-types, I decided to battle it. But this Poochyena was pretty vicious; it wouldn't back down even if its hit, didn't seem to take as much damage either. So then I thought I'd catch it since it was so strong. But then the weirdest thing happened."

"What?" asked Max.

"It didn't work at all. I threw the Pokeball, but it didn't respond at all. I might as well have thrown it at a tree. And then that Poochyena started attacking nonstop until it beated my Machop. Then it howled and left. From what I've heard, the same thing's been happening to everyone. They battle this wild Poochyena that's impervious to Pokeballs and get beaten by it. There's scarcely a conscious Pokemon in town, and the conscious ones are becoming afraid to go out after dark."

"After dark?" asked May.

"Apparently this Poochyena only shows up at night. One guy said that it stopped battling when the moon was getting low, then it ran off. So like I said, good luck trying to find someone to battle," then the trainer turned around and walked away.

May looked thoughtful, "Hmm, Poochyena's the pre-evolved form of Mightyena. I wonder if this Poochyena has anything to do with the Mightyena that got Max?"

"So what are you waiting for?" said Max, "Let's find someone to battle."

"Okay, if you insist," said May, worried about Max's aggressiveness.

The two of them went all over town, but they couldn't find anyone to battle. They kept getting the same story: a Poochyena that's immune to Pokeballs has beaten up their Pokemon and they're in no condition to fight. When the siblings returned, it was the late afternoon and they didn't battle a single trainer.

"I don't believe it," muttered Max, "How could every last trainer be beaten by one wild Pokemon? It's not fair."

"May I remind you that it's my Pokemon that would be fighting, not yours," said May sharply. Max's foul attitude was really starting to get to her.

"Well, I would have taken them out sooner before all the action's gone. But all you care about is how pretty their moves are."

May finally snapped, "Max, you do not tell me how to raise my Pokemon! In case you've forgotten, I'm the older sibling here, even if you have grown a couple inches. And you're not getting any Pokemon until you're 10, so you don't need to keep telling me what you would do. And judging your attitude, you're going to be a pretty pathetic Pokemon trainer indeed!"

Max glared at May fiercely. May normally would have glared right back, but there was something about Max's eyes. They looked more feral-looking. After about a minute of glaring, he huffed and said, "I don't have to take this. You're not Mom."

As Max was walking away, May shouted, "Well if I was, I wouldn't tolerate that attitude of yours!"

"Well you're not, so deal with it!" responded Max as he went into his bedroom and slammed the door.

"Go to your room!" shouted May.

Max opened the door and shouted, "I'm already in my room!" and slammed the door again.

May reached for a pillow, picked it up, and screamed into until all the frustration went out. Then she took several deep calming breaths and said, "Okay, now that that's taken care of, I'm going to go out and see if I can find that Poochyena. Adventure doesn't just coming knocking on your door."

Munchlax was sitting nearby during all this and heard every word of it. He didn't like the sound of the argument so he tried to blot it out, but when May said 'Poochyena' something clicked in his brain, as if there was something about Poochyena that he remembered, something recent. He tried to think about it, but his stomach gurgled. So he went to the kitchen and gotten himself a 5-pound snack to eat. When he came back, May had already left. This didn't matter much to Munchlax until he finished his snack and was going to May's room to find his Pokeball to sleep in.

When he went into May's room, a strange scent hit his nostrils. He wandered over where the smell was coming from and found Max's clothes he had taken last night. Then he remembered he took them to show them to May but forgot about it when he got hungry. He looked at the grey and black hairs and suddenly it hit him: Poochyena hairs, those were Poockyena hairs on Max's clothing. But neither May nor the Kimono Sisters owned a Poochyena. Then Munchlax remembered May talking about a Poochyena and he realized he must take these clothes to May at once. He bundled them up and quickly carried them out the front door and down the street, searching for May.

Meanwhile, May was at the edge of the city, where that Mightyena bit Max. She looked around, but couldn't find anything. It was dusk, so the Poochyena should be out by now. Not quite sure how to bring out the Poochyena, she tried a direct challenge. "Alright, Poochyena!" she called, "If you want a fight, I've got some Pokemon to battle for you right here. If you've got any courage, you'll challenge me right now!"

Then she heard some growling and a Poochyena leapt out of the bushes. It didn't seem different from a regular Poochyena except it looked more ferocious. "Good, now it's time to take the stage. Eevee, come on out!" She threw the Pokeball containing Eevee and the Evolution Pokemon appeared in a flash of white light, "Eevee!"

"Okay, Eevee, let's start off with Tackle!" Eevee ran at the Poochyena and tackled it. Poochyena didn't seem to be hurt too bad and Tackled Eevee right back. Its Tackle seemed to have more power as Eevee looked a little tired after that.

"Okay then, try Shadow Ball!" said May. Eevee opened its mouth and a ball of crackling black energy appeared. It fired the ball at Poochyena, who was barely harmed, thanks to its type advantage. It shook off the affects of the attack and used Howl. Eevee paused, but it wasn't an attack directed at it, just something to boost Poochyena's attack power.

"Use Dig!" commanded May. Eevee quickly dug underground. Poochyena looked around apprehensively, trying to figure out where Eevee will pop up. Suddenly Eevee came up from under Poochyena and hit it.

Poochyena winced from the attack but then used Bite. Eevee squealed in pain as Poochyena gnawed at Eevee's tail. "Hey! Let go!" yelled May. Poochyena ignored her and remained clamped onto Eevee. May took out a Pokeball and said, "Alright, you asked for it!" She threw the Pokeball at Poochyena and made a direct hit. To her surprise, the Pokeball bounced off, without opening at all. However, it did have the affect of making Poochyena notice her. It growled and then spat out Eevee's tail to charge at May. May quickly picked up a stick that was on the ground and yelled, "Stop it!" She swung the stick at the Poochyena and swatted into a tree.

As May pondered what to do next, she heard a loud cry of "Munchlax!" She turned around and saw Munchlax racing towards her. "Munchlax, what are you doing here?" she asked. Munchlax paused to catch his breath but then handed over what it was holding to May.

May took it and saw that these were the clothes that Max was wearing when he was resting at the Pokemon Center. She also noticed grey and black hairs on these clothes. "Where'd this come from?" she asked. Munchlax grabbed a hair and pointed at the Poochyena.

May looked from the clothes she was holding to the Poochyena, who was starting to recover from hitting the tree. 'Could it really be possible?' she thought. Reason told her it was ludicrous, but logic told her it made sense. Max's aggression, his desire to battle, his appetite for Pokemon food, his feral looks, how he seemingly understood Munchlax combined with the Poochyena's viciousness and immunity to Pokeballs seemed to make sense. Not to mention how Max went to bed early and how the Poochyena only showed up at night. May looked at the Poochyena again, who was now on its feet and growling at her. She decided there was only one way to see if it could be true. "Max!" she called loudly.

The Poochyena's eyes dilated at the sound of Max's name. Suddenly, it started wincing with pain. Then, before May, Eevee, and Munchlax's eyes, the Poochyena started to grow. It was not evolving because there was no light around it, but its body was growing continually bigger. As it grew, its body began to change shape. Its front legs lengthened and its paws turned into hands. Its back legs remained about the same shape, but grew thicker, allowing it to stand on two legs. Its torso expanded until it was like a human's. Then its head started growing black-blue hair and its face shortened somewhat.

When it was done, the Poochyena now looked like it was half-human. It panted for a bit and then looked at May's face. "M-M-May." Tears filled May's eyes as she recognized the voice that came out of the muzzle. "Oh, Max!" she cried. She knelt by the creature that was her brother and embraced him. As she did, she noticed, with some horror, that he looked the same age that she was.


There's another chapter. Now we're actually seeing some transformation action. What exactly happened to Max? Why does he look older? Fine out in the next update which will be on Friday. Until then, please review.