It was the 23rd of June before I decided I was out of the woods as far as dropping dead was concerned. I was very relieved to know, well I didn't KNOW, but I was reasonably confident, that I wasn't gonna die at any given moment.

In the last couple days, my body had continued to warp into something less than human. Well, I say less than human, but Pokémon can be pretty fucking powerful, and they're pretty damned smart too. So saying, "Less than human," really wasn't true. Regardless, the changes had continued. My feet were completely covered in dark grey fur, and I no longer had toes. Just five VERY sharp claws. Actually, my feet weren't completely covered in fur. The bottoms of my feet still had skin, but… the skin was different. It was blowing out. Becoming rougher, thicker, and far tougher. This is of course due to the fact that Pokémon don't wear shoes, so the skin on their feet have to be tougher to deal with all the terrain they walk on.

But back to the virus.

I had a couple theories why it didn't kill me back then, one of them being correct.

I had four theories to be exact.

Theory One: I was for some reason immune to the disease. Meaning that I couldn't be infected and killed. Now, this sounds crazy, but I REALLY didn't want that to be true. Let me explain. If I was immune, and everyone else died, they'd ask, 'Why is this guy not dead? Maybe he's immune, so let's do all kinds of experiments and draw all kinds of blood and inject him with all kinds of shit until we can create a cure from him.' An unpleasant train of thought I'm sure you'll agree.

Theory Two: For some reason, when I got infected, the virus mutated, and changed my body towards a Pokémon instead of straight up killing me. Unlikely, as Mark was going through the same thing when he was infected, unless the virus mutated each time it infected someone new, which is another unpleasant thought. So I was quite happy to dismiss that one when I learned the truth.

Theory Three: I just got lucky and didn't get infected for some bizarre reason. Almost impossible, but still a chance.

Theory Four: I just got lucky and my body was able to handle the virus. So instead of killing me, it altered me.

This one was the closest to the truth, but, I'll explain how the virus works later. It's not important to this moment in the story.

There had been another death since the asshole who had sneezed on me, so that meant there would probably be more, but personally, I didn't care. Their deaths didn't affect me.

At least, that's how I felt back then. Back then, when I could still pass for human, or at least mostly human, I was very cold and indifferent about the lives around me. As I shifted more and more to a Zoroark, my mind was still cold and calculating, but the cold part was more due to the fact that I was an apex predator. Killing became part of my DNA, so the deaths of prey didn't affect me, but people… I began to grow a heart. It was most unlike me.

I have come a long way from the person I used to be.

You know, speaking of Zoroarks, I wanna talk about this for a bit.

Zoroarks are quite literally the ultimate predators. Strong, fast, and cunning are all good traits to have, but there's one trait that makes a Zoroark almost impossible to defeat. The ability to cast illusions turn them from a great hunter, into the perfect hunter.

I want you to imagine a prey Pokémon, Stantler for example. Imagine it's in and among the herd, eating grass, and all of a sudden, it gets slashed to bits by something it couldn't have ever seen. That's how a Zoroark hunts. It turns itself invisible with its illusions, and literally just walks up to whatever its target is and kills it. Now, unlike Pokémon like Greninja and Keckleon, well trained eyes can't see a Zoroark when invisible, and things like dust and debris won't reveal it by settling on its body, because the Zoroark can make it so that those aren't seen when it lands on them either. Fact is, there's reall only one Pokémon species that could ever hope to battle a Zoroark in a fair fight.

A Lucario. With its ability to sense aura, could detect even a perfectly invisible Zoroark. They're a Zoroark's mortal enemy. Zoroarks thrive on the concept of, "fair fights are for suckers." A Zoroark strives to make each encounter as unfair as possible. Hell, you can't even rely on sound to locate a Zoroark, because the illusions are so unbelievably perfect, they can be heard, or not heard. A Zoroark disguised as a human can "speak" like a human. (This happened in the anime series, and in the games, when a Zoroark is sent into battle disguised as another, it's the cry of said Pokémon that is heard, so I don't wanna hear any bellyaching that it's not true.)

So yeah, I am glad that of all the Pokémon I could've turned into, that I ended up a Zoroark. Tip top of the food chain.

Well that was a tangent and a half, I should get back to the story. My mind does tend to wander, my apologies for that.

Either way, back to business. I felt a lot better on the 23rd, but the day passed by uneventfully. The morning of the 24th, before I went to bed, Katriel contacted me.

'Please Grey, tell me you're still ok.'

Her voice sounded desperate, but why? I hadn't heard anything from her since the last time.

'What are you talking about? You haven't contacted me in three days.'

'I've been trying! I couldn't reach you! I… I though you were in trouble.'

Her voice, while a bit angry, was almost perfectly clear. There was some moments when it was a bit hard to understand her, but I could hear well enough, and even if I didn't, I could hear enough of it to be able to piece the missing parts of it together.

'I was hoping you wouldn't contact me. Something happened. Someone died, and it turns out there's a virus spread by body fluids, and said person had sneezed on me. So I thought I was gonna die, and I didn't want to have to tell you that.'

She was silent for a bit. I had though that our connection had broke again, but she spoke again, her voice much calmer this time. I guess she had been processing what to say.

'That's… I understand. I was worried about you though. I thought something had happened to you.'

I decided to tell her. Her voice simply sounded far too genuinely concerned. I think at this moment, I grew to trust her.

'Something did happen to me. There's dark grey fur all over my feet, my toes are now sharp, blood red claws, and my ears are now pointed and not in the same location. I'm turning into a Pokémon.'

'Then… that's why. Listen, you have a very strong presence about you. I felt it when you and I spoke that second time. I hone in on it to contact you. I wonder what you're turning into.'

I hadn't actually put any thought into it up until then. Largely due to the fact that I thought I was gonna drop dead at any given moment. However, now that I didn't believe that, and I actually thought about it, I came up with the answer rather quickly.

As a child, I watched a lot of nature documentaries. While I wouldn't call myself an expert of Pokémon behavior, I'd said I knew a bit more than most people, if only a bit. One of my favorites, largely due to how absolutely badass they looked, just happened to be the Illusion Fox Pokémon, Zoroark. I mean those claws, that hair, everything about it just screamed awesome! I absolutely loved how cool it looked.

So once I actually gave it a moment of thought, I knew the answer. I won't lie, I was a bit excited. Zoroarks looked awesome, and they had the amazing power of perfect illusions. Apex predators. So despite what I came to think about halfway through turning, at that point, I thought it was decently cool, if still a bit scary. So much strength and perhaps the greatest power ever.

'I'm turning into a Zoroark!'

'… That's it. That's why I wasn't able to contact you. Telepathy relies on Psychic powers, and you're a Dark Type. I must only be able to contact you if you want me to.'

'It makes sense. Hey listen, changing the subject, where are you? What kind of place are you being kept?'

'All I know is that I'm on the bottom floor, that I'm alone, and I'm held in a bulletproof glass cage. I'm not sure what it is, but these people seem to think there's something seriously important about me.'

'… Listen, I don't wanna spend the rest of my life down here until everyone around me dies, there have been a pair of deaths due to the virus. I'm gonna break out of here one day. I just… I'm not sure how.'

'Grey… there's no way out of here. We're trapped down here until someone lets us out.'

'Ha, you clearly don't know me. I'm too stubborn to give up. I'm getting out here one way or another.'

'… Can you… can you take me with you?'

'If you're on the way, sure.'

'They experiment on me you know. Every day. They've injected me with stuff and drawn blood from me I don't know how many times. I've even been under the knife a few times. I guess they're trying to figure out what's so special about me. What makes me tick. Every, single, day. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be dead than stay in here for the rest of my life.'

Her "voice" was hurt. She sounded like was gonna burst into tears at any second. Whatever had happened to her, must've been serious. Again, I could tell she was being genuine, and for some reason, I felt pity for her. Normally I'd abandon anyone in a heartbeat, but I felt a strange reluctance to do so here.

'… Alright then. When I find a way to break out, I'll take you with me. When we escape, I'll make sure those scientists pay. Pay with their lives for what they've done to you.'

'Hey Grey… thanks. It means a lot to me.'

'It's not a problem. Now, I should get some rest.'

'Of course. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Have a good sleep.'

I did sleep well that night. A new fire in my belly. Something to strive for. Freedom was my goal. For me and Katriel.