Chapter 11: All My Dreams Were For Nothing?

It happened right before the day of my 20th birthday.

I had just come home from college on Spring Break and was sitting at my desk in my room, working on my latest comic. All I'd been drawing lately was Pokémon, especially Jigglypuff. Don't get me wrong; I had plans to make an original 10-book epic manga series ever since I was 14, but I figured that I would develop my art and writing skills until I graduated so I could have my debut work be the best it could be. I already had my own laptop and Cintiq 12WX tablet. All I had to do was keep practicing in preparation for that day.

I decided to head to the bathroom to take a little break from drawing for two hours straight, and right there, in the mirror, I saw…that I had sprouted Jigglypuff ears on my head. Like cat ears, except pink.

What?

I just stared as I held my mouth to keep from freaking out. I heard of such phenomena from this group called Pokéumans on Deviant Art, but I thought all that was a series of fictional stories just for thrills. But this was real?

That also meant that Pokéxtinction must be nearby.

I ran out of the bathroom to look out through my bedroom window, and sure enough, I saw a white van pull up onto the driveway.

This was bad. My mom and dad were away going grocery shopping. Why did I pick that time of all times to stay home? Oh yeah. It would have been a lot worse if everyone saw me like that at the store, and I'd have to run away from brainwashed people…

Some men in black and white armored suits began coming out of the van. Crap crap crap crap crap…what could I do? Wait for a PRT member to come find me? Well, if these Pokéxtinction guys surrounded my house, I suppose I could be like that kid from the Home Alone series of movies, but…no, I wouldn't be able to hold them off forever.

It was a risky move, but I decided to take it. I ran downstairs and exited the back door.

I ran through the forest as fast as I could, anything to get away from that white van. Did they have a tracking device locked onto me? Even if they did, it was better if I was a moving target. But they'd better not be breaking my laptop and tablet at home! I paid good money for that stuff!

Then a blue robot from the sky landed right in front of me, forcing me to grind to a halt. Wait…it was a Golurk. I honestly hoped he was a PRT member, and the chances were good that he was, but if that wasn't the case…

"It—it's okay! Just calm down, I'm here to help!" he said while raising his arms. Not sure why, though…it's not like Pokémon had access to weaponry or anything like that, right?

I quickly looked behind myself to check for Pokéxtinction members. I couldn't see any, but I could definitely hear some shouting. Terrified, I turned to the Golurk and said, "Get me out of here!"

I probably should have expected what came next, but it was still shocking. Then again, being yanked from the ground and carried into the air wasn't the kind of thing you could really expect if it never happened to you before.

"AAAAAAAH!" I clung to the Golurk as hard as I could, even though I really didn't need to, as his grip was already quite stable. I wasn't taking any chances, though. All I could do was shut my eyes and wait until the air stopped rushing around me.

"It's okay. You can let go now."

I opened my eyes and found that we were in a clearing in the middle of a forest with a big boulder resting in the center. The Golurk helped me get back onto the ground. I was surprised at how gently he did so. Maybe he had a ton of experience at stuff like this.

"Who are you?" I asked. "And where am I?"

"My name's Darren. And you're at the Long Island Pokéumans Base. As for those guys back there, they're Pokéxtinction, and trust me, you don't want them to catch you. We're both known as Pokéumans, and it looks like you'll become a complete Jigglypuff in a week."

I nodded. "Long Island, huh? My cousins live around here. Pretty far away from my house, isn't it? How'd we get here so fast?"

Darren explained, "I can fly at speeds up to Mach 3." Then he gave me an odd look. "Funny. I thought you'd still be freaking out and hysterical about this. What's your name?"

I shrugged. "Technically, I'm still freaking out about that flying, but I guess this whole thing hasn't sunk in yet. Oh, and my name's Amy. Thanks for getting me out of there, Darren!"

"You're welcome!" Then in a lower voice, he added, "This has to be the easiest Rescue Number 301 in PRT history."

He showed me that the rock was actually the entrance to the base, and led me through the halls to Asula's office. I recognized the old back story about the existence of Pokéumans, but I was thrilled about how I got to see it all in movie/documentary form. Darren then offered to take me to my room, but I wanted to explore the base first, so he showed me around. We saw the video game room, the gym rooms, some of the classrooms, the pool area, the cafeteria, and many, many more. By the end of the day, though, I finally decided that I wanted to see this Room 301 that I would be living in.

"Eric! Cole! You have a new roommate."

Inside the room were two bunk beds on either side of the room. A wide-screen plasma TV sat on top of the table in between. A Sableye and a Bayleef, who were sitting on the bottom bunk to the left, were madly playing an Xbox 360 game on it. It looked like the Bayleef beat the Sableye.

"Seriously, Cole! Why the fu—?" He then noticed Darren and me standing in the doorway. "Wha—? Darren? What about a new…oh, hi."

"Sorry about that," said the Bayleef. "I'm Cole, and this is Eric. You?"

"Amy…" My voice fell. I couldn't believe my rotten luck. I got stuck with two boys; high school age boys at that. I might not have been as shocked as I would have been before college, but I still didn't trust these guys. Especially if they cussed.

"Amy? What's wrong?" asked Darren.

I looked up with a bleak expression on my face. "They let guys and girls be in the same room?"

"Whoa! It's not what you think!" Darren quickly explained. "We're all Pokémon, so technically, it's okay. See?"

That didn't make me feel that much better, but I saw his point. "Yeah…I guess…"

Cole came up to me. "It'll be okay. Seriously."

When it came time to choose a bed, I noticed that Cole and Eric had taken both bottom bunks. I wished I could have been more thrilled that I had my choice of top bunks. I chose the one above Cole, as I trusted Eric a lot less. Even so, I turned my back to them as the lights went out. If any of them even got within an inch of my bed, I planned to drop-kick them on the spot. Even if they were Pokémon.


The next morning was a Sunday, and thankfully, I never had to drop-kick either of them. Looked like they were more trustworthy than I thought they'd be.

I asked if I could get on the only computer in the room, and they allowed me to. But I got a nasty surprise.

"Hey…why is Deviant Art blocked?" I mean, not being able to use my graphics tablet was bad enough, but…this? I wanted to tell all my friends that I wouldn't be able to post art on that site anymore…

"Facebook is blocked, too," replied Cole. "It's to stop us from telling people about our existence. Can't have Pokéxtinction tracking us down, you know."

"WHAT?" I shouted. "But there was a Pokéumans group on it! How did—?"

"Beats me," said Eric. "Maybe just some nut job who coincidentally thought of that name. Or maybe some of the guys who beat the Elite Four and got out of here set it up. Who knows? All I know if it's one of us, they'd better know what they're doing, or else Pokéxtinction will find us."

That still didn't change the fact that I would never be able to speak with any of my friends again. No…not just my friends…my family, too. Everyone I ever knew…

I just broke down in tears right there, and it must have lasted for a very long time. At least Eric and Cole never bothered me about it. Maybe they went through this, too.

But on the other hand, THEY weren't manga artists who already had their futures planned out.


There were some dark days after that, which in retrospect was weird, considering how I've never been depressed before. Not that I considered killing myself or anything. At least not then. I guess I was stuck trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life at that point. After all, I had high hopes that I was going to keep making art for everyone to see, and now my clone had pretty much snatched it away from me.

To make matters worse, I was then stuck into a bunch of boring classes with some excruciating PE and Battle Classes. I hated how we had to do stuff like Dodgeball in PE. I mean, that was stuff I wished I never had to go through again. And don't even get me started about Battle Class. This one time, Mr. Brimhall (the Smeargle) and Mr. Dorniyo (the Hariyama) had the Normal-types and the Fighting-types fight each other to see what creative strategies us Normal-types came up with. Needless to say, I ran as fast as I could to get out of there, but unfortunately, I was up against this Lucario guy named Isaac, and his Aura Sphere…well, it just wouldn't stop chasing me. It slammed me against a wall and I was out like a light.

I probably should have focused on making friends, but I was too down in the dumps to even make much of an effort. Socialization never came that easily to me, especially after elementary school, where suddenly, almost no one was into Pokémon and you heard F-bombs being dropped in the hallways all the time. Funny, isn't it? Now I was in a place where everyone was a Pokémon. You'd think it would be easy, but no…I didn't see it at the time.

I met this Machamp and Weezing named Patch and Connie. They said they knew full well what I was going through, and offered some moral support. Believe it or not, they were my very first friends at the base.

Unfortunately, others like Jane, Sammy, Chase, and Kayla told me that they weren't trustworthy at all. I didn't want to believe them at the time, because come on. How could they ever understand how I felt? Besides, I was older than all of them. They weren't the boss of me.

But then the day came when I couldn't deny the nasty rumors anymore. I was walking along with them when they suddenly started picking on this ten-year-old Farfetch'd boy.

I was furious at being betrayed like that. It was one thing to feel miserable about how this life was forced upon you, but taking your frustration out on others that were smaller and weaker than you? For all I knew, I could have been in that boy's place.

So I defended the poor guy and ordered them to stop, too angry to even worry about how suicidal that move would be. It even came to a two-on-two battle, but I was sure the boy and I would lose, until Asula came up to put a stop to it.

At the hospital, Jane, Sammy, Chase, Kayla, that boy, and even Darren came to reassure me that I did the right thing. I felt so horrible, though, that I didn't believe them. I told them everything about how I had my whole life ahead of me, only to have it snatched away, and worse yet, not be able to draw anymore. I told them I wanted a purpose for being here.

And what do you know? They told me that there were all these awesome clubs, such as the art club, the writing club, the comic-making club, and more. In fact, there was going to be a musical club coming soon, and as a Jigglypuff, I would be perfect in helping make their first performance a success.

I couldn't thank those guys enough. Even if I would never be able to keep in contact with my old friends again, these new people here were nice. And I realized that just them being there for me and supporting me out was enough.


The next several months made me feel so much better. My classes might have been boring (well, except for History), but I was glad I could convince Asula to switch out Battle Class and Gym with more fun PE classes, like Step Aerobics and Running. Especially Running. I trained hard to be an endurance runner before all this and I wasn't going to let it all be for nothing.

Mr. Brimhall was the president of the art and comic-making clubs, and I learned all I could from him. Even if people in the outside world could no longer see my works, at least Pokéumans from this base and others could.

And the musical club…wow. Right before it got started, Darren managed to rescue this 11-year-old girl named Lily who was turning into a Petilil, and she became my new roommate. We became very good friends, and I was glad to help her through her nightmares until they went away. I was thrilled when she and all my friends joined the club. Darren didn't, and neither did Eric and Cole, but they all promised to see my performance when the day came.

During the auditions, I thought I would still have some residual stage fright back from when I was 14, but thankfully, however much there was, it wasn't enough to mess up my performance. In fact, I had the best singing voice out of everyone there! Of course, that was mostly because I was now a Jigglypuff, but I still enjoyed it. After all, my voice completely sucked at singing before all this. It was looking like it was a good thing I became a Jigglypuff after all.

We rehearsed every weekend, and even during the weekdays, though I really didn't need to since I memorized my lines and dance moves rather quickly. It still helped to assist my friends with their roles, though.


We were down to the last week before showtime when the news came. Asula ordered everyone to come to the auditorium, where we were introduced to a Lopunny named Mindy who claimed to have just barely escaped the main Pokéxtinction base. She then told us that there was a spy among us that Mr. X sent, and the spy was a Lucario named Brandon. I felt bad watching him being taken by Asula, especially since he was clearly protesting his innocence. But like the fool that I was, I kept my mouth shut and didn't do anything. This was Asula we were talking about there. Besides, what if Brandon really was the spy? He was part-Fighting, and would've knocked me out in one hit if I was wrong about him.

Then it turned out that, like I suspected, Brandon wasn't the spy at all. But what I never expected was that Mindy was the real spy! I felt angry that she got away with important files from Asula and now there was a massive Pokéxtinction army coming our way, but at least we got Mindy's diary, so at least we were on somewhat even ground. Then there came the announcement that if we wanted to help fight that massive army, we should sign up for these two-week-long grueling training sessions. There was no way I was going to do it, and neither were my friends, especially since we had our major production coming up soon.


Finally, the day of the musical arrived. I played my part as the Muse of Cuteness as best I could, and we finished to cheers and applause. I could tell that all those trainees felt relieved to be given a short break from their intense training sessions. Even Eric and Cole were there, just as they promised. My heart swelled with pride. Finally, I had found a new purpose for my life, and I honestly thought that I would help everyone at the musical club with all their future performances for the rest of my life.

But where was Darren? He said he'd be here for this one. And given how the subject matter was all about Golurks and how they came into being, I didn't think he'd be one to miss this. I scanned through the wildly cheering audience again. Nope, still no sign of him.

As soon as I was done signing autographs for everyone and Mrs. Corrine congratulated us with a party complete with cake and everything, I wandered through the halls, looking for Darren. I thought about entering the PRT area and asking around, but that area was off-limits to those who weren't PRT members. Even though I might have been the lead role in the musical, I still didn't want to risk getting yelled at, or worse. I approached the door to Asula's office and knocked.

"Come in," she said.

I went in and saw that her desk was overloaded in stacks of paperwork. Her robotic arms frantically took pieces of paper, scribble signatures on them, and sorted them into various piles. I gulped. "Uh…is this a bad time?"

"No, dear," she replied. "Okay, maybe a little. Just make it quick, okay?"

"All right. Um…where's Darren?"

She seemed to freeze in place for a second. "He…he went on a top-secret mission of sorts. To stop Pokéxtinction latest weapon, I've heard. That was several hours ago."

"Oooh, I get it. So he's coming back soon, right?"

"Amy…" Asula looked up from her papers with a sad look in her eyes. "It doesn't usually take him that long to complete these missions."

Then her voice broke. "He's dead."


Things fell apart after that.

I was always nervous about what would happen when that massive Pokéxtinction army would arrive. I worried that we'd lose a lot of lives on our side, or maybe some Pokéxtinction members would slip in and capture or even kill us.

But I never expected that, right before the army came, we'd get hit with a wide-area ray gun that turned us all back into humans.

Very few of the trainees were prepared to fight without their Pokémon powers, except maybe the Fighting-types. But even they couldn't hold off the waves of Pokéxtinction solders from breaking into the base.

We ran as fast as we could away from them. Some stayed to fight. Jane, Sammy, and I were backed up against a wall when we realized that this was the place where the Pokéxtinction soldiers blasted in.

"Amy! Just go! Save yourself!" shouted Jane.

I proceeded to dash for it and just made it through when I saw, out of the corner of my eye, Jane jumping in the way of an electrified capture net that was aiming for me. "JANE!"

"Amy, don't worry about us! I'll hold them off! Now just GO!" shouted Sammy.

And I followed her advice. I ran for it, not daring to look behind me. I ran through the forest, somehow managing to avoid the battle that was blazing all around me. Even now, I'm not sure how I did it. All I know was that I was motivated by pure adrenaline. Plus, all those Running classes had finally paid off.

I ran as far away from that battle as I could and waited for it to be over. To pass the time, I walked around and stumbled across a few neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that I found to be surprisingly familiar…

Yes. I remembered from before. My cousins' house was there!

I made a mental note of the place and walked back to the base, being sure to keep myself well hidden. I was surprised to see that no one was around. Even when I reached the entrance, as well as the hole they burst through the ground to get in, it seemed like no one was there. I debated about whether or not to go back in…

KA-BLOOIE!

An explosion rocked the ground like an earthquake, sending orange-hot air blazing through the openings to the base. I couldn't believe it. Pokéxtinction placed bombs all over the base! Even with the wildly shaking ground, I knew I had to get out of there right away. I ran as fast as I could, away from the increasing explosions, and didn't stop until I slammed right into the door of my cousins' house.

My aunt opened the door. "Amy? What are you doing here? What's wrong?"

I quickly thought of the best excuse I could. "College trip. Comic convention here. Got lost. Had to look your name up in the directory and find you here," I gasped. I usually wasn't very good at lying, but at least it was a half-truth. I'd been to New York City for a field trip in 12th grade, heard about comic conventions that I wanted to go to here, and knew that some college students liked to take long trips like these on the weekends.

Luckily, they gave me a room for the night while they prepared to take me back and call my mom and dad to let them know I was okay. Uh-oh…

They might figure out that my clone was still at college, no doubt working hard on more Pokémon comics. And then they would wonder what I'm doing here. What could I do…?

I guessed all I could do was grab a backpack and stuff it with as much food and water as I could. No money, as who knew how long it would be until this humanization beam wore off and I turned back into a Jigglypuff?

Then I exited through the back door just as my aunt came into the kitchen, no doubt about to ask me who I really was.


My transformation wore off within a day. I figured that maybe there were more Pokéuman bases out there that hadn't been attacked yet, and maybe I could warn them. But this backpack was heavy, and who knew if I would even make it in time? I learned the names of many of the bases and their general locations, but I didn't know their actual locations. Maybe I would never find them. Maybe I would never get help.

I wandered around for days. No…weeks. The food and water supply was running out. Especially the water supply. It might have made the backpack lighter…but still, I couldn't help but feel as if I was running out of time.

And I still couldn't find any other Pokéuman bases. Maybe I was too late already.

It wasn't fair. When they blew up the Long Island base, they also blew up all the art I ever made during my time there. Why did this keep happening to me? First, my art in the real world, now this. And right when I was finally beginning to accept my new life…

I placed the backpack inside a crevice in the forest's ground, unzipped the bag, and crawled inside it, zipping it back almost all the way. The cold air made me shiver, but I eventually fell asleep.

I had been doing that for the past few weeks with no sign of it coming to an end.


My water and food supply was dangerously close to its end when the inevitable happened.

Agents of Pokéxtinction had somehow managed to find me. They drove all-terrain vehicles deep into the forest and parked all around me. I ran for it, swinging my backpack to drive them off, but it was no use. They were so much taller, and quickly caught up to me.

They shot a capture net at me, but I managed to ward it off with my backpack. Unfortunately, the backpack got caught up in it, and I was left defenseless.

It was at that point that I wished I paid a bit more attention during Battle Class. The only moves I knew were Pound and Defense Curl, neither of which was likely to help me here. The men in black and white armor surrounded me and aimed their capture nets at me all at the same time. I could only use Defense Curl, but even that couldn't reduce the pain as all the capture nets electrocuted me at once.


I woke up to blinding white flourescent lights shining in my eyes. My head felt funny. Then I realized that I was tied to a table with cold, steel clamps!

Amazing how they could do this to a Jigglypuff, but apparently, they could. For a second, I thought I might have actually been taken to an alien spaceship or something, but then I analyzed all the technology in the room, and even the walls. Nope, nothing new or hi-tech here. Just bland whitewashed walls with bland computers and a bland door with a doorknob...that suddenly swung open. A person wearing a biohazard suit came in the room.

There was no doubt I was in a Pokextinction Base.

"Who are you?" I shouted. "What are you doing to me?"

To my surprise, the person ran up to me and whispered, "Hey, not so loud! I'm here to help!"

I knew that voice. It was a voice I haven't heard for the longest time. My jaw dropped. "...Dad?"

"Good to see you again, Amy. The real you."

My brain still couldn't respond. "But-buh-how-when-?"

"Long story. Can't talk now. Just trust me on this one. If this works, we can make it so it all never happened." He then walked behind me, and I apparently found that the "table" I was tied to was actually a moveable cart. He pushed me out the room, being sure to check for other Pokextinction employees before going down the hall.

We went down several halls without being seen. Then he pushed me into a room with a capsule-like device in the center. Blue wires were attached all over, and the capsule itself was made of glass with an open door. The glass itself seemed to radiate with blue energy.

My dad locked the door and pushed me up to the control module. "Now listen, Amy. This is Pokextinction's absolute most secret piece of technology that they just finished. It lets you travel to the past and influence the course of history. I was against the idea, but Mr. X wanted a way to ensure his victory against the Pokéumans if all else failed. In fact, I heard he would actually use it to stop the Pokéumans from ever existing by going back to his accident 100 years ago."

I stared at the now-frightening machine, terrified. "So you want me to blow it up, right?"

"No. I want YOU to use it," he explained.

I was shocked. "WHAT?"

"Look, Pokéxtinction forced me and your mom to join them. They suspected you would transform, and wanted us to be there when it happened. But apparently, we weren't. So as punishment, the made us work on this device. But I don't want it to be used for bad things. I want you to use it to stop this thing from ever being made, and ideally, prevent Pokéxtinction from ever finding us."

"But Dad, why don't you use it?"

"Because if I do, they'll know I'm in it, and they can stop it immediately. Since they don't have your DNA signature in their database yet, they won't know it was you." I couldn't tell if he smiled behind that huge dark visor, but I imagined he did. "Don't worry. I heard about what happened, and how you were the only Pokéuman left that wasn't captured. There's really no choice at this point. I trust you to do the right thing."

He unlocked the restraints and placed me in the middle of the machine. Then he walked to the control panel, pressed a few buttons on it, and the glass opening shut. Bright blue light began to fill the glass and surround me.

Suddenly, my mind began to expand. It felt like that just by willing it, I could go anywhere I want in the past. Not only that, but I could place a time-stop barrier over any area I wanted, allowing a Pokéuman to tranform a lot sooner than usual. But time would be frozen for them in the meantime, and when it was over, the world would change around them. This was a scary power. If Mr. X had it, he could...it was too horrible to imagine.

But I knew what to do now.

I floated in the air and began to open a time portal to ten years in the past. It could just be that I wanted to see my younger self again, but it was more important than that. Not only would I make her a Jigglypuff for her 10th birthday, which I was sure she would appreciate more than I ever did, but by changing my history like so, I would cease to exist. Tough, but all my dreams up to this point were for nothing. Besides, if I disappeared, this power would disappear with me, and no one—especially not Mr. X—would ever have to abuse this power again. Too bad Dialga wasn't here to advise me on this, but hey, all the Legendaries were stuck in that alternate dimension to never return. I was on my own here.

"Love you, Dad. Goodbye..." I felt like I could cry. The first time in almost a year that I saw my dad again, and now I would never see him again.

"I know you'll do good, Amy..."

I flew through a blue void of outer space, stars whizzing by me. I never thought I would know what it was like to travel through time for real like in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but apparently, this was the real deal.

I arrived, floating right above my house, and saw my nine-year-old self jumping up and down in anticipation of the next day. It WOULD be an awesome birthday present to become a Jigglypuff, huh? But to do that...

I figured that there was no turning back now. I didn't want to use this power any more than necessary. The sooner I nullified my existence, the more that history would be unaffected for the worse. I flew around the neighborhood, creating a time-stop barrier that would freeze the whole area in place for ten years.

During the spell, I thought hard. The world would go from Game Boy Colors to Nintendo 3DSs, from Nintendo 64s to Wiis. And everything else would change, too. How would they react to such sudden changes in the world? How would I react? Would they want an explanation for all of this? How would history change because of this?

But…

This was all for the sake of my past self, of Darren, whom I wished I only got to know better, and of all the Pokéumans in the world. It was all for a better future—a future in which people and Pokémon could one day live together in peace.

My ten-year-old self might have to go through stuff I never went through myself. Maybe Patch and Connie might try to beat her up. Maybe she wouldn't be able to stand the PRT that well. Maybe she wouldn't even make it in time to save Darren. There was no guarantee that things would be able to turn out the way I wanted them to, or even if her personality wouldn't be permanently altered by the end.

But if I didn't do this, everything would be worse for everyone. My life had already been crushed twice. If it could be crushed a third time in order to make things better for everyone, there was only one choice.

I completed the time-stop barrier and activated it. As soon as it happened, a flurry of yellow lights enveloped my vision, and I felt myself dissolving into the vast recesses of time. But I didn't mind. My life might have been for nothing in terms of being a manga artist, but at the very least, I would do something that would hopefully be for the better.

That was the last thing I ever saw.

To be continued…