CASE 5: TOPHER REIGH - The Wave is Rolling
Note: Right. Here I am again. This time, we're going into Topher's mind. It's not as psychedelic as I had described in the previous chapter... Maybe. Well, most of the crazy stuff is happening here now. So I guess he is the most delirious. This is his TF. I had originally thought not to change him a while back. But I did. That said, enjoy the madness~
Disclaimer: I don't claim possession over characters originating from the franchises of Chun Soft, Game Freak, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company. They belong to their rightful owners.
I'm Topher Reigh...
I've lived in Autumnridge for more than half of my age. I was basically forced to move in with my aunt and uncle because of my parents' poor child management. The two of them were regarded as famed scientists. I was too oblivious to understand how famous they were. I was tutored by my mother, who researched biology. Before a lab accident separated us, I did not remember being much like the person I have become. I hardly recalled who the older Topher was. He was nothing like me... But I couldn't say for sure. I never found out what really happened to my mother and father. I was too little to make sense of anything. That was an awfully hard thing to get past... The disappearance of my parents, to be clear. It wasn't uncommon for untimely depression to settle in on days, good or bad.
I genuinely knew I was in capable hands now.
I loved my aunt Janet and my uncle Gibson. They were nothing like my real parents... I was happy for that. My mind was constantly abuzz with the illogical conspiracies of past times. To this day, I asked questions such as, "Are they working on something under the government's nose? Did they genetically engineer me so that I would grow up to look like this?" ...My cousin Cruce always reassured me that both of those crazy ideas were impossible.
Cruce was my best friend... He managed to put up with my occasional miserable attitude and my frequent friskiness. I applauded him for it... I thought the world of him, just like I cared for each of his wonderful friends. Thinking of their smiles was enough to bring me happiness in the form of inner warmth. Cruce made me feel like a normal boy. He made me feel connected to society in the way I was supposed to be.
I knew was no ordinary school kid. In addition to being locked away with my writing habits, I was called a transvestite... I knew what it meant, and I was grateful to avoid criticism for it. I may have received some in my lifetime. I couldn't control how I grew... That wasn't to say I didn't accept who I had become. That was something I used to theme my stories... Well I wasn't at all sure of how it came to this, but I was practically a girl. I was five and a half feet tall. My hair fell a few inches short of my waist. It was an ordeal to manage much of the time. I loved to fiddle with my bangs. That said, my hair, highlighted with streaks of a brown brighter than its base color, concealed one of my bright teal eyes.
Here was where many mistook me for a girl. My hips were curvy. I had no say in that. It was how I sprouted... Maybe my choice of clothing had a role to play in why I was seen as a girl. As an example, I was wearing light blue jeans—there were a few floral designs sewn into the jeans—cut at the ankles with small white sneakers, pink line-art at their sides. I wore a white tube top with a pink clothing label on the back... In short, I cross-dressed...
I never knew how to be a boy.
But... being a boy didn't concern me at all. Not on this day. Not at all. Just being human was the occupant of my troubled mind. I was glad that I was not forced into this chain reaction of transformations...
Ah, yeah! Autumnridge had seen some unbelievable occurrences. These small comets... meteorites, excuse me, fell in our town. I've only heard of a couple in our area, but they've already taken their toll on me... I was so stupid to let Cruce go out and get involved with the whole thing...
Cruce was injured somehow. That Saturday morning, he wanted to feel the meteorite that landed in our backyard. We were blessed to avoid it colliding with the house... Well, I tried to take his hand back, but he had already touched the rock. He just... fainted... And we rushed him to the hospital. There, we were taught that Vince's little brother had fainted in the same way.
And now they had two brains...?
To top things off, Vince and his friends were being turned into Pokémon. Erm, that was probably the most nonsensical thing. A few space rocks crashing down nearby was still not as probable to happen as close friends turning into monsters from a TV show or video game. Not in our reality...
But...
I may have already been doomed to share that fate. I didn't mean to make it sound so dramatic, but I didn't have the vocabulary to describe just what exactly this was.
I was scared. My cousin wasn't here to help me, and I didn't know what was happening... Vince and the cute DJ family tried to help by making the best of their problems, but mine were a little different... No, not from Vince's... He cared so much about Drew, and he had turned into something weird already. He looked adorable, but he probably wasn't too absorbed with that. Maybe it wasn't my place to be so gloomy and stand so... aloof...
Vince and I had just split up. Walking through the forest during sunset was a lovely pass time. The scenery was gorgeous. The woods made me feel comfort, more so with friends nearby, which they were. Familiar voices muttered through the branches. I knew that this was Cruce's Circle of friends... I was not sure why they were here so late. I was not bothered. I wished for someone to talk to. Who better than close friends? Standing in the falling sun's rays, further aglow with pollen visible in these beams, I faced the mud path leading to a spot everyone called the Obsidian Circle... Before I could make my first step, a ghastly presence spoke my name.
"Topher?" The boyish voice belonged to someone years younger than me. I did not jump, but I did happen to shiver. Spinning around, I saw that this boy was Drew.
"Drew! Drew, how did you get here?! I thought-"
"You thought I was in a coma. But I'm here. I've come to ask you something." His tone of voice was disturbing. It was unnatural. It seemed to me like he was on par with that of a speaking corpse. Lifeless, yet animated.
"Wha? What is that...?"
"Why are you connected to Cruce?" He made not a movement. I, on the other hand, was shaking nigh uncontrollably.
"Cruce? Wh-what do you mean? I'm his cousin! You know that, right?"
"I know many things. You are connected to Cruce. I've seen his body. My gaze pierced his thoughts. His mind is within another. Is that mind yours, Topher?"
"I beg your pardon?" I stuttered, stepping back once.
"...Hmph... Everyone here is ignorant. They have no clue what is really happening. I'm the one pulling the strings. I'm the composer of this orchestra. How... lucky I am... to be working with a mind that contorts to my own..." His speech was almost gruesome. It had sounded like a possessed child's...
"You're not Drew. Get... away from me!" I took two more steps back.
"Aren't you at all curious? Don't you want to know why I'm here...? Why I'm the choreographer of this dance?" He was mad. What was even more sickening about this was his consistent lack of expression.
"Not if I'm at risk. I don't know who or what you are, but I'm not stupid enough to stay here and let you try to scare me!"
"...You humans are strange... Feeble... cowardly... paranoid. Your minds are frail. Topher. You have avoided my gift to humanity. I will find out how. Know that." As if the gears of time itself had slowed, he began taking unusually odd strides toward me. I wasn't capable of movement, nor could I speak. "You've evaded my infection. Your mind is able to ward that off. But how would it handle contact with the source?" I shut my eyes tighter than I thought possible. I felt an intrusion. This effigy of Drew had phased through my entirety as an ethereal mist, following the undisplayed action of having frozen my body temporarily. The sensation of being what I could only describe as a puppet's tool lasted but seconds.
I was trembling. As such, I could move again. I dropped to my knees, tears streaming down my cheeks. Before this moment, I had not felt sorrowful. Having had a ghost pass through my mind and body, my perspective of the moment had been contorted. My emotions were manipulated.
Drew was standing still behind me as I sobbed.
"I see... That inner storyline of yours... That purpose... Is this what you have locked him into, Topher? ...No matter. I have you now. And I'll leave you to weep to your friends. Yes... seek them, just as I will seek you soon again. The clock is ticking... The wave is rolling."
I refused to face the other direction. I had assumed he took his leave. Before this day, I didn't think I could ever be so disturbed and anguished. How did this happen? What happened to Drew? Was that happening to Cruce? Ah...
What was happening to us? ...To... me...?
Guys? If you're out there... Please be careful. I was thinking to myself of the harm this phantasmal Drew could have brought anyone else seeing as he had little difficulty with corrupting my mind in some way... I rose to my feet, sluggishly working my way through the thickets. I could not pick up speed. Even at this creeping pace, my body had reached the outer limits of what it could do.
Again, I froze, dropping to my knees a second time. I could not possibly walk, let alone stand. Everything within, bones and organs alike, pulsed with an incredible stinging sensation. Had I the ability to use my voice, I would have screamed for help. The pulse became a nonstop stream of hell. I could only guess, and maybe this was an exaggeration, but it felt about as painful as, or for that matter, more painful than a black widow's bite. Even then, this continued to escalate...
I gave it my all. I would have reached the Circle no matter what the cost. Through this proverbial inferno of pain, I literally crawled through the mud. It was to no avail... I soon envisioned the outcome of my pain. I knew what was happening now...
Before I knew it, my chest had come closer to the ground, although my hands and knees were outstretched to their limit. They were shrinking. My knees, from what I could feel, were disappearing. I was falling and emerging from shock so frequently that my vision was fading from black to full color every few seconds... What I could see was the texture of my arms changing. They were softer, and much thinner. While this was going on, my nose was reshaping. It had stretched slightly, conforming to the shape of a muzzle. My hair became green as it attached to my entire back, which was much smaller. I might have been mistaking these sensations for other things due to my clothes encompassing my body. Before completely becoming engulfed within my attire, I saw my fingers completely retract into my fist, I guess, before slowly sprouting short, white fur. The last feeling was the most complex... Near my face, wherever that was at the moment, something bloomed. Maybe it was a flower. I felt everything about this flower as though it were a part of me. There were six distinguishable petals with a few leaves behind the flower itself...
Within my shirt, I laid upon my rounder belly, tiny new limbs sprawled out.
...This was Drew... Drew did this... He's doing this. And now... I'm one of them?
With minimal, yet useful, knowledge of the three cases prior to my own, I steeled myself, knowing that the unbearable pain was subsiding. With that in mind, I took note of the unearthly energies that raced through my veins. Was this what it was like? This was how it felt to be something that shouldn't exist? How could I feel at all? If this body shouldn't have existed, why did... physics apply to it? How could have even been tangible? Everything... was so precise... I really was a Pokémon. My senses had adjusted too perfectly. It was astonishing.
It was also far outside of my imagination. It was happening...
As much as I wished to stay hidden, I had to face others just as Vince and Zatch were bound to. I started to back my way out of my top. When I bumped into my backpack, I silently cursed at myself for taking too many items with me. I was never going to be able to move it now. I made an attempt to exit my clothing from the front. Luckily, the tube top I had been wearing was a bit loose. Poking my nose out to take a breath of fresh air, I proceeded to squeeze through, fully revealing my new form to anyone nearby. Well... there were people nearby, but they still couldn't see me. I wouldn't be surprised if I were to be stepped on soon enough. I was the size of a kitten. With the brain of a human being. I decided not to vex myself over how that worked...
I began to walk ahead, leaving my things behind. I had no use for any of them anymore. My focus was low as I walked, which felt like crawling at the time because of my new bone structure. I would have appeared ashamed to anyone around (who didn't step on me...). The truth was, I was watching the backs of my paws as I walked. I had to remind myself that those were mine...
Finally, I was wear I needed to be.
The softest hum came from the middle of the Obsidian Circle. I looked up.
A meteorite. It was aglow with the most beautiful color I have never seen... It was not red. It wasn't green, blue, pink, yellow... It was no color. But... it was light. This meteorite, which had plummeted into the stone slab, was only half the size of that which crashed into our backyard.
Around this glowing stone of the stars sat six peers of mine:
Al, Emelina, Nickolas, Patricia, Bryan (who I assumed was the one I couldn't see completely around the rock), and Jovany.
All eyes were on me.
And for the quickest split second...
Cruce's were... From in front of the meteorite.
-Shaymin
POST-AN: The six characters mentioned above will be getting their own cases. Not in that order. Jovany, however, is still last of the six... He is a very special case, after all! Review if you so desire~!