Here's Chapter 1 of my reboot of Reckless Paradise. This is a story within the PercentVerse, the universe started by Jackboy0815 in which thirty percent of the world's population turns into Pokemon. We have a Discord and everything, so feel free to join us there.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, and feel free to review. Or don't, I'm fine either way. Here we go.

LUCAS LEAWOOD, 19

For some reason, my alarm clock had decided to go off two hours early that morning. Normally it woke me up at the bright and early hour of 6 AM, but today my mind came on to some very nice music by Gwen Stefani.

Well, would you look at that...I'm listening to "4 in the Morning" AT FOUR IN THE MORNING! What a coincidence!

That was the first thought I would have on the day of the Big Event. Of course, most of the ordinary days in one's life aren't remembered very vividly, but this was one day that would stick in the public's memory.

Only a select number of days fit this description. There were probably any number of them in ancient times, long before when most historians focus their research. And then there was the day, in the year zero, when a child was born who may or may not have grown up to perform miracles. I think I've covered my bases there.

The first thing I became aware of, once the initial novelty of the musical coincidence had worn off, was the immense amount of pain radiating around my body. It started with the small aches one might feel when they have the flu, but it quickly got worse and worse.

My heart was pounding, sending adrenaline coursing through my veins even though there was no danger nearby. At least, there was no danger that I could see.

Little did I know that, all around me, the world was plunging into chaos. Once-great nations would collapse into rubble. And it wouldn't be long until all hell broke loose.

Calm down, Lucas. Don't worry so much. The last thing you need is to have a heart attack at age 19. You don't want that, do you?

Could that even happen?

All of a sudden, I felt a massive hot flash all over my body, as though I were being doused in an enormous amount of steam. It would have felt nice if I were in a sauna, but it's not generally something you'd expect in bed.

At some point I must have passed out from the pain, but when I came to again, I was sprawled all over my bed. My four legs were splayed out in the four cardinal directions, as though I had tried to walk on all fours and collapsed to the ground. Had someone been watching me from above, they might find it amusing that I had become a human compass.

Wait a minute...four legs?

I must have found myself in a nightmare. This certainly felt like something from a dream; I'd never known anything quite like this.

My heart, which had only just started to settle down again, was now thumping forcefully once more. I began to panic, huffing and puffing as though running a marathon.

Okay. I'm on all fours, but I can get up. It might have been funny to walk like a dog as a kid, but now it's just childish. Please, just get up.

I raised my left hand in order to lift myself off my bed, but recoiled at the sight.

Where there should have been my left hand, there was no hand. Instead, it was a white paw with a couple small spikes in it.

Oh my God...I nearly passed out again at that realization. What the hell was going on?

It could only be an hour or so from sunrise, but it was still very early, so there was no way my parents were awake at this hour. My younger sister, Michaela, wouldn't be either.

If I'm not careful, this mattress is toast. I don't want to burst it by digging a claw in there.

I kept that realization at the back of my mind, because there were far more pressing questions at hand.

For one, how had I turned into a tiger? Things like this never happened in real life; as far as I was concerned, they existed solely in the domain of the few movies I'd bothered to watch. If it had ever happened in real life, you'd bet that the news media would be on them right away.

That led to question two: How did I keep this a secret?

The most obvious answer, of course, was that I couldn't keep it a secret. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I wanted others not to know about my transformation, there's really no way to hide the fact that you're a tiger.

I heard a pinging noise, the kind that my phone made whenever I received a text or news alert. My heart skipped a beat.

With great effort, I managed to get off my bed without ripping it up. Now came the fun part: Figuring out how to use my phone with paws instead of hands.

It was easy enough to enter the passcode to my phone under normal circumstances; indeed, it was the easiest thing in the world. Not only had I memorized the code, it was muscle memory at this point. That is, until the Big Event happened.

After several failed attempts, and nearly locking myself out of my phone in the process, I managed to open my phone and see the message.

It was a text from my mother, which read the following: Lucas? Michaela? Are you safe?

I considered the question of how, or if, to respond. Besides the fact that typing a message was going to be difficult in my current state, I didn't know why my mother wondered about our safety.

I mean, they say that motherly instincts never truly go away, but even so, I was legally an adult now, and my sister was sixteen. We could take care of ourselves. Besides, how would my mother know about my transformation?

Just then, the phone rang with a number I didn't recognize. I'd been taught not to answer calls from strangers, but something told me that this one was important.

"Attention to all residents of Wildebush. This is Mayor Almaty with a breaking news announcement. It's the most important speech I'll ever make in my life".

Crying wolf, much?

For as long as I could remember Jeremy Almaty being mayor, he'd opened all of his speeches that way. Perhaps this speech would be important, but surely not the most important?

"Around four in the morning, I received a report that one of our city councilors, who will remain anonymous for their own safety, had turned into a mysterious creature, one that has never before been seen on Earth".

Those words had two different effects on me. On the one hand, it was rather frightening to think of a city councilor suffering such a fate. On the other hand, I can't deny that it was somewhat comforting to know I wasn't alone.

"Upon further examination, it has come to my attention that he is not alone. In fact, there has been an event never before witnessed in the history of the world. In ten minutes, President Fiddlesticks will be giving an address on the nature of this occurrence".

Ten minutes...since this is clearly a recorded message, at least some of that time has already passed. I'd better get to the TV and turn it on, see what Fiddlesticks is saying.

There was only one problem: There was no TV in my bedroom; the closest one was in the alcove downstairs next to the kitchen. This meant that I'd most likely encounter another member of my family.

Then again, Mom already knows about the event.

If you've spent nearly your whole life walking on two legs (except for the first year or so), it's impossible to appreciate just how convenient it is to do so. When that convenience is taken away from you, just like that, you gain a new understanding for just what you have lost.

Making my way down the second floor hallway was no easy feat. The staircase was far worse.

For obvious reasons, I couldn't remember learning to walk as a toddler, but I was pretty sure it wasn't as hard as it was for me right now. The only thing that kept me moving was what Mayor Almaty had said, that the announcement from the President was in just a few minutes.

After some extreme caution, I managed to get to the bottom of the stairs. Fortunately, nobody else was in the kitchen or the adjacent alcove holding the TV, so I had the whole first floor to myself. That was a major relief.

I jumped onto the couch and managed to sit on it like a dog, taking care not to scratch up the cushions. Then, I reached for the remote, grabbed it, and turned on the television.

As you can imagine, all of this took some doing. As stated above, when you're an adult human, all of this seems so easy, because it is. But as some new creature, the likes of which had apparently never been identified before on this planet, it was a lot more difficult.

"Good morning, America. This may be the most important speech I'll ever make".

President Fiddlesticks is acting just like Mayor Almaty in that regard, I thought bitterly. Fiddlesticks was such an arrogant buffoon that he was impossible not to make fun of. It's okay during "normal" times, but he was not the kind of person you want in charge during a crisis.

"At about four in the morning, Eastern time, a mass transformation event occurred. It's not yet known what percentage of the population has changed shape, but it may be as many as one in three."

As President Fiddlesticks spoke, he made grand gestures with his arms, for reasons that I couldn't quite understand. It served to make him look even more ridiculous, but this wasn't exactly reassuring.

In addition, I noticed that the President's choices of words didn't seem as calculated as they usually did. This was likely due to it being an emergency announcement, and therefore one for which he didn't have time to prepare remarks. He wasn't speaking off a teleprompter this time.

"As you have no doubt heard by now, the creatures people have turned into haven't appeared in this world in recorded history. Some have taken to calling them...Pokemon."

Pokemon? Like that annoying trading card game that all the kids in middle school loved, but I thought was kind of mediocre? Like that kid's anime with over a thousand episodes? THAT kind of Pokemon?

"It is advised that the transformed should keep away from people who are not transformed, as it's not currently known if this may be an infectious pandemic. If it is a pandemic, it's important to contain it as much as possible. The news coming from other countries is not good".

The President clicked a remote on his podium, and my heart practically stopped beating. I was afraid to see what might be happening in other nations. It's a well-known stereotype that Americans tend not to care about foreign countries, but I didn't conform to it.

There were images of people who had crashed their cars due to transforming while in the process of driving them. There were photographs of people running around as Pokemon, paws in the air in total panic. And there were what can only be described as scenes of total carnage.

In Italy, as an example, one city had descended into absolute chaos, with gelato carts being overturned and several taxis colliding with each other. Already several Pokemon were being carried out of their cars on stretchers, towards hospitals that would no doubt be full to bursting.

That scene looked horrific enough, but then President Fiddlesticks clicked the remote again, and the scene shifted from Italy to Greece.

Greece, where it was roughly midday at the time of the Big Event, had fallen into absolute disrepair. Not only had their Prime Minister transformed into a Lucario, but a massive car pileup had occurred in the middle of a rural mountain road, and a massive plume of fire was rising from it.

I gulped as I saw firefighters trying desperately to quash the flames from the cars. I knew enough about forest management to know that in a dry climate like that of Greece during the summer, once a forest fire started, it would spread like, well, wildfire.

At the same time, paramedics were on hand, preparing to search the wreckage for survivors. In the back of my mind, though, I knew it was unlikely there'd be any.

This truly is a world on fire.