"Hey! What are you doing!? You can't just take my young son away! He doesn't know any better!"

6:30 am 23/08/2019

The first 5 minutes of the trip have been quite quiet, as though neither of us really know what to say to each other. I decide to interrupt the silence.

"So, how does it feel to be a Zorua?" I ask with a hint of genuine interest. He looks over at me and sighs, giving off a feeling that he doesn't enjoy it.

"It's fine, I guess, but it just feels so weird walking around on all 4's, my eyes are a lot fuzzier than before, but I can still see color." He pauses, looking deep in thought. "There are a lot more sounds I can hear, but it's hard to control these ears of mine. From what I understand, they are supposed to be able to pick up the direction of sounds, and that is supposed to be my main way of knowing what's around me, but it's all so confusing."

"Well, how about your sense of smell? If it's anything like a dog, you should be able to tell a lot more about something through its odors than any Human can." I state, as though that's common knowledge.

"Yeah, I can smell a lot more scents now too, but that's also very confusing. I don't know why it has to be so hard to understand?" He pouts rather cutely. I give off a small laugh.

"If things were easy to understand and do, what fun would they be? Honestly, I revel in trying to figure out how things work, through trial and error or by having someone go over some basics to help me understand, then move on." As we continue driving, I notice a police car ahead of us, with two officers holding down what appears to be a large human-like rabbit. It has a brown body, which looks like it's been shaved, since certain parts of its body still have off-white fur, such as around the absurdly large ears, around its "hands" and around its feet, which look oddly like boots. I look at Shade who seems to have also seen them since he has gotten off the seat and is hiding from sight. Once we're past, I turn to him. "What kind of Pokemon is that?"

"That was a Lopunny, I don't know much about them, aside from the fact that they are pure normal type."

"Ah, so like Snorlax?" He looks at me strangely.

"I never took you for a fan of the games," He looks quite puzzled since I didn't recognize any of the other Pokemon. "What do you know about Pokemon?"

"I know about generation one and that's it, I only ever played the first games, since after that I started getting into working on cars again, and didn't have any time to play them anymore." I laugh again, mostly to myself. "Maybe this will give me a reason to play it again, or better yet, actually participate in real-life battles." Shade shudders a bit.

"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to being in a battle, with how the Pokemon act in the Anime, seems quite painful."

We continue driving towards Shade's house, seeing more and more Police cars the closer we get. After around 15 minutes, I notice a blockade ahead of us, with Police officers checking cars going past. Shade then looks to me worriedly, pointing to a street not long before the blockade.

"Great, they made a blockade just outside my street, they'll likely pull us over if it looks like we are trying to avoid it."

"Well, all we can do is try," I decide to put the blinker on to say we're going left as we pull into the street. We both look back as we see a Police officer walk over to the entrance and look at us while shaking his head, then pulls out a chair and sits. "Lemme guess, this is a dead-end street?" Shade nods as I give a heavy sigh. "I should be able to talk my way out of this, but if they come to your house and ask if you know me, just say yes and I was dropping off a friend, and find a way to tell someone that speaks English too."

"Alright, and what if they ask where we were and why we were there?" I give a thoughtful look as I plot a cover story in my head.

After around three minutes, I start to back out of the driveway and head back down the road to the waiting officer. As I approach, I wind down the window as the officer stands back up and allows me to stop next to him.

"Morning officer," I notice that he has a very stern look on his face. "Sorry about before, I was just dropping off someone."

"Why didn't you hail one of us over?" The officer was clearly not buying my short story

.

"I knew I was going to come back this way anyway to get home, so I felt I'd be able to speak to you afterward, besides, it would have looked quite weird if I drove up to you guys, then pulled a U-ey to go back down there, only to return a few minutes later." He seemed to ponder on my logic for a moment before nodding.

"That would have been quite odd, very well, but may we know where this friend of yours lives?" I describe Shade's house to the officer as he looks down the street and sees the house in question. After a moment, he nods as he walks over to the booth they have set up. We spend another few minutes going over why I was out and where I live, simply saying that we have a friend who we were helping over the past few days, but because I have an appointment I had to leave early in the morning.

Leaving the booth, I breathe a sigh of relief. "Now, it's up to you Shade."

7:05 am 23/08/2019

As I hop out of my car, I notice that the door has remained open since I left the previous night. I slowly close the door to not disturb Nova, then walk into the lounge room. Now that there is no evidence that I ever left home, I turn on the TV quietly, to see if any new news has been released. I flick over to channel 9.

"Welcome back to Nine News. The situation here in Australia has been quite quiet for the most part, aside from in the state of Victoria, where tensions are starting to rise."

I watch nervously, remembering that Lopunny being arrested on our way home.

"Police have begun arresting these Humans gone rogue, outlining specific areas that are known for criminal activity as these new protective zones, which has divided the population."

The screen then cuts to a protest that is live happening in the Melbourne CBD.

"The police and government have gone too far! My son, he's only three years old, but they treated him like a wild animal! As soon as I began to protest against them taking away my precious baby boy, they shoved him into an animal cage!"

The lady on the screen begins to cry, and for good reason.

"The sheer look of terror in his eyes, he seemed to be begging me to help, but since my husband also changed… I had no one to help me, they took them both, the only ones I had left in my life!"

I could hear some screaming in the background, which apparently the cameraman heard too since he swung around and looked up to see a person on the roof of a large building, ready to jump. As the man jumped, the screen went black for a moment before returning to the man in the newsroom.

"Well, that escalated quickly. Clears throat. Well, we were able to get in contact with the police commissioner this morning and asked him about how poorly these "Elementals" are being treated. He had this to say.'

The screen then fades to an older-looking man with a police uniform on.

"Look around you, America is having issues with these "Elementals" and places like Hungary are in complete disarray because of an excessive number of these things. Just because they were once Human DOESN'T mean they can just walk around, burning buildings to the ground, causing mass panic, and overall being a nuisance! What about criminals? They are more Human than the Elementals, yet we put them in prison when they do the wrong thing! These Elementals are causing more chaos, death, and destruction than even an organized Syndicate can in a week, and it's been a little under 30 hours! It's about time we stepped up to the plate and showed them who's boss around here!"

There is then a cheer in the background from several police officers.

"Well, what about the young? What about those that have done nothing wrong? Why treat them arguably WORSE than a criminal? These people never chose to become these destructive beasts!"

It appeared a young reporter had become very vocal about his concerns, getting a couple of boos from the crowd and even a couple of the other reporters shook their heads.

"Watch this footage, that was taken this morning, this is a five-year-old!"

The screen cuts to a screen showing police footage. It stated that the officers had received a complaint about a small fox-like creature, who was extremely aggressive towards the neighbors the day before. It also appeared to be very early morning, since it was still dark out.

"Sorry to disturb you so early in the morning mam, but we received reports that there was a small fox creature around here that was very aggressive towards the neighbors yesterday?"

Presumably, said fox creature steps out of the house. I was expecting to see a Zorua since it was one of three Pokemon I know of that look like a fox, but to my surprise, it wasn't that nor a Vulpix nor Eevee. The creature, presumably an Elemental, has dark brownish fur over most of its body, with black around the ears and the tip of its tail, which was dragging on the ground. I can't make out any further details as it immediately attacks one of the officers. There is a violet wrestle, and it looks like the fox might come out on top, clearly stronger than the officer despite its size and apparent age. All of a sudden, the other officer shoots his pistol, missing both of them, and getting the attention of Elemental, who lets out a low growl that sounds like "Kiiiiiit!" before the officer regains his composure and catches the Elemental and shoves it in a cage in the cruiser.

"Hey! What are you doing!? You can't just take my young son away! He doesn't know any better!"

The mother keeps protesting as the officers drive off, and the screen returns to black. We then return the focus to the officer.

"That Elemental, reportedly a Nickit, nearly took that officer's arm off!"

The screen cuts to an image of an officer whose arm had a few dozen bite marks and the arm was, indeed, split open a bit.

"If it was not for his partner saving him, he likely would have lost it, if not worse! People like her hinge onto their kids being young to cover up their bad behavior, and it seems Elementals are no different, so until we can tell who is dangerous and who isn't, we NEED to lock them up, for the safety of our citizens!"

I decide to turn off the TV and walk to the kitchen as I get ready to start my day.

Alright then, another chapter down! I have also started using a new system that has kinda worked, it's able to give me more of a reason to write and gives me a goal to reach for. Anyways, I have also posted the next rewritten chapter of the parent story for this one, "The beginning of a new future". I now also have a goal to upload 1 chapter of this story and the rewrite each month, then once I've written those chapters, I'll focus on some of my other stories. I will have 3 other stories going after this one and The beginning of a new future, all based in my own personal Au, those being one that I've almost finished the first chapter of, Wings of Ascension, and a new one that I'm gonna start once I've finished writing this outro. Those will be out whenever I can write them, and they won't have an actual release pattern, unlike this one and The beginning of a new future, but all of the chapter's I have finished at the end of each month, will be uploaded around the beginning of each month like this one. I hope all that makes sense! Reviews are appreciated as honestly, I have been lacking motivation since it seems the only story I've written to actually have a proper review outside of my bf is The beginning of a new future, which has made me question if people are actually liking my stories, but with that, I shall see you on the next one! Stay frosty!