Hello to everyone reading this. This story takes place in the PercentVerse, initiated by Jackboy0815 and his story "30 Percent". Even though this is the first story I ever published, I hope you will enjoy it, and that you will be curious to discover more about this universe as a whole. More details at the end of it.

Day 1 : When everything changed

[Let's start by taking stock of what happened, shall we ?]

[My name is Sara, and by the time I write this, the crisis caused by this event seems to calm down, but is far to be all good yet.
My goal by sharing this is to show that everyone has the power to make things better at his own scale.
I don't know if anyone will read this one day, but I really hope things are going well for you, and I encourage you to help people around you, whatever they currently are.]

[Without further ado, here's my life, when the world became a mess.]

And yet, it was just a day like any other…

Often while sleeping, I dream that I become someone else, or even Something else, like a Pokémon for example…
I have always been a huge fan of this universe, whether it be the games, or the anime. And the idea of flying in the air, swimming freely in the ocean, or even just being one of those fantastic creatures is a delightful thought.

But like every morning, I woke up, almost disappointed to find my human body like he was the day before. It was 10:30 AM here in the East part of France, and nothing tended to presage a day different than any other.

The ninety years old me was currently alone in my house with Octave, my little brother who is only six. Since my parents left us for a few days to see friends in Paris, we were just the two of us in our small town in Alsace doing nothing of our summer holidays.

I woke up my brother, such a lazy boy, to eat breakfast, and the day really began.

At start, it was quite a boring day, full of Discord chatting and Smash Bros with friends.
When I saw that it was already 5:15 PM, I decided to move a little bit. So I went to look for Octave who was playing in the garden, to put him in front of the TV, while I was reading a book next to him.
Yeah I know, it's not the best way to take care of him, but I'm a young adult who dreams about freedom, I can't do everything perfectly...

Even if he is maddening sometimes, I must say that I love my brother a lot. He likes Pokémon either, even if I'm still the master in this domain.

About 15 minutes later, I left my brother alone in the living room to go help friends on a Minecraft server, without realising that this was my last "normal" game for a long time…

Everything was fine at first, but quickly, at 5:37 Pm people began to disconnect. More and more in fact, including some of the people I was helping.
Naturally, I was thinking of a server failure.

I couldn't have been more wrong…

I also disconnected, as I was saying to myself "if servers have troubles, I better not insist for now…"

But suddenly, I began to feel it deep inside me... Something was wrong. An overwhelming feeling of fear was paralyzing me as I didn't even know why. I was just looking at myself in the mirror, still but trembling.

This moment was interrupted by a scream, coming from the neighbourhood, quickly followed by another one, and another one. In fact, it was like a pack of dogs was howling in every house all around me.

I went to the conclusion : Something IS happening, and something huge.
Suddenly, all my thoughts converged to one person : "Octave !" I yelled.

I ran down the stairs faster than ever before and went immediately to the living room.
But in front of the TV, nobody, except the pile of clothes that my brother was wearing just a few minutes ago. And inside these clothes, something was trying to break free !

Without even paying attention to my phone, which was receiving notifications at an alarming rate, I went straight on it to help whatever was trapped. I was expecting a lot of things, but absolutely not what I found :

In front of me, was standing a Fennekin, straight out of the Pokémon games. A fennekin who seemed unable to walk, and was looking at me with unknown eyes, and yet that look was so familiar to me…

There was no doubt, I was in front of my brother, who turned into a Pokémon during the ten minutes I left him alone while going on my computer.

He seemed confused and dizzy, but not hurt. I was trying my best to not appear panicked, even though I totally was. I needed to pull myself together, it was the only good thing I had to do before doing something stupid.

I finally took my phone in order to call an ambulance, my parents, or even the cavalry ! But then, I noticed douzains of notifications coming mainly from Discord, of people also panicking because some of their relatives transformed into something, seemingly Pokémon either. This was not just in this house, not just in my city…
In the entire world, in just a few minutes, some people just became Pokémon.

With that in mind, I knew that calling an ambulance would be useless, since they obviously were already overwhelmed with calls from everywhere, Cavalry would not have worked either since sadly, I didn't (and still don't) have their number, and anyway they always arrive too late… One option was left, probably the better one anyway.
I tried to call my parents, starting to think about what I could say to them. But how do you tell a mother that her son just became a magical beast with the power to burn everything ?

But while I was thinking, one ring passed, then two, then more, then suddenly, I heard the worst thing you can imagine in this situation :

"The person you tried to join is currently unavailable. Please leave a message after the beep…"
And yet again, back to panicking mode. I had no idea if my parents were ok, if they transformed. Heck, I didn't even know if they were alive !

"Fen, Fennekin ! fenne… ?"
I looked down, realising that I could not even understand what my own brother was saying, this was becoming more and more problematic. But at least he still could understand me, so he agreed to respond to my questions by nodding or shaking his head. That was a really limited way to communicate, but that was better than nothing.

I then tried to explain to him what was happening, using simple and reassuring words because I did not want to get him too afraid. He seemed to handle it pretty well, maybe because he was not yet fully realising what this would mean for the future.

I had no idea if this was permanent or contagious, but even if it was not the same body, it was my brother in front of me, and if one thing is sure, it's that I will not let him down, whatever happens.
On the bright side, I really like Fennekin a lot, so this was easier for me to kinda "accept" what was happening.

About an hour later, I had more information from the rest of my family. One of my cousins turned into a Meowth, my uncle was now a Clauncher, and my grandmother turned into a Florges. But everyone was living far away, dealing with their own problems, so Fenn… no, Octave and I would be on our own for probably a long time.

Furthermore, since this mass transformation occurred when people were getting home from work, there were a lot of accidents on the road, killing thousands of people in the process.
And I still had no idea of what became our parents, so my worry was growing more and more.

I also checked the Pokepedia page of Fennekin to gather as much information as I could, even though there was not a lot of thing I didn't know yet, if it wasn't that apparently they could vent air from his ears reaching 200° Celsius, which was a lot. So in a way, I was hoping that the real Pokémon were a little bit different from that…
Otherwise, I was surprised that they were using their own name to talk, like in the Anime, I would have found it more logical that they use more random sounds, like the real animals and what we can hear in the games, but it's not like I can do something about it.

In the meantime, Pokémon who still had the ability to do so began to write to communicate with humans. Unfortunately, Octave didn't really learn how to write yet so this would not work either… So I had to stick with signs and the tone of his voice. Good thing that he was really expressive.

When dinner time came, I realised that I had no idea about what Fennekin can eat. So I searched for Fennec and learned that they were omnivorous, which was gonna help me a lot. I ended up giving him sardines and a fig from our garden, he seemed to enjoy it a lot.

The only instructions given by the town hall at this time was to be careful with the transformed ones, and that they currently had the same rights as "regular" humans until higher decisions, which is probably for the best.

Speaking of higher decisions, we were informed that the president would make a speech tomorrow at 8 AM to give information on what was happening, and what would happen in the near future.

After dinner, I went a little bit in my room to be alone, trying to process what was happening,

and I cried.

I cried as never before, because I was still afraid.

Afraid because I had no idea what was happening, because I had no idea what would happen for Octave, because I had no idea where my parents were, because I had no idea of what I could do,

Because I had no idea…

Why him ? It's so unfair ! if someone here had to transform, it should be me ! At least I would have more ideas on what I can do that he does ! Now I'm lost, and he is completely innocent, and now can he still have a future ?

And all these interrogations kept coming in my mind as I couldn't calm down

But then I felt it.
Octave was here, trying to comfort me by rubbing himself against me, so I dried my tears and took him in my arms.

If we had to live in this situation, I would have to stay focused in order to evolve within this whole thing, and do everything in my power to protect him, my wonderful brother.

Tonight, we slept both in his bed, in order to feel less alone, as much for him than for me.

What beautiful and soft fur...