Thank you all for over 250 views. I'd love to get more feedback on this story, so please review if you have time. I put quite a bit of effort into this, and I'm very excited that I'm back to writing. It's been a while, it really has.

This is most likely going to be the last daily upload; like I said yesterday, I'm really spoiling you guys.

In any case, enjoy!


It couldn't have been more than a minute before I came to lying on my side on the floor, curled up in a fetal position as though I were afraid of something. Somehow, I'd been able to instinctively fall so that I didn't hurt myself.

"Lucas! Are you okay?"

That was the voice of my supervisor, and I was quite surprised to hear it. Since when had he ever cared about my well-being?

"Yeah...I'm fine" I groaned. It was quite something to just pass out in front of your employer. Talk about embarrassing! I didn't know if I'd be able to show my face in Cadillac Jack's ever again. (I'd already decided that I was never going to eat there again. The experience of having to intern there had kind of ruined it for me).

"That was quite startling. Are you sure you're all right? I mean, healthy teenagers don't just pass out at work like that".

"I know what you're saying," I replied, "but I'm fine. I'm not sick or anything like that. I just didn't have breakfast this morning".

It was a lie, but I knew it was a relatively believable one. It was definitely more believable than the truth, as paradoxical as that sounded.

"You didn't have breakfast this morning?" asked my supervisor. "You should know better, son. It's a part of taking care of yourself, making sure you eat well. You're not going to be productive here if you didn't have anything for breakfast".

I'm a bad liar, I thought to myself. He has my mother's number. He could just call her up, and then she'll tell him that I had quite a big breakfast. Who's she going to believe, me or her?

Oh well. I couldn't worry about that right now.

I stood up slowly and carefully, making sure to do it gradually so that I didn't feel dizzy again. As soon as I was back in a standing position, I looked towards the dining area, where one of my coworkers was looking at me with a shocked expression. Clearly she had seen me fall, but hadn't come in to do anything about it. Not that I would have done so either. (It wasn't that I hated the customers, but I just couldn't find it within myself to care too much about them either).

"I'll be fine, though" I told him. "Just passed out from hunger, that's all".

My supervisor scratched his chin, which was completely bald. In fact, his entire head was bald, which, in my opinion, made him even more intimidating.

"If that's the case," he said, "you should probably go home now. Get some rest, get some food in your stomach. Come back tomorrow, then you'll be more helpful, I should think".

"Thanks, Mr. Richardson" I said weakly. As stated above, I'm a bad liar, and I felt like it was going to be very hard to hold back the dam of tears that were no doubt coming. They wouldn't be tears of sadness, though; they would be tears of embarrassment at having fainted in front of several people.

"It's no problem" he replied. "After all, I care about all of my employees, and that includes the interns. I'm not mad at you at all, or anyone else. Just go home, do what I said, and come back tomorrow".

"Okay" I replied, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. In reality, I was thinking, Are you seriously going to tell me that you care about all of your employees? You make me wipe tables and wash dishes, two of the worst tasks known to man!

Of course, I didn't say that out loud. Instead, I left the diner as soon as I had taken my gloves off.

I could have walked home, but that would have meant leaving my car at the diner, meaning that I would have to go back and get it later. For that reason, I decided to chance the drive back home, hoping I didn't feel dizzy and/or faint again.

Fortunately, that didn't happen. I made it back to my house without any issues, and then I entered the back door, where my mother was cleaning up the kitchen. This was unfortunate, because all I wanted to do was go upstairs and lock myself in my room for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, today was a Wednesday, and that meant my mother was working from home today, just as she always did on Wednesdays. Also, I'm a bigger guy, and whenever I walk, it makes some noise, especially on the creaky kitchen floor.

Therefore, my mother noticed me as soon as I walked onto said kitchen floor.

"Lucas?" she asked me. "Why are you home so early?"

"It's a long story" I replied. "I don't want to tell you right yet".

She turned around to face me, and I saw that she had that look in her eyes that told me that, no matter what, she wouldn't let me get away with not telling her the truth. That's one thing about mothers that can be either good or bad: They always want to know the truth.

"I feel like that's not the whole story, though" my mother replied, looking rather irritated. She pursed her lips, and I now knew that there was no getting out of this one.

I took a deep breath. I considered the question of how I was going to explain what had happened. My options were either to break the news slowly or all at once.

Ultimately, I decided on the latter approach. "I fainted at the internship from hunger".

My mother raised an eyebrow. "That really doesn't sound like something that would happen, is it? I mean, you had four pancakes for breakfast only a few hours ago".

"Well, I got really hungry again. And I really don't think I have diabetes or anything like that; that's the only symptom I've got".

"I believe you" she told me.

"You do?"

"Yeah. If you were trying to get out of work, why would you tell me that? That just doesn't sound like the kind of excuse you would come up with".

I shrugged my shoulders. "Fair enough".

Opening the door of the fridge, I grabbed two slices of pepperoni and pineapple pizza, leftovers from last night, and put them on a plate. "Hungry again, are you?" my mother asked me when she noticed what I had taken from the fridge.

"Yeah" I replied.

I took the plate up to my room, because that's where I felt like being. After shutting the door (even though it was about ninety degrees outside and this would make it harder for the air conditioning to cool down my room), I sat down on my beanbag chair and began eating one of the slices of pizza.

I didn't know why, but I just felt absolutely miserable. No matter how hard I tried to rationalize with myself, I felt like my situation was more and more hopeless somehow.

But why would it be? You're not sinking deeper and deeper into an icy lake, are you?

After I had finished eating, I put the plate underneath my bed so that I didn't trip over it. Then, I noticed something underneath my pillow. Something shining.

I'll admit it; my first thought was that the Tooth Fairy had come and left me some cash. Then again, I hadn't believed in the Tooth Fairy in a very long time, and besides, I already had all my adult teeth in, being eighteen and all.

But no; this was something far different. And, as I would soon discover, far more sinister.

It was a simple golden locket, one of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry I had ever seen. The thin golden chain was studded with sapphire stones, and the centerpiece of the locket was shaped like a heart. For all intents and purposes, it was something you'd give to your lover on Valentine's Day or a similarly romantic occasion.

However, as I looked at it, I got more shivers down my spine. Something about it was just evil.

I was able to make out some tiny words on the back of the heart. It was difficult to see them, but my vision was still good enough to do so.

AND I WON'T BE DENIED BY YOU, THE ANIMAL INSIDE OF YOU.

It was just one sentence. Twelve words. And yet...something about those specific words made the back of my neck tingle.

Who had sent me the locket? And why did it cause this sensation?

I didn't think it meant anything in particular. Perhaps it was just something about those words that put me on edge. But I was so, so wrong.


During the ensuing hours, I remained in my room. I wasn't really in the mood to be sociable with anyone else, and I let it show on my face whenever my mother came into the room to check on me.

Eventually, my father would be home from work, and we'd eat dinner together in the kitchen. But that wouldn't be until much later.

It was about three in the afternoon, and my hunger was coming back in full force. I was debating between another two slices of pizza, another sandwich, or an ice cream sundae; any of the three sounded pretty amazing right about now.

I stood up to head back to the kitchen, and that's when the event happened.

What was the event I am speaking of, you might ask?

Well, I had taken a glass of water from my bathroom sink in order to drink. Before I could tip it down my throat, however, my hand started shaking, and I dropped the glass.

Fortunately, the floor of my room was carpeted, and the glass had a soft enough landing that it didn't shatter into a million pieces. However, I was still alarmed by the fact that my hand had started shaking.

The next thing that happened was that my eyes started burning. I'm not talking about the eyestrain you sometimes get after looking at your computer screen for too long, either. The sensation was as though I'd just gotten habanero juice in them.

Am I going to go blind?, I wondered.

It wasn't that much longer before my chest started hurting once more, just like it had yesterday. The only difference was that this time, the pain was far more intense, and I wondered if this time, I really was having a heart attack. That would be kind of a lame way to go out at my age.

My skin started prickling, and I saw blue hair begin to grow on my arms, torso, and legs. No, not hair...FUR.

I remembered hearing legends about a young man who had turned into a Lucario, and it sounded like that might be happening to me right now. If so, that would have explained why I was so hungry; I remembered reading that Lucario often burned nine thousand calories every day, and thus had to eat a ton of food in order to avoid withering away.

I felt more pain, this time on my hands. Near one of my birthmarks on my right hand, the one that looked almost like an injection site, it felt as though I'd been stung with the largest needle known to mankind. The pain was absolutely excruciating, and I could barely breathe.

My hair began to disappear back into my skull, and I felt two massive blobs spring up. These were of course the organs Lucario used to sense aura.

As my bone structure completely restructured itself in order to fit this new frame, I howled in agony. It felt as though every bone in every nook and cranny of my body was being broken, set, and then rebroken once more. And then, the weirdest thing yet happened.

The fur on my new body changed from the dark blue into a light sky blue color, and then...it began to turn white, just as white as snow.

As white as the snow in the Coronet Range right now.

By now, the pain in my chest had largely subsided. In its place was a large white spike, made up of similar material to an elephant's tusks, that jutted out right above my heart. It was surrounded by beige fur all over my chest.

And now I was absolutely certain what had happened. There was no denying it.

I gulped and entered my bathroom. Even if I knew for sure what I'd transformed into, I still wanted to get a look at myself in the mirror in order to confirm it.

Sure enough, the instant I glanced at myself in the reflective glass mirror, I saw a Lucario staring back at me. Not just a normal Lucario, one with white fur.

Okay, so I've become a Lucario now. But why the fuck is my fur WHITE?

I didn't have the slightest idea why my fur would be white, but I did know one thing. If the news came out that I'd turned into a Lucario, it would be all over the media. It would be the number one trending story on PokeTube, Twitter, CNN, and Vulpix News, as well as pretty much any other news network you could think of.

And then the poachers would start hunting me. Even if they didn't find me, I'd get a lot more attention than I wanted. I'd rather just live my life, please.

"Lucas?" I heard my mother call, but I barely heard her. I was just extremely shocked that this had happened, and hadn't been paying attention to what was going on outside of my own head.

"Yes" I grunted. My voice was a lot deeper than it had been as a human.

"Come down and see me! You've been in your room all day!"

She's going to find out eventually, I thought. But I'm going to delay that moment for as long as I can. I've got to come up with something, fast.

"I'm taking a piss!" I yelled back. It was a believable lie at least, but it wouldn't buy me too much time.

"Okay. Come down when you're done".

I gulped once more, knowing that escape was impossible from this situation. No matter what, my mother would know that I'd done what that guy in the legend had done, turned into a Lucario. And then she'd probably call the hospital and get them to examine me again. I was scared of what they might find.

Not to mention, if I left the house in this state, there was no doubt that someone, surely, would eventually get a picture of me and put it on social media. At that point, the secret would be out.

But what other option did I have? My bathroom door didn't have a lock on it, and even if did, my mother would become highly suspicious if she thought I was in there way too long, particularly if I refused to get out.

I might as well tell her now. The thought of doing that felt like ripping my heart right out of my chest, but it was, sadly, probably the best option. At least then she wouldn't think less of me.

"Mom! Can you come in?" I yelled so that she'd hear me. It wasn't like me to use an extremely loud voice when indoors, so I suspected that she'd realize something was up at this point.

I heard the sound of footsteps upstairs, and then my door was opened. "What's - oh my".

She was looking at me, mouth wide open, clearly shocked that I was a Lucario now. Of course, it's not like she'd be anything else.

For a few seconds, I thought she'd say something like, What have you done with Lucas? That would have been an extremely cliche thing for her to say, much like something that would be said in a fairy tale.

Instead, she said, "Are you Lucas?"

I nodded. In my new, gruffer voice, I said, "I turned into a Lucario, Mom. I turned into a motherfucking Lucario".

"I don't even know what to say" she replied. "I suppose that we'll have a lot to explain to your father when he gets home".


A few hours later, my father arrived home from work and saw what had happened. If I do say so myself, he damn near had a heart attack as soon as he'd caught a glimpse of me.

It seemed that the news media hadn't heard about the events yet, but it was only a matter of time. Eventually, I'd have to leave the house, whether to go back to my internship or to return my summer reading book to the library. If nothing else, people would wonder why I'd seemingly disappeared, and that might compel me to reveal myself to the world.

Fortunately, tomorrow was my day off from the internship, so I wouldn't have to do anything outside of the house then. I could put off the big reveal for one more day.

I had told my parents that, in the interest of not being seen by any of the neighbors, we should eat dinner in the basement. There were windows there, but only garden-level windows, and it would be rather difficult for one to view my new form through them if they weren't specifically looking for me.

They obliged, and so my mother served grilled chicken and asparagus to us. It all looked delicious, and I found that I was even more excited about meat than usual.

"I'm telling you, our grocery bills are going to practically triple" my mother said. Turning to my father, she told him, "Gavin, they say Lucario burn 9,000 calories a day".

"Indeed, that is the case" I said. "Honestly, I'm impressed that you remember all of that from school".

My parents both laughed. "We might be old, Lucas," my father told me, "but we're not that old".

"Whatever" I replied. "But in all seriousness, this is quite a problem. What do you think we're going to do about it?"

Oftentimes, when you're just a kid, you think your parents are unbeatable titans that can solve any problem. You think that there's nothing they can't handle, and, more importantly, that they have all the answers.

So it was quite alarming to me to see that my parents both appeared utterly stumped. My father was scratching his chin, looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

"I really don't know, Lucas" my mother said after a long silence. "We'll figure something out. You're going to be able to live your life as a Lucario. Pokemon do have equal status to humans. Try not to worry too much about it".

As soon as there had been that long pause in the conversation, I'd been worried. No matter what my mother said, no matter what she did, I wasn't going to relax until I had absolute certainty that everything would be all right.

But it wasn't going to come, and I knew that.

Later, getting into bed, I had to be careful not to crush my new tail as I was lying down. This wasn't an easy task, simply because I wasn't used to it. Eventually, if I was a Lucario for long enough, I'd probably acclimate to the new difficulties associated with my new life, but clearly not yet.

I stayed up for a while, tossing and turning, with an endless amount of what-ifs in my mind. Not only was I now a Lucario, I was a Lucario with white fur. I was sure that any number of poachers would quite literally kill for a bit of my hide.

Eventually, I managed to fall asleep, and I had my second nightmare in as many nights.

In my dream, I was in my new Lucario form, running across a barren rocky path. My feet might have been fairly hardy in this body, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt a little bit to run across the rock.

I didn't know why I was so desperate to run, but I had a sense of impending doom, as though I were being pursued by an evil force.

Suddenly, meteors started falling from the sky, and I had to run carefully to avoid getting crushed by one of them. I remembered hearing that if someone is shooting at you, it's a good idea to run in a zigzag motion so that they'll have a harder time hitting you. I hoped that the logic was the same with meteors.

Pretty soon, I was out of breath. I knew that Lucario had excellent stamina, but I also knew that this was only a dream, so it didn't have to obey the same "rules" that real life did.

I willed myself to wake up, just like I had last night. But I couldn't!

Okay, this is genuinely terrifying. Maybe it isn't a nightmare after all.

Eventually, I tripped over a loose rock and fell to the ground. I tried to get up, but found that I couldn't. Something was keeping me locked in this position.

Before I could find out what was bearing down on me, my eyelids snapped open.

I sat bolt upright in bed, a cold sweat covering my face.

Just a dream. Open my eyes, yeah, it was only just a dream.

That didn't relax me as much as it should have, but it was still hugely relieving to know that no serious harm had come to me.

Well, other than the fact that I'm a Lucario. That part, of course, had not been a dream. It was real.

I got up out of bed and walked toward my window to see what time of day it was. That was what would decide my next course of action.

To my surprise, the sun had already come up; I'd slept through the night in spite of my nightmare. But that wasn't my only surprise.

I'd known it was coming. I just didn't expect it to be so soon.

Crowding in my front yard, all holding microphones, was a literal mob of journalists and news anchors. Vans were parked, as far as I could tell, all the way down my street. The various members of the news media all had hungry expressions on their faces.

And all of them were looking at me as though I were a feast spread out at Thanksgiving dinner.