Be it ever so humble...
"At the edge of chaos, unexpected outcomes occur. The risk to survival is severe."
--Ian Malcom
*****
Other than intense humidity, the first thing I felt was an unresistable weariness. I spun around and caught sight of Gary, but it was too late. The portal was closing and the only thing I saw were his sapphire blue eyes. It dawned on me that I didn't know how he'd get home.
Darkness was creeping around the edges of my eyesight and I knew I would pass out soon. Something that Xanady hadn't warned me about, but maybe neither she nor the scientists knew.
I walked around a bit, leaning from tree to tree, looking for shelter. Hopefully, a little sit down would re-energize me. I nearly tripped over a twisted chunk of metal and I stopped to look down. It was the shattered/crushed remains of the transdimensional machine the two nerds had made. A big rock was nearby, obviously what was used to destroy it. If only its creators had waited a half-hour longer and saw that it did work..
I saw my water bottle, nestled in a shrub, and bent to pick it up. It would be strange to drink bottled water that, to me, should be five weeks old/warm. But when I bent over to pick it up, the darkness that had threatened took over and I passed out.
*****
Darkness, inky black, was the only thing I knew then. It was comforting, I felt no pain, no dizziness, nothing at all.
Then I felt Cozmik, Matt's doberman, licking me awake. I brought my arms up, to shove her away, but the fur at her neck wasn't the slick short fur I knew. This fur was dense and shaggy.
I opened one eye and saw eyes as amber as my own peering down at me. The canine panted and seemed to smile as it backed away.
I was instantly fully awake as I backed away, still sitting down. It was a wolf! There were wolves in this city?!
"Finally, I thought you'd never wake up!" The voice was weary and telepathic.
The wolf sat down ten feet from me.
"Mew?" I asked, looking around. "Where are you?"
"....not in your dimension...Xanady has...need you back!" Mew broke off for a moment. "That's better. Cirrus, I've been trying to get you awake for so long! You've been unconscious for two hours! You have to decide very soon....we need you back here, Xanady's gone nuts."
"What has she done? Is everyone okay?"
"No, people are hurt. Many have been...prisoner...breaking up again..We can't keep this up. The wolf will be your guide!"
"Mew?" No answer. "MEW!"
My voice echoed through the clearing and the wolf whined. I glanced at it, not all that convinced it was on my side.
As if to prove me wrong, it stood up and panted, wagging its plumy tail.
I smiled weakly and stared down at myself. I hadn't changed from my post-Thunderstoning, 'cept that I had the same Pikachu/Raichu side-effects that Xanady said were permanent. I guessed it counted in both dimensions. Crickets and locusts resumed their songs and the heat, the true city heat and humidity washed over me.
"Okay, uh, Wolf. I need you to stay here and guard this area." I grimaced, that sounded really weak. "I'll be back in exactly one hour and fifty minutes. Don't let anyone see you, okay?"
It kind of whined/growled and ducked into the shrubs.
Nice guardian, Mew. I thought and began to climb back up the hill I'd fallen down. It was time to head home.
*****
1 1/2 hrs left.
I made it home a half hour later. In just one hour and twenty minutes, I'd be back in the park again. I hoped, for some odd reason, that the wolf would be there too.
I had to ring the doorbell since my housekey was in the pockets of my jacket that was still at Team Rocket Headquarters. A few minutes later, Mom answered the door, surprisingly sober. Though her eyes were bloodshot and her nose red, I knew she hadn't been drinking. It looked like she'd been crying.
"Mom?" I asked, my voice quivering in both fear and love.
"Oh, Cirrus, honey.." she said, hugging me tight. "I had such a bad dream about you. You were lost, scared, and I wasn't there to help you in time. I'm just glad you're okay."
"I am, Mom. I'm okay now." And I cried then, letting out all of my frustration and pain and fear and a billion other emotions I hadn't know I had bottled up.
*****
So what was one transdimensional-traveller and her mother to do? Talk.
For the next hour, we talked and got things out in the open. For me, it was a sort of closure as well as a beginning. I got to tell her the truth of all of my fights at school, not just this one last one. The last fight that felt like a billion light years away.
She got to tell me that she'd been worried. Financial difficulties, no adult friends, no family. After she and Dad divorced, she had no one but me. Since I wasn't much of a talker, she decided to talk to her new friend Jack...last name, Daniels.
We cried, we hugged, and we cried some more.
She didn't notice the physical difference in me, basically since my long hair covered my ear-tips and I guess she took the red cheeks as a sunburn.
I cleared my throat. "Mom, there's something I have to do..to tell you."
"What else could there be?" Her brown eyes were concerned. "You...you didn't rob someone...did you?"
"No, Mom, it's way wierder than that." I paused, trying to find the right words when there were none. "It's so difficult to try to tell you."
Her hands grasped mine. "Don't try to tell me...just do."
The words weren't a command, just a comfort.
"Aiight, but I'm warning you now that it's way strange, but it is true and that's what you must believe." And I told her. I told her everything from that morning I went jogging...this morning to her...to being initiated into Team Rocket, finding that Pokémon were real, MewTwo, Gary, and the most difficult part...my transformation.
She sat back, taking it all in, and asked for proof.
I showed her that it wasn't a tan, that my cheeks weren't sunburnt, I wasn't wearing special colored contacts, and that my new ear-tips weren't props from a Star Trek convention.
She smiled, "I almost wish you'd have told me you were a Trekie." Mom never liked Star Trek.
"So you believe me?" I pleaded to her.
She shook her head, "I don't know, honey, it's all so hard to believe. I don't know if I can believe."
"Well, you'll get your chance now." The band Xanady had given me began to breep. "I need you to drive me to the park, pronto."
I had twenty minutes to get there.
*****
We ran into the park, Mom aiming the car alarm remote as we ran. I heard it beep sharply as the trees provided a patchwork of a shade for us. It was the thick of the afternoon and people were doing the "Let's Get Physical!" thing: jogging, walking, biking. The serious folk were out.
We jogged also, in our jeans and sneakers and boots. Not what the average jogger would wear, so we kinda stood out like a sore thumb.
"Just...where...are...we...going?" Mom huffed, trying to keep up with me.
"It's not that far, but we've got ten minutes to do it!"
We reached the bend and slid down the hillside, only a couple of passing joggers giving any interest to our activities. Even those people lost interest, but I didn't care.
We slid out of the brush and onto the lost trail. I stood there for a moment, panting myself, looking back up the way we came down. There was no way to see the top and duhly, vice versa.
Mom gasped and pointed behind me. I turned around to see the Wolf step out of the brush, its tail wagging.
"Don't worry Mom, it's a friend of a friend of mine."
"But...but....they're not supposed to be living around here!"
"You wanna tell that to this guy?" I was about to say something else when the band breeped sharply. I pressed the button and a silvery blue light shot from it and formed a door-shaped portal.
"It is real! You were telling the truth..." Mom gasped again. I turned to her and she grabbed me in a bear hug. "Oh, honey, I don't want you to go!"
I returned her hug. "I know, Mom, but there are people waiting for me. They need my help because no one else can help them." I stepped away from her and smiled. "I'll be aiight. I promise. I'll be back before you know it!"
I ran then, the Wolf hot on my heels, and lept through the portal. We were through and I turned around again, like when I left, to see my Mother smiling and waving at me. I waved back, a huge grin on my face. If anything I would do this for her.
The portal closed with a snap and the bracelet vanished from my wrist and once again, I fainted from the stress of transdimensional travel.
Well, she made her way home and back again. She and her Mom made up. Now what?
For Chapter Ten:
Cirrus made it back to the Pokémon Dimension, but where did she land at? What has Xanady done that got Mew in an uproar? What's with this Wolf anyway?