"Que sera, sera.. Whatever
will be, will be... The future's not ours to see... que sera.. sera-a..."
-- song lyric
The sitting chair rocked back and forth slowly...
She was just over half asleep; the lulling of the swinging chair did that
to people...
She was just a young girl; a quick glance
would place her at no more then fourteen or fifteen.. The breeze of the
eatly morning and the overall sun that fanned that day across were factors
in leeping her rather peaceful..
Walking around on the grass, not far away
from the slowly swinging chair, was a smallish mouse pokémon.. your
typical three-foot Raichu by look.. But closer in one went.. his gaze was
locked in two different positions, wherever he walked..
The girl turned, remembering.. This was her
pokémon.. Well, that had always been known; the rememberance was
of a time a long while ago.. a time when they first met.. The raichu had
a sustained degree of autism; would never utter a sound, nor would he ever
hold feelings towards her, towards Ann..
"But I can love her enough
and she'll eventually learn to, won't she?" Happy go lucky her, trying
to see the light at the end of the blocked tunnel... The nurse couldn't
answer.. so decided to leave it with an enigma.. "Maybe.. Wouldn't be too
expectant.. they say it's possible, though; I wouldn't give up hope.."
White lie.. but it's all Ann needed..
The raichu had free wanderings.. She would
walk around, god knows what she was thinking, if she thought at all.. Food
and drink and sleep were all that called her back.. But those eyes.. Ann
had spent hours gazing at them, the left locked towards a downwards-right
angle.. the right fixed directly ahead.. So cold, empty... And then they
were a gulf, all that was there and then there was nothing and--
She shot up and almost swung herself off
the chair. It took a few moments for her to recompose herself.. brown hair
amongst brown eyes and all that; spotcheck, she was Ann Kowalzski and she
was fourteen, sitting on a chair outside her house.. and on her was sitting
her autistic raichu, Saika. ..That was missing, for a start, and she scoured
the grass areas.. seeing nothing. She shrugged, muttering to herself..
"Wonder where she's got to now.." and with that, got up, and walked about
a bit across the grass..
Saika was in her own world right then.. Such
was not unusual.. but this time, she wasn't even paying much attention
to events which could pose problems.. Slipping through the open gate from
the grass, and out onto the sidewalk.. But to her, it was still grass,
or whatever.. and she was still in the nowhere place...
Ann saw nothing, and decided to check further
back into the garden.. So, she turned away from the street, and slipped
back off behind the house again.. They had a large side garden; fenced
at the back and hedged everywhere else.. Nice and quiet... Quiet enough
to lose a three foot mouse in, no doubt...
A very wary Estelle was making her way on
the other side of this hedge right now.. stopping just then, to check her
pocket... She flicked the two metal discs in her hand, between fingers...
First call of order, she glanced to her now empty pokeball.. She turned
the corner... and lo, what greeted her, but her next catch, wandering about
aimlessly... No, it was much too perfect. But she looked at the raichu,
and decided, what the hell... Placing one of the units in the pocket and
zipping it again, she approached the raichu gingerly... A small stumble,
and her foot nudged it by accident. And.... nothing happened. The raichu
just stood there, still, looking out towards the road.
"Well.. This was easy.."
Estelle said to herself, bending down to it's level.. "Hello there.. Uh..
whatever your name should be.." Her careful vision was alerted to a tag
in the raichu's ear... She examined it, with no reprieval from he pokémon
itself..
"Name.. Saika. Gender,
female.. Age.. seven years.. woohee.." The tag was blue-black. She tried
to remember what the colour-codes were for these things.. they were medical
tage, used for something chronic, or similar.. Of course, looking at the
other side of the tag revealed one word: Autism. A number, 2, was written
under it.. a couple of cogs turned.. and Estelle winced.
"..Why did they keep
this one alive, is all I'd like to know.. I think my lifestyle would be
a blessed relief for this one..." She placed one of the discs to the raichu's
head, and held it there with the palm of her right hand..
"Uh.. exactly what are
you doing...?" A voice startled Estelle, and she stood straight away. Improvisation..
something she needed to work out.. Think... Something appeared, she grabbed
at it.
"Oh, er.. Sorry, I was
just walking along.. Didn't watch where I was going, I walked into your
rai here, missy.. Real sorry, yah.."
Ann looked at the stranger,
dubiously.. "Well.. Anything serious done?"
Estelle shrugged, "Oh,
no missy.. May be a small bit of darkening where I bumped her; it should
pass in a while though.."
Ann nodded. "Okay then..
Well, thanks, I guess..." She walked forward, and picked up Saika with
both arms, cradling her like a lost child. Estelle silently cursed her
incredibly dumb luck..
"Was there anything else?"
Ann asked, expecting the stranger to be away by now... Estelle turned to
where she had been heading, saying to the air in front of her, "No, that'll
be all there, missy.." before walking quite slowly off in that direction...
Also in that direction were a few people.. Estelle felt like punching the
fence she was now walking next to; no chance to get back quickly.. Oh well,
time to hope and pray...
Ann went back to the back garden carrying
her raichu.. Weird woman; but, as long as Saika was okay now, that's what
mattered... All that differentiated the back garden from the front was
an overhang of fronds.. that and the back of the house was one side.. high
fences took the side off the house, and the one directly ahead of her right
now.. A hedge was the left wall, and Ann's swinging chair had it's back
facing this left hand side... She sat down, sitting Saika next to her,
and examined.. of course, it didn't take a lot of looking before she saw
the disc.
"That's a very weird
wound..." said Ann.. circling the disc, many times... before touching it.
The disc shimmered a little, and a small tingling presented itself to Ann's
finger.. ( Weird thing.. ) thought Ann.
~it's a nice thing~
Ann looked up. "Who was that..?"
~nice thing~
Her gaze passed to Saika... who was strangely,
looking directly at her, with both of those vacant orbs... Ann just looked
on in astonishment..
( But-- )
~i love this thing
ann~
What exactly -WAS- that?
~yes, touch it again~
The object looked inviting to Ann right
now.. The one touch she had given it; had that done this?
( this is.. insane..
)
~i don't get it either,
but it's good~
Her hand neared.. Perhaps some more good
things would come on this next one? Worth a try..
Estelle continued walking... She'd passed
just two of the three people.. when a sixth sense kicked her, hard.. It
was then that she knew she'd missed the chance, as she turned back and
started running, the fence ahead where the rai had been taken.. there were
definite stripes of electricity running through.. blocking entry to it
directly...
Estelle reached the gate, but knew she couldn't
get through now.. Self-protection; the parties involved were vulnerable
throughout.. and this stopped that... Already, people had stopped to watch,
and Estelle needed to get in before it finished and something unfortunate
happened..
Ann's third touch of the object was a sustained
one..
~this is weird very
very weird~
Her gaze focused on Saika.. and then on
the area.. Everywhere had gone yellow, the colour of electric; including
them.. though it was a glow right now..
~strange.. scared
ann hold~
Saika bounced into Ann's surprised grasp..
the two just lad in pet-like embrace for a while...
( Saika? )
No reply. Ann looked down in her lap, but
couldn't see anything except herself and a large mass of light.. Tendrils
started to slip out from the light, enveloping Ann... The air felt charged..
Then, something flowed over her leg; a tendril of light.. which flowed
in at the outside of the thigh.. spreading towards the foot, and up towards
her back... She looked at it, and was held in self-confusion as the whole
area had gone somewhere between yellow and orange... As it spread, she
could see two stripes.. tanned, slightly fleckled.. And she knew what they
were; they were Saika's leg markings.. But what was going on? She was becoming
her raichu? She could only watch.. The electric ran like liquid, spiralling
down the leg.. a midas touch of yellow/orange wherever it went.. It had
soon enveloped most of the leg.. the clothes that were there didn't seem
to be at all; it was pure fur, fine fur, and she self-consciously went
to run a hand over it..
Except, by then, other tendrils had been
working themselves.. and what was ran over it was soemwhere between herself
and a tendril that was snaking around her arm and hand.. changing their
colour, their composition.. It swallowed up her hand, and left in it's
wake a fleckled paw hand.. quite smooth to look at; it tapered back to
orange/yellow suddenly just before the wrist.. The same sort of thing was
mirroring on the other side of her..
Eventually, the limbs were fully articulated,
and fully raichu-coloured.. markings tapering the end of slightly longer,
bare, feet.. same as those on the latter half of both wrists and that on
either thigh..
At the small of her back, she felt something
building.. Not quite there yet, because some of the tendrils started to
snake about her torso in general.. ending at the base of the neck, repeating
their path.. Colour followed their path.. but other changes were occurring
inside.. these coloud be felt, and an auto-reflex caused her to cross arms
and double over slightly.. This one actually hurt.. and a shrill piercing
cry was let out; she couldn't hear it, but others could.. a general cacophony
had built up outside the garden now; no-one except Estelle knew what was
going on.. and she was rushing about looking for something to assume to
get her in there..
It was too late, of course.. the chest barreled
slightly; raichus were not the slimmest of creatures generally.. Some of
these changes shook he violently.. but the continuation snaked along until
it reached her neck... The buildup at the small of her back was not there
yet... Her legs and arms had some functionality now, and she decided to
reach over to somethere; a hand-mirror had been deposited on the ground..
The change hadn't reached her head area yet.. she picked it up and dropped
it suddenly, as she lurched forwards again, and off the chair.. Her gaze
lay directly into the mirror now.. the colour was sweeping around randomly..
but slight rolls of tendril were stopping at the cheek.. and depositing
yellow spots.. before the cheeks filled out slightly more then previously..
Her ears grew upwards, backwards.. she watched them lengthen, felt them..
self-habitually felt the spiral of the end of the right ear.. And then
her gaze fixed on her gaze.. which widened by look; the whites of the eyes
going black on the next blink.. with just a brown iris being anything but
blackness in those orbs.. The front of the face then arched; the end of
the nose was also black, and soon that was all the nose there was.. A mousey
face stared back at Ann, and once again, it was raichu... A left hand went
to an imperturbence... She felt a stud, hard and round... with a small
bit of paper on.. She had Saika's tag, as well.
The thoughts overwhelmed her, and she fell
forwards... The buildup at the small of the back finally explided into
a coupld more tendrils.. and a brief glance behind showed them interlinking..
their colour was black, and their produce was a tail; long, and thin, and
control of this swamped it's way into her co-ordination along with the
other millions of things... Saika's tacts being some of these... and then
everything was slotted in, and the raichu girl looked up at the sky..
Things weren't quite done yet, though..
Her hair sat around almost on her shoulders.. but it was green, an unusual
colour.. and so long.. It was also braided, three ways; a style she didn't
know but felt at home with... An eternity of staring up was followed by
a glance at herself.. She now adorned somegreyish-black clothing.. with
some implement in the right hand side of these, hung in a loop around a
chain..
Her tail said lying on her back was bad,
so she turned onto her left.. Her co-ordination and sense of reality returned..
and a few little tingles at the end of her fingers brought another something
into the equation.. sleek black-tan inch-high claws..
While the raigirl was having her crash course
in existing.. Estelle had found her target.. It was vulpine; similar to
hew previous, but not evolved.. Still, who could be picky.. Her owner,
a stout guy who seemed quite prissy, was reluctant to let Estelle near..
"I'll be fine lad, just
you watch.." Disc, few seconds, tap one, two, three, and a new blinding
light sent people sprawling for cover... Estelle still had co-ordination,
and in this slightly discoporated state.. she ran at the gate with it's
electricity.. passing through with minimal damage.. and walked a few steps
before the sense of not being kicked in and she fell to the ground... It
was futile anyway.. and as fire joined the ranks of the electricity, both
the two became asleep, or close to it..
"What a weird dream..." Ann opened her eyes..
She was flat out on the grass. "I dreamt that something weird had happened
with Saika and--" Her hand passed over her field of vision to be placed
onto her forehead.. it was furred, it was raichu, and visible to her eyes
was her tail laid across the side of the arm..
"What the hell?!" She
jumped up straight away, tail flailing around a little... This was wrong,
all wrong... She was Saika and she was not standing here as something between
raichu and human..
Wait.
She was who?
The handpaw refound the place on the forehead
again.. "..oh boy.. how am I going to explain THIS to the 'rents.."
"You're not. I killed
them around 15 minutes after I woke. Can't have loose ends in this profession.."
A voice caused her to spin, and she turned to look at a rather tall vulpix
anthro, with brown hair tied back in a bundle.. Her red-brown-gold eyes
pierced through the rai'girl..
"..you did WHAT?!"
"It would only serve
to do us wrong later.. I can't risk that. I'm sorry." She was stern.
A setting sun was the backdrop, and as she
looked around, the hedge and the fence were still fiered up and charged..
"What's with the surroundings..?"
"Automatic.. While you're
binding to the pokémon, you're very vulnerable. So it's a self-protection.."
"Wait.. Who -are- you,
anyway?" The rai'girl wasn't even sure who SHE was right now, never mind
asking other people...
"Well... I'm called Estelle...
I'm not, but that was the first thing I acquired.. A pidgeot, I think..
But the first one screws with your mind a little... So what's your name..?"
"Saika.." One word decided
who had the dominance here.. Saika flicked back her long hair, and looked
at this excuse for a morph in front.. And.. surprisingly, she could only
think of one thing to say right there and then.
"You owe me one hell of
an e--"
"I'll brief you over
a meal.. Come, just form back as yourself again and we can leave for a
restaurant or somewhere.." The morph walked aside, a slight red tinge appearing..
"Oh, wait, how to do it.. Just imagine yourself as two things.. 'S how
I do it.."
Saika said nothing..
instead, she concentrated on an image.. The one she remembered; her holding
Saika with the woman there...
It seemed like she was being split two ways..
One went up, one went down.. then the other went down as well.. She closed
her eyes..
and the two opened them
again a little later.. Saika still cradled in the position they had been
in before.. Ann just blinked once.. before being addressed.
"You have a pokéball
for your raichu? Some places don't allow pokémon in directly.."
Ann's gaze and Saika's went to her belt,
where sat a shrunken pokéball.
~okies, trust her;
she sounds nice~
The ever-there voice of Saika.. For an autistic,
that one sure could think... Ann pulled the ball from her belt, and clicked
the button, where the red collection beam dematerialised Saika, and drew
her into the ball..
~weeheeheehee.....~
The ball found it's spot in the belt again,
as Estelle, now reformed, dropped a ball on the vulpix.. which glowed a
little, before being drawn in.. She then turned to the fourteen year old..
She was somewhere between twenty-one and twenty-three.. this would have
looked weird..
"Now.. to lunch? I know
a fairly good place over the other side of town.. we'll need to get away
quite fast; damn police will be looking for -someone- to pin the bodies
in your house on.."
Ann never discovered why she did follow
Estelle out that time; this woman that had killed her 'rents just to fill
a loose end.. But, she was sure she'd find out.. she trusted Saika's word
over all else..
~raiiii......chuu...~
