A large rivalry between two aspiring bands is escalated as a wide-scale accident causes the world's population to turn anthro... but thoughts of winning a battle of the bands are wiped from their minds as an unexpected threat causes them to struggle for t
Chapter3 The whole
band wandered away from the practice area at a slow pace, all dead tired.
Sammy and Richie lived nearby, and Josh seemed untiring and was gone as
soon as he'd made the announcement. Chadran, however, had a nice long slow
slither home.
"Ten AM,...Sharp?"
Chadran muttered to himself once he got far enough away from the others.
"Josh has either lost his mind, or gained a fine set of..." His train of
thought was derailed by a large thunder clap.
"Looks like rain,"
He sighed to himself, turning his head to the sky and started moving faster.
He was by no means used to this new form, lacking legs. The long snake-like
tail was a very weird feeling, not to mention the embarrasment of wearing
something very like a skirt as he could no longer wear pants...
The storm broke
long before he made it home. Although he was of a water-friendly type,
it soaked his clothes and wet the road, making getting home all the harder...
Sighing again,
resigned to his fate, he continued home.
~-~-~-~
Eric, unable to sleep
due to his morph's instinctive aversion the pouring rain outside, sat at
his drum kit and pounded. Though the drums were padded so as not to wake
his parents and as such could not be heard over the ferocious storm, he
could hear it in his mind as if playing full blast at a concert.
And he felt himself
fumble several times in a row, before completely losing the rhythm and
falling out. No... drumming when barely awake just didn't work...
He crawled his
way back to his bedroom and flopped onto his bed, but sleep wouldn't come,
even after another half an hour. Glancing at the clock, he groaned. Well
past one o'clock... if he wanted to be up and ready for practice tomorrow,
he'd have to be ready soon...
Pulling his window
up, he looked out, trying to ignore the biting cold of the wind and rain...
They'd win the battle of the bands. They had to win. No matter what Josh's
doubts may be, they were good...
But those girls...
What could they be? There had always been friction between the two groups.
They'd met at a previous battle of the bands, about a year ago, well before
the Day of the Morph... both groups had blown the crowds away. They'd tied
for first. Both groups were considered near-celebrities throughout the
city.
But this one
was a lot larger... that had just been a little one organised by a local
radio station. This one was a full-blown concert. Although other ameteur
bands would be participating, it was obvious that it would be little more
than a showdown between these two bands... And it was rumoured that agents
of at least one record company would be present at the concert. If they
played well enough, they might be able to actually make it big time...
The intense cold
finally drove Eric beyond his ability to stand it, and he slammed the window
shut. He had to sleep...
~-~-~-~
A Growlithe morph
was fighting for his life.
He'd been running
home, to try to get out of the rain, when a huge, dark figure had appeared
out of nowhere and sprawled him on the road. Fighting half-blindly through
the darkness and debilitating rain, his fire attacks virtually useless,
he didn't seem to have much of a chance...
A foot flew from
the darkness, and he leapt back, avoiding it. Whatever was attacking him
was only using physical attacks, but he'd been hit by one and, while by
no means weak, it wasn't nearly as powerful as a fighting type - a fighter
of that size could snap him in half with one punch. And no rock or ground
type would ever be seen in this weather...
Another foot
flashed forward, a sweep this time. What was this thing? He jumped
it. Luckily, it didn't seem to be quite as fast as him...
He turned tail
and fled from the strange being, and was rewarded by an elbow to the head,
leaving him flat on the road and in a rather large puddle of water. Coughing,
spluttering and feeling rather weak, he pulled himself up...
A thick, muscular
tail connected, right in the stomach. The Growlithe was tossed into the
air to land painfully on the concrete...
The tall, dark
shape stood over him for a moment before letting out a deep laugh, which
was swallowed up by the rain. A minute later, it had vanished, leaving
nothing but puddles.
Closer inspection
showed the Growlithe morph was also gone...
~-~-~-~
By morning, the rain
had cleared somewhat, down to a fairly light drizzle. Josh's band all met
up at Eric's house, although he refused to move out into the lawn for fear
of the light drizzle, although Sam was quite effectively diverting the
rain to avoid it hitting the rather valuable instruments. The others declined
to enter his rather cramped garage, and settled for him playing from in
there.
Josh was eager
to practice, but it turned out harder than he thought. The light electric
energy used by Richie to power his guitar was conducted by the wet ground,
causing Sammy quite a bit of irritation. The entire band seemed to be a
little high-strung, fatigued, not working their best. He sighed, deciding
that his usual over-threatening attitude really wasn't helping the band,
trying something else...
"Come on, guys!
We need to win! If we beat those girls, we might get a CD. That's what
we want, isn't it?"
"We don't even
know what the girls are yet." Sammy pointed out.
"Yeah... for
all we know they might not even be able to perform anymore..."
"We don't know
if they're better, or worse, or whatever."
Josh thought
about that for a moment. "We'll have a bit of a break."
The others took
a moment to take this in. Blue usually didn't give breaks until they couldn't
lift their paws to play another note. "Huh?"
"I think we should
go take a look at what the girls are. See what they're doing." He seemed
a little hesitant.
Everyone cheered
up at this idea, leaping to their feet. But Blue waved them down. "Only
one of us. We don't want them to know what we are. And one can sneak around
a lot better than five. The rest of us can keep practising."
"I'll go." Sammy
immediately volunteered.
"Hnn?"
"I'm the fastest
here." He grinned a long, canine grin. "I've been looking up some info
on us. I can work best in the rain. And anyway, I'm sick of getting the
hotfoot from Thunder."
Josh thought.
"Okay. You going by...?"
"Bus. I should
be back in a couple hours."
"Okay. Just watch
them a little while. See what they are, whether they've still got a chance,
then come straight back, okay?"
"Right." The
Suicune morph bounded off, after storing his bass guitar in the garage.
A couple of seconds later, the rain once again began falling onto Richie,
Josh and Chadran.
"Oh man!" Richie
complained, running under the roof, trying to cover his guitar and amp.
The other two ran in with the speakers and other paraphenalia.
Josh checked
them over. "No damage. Come on, let's play."
~-~-~-~
Zelda worked furiously,
fiddling with the speakers. As the techno-whiz of the group, she'd been
more annoyed than anyone to find one of the speakers weren't working. Her
long, feather-like fingers weren't helping, nor were the charges of electricity
she was unintentionally but continually letting out.
Hmph. And Aria
was complaining about being the Articuno. She would've swapped places with
her quite happily. Electricity wasn't her favorite type.
The others were
out having a break, getting some snacks and a new strap for her guitar,
while she was stuck here trying to fix the machines. They should be back
soon... Hmph...
Growling, she
kicked the speaker. Trying to ignore the pain in her foot, she cursed for
a while before returning to the speaker. Fiddling with wires, cutting,
stripping and connecting with her razor-sharp feathers, she hooked it up
to her guitar again and brushed her wing over the strings. Success! And
just in time...
The other four
winged in, Holly with a backpack. She quickly unpacked it and tossed her
friend a new, somewhat more reinforced guitar strap and a bottle of Sprite.
"Right... you
got it working?"
"Yep. Now, let's
get to it!"
Within five minutes
they'd all set up and were ready to play again. Laura looked at the others.
"Ready?"
The others gave
a chorus of "Yep!", Zelda a little behind as she took a swig of her drink
before hefting her instrument.
"Right. Start
us off, Gold!"
The keyboard's
music was quickly joined by the other instruments, then by the fantastic
combonation of Aria and Laura's voices, still never failing to impress
any of the band or anyone else who passed.
Or the rather
stunned Suicune morph watching from the nearby bushes.
~-~-~-~
The Vaporeon morph
snarled and snapped at the restraints, but it was to no effect. David and
Jack watched pityingly as it blew a Water Gun at them, and it dissipated
harmlessly across a forcefield.
"I can't understand
it... what could cause him to snap like that?"
"Look at him
carefully." David said, apparently not hearing Jack's question.
"Huh?"
"Look at him
closely. He's changed."
Jack scrutinized
the Vaporeon. "Hmm... I don't..."
"Look carefully.
His very body shape is changing."
David looked
even closer. "Maybe..."
"No, definately.
Look at his arms and legs. They bend forward slightly from the body before
going to the restraints. The torso is becoming narrower. And he's shrunk."
Now that he knew
what to look for, David realised what his colleage was saying was true.
"But... what..."
"He's becoming
more Vaporeon. Losing his humanoid shape."
David reeled
back. "But... that hasn't happened since... why would it happen now?"
"I'm not sure.
But if I'm any judge, and this keeps going, that guy's going to be a pure-bred
pokemon within a couple of days."
"Will it happen...
to others?"
"We have to assume
so. Come on, we've got to keep working. We have to find the cause for this.
And if there's any way to prevent it."
"Before this
leaks out to the media."
"Exactly. Come
on, let's move."
~-~-~-~
"Honey! Time for
breakfast!" Called a woman, a Sandslash morph. "Come on! Get down here,
it's getting cold!"
Not getting a
response, she went upstairs to wake her son, an Ekans. Looking into his
room, she found he wasn't in his bed.
"Honey, where
are you?" She called, searching the various rooms. Coming back to his room,
she found him coiled behind the door.
"What are you
doing there, huh?" She asked, confused. Her son twisted his head up to
look in her eyes.
She felt paralysis
lock her muscles as her son Glared at her. She managed to let out a whimper.
"W-w-what are
you doing?"
He hissed trimphantly
and struck, long fangs sinking into her side. She had just enough time
to notice he didn't have any arms anymore before sinking into oblivion...
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