Chapter 11: Rehabilitation
"Skye, what were you doing outside in the rain, anyway?" Phil asked him, back in the den. It was morning now, and no longer raining. They had taken Charlie into Skye's den last night. Overnight, he had turned into a hybrid of a nidoran. Jenna had said he looked cuter after the change; he didn't look so demented.
"I was practicing some karate moves." Skye replied. "It took me four years to learn, and I didn't want to give up hope on it after I changed. Besides, It comes in handy now and again."
"So, how did Charlie know where we were?" Jenna asked, eyeing him from the hammock he was sleeping in.
"That was three years ago." Skye said. "I was fourteen then, and tried to go back home, to see if my parents wanted me back. They were so furious that I had even thought about coming back, they told me that they would make certain that Charlie grew up to be a hybrid hunter."
"So this is sort of a kick in the galls for them, eh?" Phil interrupted.
Skye laughed. "Yeah. I guess it does kind of interfere with his diabolical plans."
They all laughed.
"Char char?" Charmander, who was sleeping in the corner, had just woken up.
"Pika chu ka." Jenna said to her, "Pika chu pika pika?"
"Charmander char." Charmander said, rubbing her eyes.
"What are you saying?" Phil siad, "I can't make out anything."
"Sorry, Phil." Jenna said a bit embarrassed, "I just seem to want to talk to pokémon in their own dialect. All I said was 'good morning, did you sleep well?'."
Charmander walked up to the bench everyone was sitting on.
"I think Charmanders are so cute." Jenna said, picking her up and putting Charmander on her lap. She sat there while Jenna scratched her head.
"What do we do after oxymoron boy wakes up?" Phil asked Skye.
"First, we wait and see what his initial reaction is." Skye said, "If he goes insane and kills himself, than that's one less hybrid hunter we have to worry about."
"Porygon!" Said Phil's porygon.
"Morning, Porygon." Phil said to him.
"Gon pory."
They all just sat there for a while.
"I'll go get some breakfast." Skye said. "I hope I'm not out of food yet."
Skye got up, and rummaged through a cabinet on the far side of the cave.
"For you," He said, tossing an apple to Jenna, "You," He tossed one to Phil, "And you." He tossed another to Charmander. He took one out for himself and closed the cabinet.
"What do porygons eat?" Phil asked Skye, chewing on his apple.
"Well," Skye said between bites, "Porygons run on their own programming. Nothing, I suppose."
"Gon porygon."
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Skye said in response.
Charlie stirred.
"He's waking up!" Jenna said standing up, with Charmander still under one arm.
"Where am I?" Charlie said, tossing a bit in his hammock. He opened his eyes. "Huh?"
"Surprise!" Skye said in an enthusiastic voice while standing over him.
"AAH!" Charlie yelled, "What. . . what. . ."
"What yourself." Phil said, "You've been snoring all night."
Charlie rolled off the hammock. "I can take you all on!"
"Spirited, aren't you?" Jenna said with a smile. Phil let out a giggle. Then everyone but Charlie started laughing.
"What's so funny?" Charlie yelled at the top of his lungs.
"It's just that. . ." Skye said while still laughing hard, "It's just that. . . that. . .look at yourself!"
Charlie turned to where a dirty mirror wal hanging on the cave wall. A nidoran hybrid was staring back at him.
"Wha. . . what the. . ." Charlie was stunned. What had happened to him?
The look in the mirror was a anthropomorphic nidoran with a shorter muzzle and his clothes on.
"This. . . this isn't right. . . what did you do to me?"
The laughture had died down by then. "Nothing, Chuck." Phil said. "You just are that now."
"Liar!" Charlie yelled, "You did this to me!" He said with tears running down his cheeks.
"Yeah, sure." Skye said, "If we could do that to you, don't you think by now that we'd be able to change ourselves back?"
"You. . . You infected me with the virus! You. . ." He broke off into outright crying.
"If it makes up for anything, Charlie, I think you look cute." Jenna said with her free hand on hr hip.
"Char char!" Charmander said, too.
"It's not. . . It's not. . ." Charlied ran out of the cave.
"Charlie!" Skye yelled after him, and followed him out.
Skye chased after Charlie, but failed to find where he went, until he heard him crying in some bushes.
"Charlie. . " Skye said toward him.
"Go away. . " Charlie said.
"Charlie, There's something I want to tell you."
"I said go away." Charlie said again.
"Charlie. . ." Skye said, ". . . I'm sorry."
"What?" Charlie said, stepping out of the bushes.
"I'm sorry for scaring you last night. I'm sorry for hurting you. If there's any way. . ."
Charlie ran up and hugged Skye. "Skye. . ." He said softly, with tears still in his eyes, "Skye. . . I'm scared."
"He did what?" Phil said in an astonished tone.
"He said he's sorry for trying to hurt us." Skye said with his arm around Charlie's shoulder, back at the den.
"Why?" Jenna asked, still holding Charmander in one arm.
"I don't know." Skye said.
"Its because of mom and dad." Charlie said.
"What about them?" Skye said.
Everyone sat down on the various seats in the den.
"All they ever taught me to do was hate hybrids." Charlie said in a tone nobody had heard him talk in before, "And now. . . since I'm like this. . . I don't know what's right anymore."
"Charlie," Jenna said to him, "There's no rightful place in this world for hate. All it leads to is violence and fear."
Charlie looked up. "I never looked at it that way before. All I've ever been told was how evil hybrids were."
"Do you feel evil?" Phil asked.
"No. . . in fact. . . I feel a lot better than I was before."
"Hate tends to do that." Skye said.
"But. . . now what?"
"Wait. . . Charlie, you're a trainer."
"Yeah, so?"
"So that means you still have you're license on you!"
"Not good." Phil said standing up.
"We're going to have to ditch it." Skye said.
"Why?" Charlie asked, looking up at him.
"The pokémon detector on it can differentiate hybrids."
"That means. . ."
"They know you're a hybrid, and they're coming this way right now."
"Where to?" Jenna asked as they all were running through the forest.
"With any luck. . ." Skye said, "They won't go to the den, just the signal."
Skye stopped where he was and tossed the pokédex as far into the woods as he could.
"We won't be able to go back for a few days." Skye said, "They may be there already."
"So what now?" Charlie asked.
"What now?" Skye repeated, "We do anything. Where do you want to go?"
"Skye. . ." Jenna said, "There's no place to go."
"Then let's adventure for a bit shall we?"
Oh, sure, Phil loved adventuring. Lots of walking was involved. And there was nothing better than walking.
"Hey," Skye said, "There's something in those bushes!" He pointed to a few bushes a hundred yards away."
"How do you know?" Charlie asked him.
"These ears aren't just for looks, Charlie." Skye said, and ran ahead."
"Skye!" Jenna yelled, and ran after him.
Skye could hear some muffled voices from the bush. "I told you this was the wrong way!" One of them said.
Skye stopped quietly, and parted the bush.
"AAIGH!" All the creatures screamed at once, and pointed a spear at Skye's neck.
"Stop!" Jenna yelled, quickly pushing the spear away from Skye's throat, "Hey. . . you're koopas!"
"No duh." One of them said, "General Robert gave us orders to explore here."
"Robert. . . " Jenna said, "Does he have a lot of hair, with a beard and mustache?"
"Yeah." The koopa said again, "That, and he's tall for a koopa. Why, do you know him?"
"A koopa. . ." Jenna said.
"Koopa?" Skye asked, "You mean like from the video game?"
"Video game?" the koopa asked, puzzled, "Not video game! Real life! You're coming with us, freaks."
"I wouldn't count on that." Skye said with the upmost confidence in his voice. "He he he. . ." He began to flicker with electricity.
"Uhh. . ." One of the koopas said, "Kaemeon, what's he doing?"
"I don't know!" The leader, Kaemeon, yelled.
Skye grabbed onto the spear Kaemeon was holding. "Thunder!" Skye yelled.
The koopas were filled with a surge of electricity.
"Whoa," Phil said, finally catching up, "I guess I'm in time for the light show."
When Skye stopped pumping them full of lightning, The leader, a bit shocked, (obvious pun) barley managed to whisper, "Run. . ."
All three koopas turned and ran back through the woods.
"Were those koopas?" Phil asked.
"Apparently so." Skye said, "But they did leave an obvious trail. Let's follow them."
"Phil," Jenna said, "They said Robert was their leader."
"So?"
"So. . ." Jenna said, "My brother's name is Robert. And koopas only have names that start with K."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?"
"I think so." Jenna said.
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