Alex tried taking a few deep breaths, but it was all for naught, as he was far too agitated at his situation to be any level of calm. He sat up against the wall of the hallway, being careful not to crush his new tail, and tried to talk himself though it. "Okay, I'm a mew. The pokemon mew. This has to be a- no, it CAN'T be a dream because my.. t-tail hurt when I pulled it. Oh jeez, I have a tail now..."

Alex's attempts at calming himself failed horribly, and he began to hyperventilate. "This is fucking nuts! How did this happen? Why one of the most powerful pokemon in existence in particular?! I can't be stuck this way, right? I really fucking hope not! I just wanna be me again!" Alex suddenly started glowing bright white again, but at a much more rapid pace than before. "What- again? No-!" Alex began to protest, but he very quickly became entirely engulfed in the light. The light lingered for only a few seconds this time before once again fading away.

Alex, not feeling any fatigue this time, let out a gasp and began to frantically examine his hands, legs, and body. Somehow, he had turned back to exactly how it was, clothes and all. Alex gave a sigh of relief and examined his hands a little more closely. To say they were shaking heavily would be an understatement. The past couple moments had very obviously startled him enormously. Alex leaned his head against the wall, closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths. "You're okay, Alex... you may not know what the hell that was, but you're fine. You're here. You're you," Alex muttered to himself. After taking a few minutes to calm himself down to a manageable level, he opened up his eyes again, and slowly and steadily got himself off the ground. He was thankful to see that he could still use all his body parts perfectly fine, but it also made him wonder if what happened to him actually happened to him. 'I really need to see a doctor or a psychiatrist about this. Imagination is one thing, but that felt so vivid. It felt like it was actually happening. Ugh, that's not gonna be a fun visit.'

Alex started back towards the warehouse and thought up an alibi for the past couple minutes. Telling them about his episode would surely get him sent home right then and there, which he didn't want. He needed the hours. 'Digestion issues! That'll work. I mean, I did eat shrimp last night, which I normally don't do.' Alex bit his lip as he reached the door to the warehouse. 'Whelp.' He opened the door and walked back inside. "Sorry about that, guys. I had a bit of- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

Alex hardly had time to get more then a sentence out before he saw a big red and blue monster stomping back and forth growling very aggressively. "Alex! Get out of here! Run!"

Alex looked off to the side where the voice had originated from. Nick had wedged himself in between two of the shelves, presumably because the monster couldn't get to him. It was only after the monster turned and noticed Alex that he saw what exactly it is. He recognized that shape immediately and his jaw dropped. "Is- is that a druddigon?" Alex exclaimed.

"A what? No, just- run! Get help!" Alex was about to turn tail and book it to the other exit of the warehouse at his coworker's urging, but the druddigon made no advances to him. Actually, it looked like it started to back up. Getting a better look at it, it actually didn't look like it was stomping aggressively. It looked more like... nervous pacing? "Actually... I don't think it wants to hurt us." Alex took a careful step through the doorway and, eyeing the dragon pokemon carefully, slowly made his way towards it.

"Alex, stop! Are you insane? Doesn't want to hurt us?! Then where's Preston? That thing did something to him!" Nick was very obviously agitated at the very sudden turn of events.

"He could've just run out the door, you know. It's not like we lock it with us inside," Alex remarked as a matter of factly.

The druddigon started frantically growling and made several gestures Alex couldn't decipher in the slightest. But even as Alex slowly got closer to the frantic dragon, it made no advances towards either Nick or even Alex, who was well within striking range at this point if the dragon so desired.

Nick narrowed his eyes, eying the dragon carefully, and began to take a few cautious steps forward and stood at the front of his hiding spot. "Okay fine, but how do you know what that thing is? What did you call it, a drugdon?"

"Druddigon. And it's a pokemon. Yes, I'm absolutely positive it is, because..," Alex gave the dragon another once over. Spiky red head, winglike extensions on its back, red spikes on its arms, legs, and tail, yup, "...because it looks exactly how it does in both the games and the official art."

"That thing is a POKEMON? Doesn't look like any pokemon I've ever seen," Nick gawked disbelievingly, looking back and forth between Alex and the dragon.

"You haven't played a pokemon game past Emerald. I have," Alex snipped back. Alex noticed that the druddigon was looking pleadingly at him. Almost like it wanted something. 'What is going on here...' "You can come out of your hiding spot, Nick. He's obviously not going to hurt us, or he would've hurt me already." The druddigon, to Alex's surprise, shook his head as if to confirm Alex's thoughts. 'Right, I guess they CAN understand human speech. Guess i forgot that bit.'

Nick carefully stepped out from his hiding spot and made sure to keep the furthest distance possible while he made his way to the exit. "Okay fine, but we still need to find Preston, so I'm just gonna do that real quick bye."

The druddigon startled Alex by making a lot of urgent grunts and growls and waving its arms around again. Alex's eyes widened as a thought snuck up on him. "Nick, wait!" Alex shouted, stopping Nick cold just as he got halfway out the door.

Alex stared at the dragon's face for another moment before his heart fell for the third time in the past five minutes. "I... I think this IS Preston," Alex said, surprising everyone in the room, including himself.

Nick stared at Alex like he was crazy. "Um, what? How in any way does that look anything like Preston? Hate to break it to you, man, but Preston isn't a giant red and blue raging dragon."

Alex gave an annoyed glance to him. "He's not raging. He's scared. Look at him."

Nick looked a little more closely at the druddigon and slowly stepped back inside the warehouse, letting the door close behind him. "Okay, but scared or not, that still doesn't change the fact that there's no possible way that could he Preston."

Alex focused his attention back to Nick. "How did he even get here, anyway? Did you see what happened?"

The druddigon looked like it wanted to answer, but it knew it had no way to answer seeing as Nick and Alex both couldn't understand him. Nick, however, was happy to fill Alex in. "See that's the weird thing. You prolly won't believe this, but there was just this bright flash of light, and I thought it was just a faulty light fixture. But it was getting so big that I thought it might've been a fire or something. But when I looked over, it was so bright and weird looking. I didn't have a clue what it was. And when the light went away, Preston was gone and that thing was there."

Alex's blood went cold after hearing Nick's description of the events. 'That sounds exactly like what happened to me! Is it possible that...?' Alex's mind ran wild trying to piece together and make sense of what all has happened. There's absolutely no doubt this was his coworker. So why did he turn into a druddigon while Alex turned into a mew? How come Nick didn't get affected? Is this an isolated thing, or are there others? Several questions similar to that ran through his head, but no answers. There had to be something, though. Something that- "Hello? Alex?"

Alex snapped back to attention, looking a little rattled after having his thought process interrupted. "Uh, yes, what? Oh! Um... yea, this absolutely has to be Preston."

Nick raised an eyebrow disbelievingly while Alex had the dragon pokemon's full attention, wondering if he had an explanation. "Okay, I'll bite. How? I'm no biologist, but I'm pretty sure changing into an entirely different species altogether at the drop of a hat is impossible." he said crossing his arms.

"Nick, I'm pretty sure up until this point, the concept of actual living pokemon was impossible. Get a little perspective," Alex said, unable to hold back a slight eye roll.

Nick scoffed and rolled his eyes in a more exaggerated fashion than Alex's, but didn't respond to that.

"And believe me, I don't know why either, but..," Alex trailed off for a moment. 'No, I can't tell him right now. That would be like painting a gigantic target all over my body, considering what I turned into.' Alex bit his lip and remembered something else he noticed, and decided to explain that instead. "...you know how you were freaked out having a druddigon suddenly appear in the room from out of thin air? Yea, well imagine actually being the one to turn into said dragon for a moment. I imagine anyone would lose their cool and panic if they were thrust in an unexpected situation like that." Alex found himself moving closer to Preston, examining his new dragon body up and down. This... this whole thing was just insanity, but it's actually happening. Alex took another breath. "And that's how he looked when I walked in. Panicked. Confused. He didn't attack us. He wasn't even thinking about that. I'm fairly certain he just wanted to know what the hell was going on."

The druddigon looked visibly downcast the further Alex explained his thought process. Looks like he was right on the money.

"Okay, but that doesn't necessarily mean that this is Preston. Sure, I'll buy that he was panicked and didn't actually wanna hurt us. But isn't it more likely that this is just some random dragon that appeared out of nowhere, and Preston just ran off in the confusion?" Nick asked, this time not sounding argumentative, but rather curious.

"True, but that's not the only thing though. I noticed several times where when we were both asking each other what happened to him, the druddigon got incredibly agitated as if he was trying to tell us something. Especially as you were about to take off and look for him just now. I think this is him, and he was desperately trying to get our attention and tell us that." The druddigon started nodding vigorously to confirm Alex's thought process.

Nick looked at the dragon pokemon up and down, and the druddigon looked back at him, writhe with emotions. "...Preston?" Nick muttered aloud. The druddigon merely responded with a sheepish half smile. Nick stared blankly for a few seconds before walking over to a nearby chair, sitting in it, and holding onto his forehead with one of his hands. "Holy shit. I... I can't even tell you what I'm thinking right now."

"Neither can I. I mean, just- damn, Preston, it's one thing to discover pokemon exist. It's another to be transported into another world and transform into a pokemon there, a la mystery dungeon. But here? In our home world? How the fuck did this happen?"

The druddigon's face fell and he gave a pathetic sounding growl. And then his body burst into a ball of light.

"Jeez, what the fuck?!"

"Holy-!"

Alex and Nick both recoiled at the unexpected light anomaly, and just as suddenly as it came, it went, with Preston standing in the dragon's place.

Alex and Nick both just stared in shock as Preston started examining himself in a frenzied panic, but let out an audible sigh of relief after discovering he had been turned back to normal.

Nick was the first to put what everyone had been thinking into words. "What. The hell. Was that? Dude, what- since when could you turn into that.. thing?"

Preston scowled at Nick and snapped back. "You think I did that on purpose? Bro, I'm just as lost as you are! At least you weren't the one who was stuck wondering if I'd ever be the same again!"

Nick raised both his hands defensively. "Woah easy, man! I didn't mean it that way."

Preston sighed and shook his head. "Yea, yea, I know..."

Preston paced back and forth trying to calm his nerves. "So Alex. You said you knew what I turned into, huh? What did you say it was? A druddigon?"

Alex shared a glance with Nick before slowly nodding. "Y-yea, that's right. A druddigon is a dragon type pokemon. Not any of the newer ones, though. It first showed up in gen five- err, that'd be pokemon black and white," Alex explained.

"It's a dragon, huh? Like the types that use magic of sorts? You think that maybe at all explains why I turned into one just now?"

Alex pursed his lips and shook his head. "Afraid not. Druddigons aren't known to have any special powers or abilities. They mostly just use brute force." 'And if anything, I'm the one with a more solid explanation as to why I changed into one. But I can't exactly say that now, can I?'

Preston gave a grunt of frustration and clenched a fist. "No, of course not. That'd have been too easy."

Nick gave a half hearted smile. "Well hey, at least you're you now. You don't have to worry about that happening again, right?" Nick's smile quickly faded when Preston fixed a pointed stare at him.

"Nick, I know I don't know anything about pokemon compared to you two, but I don't think it's safe to assume that at all. If it happened once, it can happen again. As impossible as it seems..."

"What do you think we should do, though?" Alex piped in. "I mean, we have no way of knowing what happened or how to deal with it in any way, but we can't exactly pretend everything is okay and go about our day as normal... can we?"

Nick shook his head. "I dunno, man. I think you should ask for today and tomorrow off, though. At least," Nick suggested, addressing Preston.

Preston rolled his eyes, but after a moment of thinking, gave a defeated exhale. "You're right. I hate it, but if nothing else, it'd be good for my head. I'll ask Spencer or Andrew when they get back."

"When do you think they'll be back, anyway?" Alex asked. "Spencer might be stuck in the stores for a bit, but Andrew?"

Right as Alex trailed off, the warehouse door opened and both Spencer and a man about Alex's size who was slightly bulkier walked inside. "Hey guys." The man said.

"Huh, well there you go," Preston muttered to Alex. "Andrew, do you think I can have the rest of today off? I'm, uh, having a bit of stomach issues, and I think I may be getting a bit sick."

"Umm, that's fine, but you need to be very careful about getting home," Andrew responded. "Actually, that's why I came in. Everyone here might want to find a new way to get home tonight, or find a motel or something. Because all roads in Austin have been temporarily shut down. Highways, service roads, downtown, everything."

Alex and his coworkers looked at each other with wide eyes at the news.

"What- how? Is there some event going on that we didn't hear about?" Nick asked.

"Nope. No event. It kinda looks like there were hundreds of car wrecks all at once. we just passed the scene of an accident and it sounded like there were sirens everywhere. I don't know why or how, but I think it's serious enough to where we just have to shut everything down for the day, so y'all are free to go." Andrew walked towards an office within the warehouse. "I need to stay for a bit and make a few calls, but y'all are free to clock out and just leave. Don't worry about clean up," he said before shutting the door, leaving Spencer and three very confused and perplexed coworkers.

Preston had already pulled out his phone and dialed a number on his phone and Spencer went to type something in to the warehouse work computer, while Alex rushed towards the entrance door. "Alex, where are you going?" he heard Nick call out.

"I need to see this. It CAN'T be as bad as he says it-" Alex opened the door and immediately, the sound of ambulance sirens filled his ears, and he could see the makings of a car crash out in the distance. "This... what is..," Alex gawked and backed back into the warehouse slowly, letting the door slowly swing shut. Alex stood there, unsure of what to say or do. An eerie silence filled the room, save for Spencer's typing, until he clicked on a single tab and started past Alex towards the door.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I need to head over to my mom's. I need to see if she's okay. Whatever you do though, be safe." Spencer walked outside and let the door close behind him. Alex looked back almost helplessly at Nick, while Preston was looking towards another direction cursing to himself with a phone pressed to his ear.

"What do we even do? I live way up north. I don't know how we're even supposed to get out," Alex said in almost a whisper.

Nick opened his mouth as if to respond, but he pursed his lips and let out an exhale. "I dunno, man. I guess we just find a motel."

"Damn it!" Preston suddenly yelled out, startling both Nick and Alex. Preston let out an annoyed groan and slipped his phone back in his pocket. "Fucking cell service at the worst possible time."

"The lines are probably flooded. I imagine everyone's trying to get help or call loved ones right now," Nick noted.

Preston shook his head, then faced his coworkers. "Alright, well if y'all want, you can crash at my place tonight. Don't have any spare beds, but I've got a couple couches and lots of extra blankets. It's about an hour walk, but I know y'all are kinda stuck otherwise, so..," Preston sheepishly trailed off.

"Dude, if you'd do that for us, you're a lifesaver," Nick said with relief.

"What about your roommate, though? Will he be okay with it?" Alex asked.

Preston shrugged. "Dunno. I tried asking him, but no service. He should be fine with it, but if he gives you grief, send him my way, kay?"

"Mkay... c'mon guys, let's hurry up and get out of here. I wanna be away from the center of town ASAP."