Alex and his coworkers made their way out of the warehouse and towards the edge of town. They passed the scene of a car wreck almost immediately. Three cars had piled up on the side of the road with the lead car flipped on its side with its belly facing the other two. This unnerved the three greatly and they all unconsciously sped their pace towards Preston's home. They walked in tense silence for only ten minutes before they came across another overturned car directly in their path.
"Ugh, great. Guess we have to go around this building," Preston muttered.
"Hey guys, I know this is going to sound weird, but does something feel... off, to you?"
"You mean besides the hundreds of cars that got wrecked all at once? No, of course not. I feel just peachy," Preston snapped. Nick just rolled his eyes and looked away.
Alex gave an irritated huff. "I mean aside from that. It feels like something is watching us."
"In broad daylight in the middle of a city? Dude, I know today took a turn absolutely no one was expecting, but I'd be surprised if someone wasn't watching us," Preston replied tiredly.
"Um, guys? What if he's talking about that?" Alex and Preston both stopped and glanced back at Nick who was pointing at something in the distance.
Alex had to squint to see what Nick was pointing at. It was bright green and looked to be about as big as a person. And were those claws that it had? They looked gigantic, though. It looked like it was standing near yet another car wreck.
Preston recoiled, having never seen anything like it before. "What IS that? It looks like some sort of giant mantis!"
Alex's eyes widened, as a certain image clicked into his mind as soon as Preston mentioned the word 'mantis'. "I- is that a-" Alex stuttered before trailing off.
"A scyther. I'm almost positive that's a scyther," Nick said slowly, finishing Alex's thought.
"And a scyther is...?" Preston left the question hanging.
Alex pursed his lips and glanced back at Preston. "Scyther is another type of pokemon."
Preston's eyes widened and looked back towards the scyther in the distance. "Wait what? So that thing I turned into- there are more here?"
'Yes, but I could've told you that.' "I.. I guess so," Alex trailed off a second time as his mind once again started trying to make sense of everything. He didn't get very far before Preston started yelling.
"Nick, wait! Where are you going?" Preston started running after Nick, who had run back towards one of the first couple car crashed they passed.
"Nick, what-?" Alex started following Nick right behind Preston as soon as his mind registered that they both had taken off. "Where is he going?" Alex asked Preston while mid-jog.
"I dunno, he just ran off!" Preston almost yelled in response.
"Ugh, well we better make sure he doesn't end up getting himself hurt doing whatever."
They didn't get very far before they saw Nick running back towards them, breathing heavily and looking slightly alarmed. "Dude, where did you go? Why'd you run off like that?" Preston asked forcefully.
Nick took a moment to catch his breath, then found his words to explain himself. "I had a feeling about something, so I came over here... and I was right. I saw a plusle hiding in the bushes. Yes, I'm absolutely positive it was a plusle. I got an up close look before it saw me, got scared, and ran off into some bushes. And yes, Preston, plusle is another pokemon," Nick quickly explained, also answering questions he knew his coworkers would ask.
Alex and Preston looked at each other, then Nick, with stunned expressions. "I... I think we get the general idea. C'mon, let's just try and get to Preston's quickly," Alex muttered.
It took them just under an hour to get from where they were to Preston's apartment. They passed the scene of three more car wrecks, with varying degrees of destruction. They were also shocked to see that there were also several panicked looking creatures that they recognized as other pokemon along the way. No one said anything, however. They just gave nervous looks to each other.
They walked up a flight of stairs to get to Preston's apartment and a cold blast of air hit the three after Preston unlocked the door and opened it.
"Jeez man, what's your electric bill like? I get that Austin's a hot place and all, but fuck," Nick complained, bringing his hands up to his arms.
Preston rolled his eyes and his phone started buzzing in his pocket. "Dude, 65 degrees isn't that cold. Blame my roommate, anyway. He keeps it like that, not me." He fished his phone out of his pocket as he spoke and looked at the screen. "Huh... hey, you guys make yourselves at home. I gotta take this. Hello?" Preston brought his phone up to his ear and walked back out of the apartment, letting the door shut behind him.
Alex looked at Nick, who just shrugged. "Whelp, he said make ourselves at home. I don't think they'd complain about raising the thermostat five degrees for a day." Nick walked off for a moment. Alex sighed and decided to turn on the TV.
Actually, checking the news seemed to be a great idea right now. May as well get some information on this pile up. Alex flipped to one of the news stations and his jaw dropped. The news was showing an aerial feed of the highways leading to Austin. There were several car crashes scattered across the roads. And it wasn't just the highways either. The broadcast made several cuts to several downtown areas as well as the northern and southernmost points of Austin. All roads were affected by an incredible pile up of hundreds of vehicles. His manager had mentioned that, but it just didn't seem likely. An entire city being shut down by hundreds of accidents all simultaneously? Absurd. And yet there it was.
"Holy shit!" Alex looked behind him and saw Nick standing at the edge of the living room looking at the news feed. "That... that shouldn't be possible."
Alex flipped to another channel and saw more of the same. Except... "Wait, that's not Austin, is it? It doesn't look like it."
Nick squinted his eyes and studied the screen before his eyes widened. "Th- that's fucking Argentina!"
"Argentina? Are you serious?" Alex was incredulous. But before Nick could respond, the scene changed. This city's time of day was currently night, but it displayed a giant clock tower right in the center of it all, easily identifying itself to the two. "London..," Alex muttered. "Hang on, I need to see if there's..." Alex trailed off, but he grabbed at the remote and changed the channel to yet another news station. Almost immediately, Alex dropped the remote. "No way."
"Is- is that a-?!" Nick sputtered out, causing Alex to slowly nod his head. "I-I think so."
The front door of the apartment opened up again. "Hey guys, I need to walk down to road to pick up my brother. He isn't gonna be staying here. I just need to make sure he's... what the hell is that?"
Alex, Nick, and Preston were all staring at another aerial view, this time in the suburbs of some town in Germany, according to the headlines. It was night there too, but the aerial had a spotlight shining down on a giant blue whale like being with red lines etched across its body, complete with giant wings where those red lines were mainly concentrated. It was just about half as big as a house.
"That, guys... is unmistakably a kyogre," Alex said slowly, awestruck by the scene before him.
Preston made a face Alex couldn't decipher. "Okay, and what's a kyogre? Another pokemon, I'm assuming?"
"Right. A kyogre is a legen- what the?" Before Alex could explain what the pokemon was, the kyogre on screen suddenly became completely enveloped by a bright white light, before just as suddenly shrinking and disappearing, leaving a man standing in the center of the spotlight.
"That's the same thing that happened to me!" Preston shouted while running right in front of the television, trying to get a better view of the scene.
The three stared in stunned silence as they watched the man standing in the middle of the spotlight started running away from view, going inside one of the houses. "That.. that clinches it," Alex muttered.
"Clinches what? What in the absolute fuck going on?" Preston demanded.
Alex looked back at his coworker nervously. "Trust me, man, I'm just as confused as you are, but I think we can safely draw a conclusion after seeing... that. Whatever happened to you, it's not at all isolated, considering what all we saw on our way here. And it looks like it's happening everywhere in the entire world too.
"It's starting to look like a good chunk of the world's population has turned into pokemon."
((Hello everyone! If you've gotten this far, then I want to thank you for reading my new story! I just want to give you guys a little note here real quick to explain my uploading schedule. I'm not a very fast writer, unfortunately, as with life starting back up for me again, I'm going to be very busy. So outside of these first three chapters, I plan on having one chapter posted per month. They aren't going to be as short as these ones. Promise. I'd love to hear y'all's feedback via questions, suggestions, and general comments on what you like about my story! Also, constructive criticism as I'm always looking to improve. Thanks!))