Alex lay awake on the couch staring at the ceiling of his coworker's apartment, listening to Nick softly snoring away. Alex was stuck replaying the scene following the realization that this was a worldwide issue in his head over and over again. Preston had not taken the news well at all, and the stress of the day's events had to have worn him to his breaking point. "Why me? What was I the one who turned into a pokemon? You two are the nerds here!" Alex sighed as those words rang in his head continuously. If only he knew. Alex had decided telling his coworkers he had turned into a mew was a bad idea. If this was a permanent thing, it would bring far too much unnecessary attention to him.
If it was permanent.
Actually, that's something that Alex hadn't thought about in all the chaos. Was he able to turn back into Mew? Was it even something he could control? Or was it just a bizzare one time event like some sort of otherworldly prank? He kept thinking of potential possibilities as to how this affected them until he decided there was really only one way to find out.
Alex carefully slid aside the blanket that was over him, and slowly made his way towards the bathroom, making sure not to make a sound. It sounded like Nick was a heavy sleeper, and Preston was still absent from the apartment, having gone out hours ago to check on his brother, but Alex wanted to leave nothing to chance. He silently stepped inside, closed the door, and flipped on the light switch. Alex grimaced as a blinding light flooded his vision. He blinked away the blindness as his eyes got used to the light again. Alex studied himself in the mirror. He still looked normal. His face still looked the same as it was yesterday. His arms too.
Alex sighed. "Well... I'm here. Now how do I turn back into mew?" he muttered quietly to himself. He stared at the mirror hoping it would somehow give him answers, but quickly grew irritated. "This is just great. I turn into one of the most powerful pokemon in existence and I don't get a single bit of explanation at all. And now I've no idea if I can even do it again. Fantastic." Alex sighed and pinched his forehead. "The one time I actually want to turn into mew-" However, Alex couldn't complete the thought. His body became enveloped in the same white light from earlier, and before he could process what was going on, he had shrunk down to the ground. The white light dissipated as quickly as it had come, and Alex's eyes shot down to see a familiar pink body.
"Wait, what? No!" Alex covered his mouth quickly, having said that a little louder than he intended. He pressed his head against the door, heart speeding a mile a minute, as he tried to figure out if he had woken Nick. Thankfully, after a minute of waiting, Alex knew the apparent was just as still and quiet as before. But this brought little comfort to him. "This is so stupid! Fantastic, I'm a mew again, but I don't even know what I did! Ugh, damn it, I'd rather just be me and be-" Alex's thoughts were once again cut off as he started glowing in a white light yet again. Alex grew to normal size and the light dimmed, showing him as his normal self once again.
Alex started to give an exasperated sigh as he felt he was no closer to figuring it out, but then a thought surfaced to his head. Alex stared at his reflection skeptically for a moment, before he let a single thought rise to the surface of his mind in the form of a spoken command. "Turn into mew," he muttered. On command, his body started glowing again, and for the third time that day, he shrank down and turned into mew. Realization started setting in for Alex. "Turn back into me," Alex muttered again. And just as he expected, his tiny pink body started glowing white and he turned back into his human self.
Alex blinked and his eyes widened, realizing exactly what was going on with the transformations between forms. "It happens entirely at will?"
Alex stared at his reflection for a moment before a smile snuck its way onto his face. Then he began giggling. "You are kidding me. Universe, you are kidding me. You're telling me that not only do I have the power to turn into mew, I can do it whenever I want? ONLY when I want?" Alex had to make sure he didn't start full on belly laughing so not to awaken anyone else in the apartment, but it was difficult not to. Alex felt a great relief wash over him as he realized what exactly that meant. "This whole thing is still just absolutely ridiculous. But at the very least I have some form of control over it," Alex muttered with a relieved sigh.
After a bit of thinking it over, Alex decided now was a good time to at least start getting familiar with his new pokemon form. A thought struck Alex's head just before he was readying to will himself into mew again. "Hmm... turn into snivy." As Alex expected, nothing happened. "Turn into spinerak. Turn into wooloo. Turn into tauros. Turn into druddigon. Turn into oricorio." Alex rapid fire named a few pokemon he knew of off the top of his head. Again, nothing happened. "Figured as much. Had to check," Alex muttered.
He thought for another second before willing himself into mew. 'Turn into mew.' Alex did not verbalize it out loud. He merely let it surface to his head as a single thought. But evidentially, that was still enough. Alex's body started glowing again, and after a few seconds, he was mew once again. "Huh, so I don't even need to say it. I just have to consciously want it. Heh, that's good to know."
Alex began using this time to study his mew body more closely. Alex never thought about it much before, but now that he wasn't in such a high pressure situation, he was able to notice that for some reason, all of his clothes were completely missing. And yet they seemed to return to him just fine when he turned back? Huh? "I'm gonna have to mess with that a bit later, cuz that makes absolutely no sense," he muttered. Alex then let out a scoff, feeling silly after finishing that thought. "Then again, I'm a damn mew. In what way does any part of this make sense?" Alex decided to just try and figure it out another time and continue on with his self examination.
He was a lot softer than he had thought. He thought a mew would've had extremely short fur coating its body, or no fur at all. He was instead surprised to see that while his fur was by no means long, it wasn't a short as he had thought either. He estimated that his fur was about half as long as a short haired cat, which didn't sound long at all after verbalizing the thought in his mind. Then again, Alex wasn't a cat in the traditional sense. "Ah, but I do have a tail now, don't I..." Alex looked down at the thin pink tail in front of him. Out of everything else that has happened today, that was still easily the most surreal part of today to him.
Alex gingerly picked up the middle section of his tail that rest in front of him. He could feel it. Not just in his hand, but he could feel his hand with his tail. Alex grimaced at the foreign sensation and dropped it quickly. "Nope, that's still weird as hell. Hmm, although..." On a whim, Alex decided to see if he could actually control it. He tried flexing his new tail muscles, and was startled to see his tail shoot upward a couple of inches. Alex tried moving it away from his front side and after a few attempts, managed to get it behind him... somewhat. He had managed to somehow get the very tip of his tail behind him, and then right in front of him again and onto his feet.
"Yea, that's definitely gonna need some getting used to." Alex tried to use his arms to brush it behind him, but found he still found that he had trouble reaching several things with his relatively short arms compared to his human body. That was a bit irritating and might be difficult to get used to. "Actually, I guess since mew is a psychic type, they can just levitate what they want over." Alex then got an idea in his head. Probably a bad idea, but he had to know.
Alex spotted a tissue box sitting on the counter. He started focusing on it, trying to get it to move. Seconds went by and nothing happened. Alex began to grow frustrated. "Ugh, what's the point in turning into mew if I can't use all of its powers? Are you seriously telling me that those don't come along with this?" The idea of being a mew that couldn't defend itself irritated Alex greatly. There was almost zero point to it. Best case scenario is that he and a few friends would think he was adorable. The worst case? Fanboys would find out he's mew and he'd have little to no privacy in his life. Alex lashed out in irritation. He swung at the nearest wall, but ended up completely missing it. Alex's arms were still too short. Then he heard a hollow thud, followed by something light landing on his head, startling him. "Ah, what the-?" The tissue box was laying on its side at his feet. Alex looked back to where the tissue box was before. Sure enough, that spot was now vacant.
"Huh... guess I gotta just try different ways, I guess," Alex muttered. He began focusing on the tissue box again, trying to come up with different ways to lift it without touching it, until he decided to imagine himself reaching out to grab it with his mind and lifting it. As he did that, a very faint blue glow began surrounding the tissue box and Alex could feel himself lifting it in the air. Alex's shock almost caused him to drop the tissue box again. "That actually worked? Damn! At least I'm not completely useless," Alex said with a chuckle. His heart began racing with excitement as he lifted it higher and higher. This felt amazing. He could feel his mind actively working to hold onto it and lift it. And it wasn't at all uncomfortable. Alex figured he should put it back where it was and call it a night before he got too ahead of himself. He levitated the tissue box above where it was and let it hang there as yet another thought came to him. "Actually, I wonder if I can defend myself using this?" Alex narrowed his eyes at the tissue box and envisioned himself gently crushing it. Almost instantly, the tissue box started slowly collapsing in on itself in very odd and random angles. Then he heard a door opening in the background.
Alex's eyes widened and he cut off his concentration right away. The partially crumpled box plopped back in place. Alex frantically willed himself back to his human form, hoping no one could see the light. He then picked up the slightly crumbled tissue box and did his best to bend it back into place. Luckily, he hadn't crushed it very hard, so it wasn't all that obvious anything had happened to it, unless someone was looking for it. The footsteps were still getting closer. Alex reached over and flushed the toilet to simulate as if he had been using the restroom all along. He waited a moment, then opened the door and stepped out of the restroom trying to remain as calm as possible. Preston had come home. And his first stop happened to have been the bathroom Alex was just in. 'Oh shit.'
Alex's heart was pounding. He really hoped Preston hadn't seen anything. "Hey, you're back. Your bro okay?" Alex whispered, trying to pretend everything was normal. As normal as things could've been at that moment, at least.
"Yea, he's fine. He was just trapped in a real hectic part of town and called me to help him out. He's back at his own place getting some rest now. Hopefully better rest than I'm probably going to get," Preston grumbled. It seemed like he was trying to sound agitated, but he just sounded drained. "Look, I'm sorry for snapping at you guys earlier. You didn't deserve that."
Alex had to force back a sigh of relief. Preston hadn't seen or heard anything. 'Thank fuck.' Alex's gaze drifted downward. "Not your fault, man. I don't think anyone in your position would be able to take it very well." Not a lie. Alex very nearly had a panic attack himself when he first turned into Mew. Preston at least had the benefit of having two friends nearby at the time.
Preston grunted in response and stepped inside the bathroom to splash some water on his face. Alex bit his lip hoping he wouldn't have to explain the tissue box. "Maybe we'll find out why it's happening soon," Alex suggested, trying to keep Preston's attention away from it.
Preston stopped splashing water at his face for a moment to look back at Alex with an annoyed gaze. "Alex, lemme ask you something. In what reality would you find something that even comes close to explaining what happened to me? This shit happened with absolutely zero warning, and we're talking the possibility of total DNA reconstruction. I'm not a biology major, but I've paid enough attention in class to be able to tell you this much; That. Doesn't. Happen. Unless God himself comes down and explains what the fuck is going on, we're never going to figure it out. Especially not in this lifetime." Preston shut off the water and used a shower towel to dry off his face.
Alex found himself shrinking away at Preston's words. "W-well you have a point, but-"
"Alex, stop. I'm asking as a friend. Don't continue that thought, because I'm still not of sound mind right now. I don't want to snap at you again."
Alex shut himself up and looked down, utterly defeated. He of all people knew exactly how Preston was feeling, and yet he couldn't figure out a way to help him without letting slip what he turned into.
Preston cursed under his breath and bit his lip. He stepped out of the bathroom and started to pass Alex, but he stopped as he reached Alex's side and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Look. I know you want to help. And that's fine. Especially since you seem to know the 'what' of this whole mess. I'm definitely gonna need that. If I happen to turn into that monster again, I'll come to you right away. But just... not right now. I need some time to myself."
Alex slowly nodded as Preston spoke. Disappointed as he was, he could understand and respect that. Alex watched as Preston made his way back to his room. As the door shut, he walked back into the bathroom and shut the door behind him, closing him off to the rest of the apartment once again. Alex absentmindedly walked back into the bathroom to rest his arms on the bathroom counter, where he buried his head into his arms, and waited.
He waited. And waited. Then with no warning, his head shot up and he smashed the slightly crumpled tissue box with one arm, then took his other arm and threw it at the shower curtain with all his might. He stumbled forward a bit at the sudden burst of energy, and he couldn't catch himself. He fell to his knees, but reached out to grab the countertop so he didn't completely fall over. Alex stayed there for a few seconds, catching his breath from the sudden burst of energy. After a few moments, he slowly stood up, returned to the kitchen counter, buried his face into his arms, and let out the loudest muffled yell as he could manage into his arms. The entire situation started to hit him again. How helpless he felt. How confused, exhausted, angry, and scared he was. He had turned into one of the most powerful pokemon in existence. And he was at a complete loss as to what to do. Alex decided he may as well try and get whatever sleep he could. He slowly got up and made his way back towards the living room couch, leaving the tear stained bathroom countertop behind him.