At last. After six hours of walking around all day. Or was it seven? It was so long that Alex couldn't tell. Especially without a clock or a watch. Well, one that he could look at without draining the battery life. Either way, it was an incredibly long time walking out in the heat of summer. But Alex's apartment complex was in sight at last. He started walking towards his building with increased vigor. Fifty yards. Forty yards. Thirty five. Why do the endings of long walks always feel like the longest parts? Alex took out his keys. Finally he can get out of the heat. He unlocked the door, quickly stepped inside, shut and locked the door, and let the cold blast of air overtake his body...
...
...where was the cold blast of air? Yea, it definitely felt cooler than it was outside, but not by that much. Alex blinked and walked over to the thermostat to see what it was set to. 'I wonder if Isaac turned off the thermostat after we both left again.' He looked at the digital display of the thermostat. It was blank. What? Alex pressed the down button. Nothing. "You can't be serious right now." Alex quickly walked over to the kitchen to check the microwave clock. It was blank too.
"Great. Juuust what I needed. A fucking power outage of all things right now." Alex pulled out his phone and saw an alert, but before he could unlock his phone to find out what it was, it started powering off. "Fuck me, are you joking?" Alex complained out loud. 'Oh hold on, portable charger. Duh.' Alex hurried to his room, took out a portable charger and USB cord, and hooked it up to his phone. Thankfully, Alex knew he could get a full charge out of it. It'd just take some time.
"Alright, while that's going on," Alex trailed off as he stepped out of his room. "ISAAC! You home, dude?" Alex called out as he made his way towards his roommate's room. He gave several firm knocks for good measure. Nothing. 'He's still not home? Jeez, I hope he's okay.'
Alex pondered what to do now that he was home and on his own for the time being. He let his thoughts run as he quickly grabbed an orange from the refrigerator, a packet of crackers, and a bottle of water, all the while being very careful not to let too much cold out. He sat down at his dining room table and started to snack at his refreshments while he got his mind in order. 'So. Seems like I'm gonna be stuck here for a while. The next couple days at least. I guess at some point I have to start learning my capabilities and limits as Mew, in case I really do need to defend myself for whatever reason. Might as well be now since I've suddenly got a lot of free time on my hands now.' Alex took a large swallow of water after munching on a few crackers and orange slices. 'I've just got to make sure Isaac doesn't find out when he gets home. My room can lock, but if the power isn't back on by the time he gets back and it happens to be the dead of night, he may notice the glow when I change back into myself. Hmm...' Alex took another swallow of water, ate the last of his orange, and threw the peels away. 'Guess I've just got to pay very close attention to the front door unlocking.' "Also, holy fuck it's still hot as hell in here," Alex complained, voicing that last thought in his head aloud.
After going through half a large packet of crackers, Alex put what was left back into the pantry and grabbed a second water bottle which he brought to his room. 'It's gonna be murder doing this with nothing to cool myself with, but I'll just have to tough through it.' Alex stepped into his room, locked the door behind him, and before he could will himself into his pokemon form, his eyes went to his phone, which had been charging on his desk for the past ten minutes.
'...Training can wait. This is more important.' Alex powered on his phone and waited impatiently for his home screen to show so he could unlock it. Alex examined the notification he received earlier, and his eyes widened to discover it was a voicemail from his dad. Alex didn't think he had ever opened up any app quicker than he did just then.
...
"Hey there, kiddo. Super glad to hear you're doing okay. Sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. Not sure when you sent the message, but I didn't get it til just now. Now being ten past five." Alex glanced at the time on his phone. It was 6:14. Just over an hour since he sent the message. Yikes. "I'm doing just fine. I actually just got back from picking up your sister from a sleepover she just happened to be on when this mess started. So she's okay. We're both okay. Your mom I think went looking for us downtown so she's okay too. It's just been hard trying to get a hold of her. You might wanna give her a call and let her know you're okay too if you haven't already. She'd definitely be happy to hear that. It's uh... it's- it's been getting really dangerous out there. You might wanna stay at your friend's place if you're still there." Too late for that, dad. "At least for now. But if you do go out there though, be very careful. And let me and your mom know when you make it home safely, okay? I can't actually make it over to your place to check up on you and your roommate because my car was destroyed when the explosion and crashes happened. But I'm okay! I wasn't actually in the car." Alex felt a chill go down his spine. If it wasn't for his dad's quick assurance of his safety, he might've started panicking. But then there was also another mention of the explosion he didn't hear. What were they talking about? "It just happened that a guy off roaded and ran right into it while it was parked, totaling it. I'm fine. But I also can't really go anywhere. I'm sorry, kiddo."
There was quite a long pause where Alex had started to wonder if the message ended, but then, "I... you know those... pokemon games you played all the time?" Oh. That's why. "This- I-I'm having a hard time believing it myself, but I think I've been seeing these pokemon things everywhere. I didn't know what they were at first, but then I saw a... pikachu. At least I think it was a pikachu. Looked a bit small, but- err- and then I saw a mini charizard. They were just about everywhere. And I think one of em even showed up in my office building somehow." That had to have been the woman Alex met earlier. Maybe his dad didn't yet know they were human. Another brief pause. "This probably sounds insane to you. I'm half wondering if I've just completely lost my mind. If you know anything about these though- ah... never mind. Just- just be safe out there, kiddo. And if you decide to head back home, let me know. I love you lots. Hope to see you soon."
Alex let out a sigh as the voicemail ended. So many emotions running through him right now, but the big one was relief. Oh the relief. They were safe. Everyone was completely unhurt. "Thank fuck," Alex whispered, briefly resting his arms on his desk and burying his head in them. Alex composed another voice mail to his dad telling him yes, he did make the trip to his home, yes he was okay, and yes, those were pokemon that he saw. "I gotta tell ya, dad. I don't think the world is gonna be anywhere close to how it was anymore. It didn't just happen here in Austin. This thing is affecting the whole planet. I saw a couple news stories on the TV showing stuff in London and Argentina, and I can only imagine it's even more widespread than that. If you like, I can come over sometime after life starts back up and I can give you a quick rundown on what to expect from these pokemon." Alex ended off by telling his dad he loved him, then sent a similar message to his mom, telling her both his dad and Cassie were okay and that Alex made it home safely.
After sending both messages, he left his phone on the desk to charge. He stood up and brought a hand up to his head. After remaining expressionless for but a moment, he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and cracked a slight smile. "They're all okay," he muttered. He walked over to his bed and flopped onto it with a grin. It felt like a huge weight was taken off his shoulders. Everyone was safe. And they could all work on making it through this mess.
He lay there with a smile on his face for several minutes before he frowned again. His parents were safe, which he was very thankful for, but that unfortunately didn't really help his immediate situation. He was still a mew, and he still had no real idea how to go about coping with that fact. No real idea on how to live life with such a drastic change. 'Hmm... well can't really do much about it right now, unfortunately. There's too many answers that I need, but just can't get right now. So I just have to control what I can. And right now that means seeing what I'm capable of. So...' Alex, still laying in his bed, took a deep breath and slowly stood back up. He closed his eyes and willed himself back to being a mew. After the glow of his transformation faded, he opened his eyes again and looked down at his now small pink body. He gave a quick flex to his small pink arms, his long feet, and his... tail, once again getting the feel for his alternate body. '...here we go.'
Alex had first decided to mess around with the transformations themselves. One of the first things that confused him was the fact that his clothes seemed to completely disappear from the plane of existence when he transformed into his mew form. He discovered that he could be wearing any level of clothing (which he nearly overheated from when he tried it with a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie) and it would make no difference. It disappeared when he was a mew and came back exactly as it was when he was human. But what completely baffled Alex was that not only could it work with clothes, it worked when he was wearing a backpack too.
He had not expected that to work at all. First he tried it with an empty backpack, and then one by one he started filling it with random textbooks and old schoolwork of his that he didn't need anymore. It always worked. Every bit of it disappeared. It was then that Alex noticed something very peculiar. It seemed that the heavier the load he was carrying in his human form, the more physically drained he felt in his pokemon form. Like the level of exhaustion directly mirrored the amount of weight his human body was supporting at the moment of transformation. Stranger and stranger. But in his mind, there was at least some logic to it that he could understand.
Alex decided to carry as many suitcases as he could manage. He put on two backpacks over each shoulder, a additional duffel bag over one of his shoulders, a rolling suitcase by his side that he held onto with his hand, and filled them all with a random assortment of items, most of which he didn't care if they ended up completely disappearing. Upon turning into his pokemon form after that, Alex was surprised to see that the rolling suitcase stood by his side, completely undisturbed. Well, as undisturbed as a slightly tilted suitcase could be. Really, Alex was forced to notice the heavy suitcase first only because it fell onto his foot, setting him into a cursing frenzy. After the adrenaline of sudden pain wore off, however, Alex found himself very weighed down. It wasn't anything he couldn't handle, but it was very noticeable that he had to put in extra effort if he wanted to move any of his body parts.
Alex willed himself back to normal and eyed the suitcase again. This time, instead of simply steadying it with his hand, he hefted the entire thing into the air with the arm that wasn't supporting the weight of his duffel bag and tried again. This time it worked, and Alex believed he was starting to figure out the 'rules' of these transformations. To be completely certain, he dropped everything while in human form, then went over to his bed and, after throwing aside all of his pillows and sheets, hefted his entire mattress in the air. He supported it on his back and when he turned into his pokemon form, the mattress was gone, and he found himself weighed down again. Alex scoffed and shook his head in bewilderment, wondering why the hell that even worked. But then wondered if it also worked in reverse. After turning back to his human form and clumsily dropping his mattress, nearly knocking over his bedside lamp in the process, he then, in his mew form, decided to pick up and put on a nearby beanie he had in his closet. After making sure it was secure to his head, he turned back into his human form. He reached up to find that the beanie had disappeared. Interesting. It seemed to Alex that however he was before he transformed, he would go back to that state when he transformed back, with a certain exception being physical capabilities. He thought about it a moment and he theorized that injuries may also cross over to some extent, but he had no real motivation to test that right away. Alex still thought that entire detail regarding transformations was just bizarre, but he at least was able to piece together what exactly was happening.
He decided it was a good time to move onto his actual abilities. Alex shoved all of his luggage to the side, set his mattress back into its proper place, and transformed back into mew. Alex awkwardly walked over to the side of his bed, sat down while making sure not to accidentally crush his tail again, 'gah that's still weird,' and pondered on what the first thing to practice would be. He briefly considered training his psychic powers first, but soon realized he wouldn't really be able to do much in his pokemon form without being able to move very efficiently. Levitation. That's what he decided his first goal should be.
Easier said than done. Unlike teaching himself Confusion- at least, Alex was pretty sure it was Confusion- teaching himself to levitate was difficult to say the least. He had no idea just what type of concentration or energy he should've been aiming for. Alex tried focusing several different ways. Clearing his mind, imagining levitating, focusing super hard- he ended up accidentally using Confusion on himself trying to levitate that way. Thank goodness psychic resists psychic- but nothing worked.
Alex grunted in frustration and shook his head. He didn't expect it to be easy in the first place, but he was still frustrated that he wasn't making any apparent progress whatsoever. Still, he had ample time to practice, so he kept at it. It wasn't until Alex both tried harnessing his psychic powers and at the same time imagined himself actually swimming through the air that he was able to lift himself off of the ground. It caught him by surprise, and he dropped to the ground as suddenly as he had started levitating, but he was barely a few inches off the ground, so it only caused him to fall over. After awkwardly righting himself, he started focusing his powers again and kicked off the ground for good measure. This time, he shot up quickly and had to stop himself before he crashed into the ceiling.
After he was able to steady himself, he tentatively looked around his room, then directly below him. His feet were off the ground. He was airborne. Right there in his room about five feet off the ground. He was floating. Butterflies welled up in his stomach and a small bit of adrenaline shot through him. A smile quickly etched itself onto Alex's face. He couldn't believe he was actually flying right there with nothing helping him but his own power. Still grinning, and allowing himself a small fist pump in triumph, he started slowly moving around his room, practicing turning, ascending, and descending, all while his body shook from excitement and wonder. It felt incredible. His movements were a little choppy, as one could reasonably expect from one who was new to flying, but that didn't stop Alex from savoring the feeling. He didn't let himself get distracted for too long, but for a brief moment, a single glorious moment, he allowed himself to bask in awe and wonder at what was happening. He was a mew, and he was actually flying. Airborne right there in his room using his own powers. The feeling couldn't be matched by anything.
After several minutes of practicing his levitation, Alex refocused himself and decided to switch gears. He spotted one of his cloth grocery bags and thought that would make for good target practice. Nothing he couldn't replace either. Alex, still mid air, attempted to use lift the bag in the same fashion he did to his coworker's tissue box. Alex had the smallest of grimaces on his face. He found it was slightly harder to do now for some reason, but after a second, a faint blue glow appeared on the bag and he was able to lift it without further trouble. Once again, Alex attempted to crush the bag with his mind, and the bag slowly began collapsing in on itself in an unusual fashion. After crumpling it into a weird oblong shape, Alex purposefully dropped it so he wouldn't permanently damage it.
Alex grinned. So he knew how to do two things. He figured out how to levitate and how to use what he was certain was Confusion. He figured it was a great start and he decided to practice those two things for the next hour or so.
Alex willed himself back to his human form and starting breathing and sweating heavily instantly. He collapsed on his desk chair, grabbed the nearby water bottle, and drank half of its contents in a single swig, gasping for air after the last swallow. 'Okay, so... ugh... I guess I need to practice more so my body can get used to using power like that.' Alex coughed at the end of him thinking that to himself. A powerful legendary pokemon he might be, but it would seem that like all skills, they too needed to be trained before it can become second nature to him. Otherwise, he was prone to overexerting himself just like any starting athlete pushing themselves too hard. That and the heat was making it unbearable. Alex coughed a couple more times and shook his head. All of that and the power still wasn't back on. He glanced at his phone clock. Almost 8 pm. Alex had been at this for over an hour and a half. Yikes.
Then Alex sat up sharply and started rapidly coughing. "Oh no." Alex quickly got up, opened his bedroom door and bolted for the closest bathroom. Desperately suppressing his urge to cough any more until he got there, he went straight to the toilet, opened the seat, and knelt down in front of it before allowing himself to cough once more.
Alex spat out the toothpaste into the sink and rinsed his mouth using a water cup placed on the bathroom counter. After spitting out the water, he dried the remnants of water and toothpaste on the corners of his mouth with the drying towel that hung by the sink, and simply stood there in front of the mirror using his arms to support himself. 'Heh. I guess it is possible to overexert yourself to the point of sickness as a pokemon. You learn something new every day.' Alex chuckled weakly to himself. 'Seems like I was able to prove the injury theory after all, though I'm not sure if this really counts as an injury per se.' He was shaking. Alex carefully walked back to his room and collapsed on his bed. It wasn't ever fun getting sick, but he did have to admit that it often makes you feel better after. Outside of feeling a little weak, Alex just felt marginally tired. He obviously didn't have the energy to continue training, but it was something.
Then he heard the front door open and his head shot up. "Alex? You home?" he heard a voice call out.
"Isaac? That you?" Alex shouted back as loud as he could manage. Footsteps, then a knock at his door, which was already slightly ajar. "Come in."
A brown haired male who was a few inches taller than Alex and thinner but slightly muscular stepped in. "Hey- you okay, hun? You don't look so good," he mentioned with a look of concern.
Alex let his head fall back on his pillow again and gave a dismissive hand wave. "Heat exhaustion. Had to walk all the way from downtown Austin to here in the heat and I got sick. I'll be good. I've got water now," he said, still breathing somewhat fast, and waved toward his desk.
Isaac glanced over at the mostly empty water bottle, pursed his lips, and decided to shrug it off. "Okay, I guess. Hey, do you know if it's safe to pull stuff from the fridge? How long has the power been out?"
Alex shrugged and took a single deep breath to steady his breathing. "I don't know to both questions. The fridge, possibly. The freezer, doubtful. I think there's still some sandwich meat in there plus some bread in the pantry. Not gonna be much of a dinner, but not like we have a lot of options, huh?"
Isaac sighed and started towards the kitchen. "Yea, you're right... you want me to get you a sandwich?"
"Nah," Alex grunted while sitting up, "I can do it. Thanks, though." Alex slowly made his way towards the kitchen.
The two sat quietly at the candle lit dining room table, chewing away at their meal. Alex, still exhausted from his earlier ordeal, glanced over at his roommate. He seemed to be deep in thought. "How many of em did you see?" Alex asked to break the silence.
Isaac shot a brief look Alex couldn't decipher towards him, set down the uneaten half of his sandwich, and let out a breath. "I dunno. Stopped counting after I hit double digits yesterday. Had to have seen dozens." Silence hung in the air again.
Alex narrowed his eyes, trying to decipher some sort of emotion from his roommate's state, but Isaac just kept staring as if deep in thought. Alex let out a quick exhale and returned his attention to his sandwich.
"It just-" Alex looked up at his roommate, who spoke up again, then a pause, "I- I legit just don't know what to think about this whole thing. I never thought a game I played when I was in grade school could literally come to life. Literally."
"How long did it take you to figure out what they were anyway? I can imagine a bit considering you've only played- err, which was it again, Red or Blue?" Alex asked.
"Blue. And actually, it didn't take me long at all. A venonat was the first thing I saw. Thought my eyes were playing tricks on me though, ya know?" Another pause. "I thought I was going insane when I saw that customer turn into it right in front of my eyes, but then I could see that the others saw it too. And then there was that giant crash..," Isaac trailed off muttering to himself.
Alex nodded slowly and took another bite of his sandwich. "Mmm, da car ashidens, right?"
"No, the uh, giant crash that everyone heard like a minute or two after the guy transformed. The big loud one."
"Mmm?!" Alex hastily swallowed the food in his mouth before speaking. "Okay, I need to ask about that. What is this explosion? This is the second time I've heard of this today, and I didn't know something like this had even happened. What gives?"
Isaac shot Alex a curious look. "Hold on, you didn't hear it? How? It was pretty damn loud. My ears were ringing for like five minutes after it happened."
Alex threw up his arms in exasperation. "No! I didn't! I'm completely lost! When it happened, I was inside a building surrounded by at least two different thick walls in any direction, and I was kinda distracted by my coworker also becoming a pokemon that I completely missed it. I didn't even learn about it until just today!"
Isaac nodded in understanding. "I see. Well there happened to be a crashing noise that sounded like... it sounded like the combined sound of hundreds of cars crashing and windows breaking in the same tenth of a second. It didn't last long at all, but it was loud, and I asked multiple people around town. They all heard it. But here's the rub," Isaac paused again and hesitated as if he was unsure of himself, "no one seems to have actually seen what caused the explosion. It was like the noise came from nowhere."
Alex raised an eyebrow and his jaw slowly dropped. "I... what? H-how the hell is that even possible?"
"Dunno. No one is even sure where whatever caused the noise was. Or at least, it was too loud for them to pinpoint an exact direction. Some people say they saw ripples... like the light was being bent like you'd see on a hot day. I feel like those ripples some people say they saw might've been part of the explosion, but they said they were too faint to be able to tell what they were, let alone where exactly they were traveling to and from, so I'm not so sure, myself. I'm sure some local scientist could tell us something about it, but right now, everyone's kinda concerned about the hundreds of new species that appeared on the planet in plain view literally overnight, and the damage on the roads that ensued."
Alex groaned obnoxiously loudly and did a table-shaking facedesk, making sure to miss his plate of food. "I don't deal with existential uncertainty very well," he muttered.
Isaac gave a dry chuckle. "I don't think anyone does, hun. Also, ow. That looked and sounded like it hurt."
"It did, but frankly, I'm too hot and too tired of, well, everything to care right now." Alex then heard the sound of a chair being pushed out and footsteps towards the kitchen.
"Well don't make a habit of it, or you'll give yourself CTE."
Alex looked back up and gave his roommate a deadpan stare. Isaac was throwing his plate away. "Doing facedesks? Doubtful."
Isaac just shrugged and grabbed the lighter used to light the dining room candles, as well as a smooth dark green piece of glass. "I'm just saying, if it was hard enough to be painful, you probably don't wanna do it again. I mean, obviously," he chuckled. "Hey, I'm gonna be in my room for the rest of the night doing some computer work. You need anything before I do that?"
Alex frowned. "Well no, but computer work? The power's out."
"I've got a laptop, remember? And I don't really need the wifi to do what I'm doing. Sure it'd help so I can look things up, but I can manage just fine without it."
Alex gave a half nod, but still wasn't too satisfied with the response. "Okaayy, I get that, but why now? I'm pretty sure since the world has gone to shit, no jobs are going to be moving forward much."
Isaac gave a sad sounding sigh. "Yea, I know, but what else would you have me do right now? I can at least do this as a means to clear my head and be productive while this mess is sorted out, but outside of that, I've got nothing. If you've got another idea to keep busy or even better to help out fix this mess, I'm all ears."
Alex looked away from Isaac as he spoke. He couldn't look at his roommate after that statement, despite the fact that his tone sounded more pleading than challenging. His silence spoke more to Isaac than words could.
Another sigh. "Thought not. Don't worry about it, hun. This situation is so ridiculous that I don't expect anyone to have all the answers, or even some of them. This is just my way to keep busy. You probably ought to find a way, yourself, cuz I've a feeling this next month may be a long one."
Alex still couldn't face the direction of his roommate even after listening to the footsteps gradually getting softer and more distant until the telltale sound of a door closing briefly filled the otherwise silent apartment. Isaac was right. Alex could train, but outside of that, he didn't have any plan to take on the following weeks. Was there even anything he could do? Or was he just stuck at home at the complete mercy of the world as he waited for things to return to some semblance of normalcy? Alex let out a frustrated sigh as he realized the tough questions just kept on coming in without any idea on how to answer any of them.