"Police are still looking for the electric type lion pokemon, commonly known as a luxray, that killed four people and critically injured several others in downtown Miami, Florida, late Wednesday afternoon in an apparent terrorist attack. Witnesses say that although the pokemon acted alone, there were a number of other pokemon on scene that chose not to retaliate against the electric type's violent actions or provide care to the wounded, instead opting to flee the scene. Local government officials and deputies are asking anyone to come forward if they have any knowledge of the luxray's whereabouts or identity so they can be brought to-"

"-have a small delay on 183 near Burnett caused by a mild fender bender there that seems to have been taken care of already, so traffic should soon be rolling in that area again pretty soon. There's also a multi vehicle pile up on north-bound South-I35 near East Riverside, which unfortunately may take a few hours to clear up, but the big story is all over downtown Austin. It would be easier to list the roads that weren't backed up, particularly on the University of Texas campus, as there are several different protests, presumably about the violent pokemon incidents, that are slowing traffic to a complete standstill. It looks like authorities are attempting to disperse the protesters, but with so many people out on the streets and with the police spread so thinly, there's only so much that they can do to ease the situation, so there doesn't seem to be a specific time table for this to clear up. I'm Richard Sherman and that's your TXDot traf-"

"-growing concerns across the nation as more and more pokemon attacks continue to pop up. I mean, yes, the uh... the um uh- luxray. That was it- in Miami is the obvious one, sure. But what about the less talked about ones in Sacramento? Austin? Omaha? I mean- goodness gracious, even in DC, there were a couple of... I think monkey pokemon that I can't remember the names of-"

"One of em was a simisear."

"What's that?"

"The two monkeys- there were a grass one and a fire one. The fire one was called a simisear."

"Ah yes, that's right. Simisear was one of em. I forget the other one, though. It wasn't simihedge, or whatever the other grass one related to it was. It was a completely separate one. A couple of them got into some sort of fight with a store owner and ended up beating him half to death after repeated attacks towards him."

"Also as an aside real quick, don't you feel so stupid saying some of these names?"

"Hahaha, yea, even when my son was growing up, I never got used to it. He was into Digimon as a kid. Kept on saying over and over again that his favorite was aquamon or something like that, and I could never wrap my head around anything he was talking about because it just seems so juvenile-"

"Well now let's be fair, he was a kid. It's normal for him to be into something like that growing up, right?"

"Right, right. And that's not a bad thing. Lots of kids his age are into monsters and magic and the like. So you know, I can definitely see the appeal for someone of his age when he was into it, but I'm obviously not, so..."

"Just flashes you back to those times of being completely lost every time you hear one of those pokemon names, huh?"

"Heh, unfortunately."

"Yea, I don't blame ya. Anyway, went off topic for a moment. The point my partner is making is that these pokemon are dangerous. They're violent. And that attack in Miami? It's not an isolated incident. Sooner or later someone's gonna have to draw the line for these pokemon and-"

"-pressured into passing legislation that places restrictions on citizens using their pokemon abilities, however republican and democratic representatives seems to be unable to agree on a specific set of restrictions, with some representatives saying there should be a specific set of laws limiting when and how citizens can use their newfound abilities, while others claim these abilities should be seen as an extension of their second amendment rights to keep and bear arms- those arms in this case being their abilities. Unlike most political issues, it doesn't appear as if either party is backing any one viewpoint on the subject matter. However, as the days pass and more incidents with violent pokemon arise, some politicians are making the claim that pokemon are making themselves to be less and less trustworthy, even in the eyes of their most staunch supporters. In fact, some state governors are already introducing legislation placing bans on the use of any pokemon forms in populated areas. No laws have taken effect as of yet, but government officials in states such as-"

Alex punched at the volume dial for his car radio in a huff to shut it off. He nervously drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he idly made his way to work through busy morning traffic on the highway, keeping an eye out for his nearing exit. 'God damn it all, it's even worse than I thought it'd be. Not only are people rejecting pokemon-kind, but the government is getting involved too? What the hell am I even supposed to do about this?' Alex wondered helplessly. He exited the highway and made a turn towards the Texas athletic fields, having made that area his designated parking spot so he could walk the rest of the way to and from work. At least until his university parking permit showed up in the mail. Alex was only halfway focused on the roads, even as he neared his usual parking area, as he was far too worried about current events.

'I'm not sure if I even believe half of the shit that they're talking about. Some of it just sounds way too fucking vague that there has to be more to the story there. At least... it feels like there should be.' Alex parked right next to the softball field and simply sat in his car, even after removing the key from the ignition. 'Am I just biased because I'm a pokemon, myself? The big one, the one with the luxray- I even saw that video, myself. It looked pretty damn cut and dry that that was a psychopath who went on a complete killing spree.' Alex let out a despaired sigh and hit the back of his head against the driver seat. 'Maybe all of these events really did happen. Is... are pokemon really just violent by nature...?'

After wallowing in his fear and despair about the state of pokemon-kind for a few moments, Alex suddenly defiantly scowled and sharply opened the door of his car, letting himself out. 'No, that can't be all there is to it. I have no doubt some people just use the newfound power to be an excuse to let loose, but there has to be more to some of these stories that they either don't know about, or even worse, aren't telling us. After all, they said something similar with my botched rescue attempt...' Alex shut the door to his car, locked it, and began making his way to the main part of the university campus.

'Know what, fuck it. I don't really think there's anything I can do right now. Anything I'd try to do as Mew might end up making things worse. Guess all I can do right now is just hope those government regulations fail to pass and public outcry dies down a bit.' Alex let out a very elongated exhale, and visibly began relaxing his muscles as he leisurely made his way out of the athletics area of campus and across the highway. 'Just gotta focus on getting through my own life right now... and hopefully let everything else sort itself out.' Alex spent the next several minutes clearing his mind of all thoughts entirely while he made his way to the biology building on UT campus. And for a while, it worked. Alex reached and passed by the football stadium without incident. For a fleeting moment, Alex felt slightly relieved. It was seeming like it was going to be a normal day at work, which he would use to get his mind off of current events. Alex's relief, however, had its short life cut the moment he crossed the street just past the football stadium.

Alex peered closer at some movement he spotted just up the stairs leading to the heart of the university campus, and saw that it was a rather large crowd of students. Alex felt a jolt of nervousness shoot through his body as he realized he could also hear a rhythmic chanting of sorts. 'Oh for fuck's sake, please don't make me deal with this.' Alex altered his course slightly, taking the staircase on the opposite side of his path, hoping to avoid the crowd. As Alex got closer, he could hear with alarming clarity what the people were chanting.

"No powers! No peace! No justice for the freaks! No powers! No peace! No justice for the freaks!"

The chant froze Alex in place for more than a beat. It was so loud that Alex couldn't even hear himself think. Alex did a full body flinch as every bit of adrenaline in his body was attempting to steer him away from the hostile crowd and the extremely dehumanizing chant. He didn't need any more persuasion, much less from his own instincts. He turned and attempted to stutter step his way past the mob while keeping as much distance from it as he could by hugging the building wall as he went along.

Unfortunately for Alex, his caution for what was going on beside him made him oblivious as to what was happening in front of him. Alex didn't realize fast enough that the protest wasn't just in one area of the university. As soon as he reached the end of the wall he was riding to keep away from one mob, Alex made the mistake of turning the corner without seeing what was around it first. Alex ended up plowing face to face into a person that was part of yet another group protest chanting the same thing.

"Oof!" "Gah!" Alex stumbled backwards, but managed to keep his footing. The same could not be said for the young dark-skinned girl he ran into. She stumbled backwards and landed on her rear end, still managing to catch herself with her hands so she didn't end up falling completely over. Alex regained his balance and only took a single glance at the situation he caused before he realized he was on the receiving end of dozens of surprised and angry college aged students. Alex's heart did a nervous flip. 'Oh crap.'

"Hey, woah woah woah! What's the big idea?!" A student much bigger than Alex was, called out as he stormed up to an increasingly scared Alex.

Alex started rapidly moving backwards with his hands held up in a defensive gesture. "Woah, stopstop, no, it was an accident! I swear! I'm just trying to get to work!" Alex stammered out quickly in a vain attempt to diffuse the situation while half a dozen other students followed. Alex's breathing became more and more panicked as almost every single one of them began shouting obscenities at Alex, including the girl he knocked over. Alex kept on trying to back up away from the group of protesters, but they continued to advance on him just as quickly. 'Holy fuck, stop, just please leave me alone!' Much to Alex's dismay, he was backing up so much that he was beginning to run out of room. The mob was about to back Alex into a wall. Just as Alex thought there would be no way out of this without a confrontation of some sort, Alex finally picked up on a nearby voice that was attempting to get his attention.

"Hey! I'm talkin to you! You said you was tryin to get to work?"

Alex finally faced the man who was speaking to him and nodded urgently, calming down slightly after being allowed a chance to explain himself. "Yea! Yea, I work on campus in one of the laboratories! Please, just let me through. I didn't mean to run into-"

"Prove it," the man interrupted demandingly. "You gotta have some sort of ID to work here, yea? Let's see it, then.

Alex let out a frustrated exhale through his nose, not enjoying the fact that he was being ID'd by a random student who really had no business patrolling that area of campus, but seeing as it was Alex's safest bet to get out of the situation without further incident, he decided to just bite the bullet and did as was requested of him. 'At least this guy is being somewhat reasonable,' Alex thought tiredly as he fished his wallet out of his pocket, flashing his University administered ID towards the growing crowd around him. "There, see? Faculty Staff, just like it says. Can you please let me through now? I'm already late for work." That last statement was a lie, but Alex hoped it would get him out of the situation faster.

Much to Alex's irritation, even after the student who requested Alex's ID was satisfied with what he saw, several students from the group pushed their way to the front to get their own look at Alex's credentials. Eventually, after enough people got a look at Alex's card, and after some talking amongst themselves, most of the group started to disperse and began chanting amongst themselves again, leaving a small group of people still around Alex, including the man who originally requested his ID. "A'ight, fine. You good. You gotta listen, tho, man. You can't be doin shit like runnin around like a fool. You get people killed like that. You get me? Get to your job and find a better way there next time. You don't got any business here, right?"

Alex let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, and put his wallet away with shaky hands. Alex clenched his teeth at the incredibly demanding tone from someone who had no authority, but he continued to hold his tongue for fear of making the situation worse. "Alright. I gotcha. I'll go around next- AGH! Fffuck!" Alex was interrupted when a rock came flying at him and hit him just above his left eyebrow with enough force that it caused Alex to violently recoil and hold onto the injured spot with both hands.

As Alex knelt over clutching his forehead in pain, the man who was talking to Alex swiftly turned to face the general direction of where the rock came from. "Hey! Hey! Who the fuck threw that?! Was it you? Fuck outta here, man. I'm handling it-"

Alex began taking seething breaths through clenched teeth, rapidly losing the last of his patience. He lifted his hands off of his forehead and saw that his palms were wet with fresh bloodstains. Before Alex could think twice, he let out a loud growl and whipped his head back up, shooting a murderous glare in the direction of where the rock came from. "Are you serious? Bitch are you fucking kidding me?! Why the hell, if you thought I was a pokemon, would you think throwing a fucking rock at me is in any way a good idea?! Especially since almost every single one of them can knock you flat on your ass for pulling a stunt like that!"

To the man's credit, he did seem to be very understanding that Alex was frustrated that he got hit with an object to the point of bleeding. He instantly held up his hands towards Alex in a placating manner. "Wooaaah, hol up-" But that was as far as he got before the outraged roar of the surrounding crowd began to drown out his voice. Alex's rage flipped to fear instantly as multiple voices in the crowd began shouting names and obscenities at him, while only a slightly smaller number of people began making aggressive advances towards him. Alex didn't even have time to regret his rash frustrated outburst. He was in danger that very moments, and needed to think of a way out and fast. Alex, in his heightening panic, quickly retreated until he backed himself against the wall of a building, and desperately began scanning his surroundings, searching for an opening. 'OhfuckohfuckohFUCK- ah! There!' To Alex's luck, he managed to spot a gap in the crowd. He didn't hesitate. The moment he spotted it, Alex charged through the opening of the mob, raising his arms to shield his head from any stray blows from any of the especially violent protesters as he made his escape.

Even though Alex was expecting it, being sucker punched a few times to his sides and arms still caught him by surprise. Luckily for Alex, every single one of them were glancing blows. But Alex didn't let this deter him from getting away as fast as he could. Alex burst through the bulk of the crowd and darted towards the large pathway known as Speedway. During his getaway, Alex glanced backwards to see if he was being followed. Much to his horror, he was. Only a select few protestors had broken off from the group to give chase to Alex, but it was still a number greater than zero, and thus was something Alex was far from comfortable with. Alex thusly decided that anything slower than a sprint would give him better than even odds of being caught.

Alex reached Speedway in a timely manner, but came to a sudden halt when he realized that the entire pathway was filled end to end with more protestors. 'Jesus Christ, is the entire university against pokemon now?!' Luckily, it didn't seem like any of them were focused on Alex the way his pursuers were. Alex didn't stay standing still for long, however. He knew he was still being followed. He quickly scanned the massive crowd and decided to make his way into the bulk of it, temporarily moving away from his destination, but moving in such a way that he would quickly be lost in the crowd. Alex bobbed and weaved around perplexed protestors, changing directions with alarming frequency, and after being satisfied that no one could see where he was clearly anymore, changed direction one final time and began moving towards the biology lab.

Eventually, Alex emerged from the crowd, standing on the other side of Speedway from where he entered, and cautiously looked towards the other end of the giant pathway in the distance. Alex could see a few protestors who were also emerging on the other side of the pathway who were very much still looking for him, but they were far enough to where Alex could see them, but they couldn't see Alex unless they knew exactly where he was. Alex let out a relieved sigh and at last began slowly making the remainder of his trek towards the biology lab, being careful not to move too fast so not to draw more attention to himself than he already had.

Alex slammed the laboratory door shut behind him and trudged over to the nearest desk, ignoring the confused looks of his coworkers as he passed them, and crossed his arms against the surface of the table before slamming his face into his arms. Alex inhaled sharply and let out the loudest prolonged muffled yell into his arms as he could manage.

Alex heard shuffling behind him. One of his coworkers was slowly approaching him. "Alex? Bud? Are you okay?" Alex recognized Cory's voice right away. He naturally sounded very concerned.

Alex took a few seconds and a few deep breaths to calm his nerves as best as he could for the time being before facing his supervisor. "No. No I'm not. I had a little run in just now-"

His coworker recoiled in alarm as soon as he saw the state Alex was in. "Oh shit. Yea, I can see that. What happened? Who-" Cory cut himself off and shook his head in mild anger. "Did the protestors attack you?"

Alex scowled. "Out of fucking nowhere. I mean yea, I accidentally ran into someone trying to avoid the crowd, but for some reason, some of those dipshits got it in their mind that me running into someone was a personal attack on them and therefore I'm public enemy number one. I got a fucking rock thrown at me, and if that wasn't enough, they started swinging at me after I was just trying to get out of their way!" he spat, pointing to his forehead injury to make his point.

Alex's other coworker, a shorter man who was about Alex's height and was roughly as skinny, but had a fair amount of body muscle and facial hair where Alex didn't, stepped forwards, eyeing Alex with a concerned look. "Alex, you want the day off, mate? Seems like you went through something kinda stressful and we wouldn't blame ya if you needed to get your head right."

Alex exhaled through his nose and dropped his head down into the palm of his hands, recoiling slightly when he felt the palm of his hand get slightly wet, as he had forgotten he was still bleeding slightly. Alex let out a slight irritated growl, but stopped himself and took another breath after realizing he was beginning to lose his composure again. "No, I can't do that, Kennith. First off, I don't wanna take days off if I can help it, and second, that mob is still out there and some of em are probably looking for me right now. Leaving here right now wouldn't exactly be safe."

Cory gave Alex a sympathetic look. "Well then let's at least get you to a first aid station so we can fix that nasty scrape you've got on your head," he said, gently ushering him in the direction of a first aid station.

Alex nodded stiffly without much more emotion. "Mkay."

Alex finished typing onto the laboratory computer and faced his two coworkers again. "Alright. Anything else to add?"

Kennith shook his head and hopped up from his stool, making his way over to a different computer. "Nah, everything else about it is as expected," he paused and shot a look back in Alex's direction. "You did jot down that bit too, right? Always gotta, so we know it's a complete study."

Alex let out an impatient exhale through his nose. "I already got it down a while ago," he snipped back a bit too aggressively, still staring at the computer screen

"Easy, mate. I don't mean anything by it," the shorter man responded calmly, fully understanding that Alex was on edge, "I'm just trying to help. You know the lab boys will throw a fit if we're not completely thorough. Better to drill it in now than deal with that muck in the future, right?"

Alex crossed his arms against the lab desk again and rested his head in the crook of his arms. He let out a frustrated grunt. "I know, I know. I'm sorry, I don't mean to snap. I'm just... ugh, today sucks. And nothing against you two, but work isn't helping my mood in the slightest right now."

Alex could hear Cory chuckling behind him, as well as the soft clink of various glass objects, telling Alex that Cory was once again putting away the equipment they were using, or setting up new ones. Possibly both. "Don't worry, bud. I completely get where you're coming from. As much as I like being here, sometimes I have those days where I wish I wasn't. You have more than enough of an excuse to be having one of those days."

Alex let out a mirthless chuckle and lifted his head to double check all of the information on his screen. After looking through it all and being satisfied with the results, Alex clicked save and looked at the clock in the corner of the monitor. It showed it was 1:15. Alex swiveled on his chair and faced his coworkers. "Hey, do y'all mind if I take my lunch break now?"

Cory opened his mouth to respond, but Kennith beat him by half a second. "I was actually gonna ask the two of you about that. You think we could all swing by the cafe and sit down there? I ordered a pizza a bit ago that should be getting here soon. Hope you like pepperoni."

Cory's eyes lit up at the mention of pizza. "That sounds pretty good right about now. It doesn't seem to be terribly busy today anyway. What do you think, Alex?"

For the first time that day, Alex gives off a small but genuine smile. "I'm down. I could use the friendly company after the morning I've had."

Kennith gave the two other lab workers a grin. "Well then clock out and follow me. The delivery boy should be getting to the cafe in a few minutes," he said, turning back to the computer to type something in before clicking on a tab and heading for the laboratory door.

Cory and Alex shared an amused expression before the both of them went to the computer that Kennith was just using, each of them using it to clock out on their university account, then hanging up their coats and stepping out of the room to follow him close behind.

The walk to the cafe was mostly uneventful. As they made the short walk to their destination, Alex took note of a group of protestors to their right off in the distance. Alex's carefree smile turned into a tense frown. It had been hours since his initial run in with a different group, and the protests still hadn't let up. Alex glanced back to his two coworkers. They were still idly chatting with each other, seemingly oblivious to the distance scene. Or perhaps it was only because it was far enough away that it wasn't an issue they thought was worth worrying about. Alex spared the protest another glance before forcing himself to look towards his destination, but in the meantime also becoming notably more quiet than he had been moments ago.

Soon enough, with Kennith being consistently ahead of the other two by a few paces, the trio reached the cafe they had set their sights on. And after Kennith almost ran into the pizza delivery boy who had already arrived and was looking for the recipient of the order, he accepted the order and led the three to an unoccupied table with not many people around so they could relax while they ate. Alex was halfway into his second slice when Kennith got his attention. "So. Alex. Did ya end up going to the game on Saturday?"

Alex let out a low, irritated groan. "No, I was out with my friends most of the weekend. And honestly, I'm glad I missed it, judging from the score."

Kennith gave Alex a puzzled look. "Really? I mean I know they lost, but it can't have been that bad, right? I've heard American Football games can get a fair bit more brutal than that."

Alex shook his head tiredly. "Nah, I'm pretty sure the box score doesn't tell the full story. Lemme take a wild guess and say that last touchdown Texas scored happened late in the fourth quarter. Am I right?" After a conceding nod from Kennith, Alex scowled down at his pizza. "Yea, sounds like it was really a blowout in everything but the final score," he muttered, and then more quietly, "Thirty-two to nineteen my ass."

Cory gave a smile that was equal parts amused and sympathetic to Alex before facing Kennith with a comment of his own. "Your friend looked good out there, though. Did you happen to see how far his longest punt went?"

Kennith flash Cory a toothy grin. "I saw. Sixty-one yards is just... mental. Although," he continued with a thoughtful expression, "I did see some of their last punter. Doesn't seem so shocking when you look at what he did on the pitch."

Despite his frustrations with the team's lack of progress, Alex allowed himself a small smile. "Well to be fair, it's kinda hard to match up with a guy who won MVP in their bowl game and then went on to get drafted as a freaking punter. If you're comparing yourself to him, that's setting high expectations on yourself."

Kennith just smiled as Cory let off a chuckle. "Alex is right, you know. I dunno how much you've learned about football over the break, but that doesn't happen too often for punters, at least not that I've seen."

"Ah, well," Alex interrupted, "I may have been laying it on a bit thick. In reality, a few players on special teams gets drafted every year. But even so..."

Cory finished Alex's statement with one of his own. "Point is, Kennith, if your friend managed to get close to what he managed to do, that'd be a very successful career indeed."

Kennith smiled, but his eyes didn't meet either his coworkers. He stared distantly at the almost fully eaten pizza, idly chewing away at another slice of his own.

Cory gave his friend a concerned frown and leaned a bit closer to try and indirectly prompt him to look directly at him. "Hey, did you ever get a chance to... you know, talk to him? Hang out?"

Kennith glanced up at Cory for the slightest of moments before shaking his head sadly, staring downwards again. "I tried, but I don't know what classes he takes, and I bet that with school work and practice on the pitch, he ought to be pretty damn busy. Besides," he continued before either coworker could say anything to cheer him up, "I think talking with him now would just be... awkward. I haven't talked to the guy since primary school. To be frank, I dunno if I should be bothering him anyway. With this," Kennith paused, gesturing to the protests that were outside within eyeshot, bringing Alex's attention to it again, "whole mess going on, it's probably causing enough of a distraction already. Me going up to him out of nowhere would only add to it."

Cory crossed his arms and fixed an unsatisfied frown at his friend. "Woah hold up, Ken. Listen to yourself for a moment, will ya? Catching up with an old friend is a distraction? That's ridiculous and you know it."

"Mate, I don't know if he even remembers me!" he huffed loudly, before turning his head to the side, dropping his half eaten slice of pizza in the empty side of the pizza box. "Look, I may not know a lot about sports in America, but I know there's a great deal of passion for them. And if it turns out that he doesn't remember me at all and he thinks I'm just some fan trying to hang out with him because of his status as a player, it's not gonna feel too good for me."

Cory's expression softened and he let out an amused chuckle. "My friend, I think you're vastly overestimating the popularity of individual college football players. Yea, some have big names and are huge stars, but that's only gonna be three or four of them out of the entire team. And all due respect to your friend, but he isn't one of them." Kennith scoffed, but he began to look downwards with a thoughtfully melancholy gaze, appearing to consider Cory's point, as Cory continued his thoughts on the subject. "And besides, even if he doesn't remember you, if he means that much to you and he's anything like you've described him to be, I'm sure he'd be glad to hang out and catch up."

Kennith lightly shook his head and let off a sad sigh. "I suppose... I can ask one of the coaches after hours to see if he can pass along a message to him- Alex? You good, mate? You've been pretty quiet the past couple minutes," Kennith asked after doing a double take, noticing Alex's distressed expression off to the side.

Alex had hardly been paying attention to the conversation ever since his coworker brought his attention to yet another group of nearby protestors that Alex hadn't seen before then. This group looked bigger than he had seen thus far. And it sent him into stress induced episode of worried thinking. Alex flinched when his name was finally mentioned by his coworkers, and looked over to see both of them giving him concerned looks. Alex rested an elbow against the table and leaned his forehead into the palm of his hand again. "Ugh, I'm sorry, guys, I guess I really am out of it today..."

Kennith raised an eyebrow at Alex's strange reaction. "Yea, I'll say. I haven't seen you this spacey before. They didn't rough you up that bad, did they?"

Alex shook his head. "No, it's not that, it's... well it's not important," Alex said in a dismissive manner, hoping to stray away from the topic of Alex's worries.

Cory finished what Alex wanted to say after a few seconds of silence. "You're more worried about what they're protesting, aren't you," he stated flatly.

Alex took Cory expressing his thoughts for him as the sign to continue. "I don't think it's fair at all that they're blaming the entirety of pokemon-kind on the questionable at best decisions of only a handful of complete idiots. And I don't just mean on a political level. No, my biggest concern is on the social level, where you've got these dipshits," Alex spat, gesturing to the ongoing protest outside, "ready to completely tear apart an innocent eevee or some shit simply for existing. Even if they haven't trained themselves to learn a single attack. And oh trust me, I've seen that attitude towards pokemon firsthand," Alex muttered darkly, just loud enough that his two coworkers could hear.

Alex caught both Cory and Kennith's full attention with that statement. Kennith was the one to ask the follow up question. "Are you serious? What happened?"

Alex shook his head stiffly, still holding a foul expression. "One of my friends and I got into an incident with a couple of assclowns while we were on a walk. We didn't do anything, but they got it in their heads that we were pokemon and they tried getting into a fight with us cuz of it. Now... my friend actually is, but they didn't know that cuz he never transformed. They just got into a fight with us on a mere guess. Ended up hurting me worse than I already was and would've beat the hell out of my friend, had it not been for my roommate saving us."

Cory and Kennith shared a quick look. "Jesus." "You alright, mate?"

Alex waved off their reactions. "Oh I'm fine now. This happened a while back. Like months ago now. And to be fair, that's a bit of an extreme example, cuz those dipshits had always been an issue. But..," Alex briefly paused while his irritated expression began to turn more melancholy and worried, "it still highlights the overall attitude towards pokemon. Outside of those idiots, I've seen how people look at them. Even when I first came here for my job interview, I saw people looking at the pokemon on campus with worry and contempt. Now they have an excuse to act on their feelings, whether it's justified or not, and it's inevitably going to put innocent people like my friend in danger. Just because of what he turned into because of something far beyond his control. It didn't used to be a big deal because it never got this bad before. But now?" After Alex finished airing out his concerns, he blinked and slunk back in his chair with a frustrated groan after fully processing what it meant for his friend. 'Oh God, I didn't even think about that. Imagine if they actually found Eli...'

Cory gave Alex a couple of comforting shoulder pats. "Don't worry, Alex. I know it sucks right now, especially for your friend, but this is eventually going to calm down once everyone starts to figure out and get comfortable with this whole pokemon thing... well, as comfortable as they can be, at least. This isn't the first time they've protested something and it won't be the last. Next time it probably won't even be remotely related to pokemon."

Alex let out an unsatisfied huff, but didn't say anything in response.

Seeing that Alex was still stressed out, Cory went on in a lighter tone in an attempt to cheer Alex up. "Besides, If I'm being honest, I wouldn't be surprised if most of em are just doing it to skip class."

Alex couldn't help but let out an amused scoff as well as crack a small smile, to which Cory flashed his coworker a toothy grin. Alex's own smile widened upon seeing his coworker's. "Alright, alright, you've made your point." After the fleeting moment of amusement, Alex's smile faded once again, letting out a worried sigh. "I hope you're right, man. I've been wanting to believe the same thing, or at least something similar. I'm just... not so sure right now."

"Probably just best to take your mind off things, then," Kennith chimed in, "I know how you feel, mate. And I respect that- really I do. But there's just not a lot that can be done right now, so might be best to take things as they come and try and relax the rest of the way."

Alex wanted to be offended by his coworkers' dismissive attitudes towards the situation, but he knew they were right. "I suppose," he muttered dismissively. Kennith gave him a shoulder pat of his own, which Alex reciprocated with a strained smile. Cory began saying something else, but the moment Alex figured out that it wasn't addressed to him and was regarding a completely separate subject, Alex tuned it out and fished his phone out of his pocket. 'I hate that he's right,' Alex thought to himself bitterly, 'but it's still as I thought earlier today. Not really much I can do without causing a bigger problem.' Alex let out a sigh and unlocked his phone to check the multiple notifications that had been sent to him while he was busy at work. 'Maybe if I just focus on keeping both myself and my friends out of trouble, everything else will sort itself... wait, Isaac?'

Alex narrowed his eyes when he spotted several missed calls from his roommate in quick succession. 'That can't be good. He never calls me when I'm at work.' Alex swiped away the missed call notifications and went to his texts next, half expecting Isaac to have sent a multitude of texts after Alex hadn't picked up on any of his calls. Alex was right. Isaac sent almost fifty texts. The sheer number of texts alone caused Alex's heart to skip a beat. Alex was almost afraid to see what Isaac had sent him, but if it was important enough to flood Alex's messages with it, Alex knew he needed to read them as soon as possible. He tapped on the text window, scrolled down to find out what the issue was, and as soon as he found it, a bolt of pure terror and dread shot through Alex. "Oh God no, Eli!"

Cory and Kennith both sat upright in their chairs, plainly alarmed at Alex's sudden fear-filled outburst. "What? What's wrong? You okay, man?"

Alex quickly stood up from his chair and made a sudden motion towards the entrance of the cafe, before stopping himself for only a moment to look back at his coworkers. "Hey I- it's my friend and- Look, I'm really sorry, but I have to go NOW." Alex almost shouted, still making rapid shuffling movements towards the door.

Cory stood up from his seat and took a step towards Alex, attempting to remain as calm and as steady as he could. "Wait, Alex, what's going on? Is there something about-"

Alex let out a frustrated growl. "Ugh, I don't have time for this! I'll explain later, I swear." Without giving either coworker a chance to even respond, Alex rushed out the door of the cafe.

"Alex, wait!"

Alex sprinted through the university campus and took the quickest route to his car, regardless of how many groups of protestors he had to run through. Luckily for Alex, he managed to get through all of the larger groups without incident, but this didn't ease Alex's nerves in the slightest, as he was already far too on edge with the bombshell of a text that his roommate laid onto him. 'Not Eli too, please God, not Eli too.' Alex reached the highway service road in record time, and after traffic mercifully cooperated so that he could cross the road in mere seconds, Alex looked down at his phone to once again read the first few texts his roommate had sent him.

'Alex

'Pick up

'Alex please ita urgant

'Alex?

'Get home ASAP

'Elis in the hospital'

((Hey, sorry, the holidays were really time consuming for me this year. But chapters should be coming back up on schedule. I'm gonna try and make up for the missed month at some point, so keep your eyes peeled for potentially multiple chapters in the coming months. But anyway, I know it's late, but happy 2022, guys!))