Chapter 4

Choices

3rd person POV

"I need an answer in one minute." The purple clad man warned.

The assembly said nothing, even with so much at stake they wouldn't give up fellow students to these criminals. Anyone could gather that the two students they were looking for would not be safe.

Charlie closed his eyes and tried to message his parents via telepathy. "Dad, Mom, there are people here with guns and some weird thing. There looking for us and trapped everyone in the auditorium."

Kelly had heard the message but didn't acknowledge it, they needed to blend in. Neither of them had ever managed to message someone that far away, but they had to try. Everyone was in danger, no matter what.

"Come on, is two students really worth it?" He asked.

Silence prevailed.

"Fine then. You got Five seconds, starting now. Five, Four, Three, Two, One" The man counted down before pulling his mask back down.

The robed man took off his necklace and held of the metallic disk. He looked around one final time before placing his necklace in the artifact. Just as he pushed it in the slot Kelly began to raise her hand.

The strange object shattered, releasing a reddish black gas. As the gas wisped around the room it formed into serpentine trails of smoke that flew from person to person. Filling their lungs then moving on to the next victim. The Simmons twins covered their mouths as one plume approached them. Just as tears formed in their eyes the gas went around their seats. As if there was a layer of protection over their skin that the gas couldn't penetrate.

The gas hit the walls of the room, then dissolved. As if knew its boundaries and when to stop. The engine of this chaos reformed in the hand of the robed man. As student after student began to transform in various ways Kelly and Charlie stood alone.

"There they are!" the robed man yelled. The soldiers ran down the isles, Charlie and Kelly made a break for the doors only for them to open and reveal four more men on each side. Charlie looked at Kelly as if to say "Now"

Both of them shifted and ran between the soldiers legs. The headed to the nearest door and smashed through it with a spark attack.

"Keep running!" Charlie barked.

However they weren't ready for what happened next. The purple clad merc appeared in front of them via teleport. He held out what looked like a grenade. An extremely high pitched noise emanated the device. They were forced back into their human forms as the other soldiers tackled them.

"Your peers were brave to a fault but it was pointless" the head mercenary admitted. It was clear he took no joy in what had happened.

He took off his purple mask and head cover. His slightly pointed ears and pale complexion added to the intimidation he gave off. His short brown hair was clearly unkempt due to his mask and head cover. His blue eyes appeared to be sizing up the Simmons twins as they were handcuffed.

"You look so much like your mother, you even have some of her brown hair before she was altered." He mused.

"Who are you?" Charlie demanded as they were restrained and cuffed by the mercenaries.

"Of course she wouldn't mention me, I'm Ethan, an old classmate of your parents" He introduced casually.

Charlie and Kelly were stunned. This had to be nonsense. Why would their parents know a psychopath like this guy, let alone be classmates with him? They were hoisted to their feet as the bronze masked man joined them.

The masked man held out his hand. A vortex of red energy appeared in front of him. He waved Ethan and his team in the direction of the portal.

Just then there was a boom of thunder. 3 helicopters appeared above them as MRPA agents repelled in. They opened fire, a blue flash emanating from their rifles as they downed the hostiles with one shot each, however there was no blood as these were special bullets that hit like a magnum round but tranquilized. Ethan held a gun to Kelly's head as he was surrounded. Ethan began to speak but a bolt of lightning hit the tarmac as a massive Pokémon emerged from the flash.

The Pokémon had yellow fur with black stripes and a white underside. It's thin, light blue tail with sharp angles and a spark-shaped formation at the end was rather strange when compared to the muscles rippling under its fur. Most of its face consisted of thick, white fur and shorter yellow fur around its red eyes. It's muzzle was a light blue and had a black faceplate with two bumps that covers its forehead, nose, and ears. It's two long fangs that trailed down from its mouth were bared at Ethan.

"Ah shit..." He muttered.

Ethan tired to move but a green blur flew past him snatching Charlie and Kelly from his arms. Ethan was shot with the blue bullets and fell to the pavement unconscious.

"Surrender!" The soldiers threatened as the masked man pulled out the artifact and held the necklace just above the activation slot.

"One more move and I activate it again, everything within 1 square mile will be affected!" he warned as he began to back up towards the portal. The soldiers held firm but the commander shook his head and yelled "stand down."

The man disappeared into the void, and it dissolved as soon as he entered.

MRPA vans pulled up, medical personal in hazmat suits ran into the building. As the yellow beast disappeared in a flash of light Charlie and Kelly were walked back to a MRPA van set aside from the rest of them. The soldier holding on to them was of an average build with blond hair and yellowish orange eyes. He looked strikingly similar to the man who got out of the car.

"Uncle Connor?" Kelly asked, clearly shook up.

Connor kneeled and hugged the both of them, clearly relieved. He looked to the soldier behind them and said "Good job Zander"

The Sargent, now identified as Zander smiled and said "Thanks dad"

With that the twins were loaded into the car and buckled in. As they drove off from the scene, all they could think was "That was close"...

Charlie and Kelly had a hard time comprehending what had just happened. Who was this Ethan guy, how did he know their parents? And more importantly, why had he and his goons seemed so hell bent on kidnapping them? Sure shifters were rare but that hardly seemed worth what happened.

Jake looked at his sister and noticed tears rolling down her face. She looked guilty.

"What's wrong? We're ok" he said as he wrapped his arm around her

"Everyone at school got hurt because of us. We should've just stood up and came quietly" She sobbed.

"Don't, don't do that, I know survivor's guilt believe me, but in the end you've got to move on and be thankful that you're ok. Otherwise that guilt consumes you" Connor stated in a blank voice. His face showed not even the slightest hint of emotion.

They noticed they were being driven out to pinwheel forest. Far away from the city. Once they arrived in a large clearing they were let out, the car drove away leaving Charlie, Kelly and Connor alone in the forest.

"Why are we here?" Charlie asked.

"Well, you two are about to see a part of a much weirder world, one that you're going to be a part of soon" Connor vaguely warned.

A bolt of lightning hit the ground, along with a massive ball of fire next to it. Out of the flames and lightning two Pokémon emerged. The yellow beast from earlier and a new, similar sized beast with shaggy brown fur. Despite being unlike anything Charlie and Kelly had ever seen they had an air of familiarity to them.

The beasts began to shrink, as they finished transforming the twins gasped. Where the beasts once were their mother and uncle were instead. Jake looked like it was just another day at the office while Cassie was definitely nervous. She was avoiding eye contact and fidgeting.

To add to the confusion Connor stepped forward and turned around. In a flash of light he became a Pokémon that looked like a mixture of a dragon type and a jet plane.

Three creatures shown only in books and fairytales were right in front of them….

Edited And Proofread By FXCF.