Chapter 3: Rifts
John awoke the next morning, feeling something nudging his face. He opened his eyes and found the animal standing on his chest, nosing his cheek. He glanced over and saw his mother asleep on the couch across from him. The creature nosed him a little more insistently and made a quiet, rather pathetic whining.
"Shhhh. You'll wake my mom."
The creature looked longingly at him.
"Oh shit, that's right you didn't eat anything yesterday, did you?" he whispered.
He was sure the animal didn't understand him, but he carefully picked it up and carried it to the kitchen.
"Now what do you eat?"
Having a small stroke of inspiration, he walked up to the creature, which he had placed on a chair, where it looked around, interested in its surroundings. He tried to grab its face, but it moved its head away each time he tried. He eventually caught it, and ignoring a small growl of displeasure from it, lifted its lips open a little. He hastily let go when he saw it had a mouth full of ivory white needles, interlocking perfectly.
"OK…" John said nervously. He went to the fridge and took out a piece of deli meat, which he carefully held out to the animal. It sniffed it, then quickly jabbed its head forward like a snake and took it. John quickly moved his fingers out of harm's way. It at the slice of meat with vigor, and then sat down, making a slight purring noise.
"Now then… are you a boy or a girl?" He felt awkward for looking, but didn't see anything that answered his question.
"Hmmm…"
He tentatively reached out and pet the animal's head. He found that the spike on its head was just hair and not a horn as he had originally thought. On a whim, John grabbed a drawing pad and pencil and drew a sketch of the small creature. It didn't move around much, which made it much easier to draw. When he was finished, he set the pad down and pet the animal some more. He felt himself growing strangely content. The creature stood up and looked at the drawing. John turned it around so it could see it properly. It looked a little puzzled, and John chuckled at it.
"Ya know what? I think I'm gonna go down to that old farm today, Mom told me not to, but there could be more things coming from there. And besides, I want to find out where you came from."
He put the creature in his closet, where he figured it couldn't get into trouble. As soon as the door shut, John suddenly felt… lonely. He shook his head to clear it, and quietly left the house.
Even as he closed the door, he thought, This is crazy. What if that monster is out there? What if there are more of them? But if there are, people have to know about it!
People were going about their daily business and he drew little more than a glance here and there, despite the fact that he looked like he had just come out of a warzone.
Thank God there weren't any people out when that thing chased me, at least.
He made it to where he was the previous day. There was a spot on the sidewalk that looked like it was covered in dried tomato sauce, with a series of streaks on one end like something had been dragged through it.
Hmmm…
He headed toward the direction of the abandoned farm. He slowly made his way through the overgrown field. He approached the broken down barn and found scraps of wood littering the ground, most with apparently fresh breaks. He rounded the corner of the barn and found it shattered, like a bomb had gone off inside it. He cautiously approached it.
KABOOM!
Several more chunks of rotted wood went flying and John was blasted off of his feet and landed hard on his back several feet away. Gasping for air, he sat up and saw what looked like a bulge in the air; light seemed bent around it and nearby it waved as if from intense heat. A tiny green creature emerged, followed by what looked like a huge, dark dragonfly. The dragonfly looked confused and agitated and it quickly flew off; its fast wings making a powerful wind beneath it.
The other creature was much smaller. It tumbled out of the void, and fell with a plop to the ground. As soon as it contacted the ground, it was like a wave flew out in all directions for about twenty yards. The dry, withering grasses suddenly turned green and small blossoms appeared in the area. It slowly picked itself off the ground, and rose into the air on a pair of insect-like wings which looked much too small to support its weight. It had a diminutive, somewhat humanoid body, and an almost disproportionately sized head for such a small frame. Its head extended back into a sort of teardrop shape and it had a pair of small antennae-like structures on its forehead.
The air in the barn returned to normal. The creature looked around, appraisingly, and looked directly at John. He knew it had seen him, and made to scramble away from it but it floated just a foot before him before he could even move. John sat still where he was, paralyzed with fear.
He felt a pressure in the air in from of his face, then heard in his head, "Who are you, then?" John quickly glanced in either direction, but saw nobody. He heard the voice again, "You've already been Touched." A pause, then, "If things go as I expect, there will be many more. I am Celebi."
John stared dumbly at the creature. "Are you… talking? And in English at that?"
"Of course."
John was stuck dumb for a moment then said, "Well, I – I'm John. Uh, what did you mean by I've been 'Touched?' And what exactly are you? What was that thing you came out of? What's going on?" John was getting a little hysterical.
"Well, first, it's nice to meet you, John. Second, you may already know, but not understand what it means to be Touched. On great occasions, little blips appear between close parallel dimensions which allow some things to be transferred between them. If a living thing passes through one of these rifts, and comes in contact with certain creatures, usually intelligent beings, it will cause a parallel duplicate of that creature to be created in each of the two dimensions. I can tell I've lost you." The floating animal smiled, almost human. "Some living things and virtually all intelligent beings have parallels in other dimensions; effectively, if by chance you were born in another plane, you would be born as that creature. You have been Touched, which means that you've come in very close contact with something from another world, my world, and that back in my world, a duplicate you has been born, and in this one, a duplicate of the parallel you has been born. Have you found yourself near an unfamiliar creature lately?"
John nodded jerkily.
"Then you have met your other self. You almost certainly feel close to one another and rightfully so."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"That's the question isn't it? Rifts tend to only appears once every several centuries, but lately there have been far more connections between out planes; two within the span of two days, and a third less than a century before that. I predict that if things continue as they have, many of your people will become Touched. There's even the possibility of a permanent link between our worlds, but I've never seen such a thing happen."
"But that is a bad thing!" John blurted out. "The thing that… ah… Touched me, just about fried me, and then almost tore my arm off!" He displayed the still very visible bite holes.
"It's not truly their fault. It's always the same; they are uncontrollably driven to Touch others. The only way for them to come in close enough contact is to bite others; saliva mixing with blood is close enough for a person to be Touched."
"Is there anything to do to stop this?"
"I'm afraid not. I was sent here to return those from my world back home when they wish, and to try to control them if they become… overzealous if your people resist being Touched."
"So you're not going to do anything about this!"
"There's nothing to do, I'm afraid. There's no way to stop rifts, and if a permanent link forms, then it will become more of a diplomacy issue between the two worlds."
John thought for a moment, and then said, "I hate to break it to you, but if some crazy monster comes after one of us, odds are people will try to kill it."
"We're much more resilient that you may think, and you shouldn't underestimate our intelligence."
"You don't get it! If this world thinks that there's some kind of unstoppable outbreak, it will cause all kinds of problems for everyone. If it gets severe enough, they might even nuke this place!"
"What is 'nuke'?"
"It doesn't matter; the point is that I don't see people here just accepting this!"
"We'll just have to wait and see, but thank you for being forward about this. Knowing that there will likely be substantial resistance should help prevent casualties."
John was full of adrenaline. "What are we gonna do?"
"Hope that things go well; it's all we can."
John sighed into his knees.
"What are you anyway? You said your name is Celebi, but frankly, I don't know what you are."
"Back in my world, I am one of what's known as pokemon. More specifically, I am… there's no way to describe it in your language; the closest thing would likely be a mortal angel, though in my plane we are known as the legendaries."
John looked up. All this time, had he been speaking to some kind of deity?
"How many of you are there?"
"Pokemon are everywhere in my world and are very diverse. Population wise, there are billions. Variety wise, there are many hundreds."
"Hundreds!"
"Yes, and I do not know how many kinds may come to your world, but it is mostly irrelevant. So far, I believe a Yanmega followed me through the rift, and is seems you were Touched by some kind of fire type."
John described it to the creature.
"A Typhlosion then. Two pokemon should be easy to manage, but I may be very busy when and if more arrive. Now, before they get into more trouble than necessary, I must find the pair of them. I may come to check on you as well if I can, First Touched of your kind. Farewell."
The creature zipped off at amazing speed; the plants below where it flew becoming visibly healthier as it passed.