Chapter 8: Take Me as I Am
As if on cue, sightings of children with strange animals became increasingly more prevalent. John was having trouble keeping track of all of the creatures, and he took to sketching a picture of it every time he saw a new one. He slapped another page of paper down on the pile. It was a picture of a small, pale green creature with a ring of bright green studs around its neck, and a leaf protruding from its head. The page had the date, 3/24/2011, marked in the corner, along with a small black 50 in the upper left. He turned to Monozu.
Monozu had finally stopped growing, and was now the size of a large dog, as tall as John's navel. He had become a bit more independent as well. John once looked into the back yard to let him back in the house and found him chewing on a dead squirrel. What surprised him more, though, was that he wasn't surprised or even disturbed by the sight; he automatically felt as though such a thing was perfectly normal.
The echoing bangs continued and the news eventually confirmed that sightings of bizarre animals had been confirmed in many locations all over the world. The town's mayor appeared on TV one day, announcing that if he doesn't get answers about what's going on, he may decide to declare a state of emergency until he knows what's happening. And cue people starting to spill the beans. I give it a week.
Sightings of creatures rolled in at a steady pace, but they were becoming increasingly stranger. One person claimed to have seen a horse with flames where hair should have been. Another saw a medium sized penguin with weird markings by the pond in the town park.
John's wrist was at long last fully healed, and he felt good to be rid of the sling. When they could, he and Monozu were practicing using their mental link. They found that they could tap into each other's knowledge, of which John's was much more substantial, despite his tendency to not pay attention in school. He was frequently falsely accused of cheating on tests, but even when he took them in a separate room, he always somehow knew exclusively what mattered for the exam. Monozu developed a positive thirst for information, and he slowly worked John into sharing what he had learned each day with him. Despite being little more than a couple months old, he was already well versed in basic math, and after much coaxing from him, had learned to read.
Four days after John prediction, a teenager appeared on the TV, accompanied by a small animal on all fours that looked covered in shiny armor. "Yeah, I uh, go to the high school here. I just kind of found this guy's egg one day; I dunno where it came from. It happened right after…" his slightly dim eyes widened a little as something occurred to him, "…right after I got bit by that huge dragonfly…" reporters all babbled, forming an unintelligible din. The small creature looked startled and ran behind the teen's leg. Over the following week, a few more children and teens, each with a unique creature spoke with reporters, each reporting having bitten by a foreign animal shortly before just happening on an egg containing the creature beside them.
The day after the fourth of such reports, the mayor appeared on TV once more.
"I have reason to believe that these dangerous creatures have been afflicting our youth with some type of undiscovered disease or infection. I am therefore declaring a state of emergency and have called in the National Guard to round up the creatures responsible. They will also be investigating the source of the explosions that have racked our town for the past few months." His face fell a little. "There's something else as well. Until this affliction is identified and contained, the town has been placed under quarantine. I'm afraid nobody can leave until this is sorted out."
Alright, it might be time to make those leaflets before this gets too far out of control.
However, those that were Touched apparently took this as a sign that no more harm could come from it, and more and more youths no longer hid what was going on. They could be seen walking down the street with their parallels in plain sight… at least until the National Guard arrived. This practice abruptly stopped when an armed man stood at every street corner. But some refused to accept the occupation.
John once saw one of the stubborn few being roughly thrown against the wall of a building while a pair of men tried to restrain their parallel; the fox-like creature he had seen before. The men jumped back in surprise as it spat small flecks of fiery material at them, before having a muzzle put over its mouth. John gritted his teeth at the sight of the girl being led away by the men, kicking and struggling to get back to the crimson fox.
From then on, if John saw a person that looked familiar from when people weren't afraid to be seen, he would surreptitiously pass them a piece of paper explaining what was really happening and advising them not to be seen. The creatures that had been seen roaming to streets at night suddenly vanished when the Guardsmen came, but no reports came of them being captured or killed. Celebi was right, they're smarter than I thought.
One day on the news, after a particularly loud bang, an image of reporters rushing about appeared on the screen.
"We now go live to Onsted Road, where the National Guard has discovered the source of the explosions."
The image became garbled and staticy, but a female reporter was still visible, standing before a rift, significantly larger than the one John remembered.
"The National Guard is unsure as to what this disturbance is, but they do confirm that this is the source of the loud noises we've all heard."
Behind her, numerous men with automatic weapons moved into an arc in front of the gaping hole in the barn and an official looking soldier moved into the image.
"Ma'am, you can't be here, you need to back to at least 30 yards away."
The woman looked a little offended, but glanced nervously at the rift, and shooed the cameraman back away from it.
A few moments later, "Ladies and gentlemen, we're still waiting to see how this develops…" She gave a yell of surprise and several creatures poured out of the rift. The first looked like a huge, green snake, with clever, yellow eyes, and two curls behind its head that made it look as though it was wearing a dark green cloak. Next, came a large, fat moth-like animal with fluorescent orange wings and a bright blue underside. Finally came the most intimidating of the group; a gigantic, light blue mass with four legs, each ending in a cleat-like claw, with a large metallic X across its face, which had no visible mouth.
The arc of men raised their weapons shakily, not knowing what to expect, and the confused creatures looked around. Nothing seemed to breathe in the area. The rift behind the three animals closed, and they were trapped where they were. The creatures eyed the men cautiously, and the light blue creature tenderly took a step backward. The camera jiggled ever so slightly as its foot touched the ground. The green snake creature on the other hand, moved closer and looked at one of the men. From his experience with Monozu, John could tell it was trying to be friendly, but the man it had approached fired, quickly followed by the rest of the men. The snake and moth quickly retreated and hid behind the light blue creature, which turned slowly and quickly walked straight through the other wall of the barn, as if it was made of paper, clearly not even feeling the bullets as they bounced uselessly off of its metallic skin.
The living tank, for lack of a better term, slowly picked up speed, with the other two ahead of it, and disappeared into the woods. The tremors in the ground lessened and became imperceptible as it disappeared.
The reported was just dumbstruck, but the Guardsman next to her quickly pulled up a handheld radio and commanded, "Put the town on lockdown, nothing in or out. Pass out armor piercing rounds, too," he added, glancing in the direction the mass of living metal went.
Several minutes passed, during which John and Monozu were full of adrenaline, staring at the screen showing frightened reporters. They looked at each other and exchanged the same look.