Transformation: New Dawn

Chapter 18: small detour

A/n: Back at it again! XD. I hoped a lot of people enjoyed the little intimate chapter that was the last one. Oh, for all my project legends fans, I'm doing a little contest on my DeviantArt account for project legends. The full details are in the journal entry at my DA page. I might extend the deadline if people need more time, but I need entrants first! Now, let's return to new dawn. MEE-YAA!

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, Nintendo does. TurtlesandMonkeys owns the Transformation universe and I am only borrowing with permission. Swack 16 owns John and Sarah, TurtlesandMonkeys owns Mary, Lord Nalthren owns Omega. CHIKA! CHIKORI!

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John scratched his bandage as they walked onward, Yui scouting up ahead and John at the rear, Mary and Linda in the center. Linda kept casting small glances at John, as if making sure he was ok. Well, at least John hoped so. Maybe she's really grateful because I saved her from turning into a pokemon again. Then again, he had seen enough of Mary's flirting moments when they first met to guess that maybe Linda was trying the same thing.

"John." Linda said suddenly, breaking his train of thought. He looked up. "Hm?"

Linda slowed her walking so she could be level with John. "I have something to ask you."

John straightened up. "Oh really? What is it?"

"I was wondering, did you ever have someone you really liked, like a girlfriend?"

John stopped as he thought about it. Of course…there was only one…

John nodded. "Yeah, once."

Linda cocked her head with a smile. "Oh really? What was she like?"

John looked to the sky as he walked. "Well she was kind, beautiful, brave, sweet, compassionate-"

Linda smiled. "You sure have a lot of words for her. She sounds great."

John looked down. "I know. She was probably the best thing to ever happened to me…but I never realized it before it was too late…"
He furrowed his eyes. "I was so focused in my quest to become a pokemon master that I didn't really give her a second thought…"

He looked up. "But that was before. My heart told me she was worth fighting for and that was my last act for her, protecting her."

"So did you ever tell her how you felt?" She asked.

John looked down. "...No, I never got the chance to…"

"Oh, why didn't you ask when you did have a chance?"

John looked down. "What if she didn't feel the same way?"

He looked up. "Anyway, why are you asking?"

Linda raised her hands with a smile. "Just conversation, that's all." She brought them down. "So did this girl have a name?"

John looked her in the eye with a proud smile. "Cindy."

While he was talking, he didn't notice Mary staring at him the whole conversation, interested. When he looked back at her she was already turned away. Mary let out a sigh when John wasn't looking and looked to the side of the road, lost in her own thoughts.

Suddenly Yui called from ahead. "Hey! Come here!"

John and the others hurried to the top of the hill where he was standing. He pointed. John could see a small convoy of Humvees driving on the road. They had the Omega emblem on it. Yui smiled. "They're probably on their way to Delta base, which is where we need to go."

John then began to jump up. "HEEEEYYYYY!" he called out. He then flinched as he felt his bandage act up. Yui only rolled his eyes with a smile and shot a flare into the air.

-0-

The road and trees raced by as John and the others sat in the back of the Humvee. Yui sat in the front. Linda decided she was tired of looking at the trees and looked back to John. "So John, about Cindy…"

John looked from his spot. "Hm?"

"Why didn't you go back to her after Mary's group cured you?"

John looked out the window. "Simple, I wanted to stop those society creeps, to make sure they don't harm her or Missy or Mary anymore. I also became good friends with Missy and Mary, so I wouldn't feel right if I just leave them." He smiled. "It's the same reason I'm helping you guys in finding Akira, to help a friend."

Linda smirked. "A friend who pummeled you to a pulp in a poke battle."

John shrugged with a smile. "Hey, what are friends for?"

He then spotted something out the window, a small blur of blue and a creamy yellow. His eyes widened.

"Stop the truck!" he yelled out suddenly. Yui looked back. "What?"

John looked out the window. "Just do it, stop the truck now!"

Yui looked to his watch. "We really gotta get to delta base before-"

Before he could finish his subject, John pried the door open and rolled out of the doorway.

"JOHN!" Mary and Linda cried out at the same time.

Yui snapped his head to where John tumbled. "Damn it!
He then gave the order to stop the Humvee and it pulled over to the side of the road while the others continued toward the base.

Mary and Linda jumped out and began to run to where John was running, toward the grassland. "John! What are you doing?" Mary asked as she ran toward him. He looked around until he spotted something. He reached for his belt and began to walk toward a certain spot. Linda and Mary stopped and Yui joined him. "What the hell is he doing?" Yui asked as he stopped to catch his breath. Mary shook her head. "I don't know." Linda looked ahead. "Look!"

Yui and Mary both squinted to see John approaching a Quilava in the field, the fire pokemon looking at him then lowering into a battle position. Linda ran forward. "John!"

John looked at the Quilava. "…It's you, isn't it…?" He took a capture ball out slowly. The Quilava growled. "Quilava! Quil!" John kept advancing. "It has to be you, I know it." The Quilava took another defensive step back and growled, its flames ruffling. "Don't you remember me? It's me John."

The Quilava then ran forward and leap t at John. John then gasped and moved to dodge, but the fire pokemon caught him in a tackle. John and the Quilava rolled around, John holding the Quilava against the chin as it attempted to bite him. John's other hand was reaching for a syringe. Linda and Mary both gasped and were running close enough to hear John. "Cindy…it's me. Don't you remember?"

The Quilava thrashed harder and John felt his grip on the syringe slip and it rolled away. He now held both hands against the mad Quilava.

Suddenly, the Quilava gave a surprised cry and John could see Linda holding the syringe against its back. The Quilava began to wobble and fell of John as its body tingled. John sat up. Mary ran up to him and inspected him to see if he was all right. "Mary, I'm ok…"

Mary suddenly slapped him, a look of disapproval on her face. "Just what the hell did you think you were doing?!"

John looked to the Quilava, who began to lose its blue and cream colored as it returned to a skin tone. "I just had to make sure…" Mary then grasped him in a hug.

Yui came up and saw the shifting Quilava. "Aw geeze." he muttered then looked back to the Humvee. "Get me a cover or something!" he then began to take off his jacket and placed it on the shifting creature. John also took his jacket off an offered it to the Quilava.

The Quilava began to grow in size as its tubby arms began to grow slender and longer as its paws became fingers. The legs too began to grow longer and soon the Quilava was beginning to take the shape of a human.

John then felt his hope begin to flutter as he saw the Quilava begging to take on more human features as blue hair began to sprout from the top of its head and the muzzle began to morph back into the features of a face, though not one he knew. Linda and Mary both began to blush as they saw that the Quilava was turning out to be a boy and began to look the other way. Linda cast a stray glance and saw that the young man was slender but boyish in his young face. She blushed and turned away again.

Soon the transformation was finished and a young man of about 18 sat with two jackets covering his waist and upper legs. He held his head as if experiencing headache. John tried not to let his disappointment show. It's not her…

The young man blinked and looked around at his surroundings. "Ugh...what happened?" he asked in a gentle voice. Yui walked up to him. "You were infected with the transformation virus, but you're cured now." The young man held his head again. Yui held his shoulders. "Just relax. What's your name?"

The young man looked up from one eye. "Kyle…"

The other omega soldier walked by with a tarp they use for the hummer and Yui nodded and wrapped it around Kyle's tall slender figure. He held with a slight blush, one hand still clutching his head. "Where's Aki and Nauru?"

Linda finally spoke after awhile. "Who?"

Kyle looked around. "My brother and sister…where are they? Are they safe?"

Linda shook her head. " I don't know, we only found you."

Kyle showed the worry in his face and soon it was replaced by determination. "I have to find him."

Yui held him back. "Whoa there, soldier. I appreciate your determination, but you're not going anywhere like that." He pointed at the tarp he was wearing. Kyle looked down and back at Yui. "Yes, of course."

Yui shook his head and began to usher the rest back to the Humvee. "Let's get you some clothes." He shot a glance at Mary and Linda. "And girls, eyes above the belt please?"

Mary had a flustered face. "Officer! Like we would even think it!" She looked to Linda. "Right?"

Linda took a brief moment before shaking her head and nodding. "Uh-huh."

John chuckled to himself. "Girls."

Linda punched his shoulder. "Aw come on, like you men are any better!"

Yui shook his head as he let Kyle inside. "Oye Vey…"

Kyle sat in the middle between John and Mary, Linda across from him. He looked around. "So which one of you was the one who save me?"

. "I almost did out of mistaken identity." John simply said. He pointed to Linda. "It was actually her who injected you."

Kyle looked to her. "Oh really?" he bowed. "Thank you, I guess I owe you."

Linda blushed and looked out the window. "Oh, yeah, you're welcome."

Kyle then looked out the window.

Aki, Nauru…

-0-

Nauru was in her bed when she felt something stir in her and got off her bed. On the pillow there were dried tears that never stopped since that horrible night…

But now she felt something and ran to Aki on his bed. She shook her sleeping brother. "Aki." She said.

He shook her off. "What…" he said distantly.

She smiled. "It's Kyle…he's ok."

Aki only buried his head in his pillow. "Kyle is gone…my fault."

Nauru shook him again. "No he's ok! I can feel it!"

Aki got up from hi bed and looked at her with distant eyes. "Really...how do you know?"

"I just can, ok!" She got closer. "Please, I don't know how but I can feel it."

Aki rolled over to his other side. "Go back to sleep…."

Nauru frowned. "Fine, be that way!"

She huffed over to her bed and buried her face in her pillow.

Aki thought about what his sister had said. What if she was right? He only wish he could be sure.

Kyle…

He felt a tear slide down his cheek

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And I'll stop here. Sorry for the relatively short chapter, but this felt like a decent place to stop. I know it's shorter than the other epics I made prior, but its still good. I thought it would be interesting to explore how John felt about Cindy and relate some of this to Linda, who doesn't really know much about John or the others. Mary knew form her brief connection with John. I also wanted to show how desperate John was for Cindy that he believed the Quilava he encountered was her. It is interesting to note he didn't use pokemon to confront the Quilava, he attempted to use feeling and memories. It turned out to be the person Cindy infected, Kyle. It is similar to a situation in one of TurtlesandMonkeys original sequel before DTT, Mutated, in which Missy cured a Doduo she hoped was Mary and John and it turned out to be someone else. I also enjoyed the reaction Linda had to the fact that the pokemon in question turned out to be a (relatively) handsome guy. Mary is not that affected since she already has her heart out for Chad. XD

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the chap. Please review!

Jonesycat, out! MEE-YAA!

PS: Don't forget about the contest if you're interested. Visit my DA page if you're interested! MEE-YAA!