WOW! I already got 2 reviews! To be honest, I didn't expect that!

Well here's Chapter 2. Hope ya like it!

-Kurty Pops

Chapter 2 – Revelations and Humble Beginnings

I slowly began to awaken from my forced slumber, slowly opening my eyes to my dimly lit room. I was lying on my back and, strangely, I felt an extreme amount of pressure around my shoulder blades. For some reason my shirt was off and my fan was blowing as if to imitate the wind in the skies. I slowly rolled myself into a sitting position and gave out the biggest yawn I could muster.

I stood up, walking to the light switch so I could illuminate my surroundings, but for some odd reason I was able to see everything in my room clearly.

I thought, 'Was my vision like this before?'

I went to go make my bed so my room could look less like a Tepig-sty when I stumbled upon something. Scattered across my bed were several black objects. I investigated them and the words I wanted to say were caught in my throat.

'…feathers?'

I then decided that to get my mind off things I would take another walk. I grabbed a black shirt and began to pull it on when I felt some feathers brush my fingers.

'No way… Is this for real?', I stammered out.

I dashed to the bathroom to prove what I've been wanting my whole life. I entered the door and turned away from the mirror so I could see my back.

On my back were the two most glorious objects I have ever seen in my life.

WINGS…

I quickly slapped myself to make sure that I wasn't dreaming.

'OH MY ARCEUS', I exclaimed in my head.

This is happening. This is REALLY HAPPENING! My wishes and dreams were starting to come true before my very eyes! My heartbeat was continually rising in pace as if it was about to explode.

To experiment with them, I decided to try and unfurl them with the new, alien muscles now in my system.

They slowly came out, extending out sideways until the bathroom was touched wall-to-wall by my apparent 15-foot wingspan. The feathers themselves were all black with some streaks of white within them. I also briefly noticed that there was an apparent streak of red in my otherwise short brown… wait… black hair? That's not important right now. I have freakin' WINGS!

I quickly put on the shirt and then realized that if I want fly, I have to cut slits in the back of the shirt. I searched the room for about ten minutes until I found my pocketknife that was handed down to me from my father just before he disappeared. I cut two vertical 6-inch-long gashes on the back of the shirt, put it on, and opened and closed my wings through the slits to make sure it would work. After that, I left the house.

To avoid suspicion, I went about my day as normal. Occasionally saying hello to passing people out of respect, I calmly walked toward Meteor Falls.

I decided to check around my shoulder to see if there were any people around, then I took off in the direction of the clearing where I found Hughes and his flock.

I dashed through trees and jumped over the bushes at speeds I thought were unreachable. I received a few scratches from some thorny bushes, but I guess adrenaline from running helped me ignore the pain. For a mere human, this would be impossible. But then again, I guess I'm not completely human anymore.

When I reached the clearing, many of the Swablu fledglings were flying around, boisterously playing with each other. I noticed a few of the Altaria recognize me from before and stared at me warily, as if unsure how to respond to my appearance. Then, Hughes approached me.

"Good to see you Kurtis! How do you feel?"

"Besides my hair changing color, my sight improving drastically, and the fact that I have wings now, I feel great!", I sarcastically responded.

At the mention that I now had wings, several things happened. Hughes gave me an amused look as if he understood how I felt, the many Altaria that were within earshot suddenly turned to me so quickly that I feared that their necks would snap, and the young Swablu all swarmed me sputtering out too many questions at once.

"Do you really have wings?"

"Have you tried flying yet?"

"Can I have your autograph?"

"Can we see them?"

"Oh yeah! Can we see them?"

"PLEAAAASSSSSEEEEEE?", they all said in unison.

I feared that Hughes and I would die from laughter.

Hughes interrupted their continuing questions, "Well now, Kurtis. Not even a day in and you've already snagged yourself a fan club! Impressive, son!"

One of the young Swablu stepped up, "Mister Hughes, can he come flying with us?"

My eyes suddenly shot open. Never in my wildest dreams would someone ever ask to go flying with me. Either that or they wanted to sound crazy. My crazy obsession was about to turn into a reality! But then my face visibly fell as soon as I realized something. I don't know how to fly.

"Now children, I'm sure Kurtis would love to fly with you all. But I sense that a certain someone has never tried to fly before. Care to teach him, children?"

The Swablu were so overjoyed, my ears were about to burst.

"Go along, son. I'll chat with you later."

I was soon comically picked up by about fifty Swablu, each of whose talons threatened to tear my shirt apart at each downswing of the young ones' wings.

We were soon about 1,000 feet in the air, clearly breaching the canopy of trees and slowly ascending higher.

One of them suddenly stated, "We're gunna drop u now, k?

I visibly panicked, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you think you're doi-"

I was cut off my all of the talons retracting from my shirt and my stomach dropping from the intense forces pushing me down towards the solid earth.

My human side was saying silent prayers to Arceus, hoping he would spare me. But my non-human side said one word.

FLY.

And that's exactly what I did.

With an audible 'whoosh', my wings penetrated the holes in my shirt, breaching the mid-afternoon air. As soon as they were out, I started to stabilize myself with the new muscles in my system. I slowly went from being on a steep descent towards the ground to being parallel to the ground in less than a second. I guess I must have pulled up too fast because I felt an intense sharp pain in one of my new muscles.

"OUCH!"

'Note to self: No sudden inclines.'

I continued to enjoy the pure bliss that I was experiencing while I could. The clouds were opening ever so slightly so that one could visibly see the rays of sunlight shining down on the world. The horizon in the distance was starting to show the first signs of nightfall and in the opposite direction, the sun was ever present.

My thoughts were interrupted by a voice, "Kurtis…"

My head jolted, and I started frantically searching around me for the source of the noise. When I found nothing, I simply dismissed it as a hallucination.

"I see that you are enjoying my gift, Kurtis"

I searched my thoughts for anything that struck a chord between the voice and anybody that I might have….

"Rayquaza!"

I heard a chuckle from within my thoughts, "Indeed, Kurtis. Or should I say, hero?"

I laughed with glee, "This is amazing, Rayquaza! What did I do to deserve this?"

I could image his smile pass through my thoughts, "Because you've proven yourself to me, child. Anyone else who would've seen me would have visibly become frightened by my appearance to them, but you showed no fear while in the midst of my… 'menace', so to say"

I nodded, hoping he would visualize me, "So I'm assuming this is telepathy, then?"

"Yes. All legendary Pokemon are capable of telepathic speech."

"This is surreal, Rayquaza. I couldn't thank you enough for this."

"Just remember, it won't be easy to hide."

"I understand, sir."

"Oh! One more question. Why is my hair now black with a red streak?"

"Ah. I had a feeling you were going to ask that. It's quite simple, actually. When you glimpsed me as I was about to 'attack' you, I was actually injecting some Pokemon DNA into your body. Specifically, a Staraptor's DNA, so that would explain why you have the hair color change."

I hummed in the silence, satisfied that his response fully answered my question.

"Now I would hate to end this conversation, but I must take my leave. And it also appears that you have quite the fan club approaching you."

I turned to view my backside. Sure enough, between the many powerful downswings of my wings, I glimpsed a huge flock of white and blue coming my direction.

"Alrighty then, Ray. 'Till next time."

I heard him chuckle at the nickname, "Till next time, child. Farewell."

And with that, I felt his presence leave my mindscape.

The soft fluttering of many cotton-like wings drew my attention backwards towards the young Swablu. I decided to slow down my pace until I was near them. Then the onslaught of questions appeared once more.

"Your wings are so cool! Can I touch them?"

"Gah! You're so cool! Can I hug you?"

"Wanna play a game?"

And with that, I was launched into a game of aerial tag. I was 'it' half the time. While the young children had been flying all of their lives, I had been flying for a measly 30 minutes compared to them. I suppose that enough practice would get me to their skill level.

We decided to end the game about an hour later. The sun was beginning to set and darkness was beginning to wakes the nocturnal Pokemon up from their slumber.

When we arrived back at camp, the young Swablu all gathered around me as we exchanged in excited conversation. Hughes decided to listen in on their ramblings, to his and my amusement.

Then Hughes spoke up, "Excuse me, Kurtis. From my understanding, humans around the age of 10 go on a Pokemon journey. Am I correct?"

I nodded, "Yes. For some strange reason, parents believe that mere children can attempt to understand life at such an early age. That's why I chose to postpone that trip until the future."

Hughes thought for a moment, "Then why not now?"

I paused. He was right. I had been cooping myself up in my room for Arceus-knows-how-long and I have never been able to experience the full extent of what the world had to offer.

I responded, "But how can I possibly go on a journey now? I don't have any Pokemon."

He chuckled, "Now that's where I was leading to. I've spoken with the parents of these children and they've all agreed you could choose one of their children to go along with you on your journey."

I was stunned that he would go to such lengths for me, "Are you sure, Hughes?"

"Yes. Quite."

I now noticed that the parents of the young Swablu now stood behind their children, all nodding in a sign of respect and acceptance.

"A…Alright."

I slowly glanced over each and every one of the Swablu. All of them were hoping I would pick them. That's when I noticed a glimpse of white and blue trying to hide behind a tree.

I walked forward to the tree, confused as to why this particular Swablu was hiding from the rest of the flock.

When I made it to the tree, I called out, "Why so scared, little one?"

The tiny head that poked its way out from behind the tree and looked at me and I immediately recognized him.

It was Milo. But this wasn't the cheery, curious Milo that I remember from yesterday. This Milo had tear stains running down his soft, fluffy chest and gave me the look of utmost desire and grief I have ever seen.

"Y..your…. you're so popular. Aaa….and you get along w..w..with others very well. Why me?"

I smiled gently, "Milo, I'm basically the same as you. I never get along with many humans, in fact, the only place where I truly feel that I belong is when I am around Pokemon. So Milo, let me ask you this. Will you…"

"YES!", he exclaimed.

My smile widened considerably and I nodded in his acceptance.

As of that moment, our adventure began.