Thanks for all the support everyone. I am having a lot of fun writing this story and It'll only get better as time goes by. Stay tuned and enjoy!
Chapter three: A strange Pikachu
It's the most claustrophobic place that anyone could ever be in. The space available is just about the width of a small compact car. Dozens of cages are evenly placed beside every wall and several unopened boxes rest adjacent to them. There's a white table in the middle of the room which has several papers neatly spread throughout the coffee-stained surface. A lamp that loosely swings like a pendulum on the ceiling is dim. Standing below the lamp are two humans: Dr. Bartoli and Team Rocket Grunt Cy.
"You're quite eager to see the video," Dr. Bartoli laughs as she takes out the Poke ball containing the stolen Pikachu, "First things first."
She aims the red and white metallic ball toward a cage. She then presses a button that releases the imprisoned Pokémon, which then causes a flash of light to envelop inside of the cage. In less than a few microseconds, a creature begins to form next to an unconscious Pikachu.
The doctor quickly closes the cage door and locks it tightly, "Well then, shall we?" She moves the brown strands of hair away from her face as she checks the time on her digital watch, "We better hurry. It's way past curfew for you." She says in a cheerful voice.
"Give me a break." The boy next to her rolls his eyes.
Dr. Bartoli and the Team Rocket Grunt, Cy, walk toward the exit of the narrow corridor. She then turns off the lights.
Outside the 'cage', Dr. Baroli leads Cy down a long hallway toward surveillance, which is at the other side of the building.
"So why, why are you so excited to see the recording?" She asks.
"Isn't it obvious? I can't bring myself to believe it. That you guys actually turned someone into a Pokémon. I studied the equations, time and time again. Biology shouldn't allow a creature to somehow change from one species into another. It's a biotic paradox." He states.
Dr. Bartoli couldn't help but laugh, "The Rogue DNA Theory, hypothesized by yours truly, states that if a certain rogue DNA code were to interact with another DNA strand with a matching code, it would effectively cause subtle changes to the genetic structure of the subject. But in this case it shouldn't happen because Pokémon and human DNA are very different in terms of coding; however, it does!"
"You can bore anybody to sleep talking like that," he retorts.
"So here's my question to you, what exactly is Rogue DNA?" Dr. Bartoli asks.
"We don't know."
"Ding, ding, ding! Correct. Think of Rogue DNA as a sort of accelerator for the evolution process. Normally it takes a very long time for creatures to quote on quote 'evolve' but because Pokémon do it right away, this means that this specific DNA is somehow 'unlocked' during their evolutionary stages. Rogue DNA lies dormant inside every living Pokémon and it takes one special code to activate them."
As they enter the surveillance room, she heads over to the main computer and plays the recording to the part where a young man is unconscious before his transformation. The room is filled with eight scientists including Mr. Giovanni, his Persian and Dr. Bartoli herself. As he watches the low-quality video, Cy could see that she was holding a vial containing a dark liquid of some sort.
"So, I asked myself: what if a certain change in the code could actually cause humans to develop Pokémon moves, and if this was possible then it would also mean that humans are Pokémon too."
She focuses her sight on the human waking up from his deep sleep and later finding the syringe, that she was holding in her hand, getting closer to him, "Of course, this most likely isn't true at all because well…this happened."
The video cuts to the part where she injected the dark fluid in the young man's vein. The result was a gruesome transformation. Through the almost blurry image of the human waving his arms around in pain, Cy sharpens his eye sight to where he begins to notice changes occurring. Cy feels ill as he sees more horrific imagery.
"So is this everything you hoped to see? Is this enough proof for you, Cy?"
"Now I believe you," Cy says almost silently as he examines the transformed Pikachu in awe.
…
Where am I!? Where is he! Where's Rigel!?
These thoughts kept me on my feet after I regained consciousness from my last battle. The last thing I remember was…my trainer calling for my name. His voice was raspy with pain as he tried to save me. I failed to listen to his warnings. I was too conceited to realize that I was weak enough to be overwhelmed easily. I was captured…no…stolen. I desperately try to find a way out, but everything is too dark.
I sniff the air a couple of times, and I've concluded that this place has many Pikachu's scattered around in it; where ever this 'place' was. Then my nose caught something else in the air: someone was a few steps next to me! Another Pikachu to be more precise!
"Hey! Wake up please!"
I sense no moment. I try to wake the Pikachu up by shoving him several times, "Please Wake up!"
Thankfully, it works. The mouse yawns silently.
"W…why is it so dark?" It asks in a weary voice. I immediately know that it's a male.
"I don't know, but we were all captured!" I explain.
"Hold on, who's…talking right now and…why do I feel so odd?"
I hear the Pikachu yelp in pain which causes me to jump in panic. Was there someone here attacking us? With enough strength, I channel electricity through my cheeks. It gives enough light for me to see him for a few seconds as I prepared for the worst. From what I can see, we were inside a cage and a small one at that. The good thing is that it is just us inside this cage and no one else. It was a false alarm.
"Ow! What was that!? Is…is that a…t…tail!?
I move my head sideways in confusion, "Are you okay?" I ask as the light fades back to darkness. I was too tired to use anymore electricity unfortunately, so it was back to relying on my sense of hearing and smell.
"I don't...think so..." He replies.
"Help me find an exit, quick!" I demand, ignoring his reply almost completely.
"My…my ears! No! It couldn't have happened…I thought it was…a dream. The needle…the pain…then the cages…"
I groan in annoyance, "What are you rambling on about? Do you want to get out of here? Yes or no?"
"Y…yes! Where are you? I can't see you." He quickly asks in a raspy voice.
I felt something the shape of a square and in the middle on the opposite side was some sort of hole: a key hole.
I sigh as I attempt to gather enough strength to create light from my cheeks once again, "Look in the direction of my voice because this is the last time I'm going to do this," I said.
"O…okay, I'm ready."
"Good," I was facing his direction also. My cheeks began to light up from the electrical discharge but it was in much less amounts this time; however, it was more than enough for him to at least see my face and for me to confirm my suspicions about our possible exit from this cage. I swear, the expression he had confused me even more,"W…where are you? I only saw a…" His voice was in denial. As if he knew it was a Pikachu talking to him but he refused to believe it.
"Wait no…you're a Pikachu!?" He chokes out.
"Quit messing around and come here!" I yell.
"I really wasn't dreaming then. The pain was too real, I remember it now-"
"Fine! I'll get out of here without you!" I shout back in response. I attempt to break what I assume to be metal columns but it proves futile. I eventually get so tired that I decide to sit on the floor. It's too dark to see anything and worst of all: I had a crazy Pikachu next to me. Honestly, I shouldn't have said that. He spoke earlier about needles and pain, which makes me shiver from fear rather than the cold that was evenly spread out throughout this place. If I can remember, needles were these sharp objects that humans used on others for whatever purpose. Maybe...it drove this Pokémon insane.
"What did they do to you?" I manage to ask nervously.
He responds in the highest pitch he could ever produce, "They turned me into a Pikachu!"
Yup, this guy is definitely crazy.
"Oh no. If this is actually happening right now, how am I going to fix this? There has to be a way to fix this! Wait...maybe I'm…hallucinating…yea…maybe they gave me a large dosage of…something."
"Yea…no kidding," I say under my breath as I cover my ears.
This mouse will drive me crazy before the night, or day, is over. I had to find a way out. My trainer is probably frantically searching for me inside the Viridian Forest. I can't imagine how desperate he is to find me. I can't imagine the tears falling from his face right this moment as I'm thinking about him. Like all of his Pokémon, he loved me like a brother and he would do anything to get me back. How could I have been so naïve and stupid? I tried to be the hero, but now I'm probably very far away from the forest at this point. All I know for sure is that I failed. I failed my friends and I failed Rigel. Now I'm here, but where was here? Was I Underground? Was I on a boat or maybe a plane? For all I knew, I was probably on the moon.
"I keep pinching myself and I won't wake up!"
"Are you quite finished, Pikachu!?" I shout with anger present in my voice.
"My name is Lucas and I'm not a Pikachu!"
"Weird name for a Pokémon, don't you think?" I retort.
"Screw you, Pikachu!"
"Hey! That's uncalled for. And my name is Orion, not Pikachu," I shouted back at him in a louder tone.
"Weird name for a Pokemon-"
"Just shut up already!?" I demand.
Eventually, It does get quiet and I decide to rest for now because there's nothing much I can do at the moment. The good news is that I know exactly where my trainer lives: the suburbs of Viridian city. I just needed to know which direction to take. I know that humans post signs all over the place that tell you where you are and where to go, but there's one slight problem.
I can't read.
