The drive to my house was quiet and full of tension. We were being forced to take side roads, what with all the crashes and such. Even on the side roads, it was an obstacle course, and the streets were full of people and Pokemon, all freaking out.
I was horrified at it all. Just how many had been affected? What was going to happen now!?
Even worse...how much of my friends and family had been affected? I hadn't heard from any of my family members yet, and the only ones of my friends who might potentially have avoided being transformed were Zinnia and Sammy.
Seeing as I hadn't heard from them, either, I did not exactly have high hopes.
As I was wondering what else might have prevented them from making contact, I began to think of other, troubling reasons why. What if they'd been caught by one of those crashes? What if they'd been attacked by one of those Pokemon? What if I was going to see a burnt wreck when I reached my house? What if on the news it would show the mangled body of one of my friends?
I was snapped out of my death spiral of worries by the sound of thunder. In my lap, Rosa jumped, looking startled.
"Rose? Roselia rosel?", she asked.
I didn't know what exactly she had said, but I could get the gist of it.
"It is odd.", I replied, "The sky was clear just moments ago. I wonder if it has something to do with the transformation..."
I looked out the window, and saw that the sky, which had been clear just minutes ago, was full of dark clouds. As I watched, rain began pouring down, causing the wipers to activate and Jackson's dad, Mr. Jeffrys, to tense up even more.
"Roseli! Rose, selia...", Rosa said.
I nodded, guessing at what she was saying. "Yeah...I feel bad for our friends in the back. Hopefully we'll arrive soon...?"
I looked over at Mr. Jeffrys, who looked rather nervous as we kept driving through the rain. The people and Pokemon were lessening in number, thanks to the rain, but I could still hear sirens from all over the city and yelling and screaming from all around us.
There was also yelling and grumbling from behind us, mostly by Molly. She did not appear to be taking this weather well - understandable seeing as she was riding in the back of a truck while rain was pouring down.
But finally, we started driving into my neighborhood. There was no one out in the streets here, but I could still see signs of the transformation's effects. There was quite a bit of property damage, some wrecked cars, and various pawprints as well as, disturbingly enough, bloodstains on the sidewalk. We drove past a house with a black banner hanging above its front door, which was troubling to say the least.
I spotted my house up ahead, and felt rather relieved. It looked exactly as it always had - a tall, white, two-story house, with a steep black roof and quite a few windows. It had a wraparound porch, with several lawn chairs all across it, as well as few of my little brother Marco's toys.
Mr. Jeffrys pulled up into our spacious driveway, parking next to my family's van. As soon as he turned off the engine, there was some thudding from the back, and the truck shook as Molly tried to get out as fast as she could.
Unbuckling, I carefully climbed out, holding Rosa so she didn't fall. Outside, the weather was even worse than it thought - the rain was pouring in thick sheets, and I was immediately drenched in water. Rosa shivered and nestled closer to my chest, and I gave her a comforting hug in response.
I noticed Molly and Amanda had already escaped to the shelter of the porch, soaking wet. Molly gave me a stern look, while Amanda kept glancing at the back of the truck in concern.
There was a yelp, and I saw Jackson fall out the back, having attempted to climb out on his own. His now very blubbery body bounced against the ground, absorbing most of the impact. It still looked like it had been very uncomfortable, though.
Mr. Jeffrys quickly hurried over to him, looking concerned. "Jackson! Are you okay?"
"Dewgong...", Jackson muttered.
I set Rosa down on the porch, before running over to help Mr. Jeffrys carry Jackson there as well. As we set him down as carefully as we could, the door swung open, and standing there was a humanoid blue fox.
While I had never shown any interest in Pokemon, unlike some of my friends, even I could recognize this Pokemon. It was a Lucario!
And judging by the glasses and bowtie it was wearing, there was only one person it could be.
"Dad!?", I cried, running over to him.
"Rio!?", he exclaimed, holding out his arms. I rushed into them, and we fave each other a hug before separating and looking at each other. I noticed there was a spike growing out of his chest now, and I realized I had nearly skewered myself. But I wasn't really focused on that.
"Are you alright, Dad?", I asked, "Who else transformed?"
"Cario, lucari.", he replied, then sighed.
"Right...", I said, "I can't even understand you now...
He gave me a reassuring look, before glancing at the others.
Molly began to explain the situation, and he listened carefully to everything she said. He looked sorrowfully towards Jackson as she presumably explained his situation. Jackson made a pathetic face.
After Molly finished talking, my dad nodded, before picking up Jackson as if he were no heavier than a bag of potatoes. Mr. Jeffrys and I stared in shock. My dad had never been that strong before!
"Roselia.", Rosa explained, seeing my expression. Not that that helped at all, seeing as I couldn't understand what she had said.
My father gestured at us to follow him, and we walked into the , though Molly very nearly got stuck in the doorway. It wasn't meant to fit a horse through it, after all.
But after only mild difficulty, we all managed to get inside the building. My dad headed upstairs to the second-story bathroom, while the rest of us stood in the living room, feeling uncomfortable as we dripped water.
I noticed my favorite armchair in the corner, but as much as I wanted to plop down into that cozy seat, I didn't want to get it wet with the rainwater. So I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room with everyone else.
I heard light footsteps, and I noticed a white-and-pink ribbon cat thing walk up. It stared at me, and asked, "Sylveon?"
I recognized its voice, and my heart sank as I got confirmation that another one of my family members had transformed.
"Fiona?", I asked.
She nodded softly. "Syl, sylveon."
I noticed Rosa's eyes widen. "Rose? Rosel!?"
"Veon, sylvee.", Fiona replied.
I wished that I had the slightest idea what they were talking about. I hated this stupid language barrier already.
"Rapidash...", Molly muttered.
I looked over at Mr. Jeffrys. He gave me a sympathetic look, before turning and walking up the stairs, presumably to check on his son.
The four girls started discussing something among themselves, and I sighed, knowing that I wasn't going to get anything from listening to a bunch of Pokespeak or whatever it was.
I headed to the laundry room to grab some towels, but as I walked down the dark hallways (I suspected that the power had been taken out after the transformation) I came face-to-face with a giant plant snake.
"AAAAAA!", I cried, leaping back.
"Serperi? Serperior!", it replied, looking concerned. My surprise immediately turned to guilt. This plant snake appeared to be my mom.
"I'm sorry.", I replied sadly, "I just...got surprised, and, uh, didn't recognize you...oh, man, that sounds so bad..."
"Perior...", she replied, and reached out with a vine to stroke my cheek, just like she used to when she was human when I was feeling sad.
I smiled and patted her vine, though it didn't feel quite right. It should've been a hand I was touching, not a plant.
After a moment, we moved past each other, and I hurried to grab some towels. I hadn't noticed earlier, but my eyes were wet with tears as well as the rain. Nothing was the way it should be. My family should be human. I should be enjoying a day out with my best friend. I should not be freaking about an unexplainable magic event. I should not be unable to understand my own friends and family. None of this should be happening!
And yet it was. And there was absolutely freaking nothing I could do about it. Nothing.
I took a deep breath, and, sighing, grabbed a stack of towels and returned to the living room. I noticed the others were all there now, except for Jackson and his dad who were both still upstairs. I noticed a small, grey-and-brown rabbit running around, pushing around one of my little brother Ethan's toy trucks. Then I realized that the rabbit probably WAS Ethan, and I felt even sadder.
Every single one of my family members here were Pokemon now. And right now it felt like the same was true for my friends.
Why was I the only one who stayed human? This must have been some kind of cosmic joke. Let's turn everyone this boy knows into alien animals and watch him slowly go insane! This'll be awesome!
But it wasn't awesome, especially not for me.
I plodded over to the couch, dropping the towels onto it before taking one and sitting down on my armchair. I sighed, staring out the window as the rain kept pouring down, down, down. Just like my mood was sinking down.
As I sat there, half-heartedly toweling myself off, I noticed a strange black serpent thing fly past the window, and a crashing sound from the porch. I jumped up, and everyone else appeared to have been startled as well by the crash.
Rushing outside, I noticed the black serpent had crashed into one of the chairs, wrecking it irreparably. They looked exhausted and distressed, and I knew they needed some help.
Problem was, I didn't know who they were.
The others hurried outside as well. My dad walked over, frowning. The serpent looked up, and murmured, "Dragonair...", before its eyes rolled up and the Pokemon fainted.
But in that instant, I recognized the voice, and realized that this was Zinnia. But it looked like she'd been through something bad.
Looking down, I realized with a horrific chill that a small pool of red was forming under her body. She was hurt!
My dad noticed as well. Yelling at the others to presumably help get some supplies, he carefully picked up the unconscious Zinnia and rushed her inside the house, with me following close behind. I hoped that she would be all right.
I couldn't help but wonder, though. What had happened to her? (-o-)
Zinnia Wilder
Oh. Looks like I get to explain what happened to me, huh. Yay...
So let's go back in time to just after I blew down my own house.
As much as I wanted to just collapse there and drown in despair, I knew I had to get out of there before the police came to investigate. So I flicked my tail and took flight, gliding as far away from there as possible.
As I flew, storm clouds gathered in the sky and began to rain on the ground below, mirroring my dark emotions. It was almost as if the sky was crying alongside me.
But it wasn't long before I started thinking about my friends, and I realized I had no idea what had happened to them. I needed to find that out as soon as possible!
The question was...how in the world was I gonna do that? I couldn't exactly use a phone in this form, plus I had kinda ended up leaving mine behind at the cafe.
So came plan B - good old logic.
I hovered in the air, thinking over where everyone was likely to go. I knew Sammy was probably at the news station right now, which means he could be safe but also stuck there for some time. But the others...hmm. If they had the same idea as me, they'd want to gather up and make sure everyone was okay. And there was only one place that we'd assemble at on a regular basis.
I studied the city below me, trying to track down the way to Ryan's house. As I looked, I saw that there were still fires burning even in the heavy rain. Looking through the streets, I noticed with a shiver that there was intense fighting going on between people and Pokemon. Police officers struggled to maintain the peace, and there was more than one shot fired. I knew that that was not a good sign.
I turned my eyes away from the fighting, and spotted Ryan's neighborhood nearby. But as I was about to start flying, I heard the sounds of helicopters. Looking towards the north, I saw three of them flying towards the city, large, black, and terrifying. Below, a convoy of Humvees drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, clearly intending on heading into the city.
Shoot. I had completely forgotten that there were three freaking military bases around the city. They must have heard about the fighting and had been sent to maintain the peace. And I did not want to get involved with trained soldiers...
The helicopters split up, each one flying over a different section of the city. One was heading right in my direction, and I panickedly dived down into the nearest alley. I knew that it was probably irrational - the army had no reason to suspect that I had done anything wrong - but I couldn't help it.
As I sat in the alleyway, I noticed fighting going on in the street outside it. There was screaming and gunshots and roaring, and I shivered as the rain poured harder. This wasn't a good situation.
And of course, someone ran into the alleyway almost immediately.
It was a woman, screaming as she ran into the alleyway as tears ran down her face. When she saw me, she froze, turning ghastly pale as she sank to her knees, sobbing.
At the entrance to the alleyway a large midnight form Lycanroc appeared, snarling, "Now I've got you, woman. You shouldn't have made me angry..."
"Help!", the woman wailed, "He'll kill me! He's hurt me before!"
I narrowed my eyes, floating into the air as I glared at the Lycanroc. I refused to let him get away with whatever he was planning. With a flick of my tail, I pushed the woman behind me. She gave a startled gasp as I did so, but my eyes were only on the monster ahead of me.
"So that's how it is, huh?", the Lycanroc growled, "That's my woman behind you. You should get out of here, now, or else things are gonna get messy."
I felt a deep, draconic growl rumble in my throat. "No."
I lunged forwards, swinging my tail around and knocking his head to the side. He yelped in pain, before snarling and biting at my tail. I nimbly zipped out of reach, before looping back around and jabbing my horn into his shoulder, drawing blood.
The Lycanroc hissed and slashed his claws at me, and this time I wasn't fast enough. Three burning lines raked across my scales, and I cried out in pain.
He cackled with glee, and leaped at me again. But I managed to dodge that time, and slammed my tail into his back. He barely staggered, though, and I hissed in pain as my tail bounced against the sharp rocks growing there.
Great...this was gonna be hard.
The Lycanroc growled and sharpened his claws against each other, increasing their deadliness. I glided back, trying to figure out what I should do.
Wasn't Dragonair capable of using Dragon Breath...?
As I started trying to figure out how to do that, the Lycanroc snarled and grabbed onto a nearby fire escape, ripping off a metal bar with brute strength. He smacked it against his hand and glared into my eyes with his demonic red ones, sending shivers down my (very long) spine.
He charged towards me, swinging the bar around and slamming it into my ribs. Since I had been in the process of dodging, it was only a glancing blow, but it still hurt almost as much as the times when my father had gotten mad and vented it on me...
I felt anger welling up inside me. I had never been able to release it before, but here was a stranger who deserved it. As my anger increased, so did the rain and lightning, and I felt a queer tingling in my neck. The energy built up to nauseating levels, and I felt my mouth open wide as the bar raced for my neck.
Shooting out was a torrent of ferocious blue flames, immediately setting fire to the Lycanroc. He howled with pain and staggered back, dropping the bar. Seeing my opportunity, I lunged forth again and slammed my tail into his chest. He flew across the alley and smashed into a brick wall, groaning as he slumped down.
I panted for breath, drained from the short fight. My ribs ached, and I felt blood trickling down my side from the cuts the Lycanroc inflicted. But I had won.
At that moment, a policeman ran into the scene, staring at everything.
"What is going on here!?", he demanded.
The Lycanroc gave me a cruel wolfish grin, before reaching up with a claw and pointing at me. Then his eyes rolled up and he fainted.
But it was too late.
The policeman yelled angrily at me, and pulled out his gun. My eyes widened as he squeezed the trigger.
The pain hit instantly, a blazing red spot in my side. I fell out of the sky, stunned, and smacked my head against the ground. Dazed, I noticed the policeman running towards me, and freaked out. With a lash of my tail, I knocked him over, and quickly threw myself into the air again. He yelled at me to stop, but there was no way I was doing that.
As I flew, my body was full of agony, every slight movement sending another surge of pain through my body. I had no idea if the bullet had hit somewhere fatal, but I knew that if I didn't get help I was gonna die anyways from blood loss.
I was incredibly scared. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as more and more of my blood leaked out, could feel a chill sinking into my body. Down below, I spotted Ryan's house, and beelined towards it, hoping desperately that I could find salvation there.
I raced past the window, and smashed into the lawn chair on the porch, letting out a pained gasp. As I collapsed on the ground, my vision darkened, but I could see a Lucario leaning over me.
"Help...", I murmured, before everything went black. (-o-)
AN: This is both shorter than I like and took longer than I liked, but oh well. It is what it is.
Hope you all are still enjoying the story! Fear not, the action's gonna pick up soon enough...I hope you're prepared!
I'll see you all next time! Don't forget to review, and check out the Discord if you like these stories!