Additionally, here's a link to the Percentverse server! If you haven't joined already it's recommended! We're always happy to see new faces!
discord .gg/ tQtYGvJsbS
Broken up so FFN will actually let you see it.
Additionally, if you wanna hang out with me, I also have my own personal server! The link is in my profile! I hope to see you guys in either one of those places!
Now, let's begin the chapter... (-o-)
Molly Parker
I felt tremendously worried as Mr. Newman carried the limp body of Zinnia into the living room. Ethan looked curious, but Fiona pulled him away with her ribbons so he didn't see the blood.
Ryan quickly hurried in with more towels, setting them up on the couch and allowing his father to rest the unconscious Dragonair on it. Up close, it was worse than I thought - there were large clawmarks on her neck and her breathing was ragged. Then looking down, my eyes widened.
"What the hell!? She was shot!", I yelled.
"Language!", hissed Mr. Newman, "But yes. I have no idea what she got herself into but she needs treatment right away. Where's the medical kit?"
"Uh, here.", Amanda replied, holding out a large white case. She was pointedly trying to avoid looking at the growing red stain in the towels, and I winced. Amanda was rather squeamish about blood.
Mr. Newman took the case, and Amanda quickly took her leave. Mr. Newman hurried over to Zinnia and started working on bandaging and cleaning her wounds, but I could tell he was worried.
"Do you think she'll be all right?", asked Rosa fearfully.
Mr. Newman frowned. "I believe so - it doesn't look like she was hurt anywhere vital. She was very lucky that way. Still, we need to get her to a doctor as soon as we can."
"Can we even do that?", I asked fearfully, "The hospitals are overwhelmed right now. No one could see to her for days!"
Mr. Newman sighed. "I see...I wish I could do more, but...wait, what the-"
His pawss lit up, and shimmering blue water appeared, racing over Zinnia's body. I watched amazed as it flowed across her wounds, closing them and erasing any traces of their presence. Zinnia's breathing steadied, and she shifted from unconsciousness to peaceful slumber.
Mr. Newman stared at his paws, eyes wide. After a minute, he asked, "Okay. Uh...any idea what the heck I just did? You kids know more about these Pokemon things than I do..."
"I think that was Life Dew, dad.", Fiona replied, "It's a healing move some Pokemon can learn...including you, apparently."
Mr. Newman looked amazed. "Wow...I'll admit, I did not expect to ever have magic healing powers. But whew...I feel exhausted all of a sudden."
"I bet!", replied Rosa, "Using your first Pokemon move must have taken a lot out of you. But you saved Zinnia! Thank you so much!"
Mr. Newman beamed. "You're very welcome! But phew, now I need to sit down..."
He stumbled over to his recliner, and practically fell into it, wincing as he accidentally sat on his tail. With a bit of readjustment, though, he sat comfortably in his spot.
I looked around, and used my hoof to push some of Ethan's toys aside so I could sit down myself. The adrenaline from the sudden transformation and the fear and worrying was dying off, and I now felt exhausted. It didn't help that I'd been galloping all over town in an unfamiliar body, either.
But still I refused to fall asleep. I was too anxious for that. Everything I had believed about the world and science and everything had been completely turned upside down. People had been magically turned into magical creatures in the span of an instant, I had literally turned into a magical sparkle unicorn, and I had just watched my best friend's dad heal another of my best friends with literal magic water he had created...magically.
All this MAGIC was driving me insane. How could anything make sense anymore, if there were no rules for what could and could not be done? With all this magic nothing could have any scientific explanation...and for someone who ran on scientific explanations, that was terrifying.
I looked around. Everyone else seemed to be taking this much better than I was. That made me feel frustrated. Didn't they SEE how messed up this situation was!? Nothing was ever going to be the same again!
"Hey, Molly, are you okay?", asked Rosa, carefully walking over to me.
I pressed my hooves to my head. "No, of course not! Nothing makes sense anymore!"
Rosa rested one of her flowers on my shoulder. "I understand. But I'm sure there will be some explanation somewhere. I bet scientists all over the world are researching a solution right now!"
I groaned. "That will take FOREVER, you know. With all this chaos and transformation stuff, no scientist is in the best situation for research. I might go insane by the time they find anything out!"
Rosa looked directly into my eyes. "Hey, listen to me. You are NOT going to go insane. I won't let you. Even if I have to bonk you on the head to make that happen."
I chuckled. "I'm counting on it, I guess."
Rosa nodded. "We're not giving up on each other. This transformation thing has messed things up, but we're gonna power through it. After all, it's not like anything can get worse, right?"
Suddenly a blaring alarm rose up from every phone in the room, causing us all to jump. Mr. Newman and Ryan both checked theirs, and both turned pale.
"Uh oh, what happened?", I asked nervously.
Mr. Newman answered, "It appears the Bay Area has been marked off as a combat zone. The United States is deploying the National Guard to order things, and they're sending more troops in case the current ones can't contain the problem." He sighed. "There's an organized group of Pokemon seizing various areas of the city and fighting off the forces. All transformed are to stay indoors or else potentially be marked as combatants. In other words...we're stuck here until the situation is resolved."
"What about humans?", asked Rosa, "You just said transformed."
Mr. Newman answered, "Nothing about them. Just us poor individuals who were transformed. I guess that means Ryan's doing a lot more grocery shopping now."
He chuckled, but it sounded a little forced.
I only felt even more worried now. What was going to happen to us? Would we even last the week? (-o-)
Amanda Winfrey
After delivering the medical kit, I hurried out of the living room so I didn't have to see any of the blood or wounds. It made me feel like a bad friend, but I wouldn't be any more helpful if I was lying fainted on the floor.
I decided to go visit Jackson, since I figured that would be better than lurking around and doing nothing. I started climbing up the stairs, trying to ignore how I was floating instead of actually walking. At the top of the stairs, I spotted Mr. Jeffrys, who was sitting on a chair next to the open bathroom door, repeatedly checking his phone as if he was expecting something.
"Uh, hello?", I greeted nervously, shivering as I heard how COLD my voice sounded now...cold and whispery, as if I really WAS a ghost come back from the grave.
Mr. Jeffrys sat up sharply, alarmed by the sound of my voice. He relaxed upon seeing me...but only slightly.
"Oh...ah, hello, Amanda.", he greeted, "I'm assuming you want to check on Jackson?"
I nodded.
He shrugged. "Go ahead then."
I floated past him and into the bathroom, where Jackson rested melancholically at the edge of a tub filled nearly to the top with water. He was staring out the window, towards the columns of smoke and helicopters rising into the sky.
"Hey.", I greeted.
Jackson sighed. "Hi Amanda."
I drifted over and sat down near him. "Are you doing okay?"
Jackson frowned at me. "What do you think!? I'm stuck in a bathtub and can do literally nothing, except stare out the window and remember what I was before this stupid thing happened! Life was going perfectly for me...then I got turned into this freaking seal and lost everything! I can't play games, I can't walk around and hang out with you guys, I can't even talk to my dad!"
He smacked himself in the face with a flipper. "I just want to wake up and realize that this was all a bad dream. But I can't. I am literally living a nightmare."
I sighed. "I'm sure it will get better soon enough...it's only the first day."
Jackson scoffed. "Easy for you to say. You're still humanoid. You can still pretend to be somewhat normal. You still have HANDS! As for me...I'm a damn seal. I don't have hands, I don't have feet...I can't even GO anywhere! I just get to sit in this stupid bathtub...what's even the point of living like that?"
I frowned. "Please don't talk like that...I'm certain there's still something you can do. You just need to figure it out! Like, I bet if you tried you could type with your flippers, and maybe you could do something related to water. Like, being a marine biologist or something! Or a lifeguard! Maybe even a Navy SEAL!"
Jackson scoffed again. "Yeah, right. I bet the army is totally gonna let monsters join their ranks."
I glared at him. "We're not monsters!"
Jackson rolled his eyes. "Believe that if you want...but I doubt the other humans will agree. Especially after everything going on today. People are killing each other and destroying things, and it's only getting worse. It won't be long before the government takes measures against us...then my life will get even worse..."
I felt helpless as Jackson kept talking, dragging himself further and further into despair. I had never been the best at talking, and I had no idea what to say to stop Jackson's doom and gloom attitude.
As he continued complaining about the future and how hopeless everything was, I felt the desire to just curl up and disappear. I didn't want to listen to this anymore.
And then...I did.
I only noticed when Jackson stopped mid-rant, mouth agape. Confused, I looked down at myself, and nearly panicked when I realized I was completely invisible. But as soon as I thought about wanting to be visible again, I was...but both of us were alarmed.
"So, uh...I guess you do have ghost powers...", murmured Jackson, "I wish I had those...but I just vomit high-pressure water beams."
"Well...uh...I think I'm gonna go now...", I replied, "I need to figure out how to deal with this knowledge..."
'And get away from your negativity.', I thought.
Jackson gave a half-hearted wave with his flipper. "Well, go ahead then. I'll just sit here and keep myself busy with...doing nothing."
So I drifted out, and glided down the stairs. That's when the phone alerts went off, and I knew immediately that it was nothing good.
Why couldn't anything go right today...? (-o-)
Samuel Townsend
Mr. Philly thankfully did not make me show up on the set again, perhaps recognizing my emotional breakdown and deciding not to try to make it worse. Instead, he put me in charge of sorting through the footage reporters were bringing in and figuring out what clips should be used for the show.
As it turned out, this job wasn't much better than that one.
Every video I saw just made me feel sadder and sadder and more and more worried. While most of the world had only a thirty percent transformation rate, San Francisco appeared to have been hit the worst, with eighty or even ninety percent of everyone transformed into Pokemon. And it showed - everyone was fighting and panicking and suffering. One reporter was showing just how overwhelmed the hospitals were, with injured patients being laid out in tents all over the parking lot outside one, or sometimes not even that. Another reporter was filming a bloody scene where the police were panicking, with one shooting everyone in sight.
But my eyes were glued to only one set of footage in particular - my dad's.
He appeared to have been caught in the midst of a truly devastating scene. His camera showed a fierce battle between a collection of Pokemon and a bunch of soldiers sent in by the army, set in the crowded district of Chinatown. I felt alarmed every time a Pokemon ran near my father, or some stray gunfire got too close to him.
While things had been evenly matched at the beginning, it was starting to go bad. While the soldiers were well-trained and well-armed, there were not very many of them - the military had not been any less affected than anywhere else. And the Pokemon were just that much stronger, and the transformation had imbued them with inhuman strength and resilience - I saw one take no less than six bullets to the chest, yet he kept plowing through the soldiers as if it didn't bother him at all.
Although the audio was screwy with all the noise, I could hear someone yelling for a retreat. The soldiers fell back, retreating to their vehicles as they desperately shot at the Pokemon.
The Pokemon swarmed eagerly forwards, perhaps hoping to finish off the soldiers, but then a powerful voice rang out, causing most of them to stop. Those who didn't ended up dying to the soldiers, who finished their retreat and disappeared from view.
Judging by the way the camera was moving, my dad was moving to a secluded location to keep filming, so he didn't end up getting caught by the Pokemon. His camera revealed that the Pokemon were building up barricades, while others were raiding the shops and clearing things out. I realized they must be establishing a base of operations.
My dad stayed there and watched them for a few minutes longer. Then suddenly the camera jerked, and clattered to the ground, giving me a terrifyingly good view of my dad getting pinned to the ground by a giant white-and-blue dog, a bloodstained blade horn pointing right for his throat. An Absol.
There was a sound of flapping wings, and an orange dragon-like Pokemon landed, his scales marked with several scars and a banner-wreathed sword tattooed on his shoulder. This was definitely a Charizard...and he was smirking.
"Ah, a spy already I see? Excellent work, Selena.", the Charizard purred.
"Should I kill him?", asked Selena, almost eagerly.
The Charizard shook his head. "Not just yet...he may be a useful hostage."
He snapped his claws, and a Machamp appeared, saluting him with both hands on his left. The Machamp frowned as he realized what he was doing, and had to focus on lowering one down without moving the other.
"Rufus, take him to the barber shop and tie him to a chair until we know what to do with him. Selena, scout ahead. See if anyone else wants to try spying on us.", the Charizard ordered.
Rufus nodded, then grabbed my dad and headed off into the district, yelling at some workers. Selena ran off towards the retreating soldiers, and the Charizard took a deep breath. His golden eyes glanced around, and settled on the camera. He frowned and picked it up, looking into the lens.
He chuckled. "Why, hello, people at home. I hope you've come to realize that we aren't just gonna sit back and let the government decide what happens to us. Know this: I am El Diablo, and I will bring freedom and justice to all transformed who side with me."
He rose his claws. "Commercial break."
Then he shattered the camera, cutting off the recording.
I screamed. (-o-)
AN: Well that's another chapter done! We're on a roll here!
What will our heroes do now that Samuel's dad has been kidnapped and the city is undergoing military occupation? Just who is this El Diablo, and what is he going to do? We'll just have to find out next time!
See you then!