What you'd consider a childhood dream turn true has become a living nightmare
A few days ago you were dismissing all the "pokemon are real" discourse as just some really good AI generated slop and now you stood here
You were standing in a police cordon at the place where the aggron and arrons were turning the town into rubble
Keeping the people away from the raging steel-rock type and trying to keep order
Half of your coworkers were sweating bullets, the other half were getting ready to spray them
Not like bullets would have helped in the first place
At best they would just rang the dinnerbell
At worst they would have just pissed the Aggron off
You yourself were feeling a mix of confusion, fear and disbelief at the absurdity of the situation
The captain was talking with the supperiors to requisition some soldiers equiped with anti-material rifles to dome or at the very least knock it out
Yesterday you were going through some CCTV footage next to him
The footage was from all over the city but it had one thing in common which were pokemon
In a way it felt less like watching a scene of a crime and more like watching a trail camera on which animals throw over trashcans
He is a man who's knowledge of Pokemon was limited to Pikachu, so when you started identifying the different pokemon you'd kinda have become an expert in his eyes on the spot
Obviously his first thought wasn't "Pokemon are real" but that there is a band of criminals dressed up as pokemon doing it
Maybe it is some new type of AI related crime
To say the least the theories didn't survive contact with the new reality
In the middle of all the rock throwing and toyota corolla munching a new pokemon has appeared
A Lucario to be specific
And it seemed to have engaged the Aggron in combat of sorts
It didn't really seem aggressive towards it
It seemed more like the Lucario was trying to wrangle the Aggron into submission
You noticed some idiot with a phone trying to get pictures
Expect him to get turned into paste
Instead the Lucario breakes his phone and basically tells him to get lost
Guy runs towards the cordon and you let him past
You let him through noticing his 1000 yard stare
He will most likely have to explain himself for this act of citizen journalism once the situation gets under controll
You continue looking at the situation from affar and notice that the Lucario somehow managed to calm the beast
And now it was approaching the cordon
Well shit
You instinctively prepare to unholster your gun
Not like the gun would help you against a Lucario
In a move you didn't expect it started speaking
"Holy shit, it can talk" you thought to yourself
You escorted it to one of the paramedics
You allowed it mostly as you feared what would happen if you didn't
The atmosphere felt like there was a gas leak and one spark would set if off
You didn't feel like you could predict it next move
Nobody did
All the people surrounding you didn't help at all
You felt more like one wrong move and a lot of people could get hurt
Your and the captain's eyes met in confusion
Once the Pokemon was escorted you went to him to explain the entire situation
He didn't manage to get the requested soldiers nor the anti-material rifles
In truth he didn't need them anymore as the Aggron was more or less pacified
What he was more interested in was the "Pikachu" that was escorted to the paramedics
You explained everything to him on the way there as he wanted to see and talk to it
Unlike you he didn't show signs of fear
Ignorance is bliss and all that
Surprisingly enough he showed sings of fascination when talking with the Lucario
The two figured out a plan to move the Aggron into a junkyard and the rest of the police went through with it with great success, even if the owner was let's just say dissatisfied with the turn of events
But in a moment of inattention the Lucario dissapeared
Some of your coleagues tried searching for it but gave no results
You were tired on every level and felt like this whole day was a bad fever dream
The captain clearly saw this so he offered to give me a ride home
You weren't really able to deny his offer as your home was on the way to the police station and you were in no state to drive a car yourself
On the road he asked for a favor in return
Helping him with writing the raport about what has happened as he didn't know anything about the "Pikachu's"
You accepted to help him to get even
He dropped you off at your house
You noticed the lawn was completely ruined, like if something went through it with a plow
That was a problem for tomorrow you however
You just woke up lying on the couch with every fiber of your being aching.
The full set of gear you were wearing didn't make the situation any more comfortable.
You swung your head in the direction of the clock on the wall.
5pm
"FfffHUUuuck..." you muttered as you forced yourself to stand up.
You were about to call the station to explain your absence, but as you got your phone, you realized the battery died.
You were about to plug it into the charger as you heard something knocking at your backyard door
This was enough to put you out of your stupor as a burst of adrenaline burst you back to life.
You grabbed your service pistol and moved slowly towards the glass door
At this point you didn't know what to expect anymore, and your fight-or-flight instinct was firmly set to fight.
You were about to enter the kitchen and have a full view of the door.
You grabbed a spatula from the counter and positioned it carefully at an angle at which you could see a reflection of your backyard.
To your relief, the thing knocking at the door wasn't a pokemon but one of your colleagues.
As you let him in, he explained that the captain had sent him here to check in on you, as you didn't show up for work and didn't pick up any calls.
He thought that whatever ruined your front lawn might have gotten you.
The moment he said it, your tired brain brought up the question of why he didn't just ring the bell at the front door instead of jumping over the fence.
He said that whatever that thing was, it was still there...
After hearing that, a wave of cold sweats washed over you.
You asked him to describe it to you, but the only thing he said was that it was large.
He didn't want to accidentally piss it off, so he kept his distance, never really getting a good look at it.
He was there during the Aggron incident and knew what mons were capable of when pissed off.
It wasn't really a thing you could fault him for, as you yourself would have probably done the same with his knowledge.
The two of you made your way to the other side of the house to assess the situation
Trying to stay as silent as possible to avoid any possibility of that thing leveling your house
You entered the living room and crawled under the window, using your spatula to survey the area.
And indeed there was something big lying in your driveway.
You couldn't get the angle right as some potted plants blocked the view, but what you saw was countershaded with a dark green or blue side and a cream-colored side.
There was no way to mistake it for anything else
It was a Snorlax taking a nap in your driveway
You stood up and informed your colleague with the most retardedly happy grin possible that Snorlaxes are harmless for the most part.
You opened the front door and left the confines of your home to get a closer look.
The massive thing lay in front of your garage doors, blocking any vehicle from getting in or out.
"So. How long is this thing going to lie there?" asked your colleague.
"Good question" you answered, not knowing yourself.
The both of you returned inside to clear some things up in regard to your absence at the station.
Your colleague was on the line with the captain to corroborate your story.
He was trying to conceal his laughter while explaining the situation.
Thankfully the captain doesn't feel like he wants to cut your salary and/or your balls over all of what has happened.
Instead in a defeatist tone decides to retroactively give you the the day off
You and your colleague have a chat about what has happened at the station in your absence
In short, it was a shitshow.
Every phone in the building was blaring.
Some guy from the FBI showed up and questioned everyone about the Aggron incident and the talking Lucario.
There were disappearance cases, neighbors reporting suspicious activities on each other, some people walking in a trance-like manner, thefts, and destruction of property on a level not previously seen.
The police were riding around the city like headless chickens putting out fires, not knowing if the fire they were putting out was an electrical fire or a chemical one.
Half the time it was just some people acting like it was the pandemic 2.0 and causing fights over rolls of toilet paper.
Your colleague volunteered to check up on you because he didn't want to deal with any of that shit.
You turned on the TV to check up on the situation in the world.
Apparently people and animals are turning into pokemon.
Maybe that Lucario from yesterday was a human once.
The Japanese government blocked Nintendo from developing any more Pokemon games in the foreseeable future because they feared power creeping the problem out of control with new installments.
Not like the situation was under control in the first place.
As you were switching between news outlets in search of some new story, you ended up turning to one channel at which the President was giving out an address to the nation about the situation.
There really wasn't much said beyond the usual "Please do not panic" type of speech you'd expect in any crisis situation.
Only thing that was confirmed was that the government was looking into the reported cases of people turning into mons.
Your colleague kept calling bullshit the entire way through.
Mostly bringing up past cases of the government doing inhumane things to people and the fact that, as of now, the pokemon were in a legal grey area.
You didn't really want to think about the implications of that too deeply, especially after you met that Lucario yesterday and saw that Brionne girl on TV not even 5 minutes ago.
You switched channels to some "expert" identifying pokemon sightings from around the world.
Giving the guy credit, he didn't make a single mistake.
After some more talking, your colleague was getting ready to leave.
It was getting late, and even if it was after hours for him, he had to get ready for tomorrow, same as you.
The both of you went outside and parted your ways with a firm handshake.
The Snorlax was still there blocking your driveway.
If the Snorlax didn't move by tomorrow morning, you'd have to call someone to drive you to the station.
You still needed to inspect the front lawn, as you kind of forgot.
The lawn looked even worse than you remembered.
In some parts there were holes deep enough to fit your entire leg.
You looked around and noticed that you weren't the only one affected, but the entire neighborhood.
You had to delay the search for the culprit a day longer as the sun was setting, and you didn't even change your clothes from yesterday.
You took a shower, ate some microwave slop for dinner, replied to some text messages from your friends and family, and went to sleep.
As your alarm blared, you woke up from your slumber.
Fortunately, this time it was your bed and not your couch.
The first thing to do was to check up on the Snorlax in your driveway.
You took a stroll outside, and there he was. Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In his lane. Focused. Flourishing.
The sight of the Snorlax made you feel conflicted. You felt annoyed by the fact that you weren't able to take your car to work, but on the other hand, you wanted it to stay for some reason unknown to you.
Maybe it was nostalgia you didn't know
What you did know was that you needed to get to the station
You considered getting yourself some rideshare but wanted to check if maybe your friend could drive you there
Fortunately for you, he was not only up but ready to go.
He'd be at your house in 30 minutes, as he was running errands in the morning.
Plenty of time for you to get ready, eat breakfast, and drink some coffee while watching the morning news.
The morning news didn't add much to the situation, mostly things that would be described as trivia at best.
The only thing of note was some safety guidelines made by government "experts," which could be summarized as "do not approach the pokemon and call 911".
Either way, it meant overtime.
As you were finishing eating your eggs and bacon, your phone buzzed.
You picked it up.
"What on God's green earth is that thing in your driveway?" asked your friend in a confused tone.
"A Snorlax", you answered with confidence while finishing the last bite of your breakfast.
You closed your door behind you as you left the house.
Your friend parked his car on the opposite side of the road due to the fear of the 'lax.
There was no traffic in these early hours, so you just crossed the road with a slower gait
You shook hands and then took a look at his car.
You were still in amazement that that piece of junk managed to pass vehicle inspection.
Either way, you thanked him for showing up.
"No problem, my sleep schedule is gone either way," he replied. "Guess that's the benefit of doing freelance work".
He pointed at the Snorlax with his finger and said, "When I was driving here, I saw one of those blocking 2 lanes on the opposite side of the highway".
"Were there any police or firefighters trying to move it?" you asked.
"No. Either nobody reported it yet, or it just showed up on the road moments before I drove past it." he answered with a somewhat disappointed tone.
Curious about the Snorlax, your friend asked, "How long has that one been blocking your driveway anyway?".
"Today it would be the second, possibly the third day. I noticed it yesterday, but it might have been there one day earlier, and I just didn't notice it because I was beyond tired after returning from work and having to deal with a miniature Godzilla and her kids destroying the city."
You assumed, he saw the aftermath of the event on TV or the Internet, maybe even drove past it at some point.
Either way, your answer seemed to have quenched his curiosity, and he didn't want to dig into the subject anymore (at least for now).
Instead he gestured for you to get into the car.
The drive was relatively uneventful as you spent your time chatting about some more normal, non-pokemon related subjects.
You finally got to work.
As you entered, you expected a shitshow, and reality exceeded expectations.
Everyone in the station was running around, phones were blaring, and some fed chick was just standing there in a corner drinking coffee and reading some documents.
"Fucking great," you muttered at the absolute state of the situation.
As you entered, your colleague approached you and told you that the captain wanted to see you.
As you went to his office, you were already preparing for some disciplinary actions or something like that.
Once you reached the door, you heard him speaking in a raised tone.
You couldn't distinguish what he said, but you knew he wasn't pleased at the very least.
You decided to wait under his office until someone left
Fortunately, you didn't have to wait for a very long time, as the most generic looking federal agent left his office not even 5 minutes after you got there.
He didn't seem to have noticed you, or if he did, he just ignored you as he walked away.
You knocked at the open door to get the captain's attention and said, "You wanted to see me, sir?"
Without a word he nodded and gestured for you to take a seat.
He was clearly on edge
"These feds keep doubling by the day," he muttered while rubbing his eyes.
"What agency did this one work for?" you asked.
"CIA" he replied, "the third one in total after those from the FBI and DHS."
"They will stick around for a while to help us," he continued in a mocking tone.
"Either way, I didn't call you to chat about federal agents, as I have a job for you."
You were tasked to perform a wellness check on someone.
A young woman seemingly shut herself off from the outside world.
For 3 weeks she hasn't left her house nor interacted with anyone.
She was described as extroverted and diligent.
There were no prior signs of this prior to her supposed isolation.
The only reason why it wasn't outright classified as a disappearance under suspicious circumstances was because someone was still there.
Lights turned on and off at night, some silhouette was sometimes visible through the shut blinds, and delivery men showed up to deliver things even if those things lay there until nightfall.
However, the front lawn hadn't been cut in days, and nobody answered the doorbell when any of the neighbors tried to ring the doorbell.
When they tried to call her, someone picked up, but they didn't hear much beyond the sound of appliances. After the first week, nobody picked up their phones anymore.
You rode there with your colleague to find out what happened
When you arrived, one of the neighbors noticed you and asked if you came because of his neighbor.
He was an elderly man who was indeed the person who called the police to investigate it
He didn't add much beyond the fact that the girl apparently always took a ride with him and his wife to church on Sunday and helped them in their household from time to time.
You thanked him for the info and went to question the other neighbors if they knew anything before ringing the bell if anyone was there.
Unfortunately, you didn't learn anything new from them.
The both of you made your way to the house and rang the bell.
Nothing.
You rang the bell again.
Nothing.
You bashed your fist against the door.
Nothing.
Until you noticed that something in your peripheral vision has moved the blinds.
You didn't see any details beyond its white color.
Now you knew something was in there.
You went to grab the doorhandle, but the very moment you touched it, it turned to rust.
You quickly removed your hand from the handle as it fell apart in your hand, leaving only an orange-red dust on your gloves.
Whatever caused the handle to corrode made all other metal parts corrode to dust as well, making the door fall down without the support of locks or hinges.
You smelled a strangely sweet perfume-like smell inside, with a mix of freshly ground coffee mixing with the metallic smell of rust.
With each second the smell became more and more intense to the point you and your colleague returned to the car to get some gas masks.
He always made sure that such equipment was on hand ever since the trailer park incident a few years ago.
Just the thought of that day makes you want to take a shower this very moment.
You entered the house first, with your colleague following closely behind you.
The house was clean, seemingly freshly dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned.
The inside of the house was clearly better kept than the outside, which was completely overgrown.
You called out, "Hello, anyone there? It is the police; we are here to perform a wellness check," but all you heard was silence.
Well, not exactly. You did hear something.
The sound of a coffee machine working
You slowly went in the direction of the source of the sound, making sure to screen every room you passed on the way there for signs of life but found none.
You told your colleague to watch the staircase in the case someone or something would want to escape or attack.
You slowly cleared the corner of the kitchen, seeing the coffee machine working as you went.
There was a tablet lying on the counter still turned on, displaying some sort of cooking recipe.
You called your colleague over to a possition at which he could keep both check of the kitchen and staircase as you entered
You checked through all the cabinets but found nothing
Nothing also tried to come down the stairs
Having no other choice, you had to go upstairs.
As you slowly made your way up, you heard some cloth-like sounds coming from one of the rooms.
It sounded like someone was throwing them arround
"Bingo", you thought to yourself.
You kept opening rooms on the way but found nothing.
As you kept opening more rooms, your selection narrowed until you reached the last room.
You opened the door, and you saw clothes and bedsheets lying everywhere.
It must have been the owner's bedroom, but you didn't see anyone.
You carefully checked beneath the bed and inside and behind the furniture
You looked under the piles of clothes
But found nothing
You felt tricked, but something didn't add up in your mind.
This room was last in line to be checked, as you checked all the ones that came before it.
Maybe it escaped through the window, you thought.
You took a look behind the curtains; the window was closed.
The thought of you having to deal with a ghost type crossed your mind until you heard a tap like sound to your left
You turned your head to see what it was, and you saw a pale white tail hanging there behind the curtain.
You took a look up at the rest of the creature, and you knew what it was.
It was a Shiny Salazzle hanging on the wall for its dear life with pupils dilated to the point they looked more like the eyes of a gecko than the predatory lizard it was supposed to be.
It was wearing a black hoodie way too big for its size, but even with it you could see the hyperventilative movements underneath.
She was clearly in a state of fear and shock.
"We are not here to hurt you", you said in the calmest voice you could in order to not escalate the situation any further.
After a while of negotiating, you managed to calm the frightened lizard down.
Unfortunately, communication was severely hindered by the fact she couldn't speak a word.
You were limited to yes/no answers and numbers between 1 and 10.
You went down to the kitchen to talk.
The lizard had a propensity for walking on two legs.
She almost fell down the stairs by trying to walk on two legs and getting her tail stuck on the first step.
Fortunately, you were fast enough and grabbed her hoodie so nothing much happened, and you suggested carrying her down instead, to which she reluctantly agreed.
When you got down, she continued to clumsily walk on her hind legs.
Your colleague pointed to the tablet on the kitchen counter and proposed we use it for communication.
You asked the Salazzle if she could write on the tablet.
Fortunately she agreed.
The round of questioning just confirmed your suspicion she was, or at least she claimed to be, the person you were supposed to check on.
A few weeks ago she woke up like that, and ever since she has refused to go outside during the day.
She had no close family, as she was an only child, and her parents died a couple of years ago in a car accident.
She was shaking through the entire session until you decided to take a break for now.
You and your colleague left the kitchen to plan your next course of action, as you didn't know what to do.
Take her to the station?
There were feds in the station who'd make things worse.
Leave her here?
You'd have to repair the door for that. And that would mean that one of you had to drive to get some replacement parts.
Your colleague went outside for a smoke break to clear his head while you stayed on watch duty.
The Salazzle poured some coffee into a mug and returned to cooking, taking swigs of it periodically.
It was easy to spot that she didn't like the dark beverage at all; she had a sort of pained expression, like she was forcing herself to drink it.
You started to think.
Mostly about the situation before hand.
The Salazzle continued to cook without even seemingly acknowledging your pressence.
In a way she became far less jittery, only really jittering when she was drinking coffee.
You could see that she enjoyed the process of cooking.
But your mind was already trying to find solutions to the problem you were faced.
The idea of transporting her anywhere was out of the question.
If she pulled the stunt with the door inside a moving vehicle, it would end badly.
Even then, if you'd somehow gotten her to the station, any item containing metals capable of corrosion would be at risk.
You had no other choice than letting her stay.
Even if it still didn't feel right leaving her alone.
She was clearly suffering.
Like she was constantly in a state of denial about her current situation.
Repeating a lie with hopes it becomes true at some point.
Forcing herself to drink coffee despite clearly not enjoying it.
The constant bipedal movement despite a Salazzle normally moving on all fours.
In her less jittery moments you could see bruises on her white skin, making you question if those were caused by falling off the stairs.
The isolation from the outside world so no one would perceive her as a monster.
There was no other way to say it, but you felt sorry for her and what befell her.
You'd wish there was a support group for people like her, but as of now there were none.
Maybe you could get a psychologist to see her, but you were not sure how she'd react.
You kept spiraling within your thoughts, but something broke you out of them, as all of a sudden you felt something tugging at your trousers.
It was the shiny Salazzle, and she pointed you towards the table with 3 cups of coffee on it.
You were glad that you opened the windows to let some fresh air in before starting the questioning.
The Salazzle's pheromones were far more volatile than you expected, so the vast majority of them were gone by now.
You could finally take a breath without reenacting that one scene from Spongebob in the perfume department.
You called over your colleague, but he said he'd join you when he finishes smoking.
So you decided to sit down at the table, not like you had anything better to do.
The Salazzle looked at you with wide eyes, like she was expecting you to tell her about your day.
The smell of coffee actually managed to overpower the remaining traces of the pheromones.
As you were enjoying the coffee, the Salazzle started writing something on the tablet.
You didn't know how to feel about now being the one answering questions.
On the other hand, you were kind of obliged to help her with her current situation, and if having a conversation was the price, so be it.
The two of you were the first humans she interacted with face to face since her she turned.
She showed you the tablet with the question on it. It read, "Do you enjoy the coffee?"
"Yes, you could say I'm quite fond of it. Thank you," you answered, following with another sip of coffee.
The answer made her jitter with excitement this time.
She quickly returned to her tablet to ask another question.
You remembered how her personality was described by the neighbor, and in this moment she matched the description one to one.
It was like she almost forgot that she was a pokemon.
She turned her tablet over to you with the second question.
"Do you maybe want some sugar or milk with your coffee? How about some snacks or cake?"
She didn't even wait for an answer from you and just jumped down from the chair to bring you a plate of some homemade cake.
When she grabbed the plate, you gently took it from her and put it on the table, as you were afraid she'd accidentally drop it.
She didn't have a problem with it, and she just showed you where the rest of the things were.
After a while she returned to her chair just in time for your colleague to return from his smoking break.
He sat down and took a sip of coffee, being asked the same question by her with the same answer given.
She returned to the tablet to ask the 3rd question
This time the nervous jittering returned.
She wrote, "What happened to me?".
"You were turned into a pokemon. A Salazzle, to be specific. Strange as it might see. We currently don't know what caused this to happen, but there is an ongoing investigation into the subject". You answered using a calm tone.
She quickly returned to the tablet to ask another question, far more frantic than before.
This time the question was about if there are any others like her
"To the police's knowledge, there is one other confirmed case of this happening in town. There are also many unconfirmed cases, with one high-profile case", answered your colleague in a more professional but more authoritative tone.
Her breathing became more frantic as she was typing the next question, like preparing for the worst.
"What is going to happen to me?" she asked.
"As of now you are going to stay at your house. We do not currently have the means to transport you safely anywhere", you answered.
While the first part of the answer seemingly calmed her down, the second half made her hyperventilate.
She started writing something again, this time shaking like an earthquake.
"What do you mean by 'transport'?!" She wrote before violently ripping the tablet back to write something else.
"Do you think I'm a monster?!"
Are you going to experiment on me?!"
In this moment she was like a deer in the headlights, one step from fainting from all that hyperventilating
You stretched out your hand to reassure her that nothing would happen to her, but she instinctively jumped away and ran up the wall into the corner of the room like a scene from The Exorcist.
At this point you knew that her Salazzle instincts overpowered her human ones.
You were just glad it was flight and not fight.
She was in the exact same state in which you found her.
You tried to calm her down, but she wasn't listening.
Or more like the pokemon part of her didn't allow for her to hear you.
"Please listen, we are not here to hurt you", you repeated and paraphrased time and time again.
She was basically paralyzed with her eyes firmly rooted into you with fear.
After what felt like an eternity, the shivering stopped all of a sudden.
She looked more collected and focused now.
She took a look around for a moment.
She looked at the unhinged door, her limbs sticking to the walls, and finally, you, your gas masks on your belts, and the rust dust on your uniforms.
In that very moment, it felt like she had answered her own question.
Finally, she slowly started going down.
Once she was got down to the ground you could see a dejected expression on her face.
This time she moved on all fours towards you.
She grabbed your leg with her arms and legs, additionally coiling her tail around it.
You didn't need her to use a tablet to know what she wanted to say.
At this moment you just wanted to scream at the top of your lungs
You didn't know what to do, and from the look of it, your colleague didn't know either.
You felt the Sallazzle's grip around your leg tighten and her body shaking.
You tried to pick her up, expecting her to refuse to let go, but she didn't resist at all.
When you picked her up, her body was limp and streaks of tears were running down her face.
You carried her in a cradle like position to the living room and laid her on the couch.
She imediately curled into a ball.
"So what now?" asked your colleague.
"I don't know." you answered in a defeated tone.
The both of you went into the backyard to talk while maintaining a sightline to her through the glass door.
"We are not being paid enough for this shit." said your colleague while frantically opening a fresh pack of smokes.
"You don't have to tell me." you replied.
"So what are we going to do now?" asked your colleague while lighting the cigarette in his mouth.
"We can't take her anywhere, as she could pose a danger to anything made of metal. We can't just leave her alone either, as her mental state is as fragile as it gets." he continued.
"Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Maybe we could get someone else to look after her?" you said.
"Like who?" said your colleague while exhaling some smoke.
"We can't bring anyone official, as the feds would get involved and most likely make things worse." he followed up.
"Maybe her neighbor could help?" you raised the question with some hope
"You think so?" replied your colleague
"He did call us to investigate, so he clearly showed some amount of care for her well-being." you said with a slightly hopeful tone.
"Sure, but how do you think he'd react to the fact that his neighbor is now a pokemon?" he countered and inhaled some smoke after.
"Do you think the elderly man would accept this fact without any problems?" he continued while exhaling the smoke.
"It is certainly worth a shot." You replied.
"But first of all we need to open her up again and fix the door." You continued.
"Do you know how to fix it? You asked your colleague.
"I doubt it; even if we knew the serial numbers of parts were corroded to dust, they are most likely out of production by now, and we don't have time to order replacements." he replied in a calmer, more contemplative fashion.
"So we need to install a new door?" you asked.
"Seems to be the case." he answered.
"I'll check for some tools in the garage, take some measurements, and drive to get a new door. You, meanwhile, will stay and make sure she doesn't do anything that she might regret in the future." He continued.
"We'll deal with the rest once all of that is done." He finished.
Afterward, the both of you returned inside.
You went to the kitchen to get her tablet, and you put it next to the scared sallazle,
She was still curled into a ball, but she was still shaking and clearly not sleeping
You put your hand on her back and said, "Everything will be ok." in an attempt to calm her down and maybe cheer her up.
Your colleague was working in the background with the door, checking its dimensions and removing the rusted screws from the wall.
After a couple of minutes, you heard him drive away.
Now you were alone with the scared Salazzle.
"He'll owe me one when he gets back," you thought to yourself after your colleague drove off in search of a door and left you with the lizard with a mental breakdown.
Instead of ruminating over it, you decided to take off your rust-covered gloves.
Unfortunately some dust ended up on your hands anyway; it looked like your hands were covered in Cheeto dust.
You went to the bathroom to wash them.
Once you opened the door, you noticed the mirror was completely covered up with a piece of cardboard and duct tape.
You peeled just enough of it to see underneath.
The mirror was shattered yet still attached.
She must have tried to destroy it.
The rest of the bathroom looked as normal as it gets, except for a chair that felt a bit out of place.
Her size must have made it difficult for her to reach higher objects in the cabinet, and her mental block prevented her from just climbing up the wall.
You decided not to think about it for now and focus more on helping her.
Once you returned, Salazzle was lying on her side with her tablet, seemingly trying to distract her mind.
You took a seat next to her and thought about how to best approach the situation without causing another relapse.
You overlooked what she was doing on the tablet.
She was watching videos of pokemon appearences.
You weren't sure if it could make her spiral further in or out of her current state, but you decided to leave her to her own devices.
She was watching several seconds of a video, maybe a minute, and playing the next one.
She went through the Brionne videos, Snorlax traffic jams, random sightings, and the Aggron and Aron live stream, but she stopped at the footage from the Aggron and Lucario incident.
She paused the video at the moment when you were escorting the Lucario and pointed at you in the frame with the hope of confirmation that that was you.
You confirmed her suspicions that both you and your colleague were present during the event.
This seemingly made her open up again, and she started writing something on the tablet.
"What happened to the blue dog?" she asked.
The way she asked made you know that she didn't know much about pokemon, as the names of both Aggron and Lucario were in the title of the video, and she didn't know which was which.
"We don't know," you answered, "we tried to find it after we escorted the Aggron and Arons to the junkyard but couldn't find it."
The way you identified the pokemon by their names made her return to her tablet
"What am I?" she held up the tablet with her arms slightly shaking.
"Someone who turned into a Salazzle," you answered.
She returned to her tablet with another question.
"What is going to happen to me now?"
"For now you'll stay here, where you'll be safe," you said.
"The rest will be determined after we replace your door," you continued.
"Do you have anyone you could trust with your condition, family, or friends?" you asked.
She shook her head before typing something on the tablet
"My parents didn't have a great relationship with the rest of their respective families before dying, so they didn't keep up contact with them. I moved here from the other side of the country a year after their death, as this was their house. My old relationships didn't survive the distance, and I didn't have enough time to make new friends here between work and renovations."
"And your neighbor? He was the one who called us to perform a wellness check on you, so he seems to care about you in some regards."
She returned to typing
"He is a kind man, but I didn't even know how I would approach him about it. I can't speak, and he doesn't know how to open or write a text message. Besides that, I don't know how he or his wife would react if they saw me in this form."
You sat there thinking.
You were out of options for finding people who could support her.
No family, no friends, and not being comfortable getting the neighbors involved.
At this point there was no doubt that the only two people knowing about her condition were you and your colleague.
The Salazzle clearly didn't know what to do as you returned to your thoughts.
She grabbed a TV remote and turned on the TV and jumped between stations.
One had Pokemon reruns, but she skipped it.
She stopped at a news station, which got your attention.
Something might be happening after all, however small the chances of that might be.
She was shaking again like she was expecting some bad news.
There wasn't much new since you last checked the news.
Some cases of people all over the country scalping toilet paper like early Covid.
Florida man apprehended after trying to organize illegal pokemon gyms.
Some videos of seemingly friendly pokemon interacting with humans.
A report of several people ending up in hospitals after agitating some pokemon; fortunately, nobody has died, at least for now.
The news anchor was repeating the pokemon code of conduct of "do not approach and call 911" every segment.
The news of people getting hospitalized because of pokemon didn't sit well with her.
She was definitely afraid of hurting someone on accident.
Not like she couldn't be dangerous in specific circumstances.
After all, you entered her house in a gas mask, and the unhinged, orange dust-covered door spoke for itself.
All you could do at the moment was to reassure her while at the same time thinking about how to best assure her well-being.
"Can I ask a question?
She nodded her head.
"Why do you drink coffee? I ask because you don't look comfortable doing it."
She quickly returned to the tablet and wrote for a longer while.
"Strange as it might seem, it reminds me of my childhood. When I was little, I wanted to have a taste of my father's coffee, and he gave me some of it using the spoon he used to stir it. I remember it being extremely bitter. A bitterness only a child could experience. After all the years, coffee lost that bitter taste up until the day I turned. I tried some coffee with the hope it would wake me up from a nightmare. When I tried to drink it, I immediately spat it out, but the bitter aftertaste reminded me of my childhood, and in a way it reminded me of my humanity. So I kept forcing myself to drink it even if it tasted like poison, and the bitterness never went away despite my hopes," she wrote.
"Do you think I should stop drinking it?" she asked while showing you the tablet.
"If your body refuses to accept it, then maybe you should. At least for a while. It might help you to feel better." You suggested.
"On a related subject, what did you eat during all this time?" You decided to shift the conversation to something less depressing.
"Mostly meat. Eating fruits, vegetables, grain products, or mushrooms, or drinking milk makes me feel unwell. At best they are just being added as spices." she wrote.
"Do you know what Salazzles eat?" she asked you.
"Insects," you answered.
She looked at you with a mix of disbelief and disgust at this fact.
"I'm not eating bugs." she stated on the tablet.
"If eating meat doesn't cause problems, then you don't need to," you said calmly.
"But if you wanted to, you could try eating some shrimp, crab, or lobster to spice up your diet," you continued.
You didn't want to go full-on Klaus Schwab on the subject of eating bugs, as you didn't want to alienate her with her own body any more than there was need to.
However, this small amount of food talk seemingly managed to help her open up again, as you could see her smiling.
"Do you like seafood?" you asked.
"Yes, but I rarely got an opportunity. I guess that now I have an excuse to eat some, don't I?" She showed you her tablet with a smile.
It was progress, even if slow.
She clearly enjoyed talking about food and didn't mind you.
You spend some more time talking about food and the different ways to prepare it.
All of a sudden your phone started buzzing.
It was your colleague.
"Did you get the door?" you asked.
"Yeah, about that. I had a bit of a delay here. The car was almost out of gas, so I took it to the nearest gas station to refuel." he said.
"So you are calling me because you had to refuel?" you asked.
"Let me finish. So when I was about to leave the gas station, some guy in a Toyota Corolla pulled in. And let me tell you, this guy was shitfaced like you wouldn't believe. So I had to arrest him and drive him back to the police station." he followed up.
"Any problems beyond that?" you asked.
"No, I should be going soon. Should I get you something on the way?" he asked.
"A bag of shrimp would be nice." you followed up.
"Thank you for treating me like a human," she wrote on the tablet.
You didn't know how to reply to that.
"No need to thank me; I'm just doing my job," you replied.
She stared at you in a way that said, "You really had to use that generic ass line?"
Fortunately, not soon after, a smile returned to her face.
You had gotten an idea for at least a temporary way to help her.
"How about we exchange our phone numbers or contacts on social media? So you could have some contact with someone you could trust." you sugested.
She entered her mind to weigh the pros and cons of your suggestion.
It took about a minute for her to make her mind up on the matter.
"You won't give up easily, will you? I accept your offer," she presented it on her tablet with a smile.
As you were about to shake hands with her, she jumped and put her arms around your neck in a hug before shortly letting go.
She wrote her phone number down on her tablet, and you saved it to your phone.
You called the number to check if there were no mistakes, and as expected, her phone started to ring.
This made you remember something.
You forgot to ask her if she has a way of supporting herself financially.
"So... I forgot to ask you something. Do you have enough money to support yourself?" you asked.
She waved her hand and started writing.
"Don't worry, I still have some money saved up. And if push comes to shove, I can do some remote work," she wrote.
"And besides, I'm now smaller, so I need less stuff." she added with a smile on her face.
Well at least she seems to be more accepting of her situation.
You continued chatting with her about random stuff, waiting for your colleague to arrive.
Your phone began to buzz
"I'm here. Come on over and help me with the door," he said.
You raised yourself from the couch and went outside
He has attached the door to the roof of the car.
You helped him with getting the door off the roof and to the house.
He returned to the car for the bag of shrimp.
"Here are the shrimp you ordered. Why did you need those anyway? He said while handing you over the bag of seafood.
"Well, she can't really eat most human food, and shrimp seemed to me as the closest to what Salazzles are supposed to eat." You answered.
"Let me guess. Bugs?" He asked.
"Bugs." You confirmed.
"Either way, it's time to install this door."
The Salazzle was looking at the two of you from the end of the corridor.
You approached her with the bag of shrimp.
As you approached her, her tail started to wag and smacked on the wall.
She was a bit embarrassed and stepped on her own tail to stop it from wagging.
"So where should I put this?" you asked her.
She led you to a freezer.
It was full of food, and in a way it was hard to find a place for those shrimp.
As soon as you managed to fit it in, your colleague called you over to help with the door.
He could have done it alone, and you kind of wanted him to do it solo because you did all the emotional labor today.
Then again, he did need to arrest that guy for driving under the influence and drive him to the station.
Either way, you already spent enough time here and needed to get going despite enjoying talking to the Salazzle about random stuff.
"So... Uhh... Sorry for the door," you said to the Salazzle watching the two of you work.
As you finished installing the door, you waved the Salazzle goodbye.
As she shut her brand-new door and you went to the car to leave, you were stopped by her neighbor wanting to know what happened.
You explained to him calmly that she was fine and just needed some alone time.
The question about the door and gas masks was answered by your colleague.
He just said something about spilled perfumes and the door being made of poor-quality materials in the most authoritative tone possible.
In a way, the fact that some of those Salazzle pheromones stuck to your clothing supported this spilled perfume story.
The elderly man didn't question your answers as he was just glad that his neighbor was doing well and went back home.
You finally took a seat in the police car and drove away.
The rest of your day was relatively pokemon-free with some exceptions.
Like that case of a Pitbull turned Eevee or the case of a Smeargle doing graffiti.
The Eevee's owner seemed responsible enough, and the Smeargle ran away before you managed to catch it.
The worst case, however, was spending 3 hours in highway traffic because a Snorlax decided to take a nap.
It got moved eventually as a military transport helicopter was used to fly it away somewhere else, but those were 3 hours of your life you didn't get back.
During that time you listened to the radio with some announcement that schools were going to get shut down for the foreseeable future.
That made you think that they would establish a curfew in the not-so-distant future.
"Great, more work," you thought to yourself.
As the workday ended, your colleague dropped you off at your house, and as you expected, the Snorlax was still in your driveway.
"He is still there..." your colleague comented.
"Yup," you answered.
"If you want, I could pick you up tomorrow." he offered you.
"Thanks. I'll call you, if he is still there tomorrow. See you tomorrow," you replied as you were leaving the car.
You investigated your front lawn.
The holes were deep.
Some of them had 3 visible parallel lines.
Whatever did it seemingly had 3 claws.
You didn't know if it had long arms or claws, but you hoped it was the former.
As for now, you'd rather avoid dealing with Poke-Krueger.
You went back home, threw your clothes into the washing machine, took a shower, ate some dinner, and ordered a CCTV camera off the internet in case that thing that destroyed your lawn returned.
You heard your phone buzzing
It was the Salazzle.
She has sent you a series of text messages.
"I'm sorry, please forgive me."
"I didn't know and didn't want to."
"It just happened."
"I'm sorry."
Your brain went into "what the fuck" mode.
"What do you mean?" you wrote to her.
"The mind control to get me shrimp," she wrote.
Your brain just short-circuited at that moment.
"Was she talking about the pheromones?" you thought to yourself.
You didn't mention much about Salazzle biology to her beyond the things she was supposed to eat.
She must have googled Salazzle and then connected the dots.
You did have the gas mask on until the fresh air displaced the pheromones.
Maybe the residual amounts were enough to subconsciously coerce you to get her food.
But at this point you weren't willing to split hairs over a bag of shrimp.
"Don't worry, you weren't mind-controlling me. The fresh air displaced most of the pheromones."
"But the shrimp!" she replied.
"I noticed you forcing yourself to drink coffee, and I was considering getting you some more adequate food. It was before I took off my mask, so you really shouldn't beat yourself up over the pheromones forcing me to get you some shrimp," you wrote.
"Especially today, as you had a very stressful day, and need to rest after all of it," you added in the next message.
"I thought you'd be angry at me. Thank you again. Good night," she wrote.
"Good night," you replied.
You finally went to sleep.
You fell asleep almost immediately.
Unfortunately this wasn't to last.
At 3 in the morning, you woke up.
You started hearing voices.
"Hide, hide, I must hide."
You started panicking.
You were never showing signs of schizophrenia or anything related to this point.
"Is this how it feels to turn into a Pokemon?" you thought to yourself in a panic.
You had close contact with Pokemon yesterday and even spent hours in the home of one of them.
You saw her instincts take over her human mind at times.
In a panicked leap, you turned the lights on.
Your skin was normal, but you weren't sure about the rest of the body.
At that moment you ran to the bathroom, turned on the lights, and took a look into the mirror.
Your face was still human, with no strange discolorations, growing fur, or additional body parts.
A wave of relief washed over you.
"Lights? Did someone notice? I must hide."
At this point you knew that these voices weren't yours and that someone was in your backyard.
Something was gnawing at the back of your mind with them.
"Telepathy?" You thought to yourself.
The voices continued.
"Can't fly. I must hide somewhere."
"A shed? It will have to do."
You turned off the lights.
"Lights off? Must have returned to sleep!"
"I can't make a sound, or they'll notice and call the police or, worse, the feds."
"I'll wait in the shed until they go to work, and then I'll escape."
You couldn't risk it.
You grabbed your gun, taser, and a flashlight and went outside barefoot to be as silent as possible.
As you were sneaking closer to the shed, you felt the chill and wet blades of grass under your feet.
Each step is similar to the one before, thought out and calculated.
But your feet noticed something.
The texture of the ground changed to be more rough.
Like if most of the grass was removed in this place and left the soil underneath.
Coarse and rough.
You assumed it was the place that thing hit the ground.
It was either moving fast or had some mass to deal this amount of damage.
You couldn't make out the exact shape of this destroyed patch of grass, but it felt elongated on one side.
You continued on your way to the shed with shallow breaths.
At that point you were just a few steps away from your shed.
"Something is coming; I can feel it," said the voice in your head.
Your heart started beating with fear you might have been discovered.
But as soon as you heard the voice, a car passed next to your house.
"A car? Thank God it was just a passing car," said the relieved voice.
You paused for a moment to let the skittering creature and yourself calm down and then continued your approach.
Unfortunately it was a temporary sense of relief, and your heart started beating harder with each step.
You put your finger to your neck vein to check your pulse.
To say the least, you could feel your blood rushing through like after an intense workout.
"What is that sound? Shit, someone must be outside. I must run NOW!" said the voice, now way more panicked than before.
At that point your cover was blown and you were out of options.
You crashed open the shed doors with a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other.
"FREEZE!!!" you shouted.
You heard the voices again.
"I-I can't see anything!"
"Wait, light?! I see light!"
"Am I dead?"
"I must be."
"Killed by a cop while hiding in a shed."
"A pathetic way to die."
You looked at the creature before you.
A Noivern completely disoriented by your flashlight.
You just stood there with your gun and flashlight pointed at the creature in your shed.
Like a deer in the headlights, it was staring into nothingness.
Its continued monologue still reverberating in your mind.
You didn't really like that feeling, as it felt like someone was shouting over your own thoughts.
Either way, you needed to get to the bottom of this situation.
"Calm down, you aren't dead. Just stay calm and don't try anything stupid." you said while turning off the flashlight.
"Wha? Y-You can hear me?" the Noivern replied.
"Well, I'm replying to you, so yes." you said.
Whatever light was in the area made it possible to notice the movement of the Noivern's head towards your hand.
"Please don't shoot me," the creature said nervously while backing off deeper into the shed.
"I'm not going to shoot you unless you try to do something stupid," you affirmed while lowering your gun.
"O-Okay..." it replied.
"Now tell me what you are doing in my shed at 3 in the morning." you said with an authoritative tone.
"Hiding. Trying to escape into the wilderness," it replied to your mind in a skittish fashion.
"Why?" you inquired further.
"Because I'm going to get hunted and dissected," the creature told you.
The creature went into its thoughts, like something wasn't adding up.
"Wait. How can you be so casual about all of this?" it asked in a confused tone.
"Let's just say you aren't my first run-in with a creature similar to yourself." you replied.
"What do you mean by that?" it inquired further.
"Isn't that obvious? A Pokemon with human intelligence." you stated.
"Now I want to know if you were human at any point in your life." you continued.
"How do you..."
"I'll take it as a yes," you interrupted.
The Noivern took a short break to gather its thoughts.
"I've been like this ever since the day after the attack in the city occurred a couple of days ago."
"I just went to sleep and awoke like this on the next morning." it continued.
"Wait. I can't speak. How do you even hear me?" it asked in confusion.
"You used telepathy on me. I heard your voice in my head when I woke up," you said.
"What?" asked the noivern for clarification.
You yourself were curious how telepathy worked and wanted to know if it was a controlled or passive thing.
"Think about a number between 1 and 10, but try not to tell me, and don't say anything in the next 30 seconds," you told the creature.
You didn't hear anything in your mind.
"Did you hear it?" the noivern asked after a while.
"No," you stated.
The Noivern seemingly could control its ability to speak through telepathy.
Even if the Noivern didn't tell you a number, you assumed that in those 30 seconds you'd hear anything from its thought process, but you didn't.
Say, did you speak to yourself out loud before turning? You asked.
"Okay, now you're starting to scare me," it replied.
"I wanted to know how this telepathy thing works. It either worked by using your ability to speak, or you were able to not think for prolonged periods of time to hide it," you said.
"Anyway. Do you want to stay in this shed, or do you maybe want to continue our conversation inside? It is surprisingly cold for this time of year." You said.
The creature clearly didn't know how to approach your offer.
"I don't trust you," the Noivern replied.
"Fair, I pointed a gun at you after all. You are completely justified in not trusting me. But if you want any help in your current situation, then I'm very much willing to help." You turned around and started going towards your house.
Possibly it didn't have contact with the outside world like the Salazzle. And the fact it wanted to escape into the wilderness for whatever reason.
You thought to yourself that maybe it lost control to its instincts like the Salazzle when she ran up the wall, or maybe it was a calculated move to abandon the remaining shreds of its humanity.
"Wait," said the creature.
"How would you even help me?" it asked.
"As of now I'd need to learn more about your situation to even begin to search for solutions. Each case is different to my knowledge, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But you >can trust me in the fact that you aren't my first encounter with the likes of you," you said.
"If you can help me, then I'll come with you," said the creature in a defeated tone.
As the two of you entered the house, you instinctively turned on the lights.
"Please turn those off," said the noivern while covering its eyes with its wing.
"Oh, sorry, my bad," you said while turning the lights back off.
You knew that noiverns were more acclimated to dark environments and that light was making them more timid.
It was a good thing to know in case.
You led the Noivern to your kitchen to have a discussion.
It jumped on a chair to be on the same eye level as you.
"Tea, coffee, some snacks?" you offered.
"No thanks," it replied.
You poured water into the electric tea kettle, turned it on, and sat at the opposite side of the table from the Noivern.
"So why did you want to escape into the wilds?"
"Hunger and fear mostly. I had a week's worth of food at my house. Unfortunately, most of it was inedible for me, and the thought of eating those things made me physically recoil. I >ate some fruits, vegetables, and meat, but that wasn't really much. I tried suppressing my hunger with coffee, but that only made me throw up."
"Didn't you try to contact any friends or family who could have helped you?" You asked.
"I tried. But I couldn't open my phone because I put it in facial recognition mode and my PC is broken. It doesn't turn on anymore." it answered.
"Rotten luck, huh?" you replied.
The kettle turned off, so you went and poured yourself some tea.
Your eyes jumped to the fruit bowl you had on the counter.
You considered grabbing one or two pieces of fruit but instead just grabbed the entire thing.
"Here, eat," you offered your entire fruit bowl to the Noivern.
It looked confused but thankfully not like it was on the brink of starvation.
"Thank you," it said before starting to eat.
The Noivern must have been starving, as it devoured the fruit more like an animal than a human.
You started doing math in your head about how much food a Noivern would need.
Flying is very energy intensive, so a Noivern must have a very demanding metabolism by default.
And considering this one didn't have the best landing in your backyard, it was either tired, weakened, or very new to flying.
The fact that it even tried to suppress hunger with coffee told you that it most likely ran out of edible food very early on.
You continued sipping tea from your cup while observing the creature eat.
Not much was really left in the bowl beyond some apple cores and banana peels.
"Thank you again," said the creature after finishing its 3 in the morning snack.
"No problem," you replied.
"Now who are you?" you asked?
The question seemed to have hit a nerve, as the relatively calm Pokemon became agitated.
"Who am I? I have a better question. Who the hell are you?! You pointed a gun at me, psychologically profiled me, and told me to play along with your telepathy experiment. What do you >want from me?!" Said the noivern while taking a more defensive posture.
"If you want to know, I'm a police officer who wants to help you," you said calmly while sipping tea while feeling your heart rate increase.
"Bullshit. You want to sell me off to the feds," it said angrily.
"And your proof being?" you said while your eyes wandered over to your taser and gun.
"I can hear your heart racing like your entire plan just unraveled and you are trying to salvage the situation. Do you think I'm stupid?!" said the Noivern with venom in its tone.
You had to deescalate the situation on the spot.
It had a hard time trusting you, and if you didn't do anything now, it could end badly for one or both of you.
"You are misconstruing my intentions here," you said calmly.
"Yeah, it is me who isn't open about their intentions here. You are the one cowering in fear, not me," replied the Noivern in a mocking tone.
"If I wanted to shoot you, I'd have done it when you were in the shed. If I wanted you alive, I'd use my taser. My heart is not beating because my "master plan" has gone up in smoke. It is beating because you are inherently dangerous, and you are behaving aggressively towards me," you said in a more authoritative manner.
You were considering using a taser but remembered that light is capable of calming Noiverns down.
With a quick move of your hand, you turned the light back on.
The Noivern recoiled and hid its head beneath its wing.
"Do you understand that?" You asked the now terrified creature.
"Y-Yes. I-I understand," said the Noivern in a submissive way.
"Now if you really want me to help you, you will cooperate; if not, feel free to fuck right off to your house or the nearest forest; the door is right there," you said in a tone meant to force cooperation.
"P-Please. Help me, I-I don't want to die," said the creature with a tone close to bursting into tears.
"I'm not going to sell you out, so please calm down and let me help you," you said calmly.
"C-could you turn the lights back off?" the Noivern requested.
"Fine. But if you pull another stunt like that, those lights are going to get turned on again. Understand?"
"Y-Yes..."
You didn't like how this encounter was going.
The Noivern was flip-flopping between aggressive paranoia and fear of death depending on if the light was on or off.
You had to try a different approach here.
You decided to introduce yourself to the creature with hopes for it to maybe open up a bit.
The noivern took its time to formulate a response.
"My name is... Derek," it answered
Well it is at least some progress.
"Nice to meet you, Derek," you followed up.
"Now what?" He asked.
"Now I will need to ask you about why you flew away from your home." you said.
"Didn't I answer that one already? I was afraid and hungry." he said with slight irritation.
"Yes I know that, but I need to know the deeper reason." you replied.
"Deeper reason?" he inquired.
"Yes. What I mean is if that decision felt to you like your rational human mind told you to or if it was something more primal," you stated.
"I don't exactly understand." he replied.
"Ehh... I had a case with someone who turned into a Pokemon previously. Said individual behaved as human as possible but in moments of stress would act out in more like an animal would have acted," you brought up the case of the Salazzle as an example.
"I get it now... But I'm not sure... It kind of feels like both were the case," he said while gathering his thoughts between the sentences.
"What do you mean by that?" You asked him to explain.
"I had the desire to escape somewhere, maybe fly to some friends or family members, but the back of my mind told me that the wilderness was a safer place. It made sense to me in a way. I didn't know I had telepathy at that point and didn't know if they would recognize me and not just call the police, feds, or whatever on me. The forest also seemed like the best way to get food, even if I didn't know how to forage for it or hunt. It felt... Instinctive yet at the same time logical." He said.
You decided to relocate to the living room, as that place had some lamps that could have their brightness adjusted.
"Is this ok?" you asked the Noivern, trying to find the brightness sweet spot.
"Y-Yes... This is fine..." he replied.
"Ok. I think you should fly back home. I'm going to drive to your home during job hours and try to help with your PC and/or phone," you suggested.
"That might be a problem..." Derek said.
"Why?" you inquired.
"I-I'm afraid of heights..." he replied, ashamed.
"But you flew here," you said in a confused tone.
"Yes, b-but..." he stuttered out.
"But?" you inquired further.
"I-I don't know how I did it... It felt like I wasn't in control when I flew. When I regained my grasp on the situation, I crash-landed in your backyard. In a way it felt like breathing. You don't think about doing it until you do think about it, and then you are breathing manually," he said, trying to capture the feeling.
You were curious how it worked on a psychological level.
It seemed that the human and pokemon parts of him were interacting with each other.
You remembered watching a YouTube video about separating brain hemispheres and how people acted afterward.
Maybe this was something similar?
You didn't really know how, as you were neither a psychologist, psychiatrist, nor neurologist, and all of this was way above your pay grade.
On the side, you wanted to slap Derek for making you breathe manually.
"Do you think you could try flying again?"
"I don't know if I could do it."
"Fine then. You can stay here for the rest of the night. I'm going to drive you to your house then." you said.
"Can't you drive me there now?" he asked, confused about the entire ordeal.
"You seem to have a house with a garage, so I assumed you have a car." he followed up.
"Well, I do have a car, but it is temporarily... unavailable," you said.
"Like broken?" He asked.
"More like the driveway is blocked by a Snorlax," you replied.
"What is a Snorlax?" the Noivern asked, not knowing what to think.
You opened the door and shined a light on the place where the Snorlax was located.
The noivern followed you and stuck his head out of the door to look at the creature.
As expected, the Snorlax was still there.
Sleeping.
Digesting.
Blocking your driveway.
The confused Noivern backed off from the giant mountain of lard back into the confines of your house.
"Relax. Despite how it looks, it is harmless," you said.
"How long has that thing been there?" he asked.
"Since the Aggron attack a few days ago," you replied.
You closed the door behind you, behind lock and key, and returned to the discussion.
"So. I'm staying here?" asked Derek.
"For a couple of hours, yes," you replied.
"If you want to go to sleep, feel free to take the couch. I also have a set of pull-up bars in the doorway so you could hang off of them," you continued.
"Why would I hang off of them?" he asked, confused.
"I don't know. You look particularly bat-like, so I assumed you might like sleeping upside down," you answered.
"Okay..." he replied in a way that was like you were trying to insult him, but he wasn't sure.
"Anyway, there is the toilet if you need it. I assume you still know how to make use of it," you said while pointing with your finger to the toilet door.
"Are you going to go to sleep as well?" he asked.
"No. My shift starts in, like, 3 hours, and I can't really fall asleep after this whole ordeal. I'm going to probably waste time watching some movie or playing some games. At least I've got an excuse," you stated.
"Ever since I turned, my sleep schedule has been inverted. Sleeping during the day and wide awake during the night. And as of now I'm not really that sleepy," he stated.
"Anyway, I'm going to watch a movie. Time for that streaming subscription to finally pay off. I've beenonlywatching news chanels lately."
"If you want, feel free to join," you offered.
You were swapping between movies for something worthy of note, but most of them didn't really grab you.
Instead, you switched to some old movies.
As you were browsing through them, you heard Derek say something.
"He didn't fly so good," he said while chuckling to himself.
He must have started talking to himself again.
You looked at the screen, and there it was: The Dark Knight Rises.
You felt your inner autist take over.
So you turned to him with a serious face.
He took notice and looked at you with concern.
"You're a big guy," you said to him.
"For you," he replied.
In that moment, the both of you started laughing hysterically.
The moment you regained some self-control, you decided to continue.
"Was being caught part of your plan?" you said.
"Of course," he replied.
At this point the both of you were laughing even more than before.
Derek fell off the couch from it, and your sides went into overdrive.
Not only that, but your head also started aching.
You weren't sure if this was because you were just laughing this hard or if telepathy had this effect on your brain.
The pain wasn't enough to stop you from laughing, though.
You hoped your neighbors wouldn't hear it because they'd think you went insane.
As far as you knew, the only one who could be heard was you, as Derek's voice was in your head.
The both of you calmed down after a minute and put the Kino on the screen.
You managed to survive the intro scene when it came on.
The two of you even managed to simultaneously say,"Crashing this plane..."
But at "With no survivors," you were back at reeling on the floor.
At that point you knew that the two of you would get along.
You watched the entire movie with several such laughter breaks occuring.
Any tension from the initial meeting was gone just like that.
After the movie was over, you checked the time and made some coffee to prepare for work.
You waited for your colleague to call you to ask if he should pick you up.
The Snorlax hasn't moved an inch since you last checked.
Derek, however, started acting more sluggish.
Maybe it was just his Noivern body telling him to go to sleep during the day.
You were thinking that once your colleague picked you up, you'd drive Derek straight to his house and rip the bandaid straight off and be done with it.
You were considering making a group chat with him and the salazzle.
A support group of sorts.
Speaking of the poison fire type.
The Salazzle sent you an image.
It was a picture of the shrimp and eggs she made herself for breakfast.
You were genuinely impressed, as you never thought one could mix eggs and shrimp and make it look good.
Either that or you were just culinarily illiterate.
Your culinary area of expertise was grilling with charcoal.
You sent her a reply about how it looked delicious.
You put down the phone and turned on the TV to watch the news.
Same shit, different day, really.
There was an interview in which some general was bragging about the so-called "Snorlax meadow."
The footage showed an entire meadow being fenced off just to contain Snorlaxes.
Each of those Snorlaxes had a number painted on its belly, probably to keep track of them in case one of them were to escape.
Like if those things had the willpower to do it in the first place.
You saw that one of the Snorlaxes in the footage was walking.
You didn't know how to describe it.
It was like a stereotypical person who eats at Heart Attack Grill had the grace of a blue whale.
"Do you think any of them are former humans?" asked Derek, half asleep.
"Maybe, but I'm not sure; we don't have enough information about how this even happens in the first place," you answered.
"Some Pokemon might be restricted to humans while others to animals; we simply don't know as of now," you followed up.
The interview ended with a discussion about how they are keeping a fleet of trucks to go from supermarket to supermarket to collect as much expired food as possible in case one of the Snorlaxes got hungry.
An interesting way to deal with food waste, all things considered.
Your phone started buzzing.
It was your colleague.
"Is the Snorlax still there?" he asked.
"Yup," you answered.
"Ok, I'll be at your house in 20 minutes, maybe 30, depending on the traffic," he replied.
You put down your phone and returned to watching TV and drinking your coffee.
You switched your attention to the Noivern for a moment.
"Derek, can you tell me, once we get to your house, will you be able to get inside?" you asked.
"I'm not sure. I locked the door to my house and never unlocked it since I turned. When I tried to escape, I used a window to get out, so I'd need a bit of a boost to get back inside," he replied, now half awake.
You continued watching the news.
Some guy from the CDC showed up and talked about a bunch of nothing.
They were investigating if this was contagious or genetic or whatever but didn't have any results yet.
The guy gave you the impression of him just being there to assure the public that the situation was under control, not to actually inform anyone about anything going on.
At this point Derek was lying curled asleep on your couch.
As your colleague arrived, you went out to greet him and shook hands.
"I can't do this anymore, man," he said before taking in a deep breath of cigarette smoke into his lungs.
"What happened?" you asked with concern.
"I wake up in the morning, go to take my morning piss, and then I look into the toilet bowl, and a red fish is taking up most of it."
"A Magikarp?" you asked.
Your colleague just nodded.
"That thing was stuck and was trying to escape. It was flopping hard enough that it cracked the porcelain. It did get out eventually and started flopping on the floor," he said before taking a break to inhale more smoke.
"I just threw it into the bathtub and filled it with water and decided to deal with it after work. The toilet still held water, but the crack ran through the entire thing. I wouldn't take a seat on it for the life of me," he continued while exhaling the smoke.
"Anyway, how was your night and/or morning?" he asked.
"I had another encounter with a human-turned Pokemon," you said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Another one? Did this one at least speak?" he asked.
"Telepathy this time. Very weird feeling." you answered.
"Guy crash-landed in my backyard after trying to escape into the wilderness. He said he turned into a Noivern on the night of the Aggron attack," you continued.
"Turned into a what now?" he asked for clarification.
"A bat-dragon Pokemon," you answered.
"And where is he now?" your colleague inquired.
"He is currently sleeping on my couch," you answered.
"And what are you going to do with him?" he asked and took in another breath of smoke.
"I wanted to drive him back home." you said.
"Can't he, like, fly?" he asked, confused.
"He can but he is afraid of heights." you said.
"Oh the irony. So we drive him back home and return to business as usual?" he asked.
"That's the plan." you confirmed.
The both of you went to grab the Noivern.
Derek was sleeping, and it was very hard for you to wake him up, but you did.
He wasn't exactly thrilled.
Barely moving and completely disoriented.
When you got him to the door, he refused to move outside.
"S-Sorry, I-I can't," he said sluggishly.
"Holy shit, that's a strange feeling," chipped in your colleague, probably overwhelmed by how telepathy worked.
"Why can't you leave?" you asked calmly.
"I-I don't know. M-Maybe the light?" he said sluggishly while shaking.
"This is of no use," you said.
"What is the problem?" asked your colleague.
"The only way in or out of his house is through a window. He is in no state to try to climb in," you said.
"Besides, he behaves differently based on light levels, and he seems to be too tired to even try at this point," you continued.
"So what now?" asked your colleague.
"I guess we'll have to wait till evening and try again," you said.
"Aren't you afraid that he might trash up your house or steal anything?" asked your colleague with a concern on his face.
"Nah, Derek's chill. We watched The Dark Knight Rises together," you replied.
"A strange way to judge someone's character, to say the least, but I guess you have other reasons," he continued.
You turned your attention to Derek, who was slowly drifting back to sleep.
"Derek, are you still there?" you asked him while waving your hand in front of his eyes.
"Y-Yes..." he answered, desperately trying to stay awake.
"Good. Now listen to me. We will return for you in the evening; try not to trash the house in our absence, ok? And if anything happens, I left the back door open just in case," you said to him.
"O-Ok. I'm just gonna go to sleep," he answered.
The drive to the station was relatively uneventful.
You were talking about your next steps and going out to buy a toilet and CCTV camera after work.
Your colleague was just blasting his playlist the whole way through.
With such hits on it like Bad Boys, he certainly wasn't beating the stereotype.
You personally didn't mind, and in a way you kind of liked it.
There was a certain appeal to pulling into the station's parking lot while blasting Bad Boys.
You stepped out of the car and went inside.
The fed chick from yesterday was still there, but something was off about her, but you couldn't tell what.
Some other feds were there as well, but you didn't recognize them.
You were just going to get what you needed to do and go on patroll.
Unfortunately for you, your plans were delayed by another fed showing up to waste your time.
This time a guy from the CDCshowed up in a yellow hazmat suit like he was entering some quarantine zone.
He just stopped everyone from working to tell you about how the people at the CDC used an AI to go through Pokemon reports and concluded that our town was above average in the number of Pokemon showing up.
In addition, he said something about it maybe being contagious and taking precautions against getting infected.
In that case, most people here would already be infected and just waiting to show symptoms.
Considering that 90% of the people in the building were exposed to Pokemon in the last few days.
That honestly could have been an e-mail, considering how much he told you.
He finished and proceeded to go and bother the captain.
"Do you think it is genetic or contagious?" asked your colleague.
"Either way it sounds like bad news," you answered
"Care to elaborate a bit on that?" he asked.
"If it is genetic, the transformation might as well be inevitable but is at least predictable. If it is contagious, we have to deal with the existence of asymptomatic carriers," you answered.
"So inevitability and paranoia, huh? I'd prefer the former, honestly. I had my share of societal paranoia with Covid," he said while leaning back against the wall.
"Like there would still be a bit of paranoia in it, however," you said.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, we don't know the age brackets of onset in that case. We don't even know if you could be born as a Pokemon. For all we know, one could turn into a Pokemon the next day after >being born or when on their deathbed," you answered.
"In my opinion, one could probably narrow it down when it happens or maybe delay it using some medicine," he stated.
"Maybe yes, maybe no. We don't know, and as of now the CDC just wasted the time of everyone here by not providing any explanations or solutions to the situation," you answered.
There was some shouting heard from the captain's office that halted your discussion.
In fact, the entire office went silent.
The captain was certainly not pleased by the CDC worker obstructing his work even more.
You couldn't really blame him, as in his position you'd probably have a far lower bullshit tolerance than he did.
"Fucking feds..." muttered your colleague.
"It takes effort to make the old man this angry," he continued.
You just nodded in approval and returned to doing your paperwork.
Your colleague, however, tried to listen in to make out what was happening inside.
He didn't get much out of it, as the words were too distorted to make anything out.
After a while the CDC worker left.
Out of curiosity, you decided to take a look out of the station to where he went.
There was a truck unpacking some medical equipment and building some temporary structures roughly 100 yards away from the station in the plaza.
It looks like they are going to stay for a while.
"Have you finished gawking yet?" you heard the clearly still angry voice of the captain behind you.
"I want to have a word with you. Follow me to my office. Now." he said sternly.
You didn't know what the captain wanted from you, but you had your suspicions.
The Pokemon theme was playing from his computer as he was seemingly binging the anime in the background.
A box of doughnuts took up space on his desk.
"Take a seat," he ordered you.
"Feel free to take one if you want," he said while pointing to the doughnuts.
You decided to take one of them, not wanting to agitate the captain after what happened with the CDC guy.
"So. Now tell me why your colleague left you behind yesterday when he dropped off that druggie here," he said in a stern voice.
You knew he wanted to know what happened during your Salazzle encounter.
And you didn't know what to tell him or even if you should tell him.
You were getting nervous.
You could tell him the truth about the fact that you encountered another human that turned into a Pokemon, or you could try to fabricate some bullshit.
Unfortunately, you doubted that the latter would work on a man who worked in this job for so many years.
Trying to change the topic or deflect it wouldn't work either.
There was no way out; you had to get clean.
"The woman we went to perform a wellness check on has... Turned," you said in a quick and hushed tone.
"She accidentally destroyed her door and needed it replaced. Her mental state wasn't good at that point, so I decided to stay and make sure she didn't harm herself," you followed up.
"Why didn't you bring her here?" He lowered his tone to match yours, catching up to what you were planning.
"We couldn't. She has abilities that could corrode metal in seconds. If we tried to move her, our car would have turned to dust at the smallest bump on the road," you quickly stated.
"You could have at least informed us about the situation!" he rose up from his seat and whisper-shouted at you.
"We didn't want to risk getting the feds involved in her state," you stated.
The captain's anger deflated as quickly as it inflated.
He focused on his internal thoughts.
The captain sighed like he empathized with your situation.
"I get your actions. I really do. I just wish I had a heads-up about it earlier. At least I hope you didn't just leave her to her own devices after you drove off," he said.
"No. We exchanged information to stay in contact. Her last message to me was an hour ago," you answered.
"Well, at least the two of you did something different. All that was achieved with that seal girl was getting her a bigger pool and putting her family home under semi-quarantine," he explained.
"We had plans to move the family somewhere quiet so that they wouldn't need to deal with the media vultures, but the feds blocked the idea," he followed up.
"Why?" you inquired.
"I, too, would like to know. But if I did, my job would be easier, and we can't have that," he said with irritation.
"You know? The only people who didn't make my job more difficult were from the military. Those guys are at least helping with roadblocks. Everyone else either didn't help at all or made my job actively more difficult," he followed up.
"And that man from the CDC?" you asked ascuriosity got the better of you for a moment.
"Don't even get me started on them. Because we as officers have had a lot of contact with Pokemon in the last few days, they want to collect medical data from us," he stated with dissatisfaction.
"What type of data?" you inquired further.
"What do you think? Everything. From urine and stool samples to blood and spinal taps. And if they find something suspicious, they'll even put you under quarantine," he said.
"Isn't that good in the long term?" you asked.
"Maybe. The problem is that we are already short-staffed, and we can't really afford to have an officer or even multiple officers unable to do their jobs," he said.
"I'm sorry for getting carried away. I'm just so tired by all of this," he said in a defeated tone.
In a way you felt like he wanted to just confide his experiences with someone so he could let his anger out.
He became significantly less agitated afterward.
"Returning to the subject at hand. Are you sure she is going to be fine? Maybe we should send some psychological help her way, considering the way you described her mental state?" he >asked concernedly.
"I don't know. It could possibly help, but I don't want to risk the feds finding out. The less people know about it, the better, in my opinion," you stated.
The captain entered his thoughts again.
"Do you think that communication via text will be sufficient? I still think we should get a psychologist involved either way," he said it coldly, like he was calculating things.
"The thing is that her biology has completely changed, so as of now she can't use any medicine and can only do therapy, and I'm not sure how it would interact with her Pokemon >instincts. Yesterday I worked hard to get her trust, and sending in someone else who doesn't get her situation might backfire, I'm afraid. I don't want to risk her feeling abandoned, >especially as she doesn't have anyone else to turn to," you explained your stance.
"I will try to visit her when I get the opportunity. Maybe after a while I'll manage to convince her to reach out to other people again," you followed up.
"I can see it working in the short term, but you might get problems when dealing in the long term. You are a good cop through and through, and I have to commend that," he said.
"Hmm. Perhaps if you could get more people who turned into Pokemon involved, we could get a support group of sorts rolling," he stated with hope in his voice.
"That could work," you replied.
"Well. I guess we both know what needs to be done," he said.
The two of you talked over the details of this plan for a while before returning to your duties.
As you were exiting his office, you saw a brownish stain on the wall, like a liquid had been spilled on it.
You didn't expect the Lucario to return directly to the station, but it did.
In addition, there was a suspected criminal and his Houndoom, who seemed to be exact matches to those from a recent report.
A full 911 emergency team of police, medical personnel, and firefighters was sent to that neighborhood.
Most likely they won't have to deal with any Pokemon, but they'll still have to assess the damages and make sure no one got hurt or nothing bursts into flames.
The captain, on the other hand, was arguing with the head honcho of the CDC about who has the authority in this situation.
The CDC and forensic specialists were picking the car clean of anything that might be considered genetic material or evidence.
And the K9 unit had to borrow a fire proximity suit from the fire station just to deal with the Dark-Fire type.
Meanwhile, you and your colleague were made to make sure the wannabe very best, like no one ever was, didn't try anything stupid.
In your eyes he was just your regular upstart punk.
All the bravado that he might have had was gone when faced with two cops standing in front of him.
As expected, the kid bent like a wet noodle and confessed to everything.
The kid is in deep legal shit and can get sent to juvie depending on how the process goes.
Most likely they would just use already existing laws, so the kid is getting charged with assault, animal cruelty, and destruction of property, among others.
As for the Lucario.
It ran away; most likely its instincts kicked in when faced with a lot of people, some in brightly colored hazmat suits.
There might be an attempt to search for it, but you seriously doubted it, as last time it didn't work.
And the police at the moment have more pressing issues than a Pokemon performing a lawful citizen's arrest.
Like the feds shoving their fingers everywhere where they don't belong or Pokemon that can actually cause real damage.
And speaking of the devil...
The captain returned from his heated argument, followed by the CDC head honcho.
"Agent Moss, CDC," he introduced himself.
"I'd shake your hand, but circumstances make it impossible at the moment," he continued.
"I'm here to direct you to the correct quarantine tent for the suspect. Now please follow me," he stated.
You and your colleague didn't argue and followed him to the designated tent.
As you entered it, you saw that there was a relatively big box made from a reinforced type of glass or maybe a form of plastic with tubes and other medical equipment attached to it.
"This chamber was supposed to be for people who reportedly turned into Pokemon. But for now it will be used for holding criminal suspects who had contact with Pokemon," said Allen >after noticing your fascination with the chamber.
"Why use it though and not just put him in regular quarantine or any of our cells?" you asked.
"Because your captain requested a higher level of security than regular quarantine, but none of your cells were suited to be used for quarantining, so we came up with this compromise. >And by my and your captain's demeanor, you can safely assume that no one is happy in this arrangement," he said in a disinterested way.
You kind of got the guy.
As the police had to deal with them, they had to deal with the police.
A stupid pendulum of bullshit, you could even say.
"So can we now leave?" you asked.
"Sure, just make sure to take some of thosespecimen cups on your way out. Tomorrow we are going to begin testing." Moss replied.
Asthe two ofyou left the tent, you were approached by the woman from the FBI.
"Anything we can help you with, ma'am?" asked your colleague.
"Yes, there is something you can help me with," she said coldly, skipping her introduction and just flashing her badge in front of you instead.
You knew that this would be a long day.
You, your colleague, and the only dog handler from K9 that wasn't involved with the Houndoom were put into a search party by the FBI agent.
She managed to find some blood drops and blue tufts of fur in the kid's car, and she wanted to catch that Lucario.
You didn't know why.
Most likely some fed reasons you weren't supposed to know.
Either way, you had no other option than to go.
In short, the search itself was fruitless.
The trail left by the escaping Pokemon has proven itself to be more difficult than initially expected.
The dog lost the trail many times before finding it again on the other side of the building.
Neither the handler nor his dog was trained to deal with bipedal Pokemon parkouring over rooftops.
As the sun started to gain strength, your goose chase became more and more unbearable.
The dog handler and his dog were getting more and more exhausted by this whole ordeal.
By the time the party reached a busier road, the handler called it quits, as the dog had lost track and was exhausted.
At best you just narrowed down the Lucario's location to that certain direction.
At worst you just went and wasted time that could have been used better elsewhere.
During your return to the station, the fed chick seemed nervous all the way through.
You were curious about the reason that was the case.
By the time you returned, a couple of hours had passed.
The captain had an extremely displeased expression.
Not at you but at the fed that wasted your time.
You were supposed to be on patrol duty today and drive through the neighborhood, but that wasn't exactly made easier by what came later.
The area you were supposed to patrol was in the rough direction of where the Lucario had escaped, so the friendly neighborhood FBI agent decided to join you on your patrol.
You didn't know what her deal was, but it started to verge on an obsession.
You were half an hour into your patrol.
Neither you nor your colleague said anything during that time.
The FBI agent was sitting on the back seat where arrestees were kept.
In a way it was fitting.
Unfortunately for you, the silence would need to break at some point.
"You two are awfully quiet," said the agent.
"There isn't much to talk about," you replied.
"How isn't there much to talk about?" she asked, surprised.
"The world has changed, with billions potentially affected by it," she continued.
"And what is there to talk about? That the world is ending? Speculating on how this impacts the stock market? We know the answers to those questions, so we aren't wasting time on asking them," replied your colleague with a certain coldness.
You knew that he wasn't a fan of her.
In fairness, you knew that the only thing keeping him from telling her to shut up and fuck off was his desire to stay employed.
They continued to talk about essentially nothing for a while.
You, in the meantime, were looking out the window in search of anything worthy of note.
Occasionally using the rearview mirror to take a look at her, as it was perfectly angled to show you her while she was arguing with your colleague.
You knew previously that something was wrong with her, but you couldn't put your finger on it.
Now, as you were observing her, you noticed that her mouth movements were out of sync with what she said.
The constant fixing of her hair was also a strange behavior.
You'd consider it a form of OCD, but something was off about it.
There was something fake about her, something uncanny, and the more you saw, the worse it got.
At this point you wanted to speak in two eyes with your colleague and maybe inform your captain about this.
But for now you needed to find an opportunity to do so.
You didn't listen to the conversation between the agent and your colleague.
In fact, the agent was so preoccupied with it that she didn't even suspect that you were observing her through the rearview mirror.
Her talking speed was quite fast when she thought that she wasn't being looked at.
It must have been her natural talking speed, as when she dragged you on that goose chase, she was talking slower and with more deliberation.
You saw the golden McDonald's arches approaching.
Such beauty.
Such civilization.
You interrupted the conversation between the agent and your colleague.
"There's a McDonald's ahead. Want to grab something in the drive-through?" you asked.
"I guess we can take a break and eat something," he answered.
Instead of the drive-through, your colleague parked in the parking lot.
"We aren't going through the drive-through?" You asked.
"Nah. Go ahead and order inside. I'll join you once I've answered nature's call," he answered in the most casual way possible.
You turned your head behind the seat to ask the federal agent.
"Are you going with us or staying?" you asked the federal agent.
"I think I'll stay. Besides, I don't like McDonald's," she answered.
Her answer was slower and more careful, as you expected.
Even then, her poor lip-syncing was visible to you.
Maybe the untrained eye wouldn't have noticed, but over the last few days you have gotten a tad bit more paranoid than usual.
"Fine. We'll leave you the car keys so you don't have to stand outside, oryou can lock the carif you change your mind," said your colleague to her as he left the car.
When you entered the building, you let your colleague order first while you thought about your order.
He ordered quickly and went to the bathroom while his order was getting ready.
You got yourself a burger, some fries, a cup of coffee, and a wrap for later.
You started feeling those few missing hours of sleep impacting you, but you also had a theory to prove.
You sat at the table, which blocked vision between you and the car in which the FBI agent was sitting.
You didn't have to wait long for your colleague to return.
"Thank God this place actually cleans their toilets. I've heard horror stories of those," he said with relief as he took a seat in front of you.
"Orders aren't ready yet?" he asked.
"Nope," you answered.
You took a look outside the windows to see if anyone was observing you.
Thankfully, you saw no one.
"I wanted to ask you something," you said.
"About our friend from the FBI?" he countered.
"Yes, how did you know?" you asked.
"There is something wrong about her even if I can't put my finger on it," he replied.
Your conversation was interrupted by both of your orders being ready.
"I'm going to pick them both up," offered your colleague.
"Thanks, but I doubt that you can carry two trays' worth of food," you replied.
After a quick trip for the food, you resumed your conversation.
"Well, good to know I'm not the only one thinking that way. Anyway, do you know what is up with her?" asked your colleague.
"I think she might be a Pokemon," you replied.
"A shapeshifter? And I thought that those AI deepfakes would be the biggest problem for us to deal with." he said in a tone that said, "I'm not getting paid enough for this shit."
"Not necessarily. I think we might have a Zoroark on our hands, maybe a Ditto or a Latias." you said contemplatively.
"Sorry, but I don't know what any of those are," he said.
"Zoroark is a dark fox with a ponytail, or a normal-ghost fox, depending on the variant." you said.
"Normal-ghost. How can a ghost be normal?" he asked.
"Don't think about it too much. It just colored white." you said.
"Yeah, sure. And what about the other two?" he replied.
"The Ditto is a purple shapeshifting blob, and a Latias is a jet combined with a dragon," you said.
"Which is the most likely in your opinion?" asked your colleague.
"A Zoroark. Her lips and voice weren't synced. Like in a bad video game," you replied.
"And what is your plan?" he asked.
"Confront her about this. She wanted to find that Lucario for some reason, and I want to know why. For that matter, I want to know if she really works for the FBI or just pretends to," you replied.
"And how do you want to do that, huh?" asked your colleague.
"With this," you pointed at your cup of coffee.
"Coffee? How is that supposed to work?" he asked confusedly.
"You see, I have a theory. Pokemon don't like coffee. The Salazzle had a visceral reaction to it, and Derek can't stand it either," you said.
"Ok, but how are you sure she doesn't like it either? You know of two cases of Pokemon not liking coffee; there are bound to be exceptions to this rule if it even can be considered a rule with a sample size of just two," he stated with hopes of further inquiry.
"In the captain's office there was a brown stain on the wall. Most likely coffee. Someone must have spat it out considering how it looks," you replied.
"A part of me wants to think that you are wrong in this case, but there is something inherently wrong with that woman. You know? I'm going to call the captain and ask him about the situation; maybe he can enlighten us about it," he said.
The conversation was quick, but it more or less confirmed your suspicions.
It was the FBI agent who spat out coffee in his office.
Apparently because "it was too hot and she burned her mouth."
The captain wasn't exactly pleased to hear that we might have been infiltrated by a Pokemon with unknown motives, but he gave you the green light to go ahead with our plan.
You left the McDonald's and went to your car with a caffeinated beverage in hand.
"Well, it took you long enough." said the agent when you approached the car.
She was sitting half inside the car, looking up things on her phone and avoiding eye contact.
"My keys, please," said your colleague to the agent with a stretched-out hand.
"Here they are," she said while handing them over.
"We got you some coffee," you said while handing over the cup.
"Thanks..." she replied, not really knowing what to do about it.
She slid back deeper into the car to the place behind where you were sitting.
You and your colleague proceeded with the second stage of your master plan.
The very moment you took your seats inside the car, your colleague closed the doors.
For all you knew, you had caught your first Pokemon.
The sound of the doors closing was clear to everyone.
For a while afterward, both you and your colleague were silent.
"Did you lock the doors?" she asked.
"Oh, I must have done it on accident," replied your colleague.
But instead of unlocking the doors, your colleague just turned on the car.
The atmosphere was getting tense as the reality of the situation started to dawn on the agent.
You let the silence ferment for a while as your colleague drove back in the general direction of the station.
"Did you know that some Pokemon can shapeshift?" you asked your colleague, breaking the silence.
"Great. Our jobs have now gotten more difficult now," he said with a tone resembling frustration, but you could see him grinning from your seat.
"Any ways to identify them? Silver, like in the Witcher games?" he asked.
"We can't afford silver. But what we can afford is a nice cup of dark McDonald's coffee," you said calmly.
Your colleague parked the car on the sidewalk.
Then the both of you turned around and faced the FBI agent.
"W-What the hell are you two even talking about?!" she said while trying (and failing) to sound pissed and professional.
"Oh, nothing. Just a routine checkup if you aren't one of them. You can never be too careful these days," said your colleague with a grin on his face.
She started to desperately try to open the car door in a panic.
At this point you didn't need any more proof for her not being exactly human.
Her disguise was slipping to the point that when she talked, her mouth wasn't even moving.
On the other hand, she might be a talented ventriloquist, and you needed to rule that possibility out.
You made sure to point a bodycam at her just in case something happened.
She was constantly grabbing her hair.
"Just drink the coffee or else..." you said before being rudely interrupted by her.
"Else what?!" she asked, angry and panicked.
"We will have to hand you over to the CDC for... testing..." continued your colleague.
That made her stop and consider her options.
"Fuck you two. Once my superiors hear of this, you'll rot in prison..." she said with a dose of venom.
With a quick move, she took a gulp of the now room-temperature coffee.
The first gulp partially broke her camouflage as you saw white and red strands of hair near her.
She tried taking a second one but simply couldn't and just spat it out.
Now her disguise was completely broken.
In an instinctive move, she tried to scratch the taste of coffee off her tongue.
Most likely not initially realizing that her disguise was blown.
However, it didn't take long for her to notice.
"A fucking normal ghost," said your colleague at the sight.
The Zoroark started clawing at the door to open it in desperation.
Unfortunately for her, this car has been reinforced so it could transport belligerent suspects and wouldn't give up so easily.
"Once I get out of here, your lives are over! No one is going to believe you. Do you hear me?!" she attempted to threaten you, but that was empty bravado.
You just pointed her attention to the bodycam that was recording her.
Her entire demeanor shattered in that exact moment.
She was caged up and couldn't escape.
She was recorded so she couldn't just turn back.
That very moment she just gave up even trying to escape.
Now you had the opportunity to ask some questions.
"You said I was a ghost, right?" asked the Zoroark.
"Yes, w..." replied your colleague before being interrupted.
The Zoroark jumped at your hand holding the bodycam.
As her arm was phasing through the partition wall, you somehow managed to pull it away in the last second.
Moments after, her arm was immovably stuck in the partition wall.
"I'm stuck. I'M STUCK!" shouted the Zoroark as she realized her situation.
"Shouldn't have attempted assaulting an officer," your colleague replied to her while chuckling.
"FUCK YOU! You imprisoned a federal agent! You have no right!" she continued shouting and struggling to get her arm free.
"Refusal to cooperate with a police officer," your colleague continued to antagonize her.
"ARGHHH!" she screamed while trying to pull her arm free using her feet for leverage.
Even if you considered it funny, this had to stop at some point.
"Enough of this for now. We have a job to do," you said to your colleague.
"And you stop before you get your legs stuck as well," you said to the Zoroark.
She relented for now, but her yellow eyes were full of bile.
"What do you want from me?" she said, furiously.
"We are holding you under the suspicion of potential identity theft and impersonating a federal employee," you said calmly.
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" she shouted.
You were curious if her behavior was influenced by turning into a Hisuian Zoroark or if it was her baseline.
It would be bad if she already was like that before and becoming aHisuian Zoroark doubled down on that.
"No. As a Zoroark, you have the capability to impersonate people, and that makes you a prime suspect in any potential crimes. So please cooperate with us," you replied.
"Now. Papers, please," said your colleague.
She clearly wasn't happy with it, but she had no other choice.
She was searching for something in her hair before handing it over to your colleague through a sliding window in the partition wall.
It was a badge and some documents.
Your colleague went through with them like any other checkup.
He looked at her and a document containing her photo.
Most likely just to piss her off.
He was certainly having fun with this.
But after a while he decided to start asking questions about what those documents contained.
Name, surname, social security number, all that bullshit.
She answered all of those questions correctly, giving credence to the fact that she was who she claimed she was.
There was a small chance of her just having killed or imprisoned the original agent and assumed her identity, but you personally doubted it.
Your real goal was to find out what she wanted from the Lucario.
"Are you now going to release me now or what?" she asked angrily.
"Not yet; we have additional questions," you continued
"I swear to God, once my superior hears of this..." she said before cutting off.
"Leave your threats for later," you replied
"Now. When did you turn?" you asked her.
"I woke up like this today..." she replied.
"That's extremely recent. Why did you even come to the station today? You clearly don't know your abilities," you inquired further.
"Do you think I don't know that? I have been doing what I've been doing on instinct this entire time," she replied to you with venom in her voice.
"Why did you even come to the station then?" asked your colleague.
"Because I wanted to find out what has happened to me..." she replied.
"Well, no one at the station knows, so I assume it has something to do with the Lucario," you said to her.
"Correct. That's also the reason I picked the two of you to help me search for it. From the reports I read, I concluded that you would seem... more trustworthy, as you met it before. The moment it showed up at the station, I had to jump at the possibility," she stated.
"That's all well and good, but I doubt that the Lucario knew much about the current goings-on," said your colleague.
"Well, it is my best shot at finding out what is going on. That Lucario clearly has been transformed for a while at this point, considering how its abilities have developed. It might be one of the first transformation cases to occur," she said.
"So you are just searching just so you could ask it some questions in the hope it might know what is going on?" you asked.
"The other options are going to the CDC in hopes they'll find a cure or hiding somewhere until someone else finds it out," she replied.
"Well, that makes two of us in terms of not trusting the CDC. Then again, I don't trust the FBI either," replied your colleague.
"There is also another reason why I'm searching for it. A few days ago someone reported a missing person. I was at the scene. It was a break-in, or more accurately a break-out, as the broken glass was on the outside and blood was on the floor. We found several hairs and pawprints that belonged to some unknown species, most likely Pokemon. Black, red, and blue. The thing with blue colors in nature is that they are extremely rare. So I have grounds to suspect that the Lucario might have had some involvement with what happened," she explained.
She was far calmer when explaining the situation.
You were aware of that case, but with the current amount of shit going on, there were not enough officers to deal with everything.
There was a silence for a while as you took in the information.
From your experiences, theLucario never struck you as something malevolent.
It helped with the Aggron and brought in that kid with his Houndoom.
At worst it would fall under a form of vigilantism.
"Maybe there were more of them?" you thought to yourself.
"So what are you going to do with me now? Are you going to take me to the CDC?" asked the Zoroark.
"No. You are free to go." you replied.
"What?" she asked, confused about what you said, not knowing what to make of what you said.
You helped the Fedoark dislodge her arm from the partition wall.
Honestly, you just gave motivational speeches to her until she found a way to pull it out.
"Now what?" she asked once her arm was free.
"Like I said. Feel free to go home or whatever," you replied.
Your colleague opened the back door locks.
"You can't be serious," she replied.
"First you capture me, then you force me to reveal myself, and you record it so you can have blackmail on me, and now you are essentially telling me to fuck off like nothing happened?" she continued in a more agitated way."
"Why are you wording it like we told you to strip on camera against your will?" asked your colleague.
"BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU FUCKING DID!" she shouted at your colleague.
"Real smooth there..." you said to your colleague.
"I want to know what you want from me," she stated.
"Honestly, we didn't think that far ahead with it," your colleague replied.
"YOU FUCKING WHAT?" she shouted, even more agitated.
"Yeah, we had our suspicions that you weren't completely... human and needed to check," he replied.
"What gave it away?" she asked with anger but also a tone of fear in her voice.
"The way you spoke, being first and foremost. Your lips didn't match what you were saying at all. Watching you speak was like watching a dubbed movie," you explained calmly.
"You could have just asked!" she stated.
"Ah yes, asking a federal agent if they are a Pokemon in disguise and expecting them to give an honest answer," replied your colleague.
The Zoroark shrunk somewhat backwards, knowing that her alternative didn't exactly work.
"The second thing was coffee. We both saw you yesterday drinking coffee, and today you spat it all over the wall in the captain's office. The only two options were that you either became one or an impostor took your place," you continued.
"Wait, how do you know that Pokemon don't like coffee? I didn't see anything about it in the news or the reports." she asked.
"You are one yourself, aren't you?" she said it all smug, like she had you all figured out.
Your colleague rolled his eyes at what she said.
Maybe if you didn't tell him your thought process beforehand, he would have some suspicions of you.
Then again, he knew of two examples, and a third wouldn't be out of the question.
"Give me the coffee cup," you said to her.
Your colleague stopped you from grabbing the cup, however.
"Think for a moment, that cup had all her saliva over it! What if that is the vector?" he said to you.
"You have a point," you replied to him.
"Chickening out? Don't worry, your secret is safe with me," she said it with glee.
"We are driving back to McDonald's and getting another one," you said to your colleague.
Your colleague didn't object as you still had to return to the area to finish your patroll.
The Zoroark assumed her disguise again and sat there with arms crossed and a smug expression.
This time you pulled into the drive-through.
The two of you ordered the strongest and darkest coffee on the menu without sugar or milk and drove off.
You had to wait a bit till the beverage was safe to drink.
The entire time the Zoroark was smugly waiting for it to be proven right.
It was time to smear that smug illusion away.
You took one gulp of it, then another one, until the cup was empty.
Your colleague who had to keep his eyes on the road was taking a swing of it every so often, but he too finished his coffee as well.
Her smug expression disappeared for a while before returning again.
"So. The two of you aren't reporting on transformed individuals then. Tell me how many you have encountered so far so you could make such a safe assumption about Pokemon and coffee. I'm curious," she said even more smugly.
You fell into the trap you yourself set.
"It would be a bad time to start reporting them now, don't you think?" chipped in your colleague.
The Zoroark was taken aback at what he said.
Like she forgot that she was a Pokemon herself.
It was the classic Mexican standoff.
"Let us strike a deal. We won't rat you out to the CDC, and you won't rat us out to the FBI. Deal?" you offered her.
"Don't have much of a choice, do I? Deal," she replied.
"So now what are you going to do? Do you want us to drop you off somewhere?" you asked.
"Oh no, I'm staying with you till the end of the patrol. I still want to find that Lucario," she said.
"Fucking great," said your colleague under his breath.
You had no choice but to keep her around for the rest of the day.
The rest of the day itself was uneventful.
It would be kind of relaxing if not for the constant questions from the Zoroark.
"So do you have any advice for me?" she asked you.
"Advice for what?" you countered.
"How to live and survive like... this?" she followed up.
"Don't know, really. Maybe make some fake coffee with your illusions and pretend to drink it instead of the real thing? At some point the coffee thing might become common knowledge, so you could at least avoid getting caught that way," you said.
"Any other tips you could give me?" she asked.
"Not really. In terms of not getting caught in the first place, you should have an easy time. You can take human form, which is not something most Pokemon can do. If I were in your place, I would focus on fixing that lip-syncing of yours," you said.
For a while it was silent in the car.
You continued looking out for Pokemon and people breaking laws, but nothing happened.
Not even a call from the station to respond to something.
"So why didn't you report those cases?" she asked.
"They aren't breaking any laws, so why arrest them? We have more important things to worry about than some individual in their own home going about their daily routine, not bothering anyone, nor being a danger to anyone," you replied.
"That wasn't my question. Arresting and reporting are two different things. Why haven't I seen any reports mention it?" she countered.
"For the same reason we aren't going to report you," you said, quickly getting a bit tired of her constant interrogations.
It started to feel more like she was trying to establish a psychological profile of you than anything else.
What else to expect from a federal agent.
You returned after some time back to the station.
"So were you right about her?" asked the captain.
"No. That coffee was really too hot to drink," you said to the captain.
You didn't want to strain this "alliance" of yours so soon after establishing it.
You and your colleague proceeded to clock out for the day, but not without being harassed by the Fedoark in the parking lot.
"These big ears do have their benefits, you know?" she said to you.
"I'm surprised you just cleared me of the captain's suspicions," she continued.
"You're welcome. Do you want something?" you replied.
"I just wanted to tell you that I'll be joining you on your patrols for the foreseeable future.
"You still want to find that Lucario, don't you?" you said.
"You are free to stay in the partition. Anyway, when are you starting? Tomorrow?" asked your colleague.
"No, I have to do some stuff in forensics, as they were supposed to be done tomorrow," she replied.
"Anyway, we have to go. Good evening, Mrs.," you replied.
You drove off to get the stuff you were supposed to get.
A toilet, a CCTV camera, and a lot of fruit for Derek.
But first you had to drop off the toilet at your colleague's house, as he didn't want to drag it with him the entire way.
Your colleague invited you to his house.
Mostly because he wanted you to see the Magikarp.
You were greeted by his wife at the door.
Your colleague carried the piece of porcelain inside and put it down in the bathroom.
And there it was in the bathtub.
It was relatively big for what you've expected.
"So what are you going to do with it?" you asked.
"Exactly what are you going to do with it?" chipped in your colleague's wife.
"Ehh... I'm going to dump it into the river tomorrow after work. But first I need to get a container because I don't know how long these things can survive without water," he said.
"Do you have those plastic boxes at your place?" he asked.
"You mean those with clamps?" you asked for clarity.
"Yeah, those ones," he affirmed.
"I have them in my garage; you can borrow the biggest one when you drop me off," you replied.
"You're a lifesaver, man," he said.
After that you left.
Your colleague's wife wanted you to stay for a while for some tea, but you had to refuse.
While you were driving to your place, you had your attention split between talking with your colleague about random stuff and Salazzle sending you messages.
You had to give it to her; she could make some good-looking food.
Maybe you'd visit her when you get a day off to check up on her.
But for now you had to deal with the bat in the cave.
Your colleague parked your car in front of your house.
As expected, the Snorlax was still there.
"I'm going to search for Derek. The containers should be on the left," you said to your colleague as you left the car.
The curtains were closed everywhere.
In fact, it was dark as shit at this time of day.
You didn't hear him in your head, so you assumed he was still sleeping somewhere.
You were about to push apart the curtains to let some light in and make your search easier, but you got a better idea.
"Ah you think darkness is your ally?" You said loudly.
You heard something thud onto the ground in the bathroom.
You weren't expecting this to work and were laughing hysterically because of this.
You went to the bathroom, and there was Derek lying in the bathtub, having fallen down the curtain bar.
If you had a nickel for each time you saw a Pokemon in a bathtub today, you'd have two nickels.
Which isn't a lot, but it is weird that it happened twice.
"Are you okay there?" you asked him.
"Eugh... What time is it?" he asked, confused.
"The sun is setting," you replied.
"Nice. I can now go outside without being flashbanged," he replied.
He crawled his way out of the bathtub.
"Strange place to fall asleep in.
"Oh, right. I don't know how I ended up here. I went to sleep on the couch and woke up here," he stated.
"Found the box. Are you ready to leave?" asked your colleague.
"Yeah, I'm just going to grab a blanket and a flashlight," you stated.
When you were getting ready to go, you put the Noivern on the back seat.
You gave him a flashlight in case he would be getting aggressive and a blanket to hide him from view.
By the time you arrived at his house, it was already dark.
You noticed that one window was open.
It must have been the same window he used to escape.
As expected, the door was closed, so you had to get him inside through the window.
It was a bit tricky but doable.
Basically you and your colleague threw him up so he could grab the window and crawl inside.
You forgot that Noiverns are 187.4 lbs in weight, so it was a bit difficult.
It reminded you that you needed to hit the gym more often.
"OK, I'm in; I'm going to let you in right away," you heard Derek's voice in your head.
"Now where did I put my keys?" he continued.
"Aha, found them; now to open the door," he said.
After a bunch of fiddling and cursing his bat hands, he finally managed to open the door and let you in.
You went ahead and tried to fix his computer while your colleague went and tried to cheese facial recognition using some of his photos.
Fixing the computer wasn't difficult in the slightest, as it wasn't even broken.
It just wasn't powered because the power strip to which everything was connected was broken.
You just found a replacement lying around in Derek's cable drawer, and the PC turned on.
Your colleague had less luck.
No amount of wiggling the photo would help.
You were considering getting help from Fedoark but you remembered she was a fed, and you didn't want her to know who the people who turned were.
"Do you have maybe an old phone lying around?" he asked.
"Yes, I have kept my old phone as a spare just in case for something like this," said Derek.
Your colleague quickly changed SIM cards so that he had a working phone.
"Anyway, here is your PC working and all tidy. The power strip broke, so no wonder it didn't turn on," you said to him.
"Thanks to you two. Now I'll need to inform friends and family that nothing happened during those days I was inaccessible," he said.
"Finally I'll be able to order some food off the internet," he continued.
"I almost forgot, I got you some fruit when we were at the store so you wouldn't have to starve tonight," you said to him before leaving the house.
You went back to the car and got a bag with fruits and brought it inside.
"Thanks, I'm going to pay you back," said the noivern while on its way to its wallet.
You refused to take money, but the Noivern was adamant.
In reality, you hoped this would happen because fruit prices have gone through the roof and you wanted your money back.
Before parting ways, you exchanged contact information just in case something happened.
Now you had 2 Pokemon in your contact list.
The drive home was as uneventful as it got.
You wanted to go to sleep and be done with the day.
When you were exiting the car, your colleague reminded you about taking the CCTV camera because you forgot to take it the first time and drove away.
You got yourself ready to go to bed.
Tomorrow was the last day of work before you were going to get two days off, and you desperately needed it.
The lawn still was a disaster.
The CCTV camera had yet to be installed.
You were in desperate need of some rest after all of what happened.
Shower, dinner, bed.
You fell asleep quite fast.
Once you woke up, you checked up on everything you had to do.
Made some breakfast and watched the news, which added nothing new to the discussion.
You checked on the Snorlax, which was still there.
It started to become routine for you.
Your phone started buzzing; it was your colleague.
"Still there?" he asked.
"Still there," you replied.
"Good, because I'll need your help with something," he said.
"Help with what exactly?" you asked.
"My wife wanted the fish gone now, and I'll need some help with disposing of it. So could you get ready a bit earlier than usual, as I'd need to take a detour to dump it into the river?" he replied.
"Sure. Not like there is anything to do anyway. I'm just going to finish my breakfast," you replied.
"Thanks, man, you're a lifesaver," he said as he hung up.
You scurried to finish your breakfast, and by the time you did, your colleague was already at your door.
The two of you drove to the closest point to the river.
The Magikarp was in the car's trunk.
The container was mostly full of water, to the point you wanted to know how your colleague managed to lift it.
"Had to fill it nearly to the brim with a garden hose as the fish was thrashing around, and I feared it might break the box. Thankfully the water made it calm down," he said to you.
You both grabbed the container and carried it down to the river.
The weight wasn't as bad as you thought it would be.
The ergonomics of the box, however, were.
By the time you got to the water, your hands were sore.
You didn't waste time and just threw the fish into the river to be done with it.
By the time you got to the station, you were a bit late, but you doubted anyone would have cared.
The CDC was still running around the parking lot, and everyone in the station itself was doing the same.
The FBI agent was nowhere to be found, most likely spending time at forensics.
You just clocked in, got your paperwork in order, and went on patrol.
Unfortunately, the CDC blocked you from going, as they had to take some urine and blood samples from everyone leaving the building.
After your mandatory blood-sucking session performed by the government, you were free to go.
You drove through the city, met the guy whose pitbull turned into an Eevee from a few days ago, and had a chat with him.
Apparently his dog's name was "Melkor," of all things.
Going by Pitbull naming conventions, this dog was a saint.
Curious if it applied to Eevees and Eeveelutions.
You didn't really want to know what the toddler-mauling potential of an Eeveelution was, and you were hopeful to never find out.
Besides that, there were some sightings near the forest and so on, but not much of note.
You returned to the station and clocked out for the day.
On the way home, you checked your emails and messages to see if you were supposed to be at work for the next two days due to recent developments, and thankfully you weren't.
Two days to chill and relax.
After returning home, the first thing you did was open the fridge and crack open a cold one.
It felt great to finally relax after all this work.
You proceeded to play some video games and then went to sleep.
The feeling of going to sleep knowing that you don't have to wake up tomorrow to go to work was great.
By the time you woke up, it was half an hour before noon.
Either way, you had stuff to do for the day, like finally fixing the front lawn and getting the CCTV running.
You spent some time chatting with the neighbors about the current situation and if the Snorlax in your driveway was safe.
After getting everything done outside, you returned to your duties of checking up on how the two Pokemon you met were doing.
Surprisingly well, to say the least.
Salazle was happy cooking while Derek started training to fly in his backyard.
You were curious what Fedroark and Lucario were doing.
But on the other hand, they were work-related issues, and you wanted to relax for now.
You made a chat group with them, yourself, and your colleague, as no one had anything against the idea.
You spent the rest of the day gaming, and you went to sleep.
The next day you went to visit Salazzle.
You asked her if she had nothing against the idea, and she had not.
The Snorlax was still blocking your driveway, so you had no other choice than taking public transportation.
When you got to her house, you texted her to open the door, and she let you in.
She was happy to see you; as of now, you are the only person she felt like she could trust.
When you stepped into her house, she jumped at you and embraced you in a hug.
Even then she gave the impression of someone who is somewhat tired physically and emotionally.
She claimed she felt like this ever since she stopped drinking coffee.
This would match with caffeine withdrawal symptoms, but you still managed to offer some words of encouragement for her.
She made you some delicious-looking food.
After the last few days of eating simple meals and fast food slop, this was like a godsend.
"You should consider becoming a chef when all of it is over, because this is the best thing I've eaten all week since my last visit here," you said to her.
She clearly liked your compliment.
You explained to her the current situation with the CDC and if she was getting along with Derek.
After some chatting, you left back home to get ready for work tomorrow.
Your two days of freedom ended, and now it was time to get to work.
Coffee, breakfast, bullshit on the news, Snorlax in the driveway.
All became routine at this point.
You offered your colleague some money for the extra fuel he is using hauling your ass from point A to B, but he declined to take it.
You arrived at the station.
You got your paperwork done and let the CDC suck your blood again, and you were off again on patrol.
The Fedroark took her place on the back seat.
"So did you find something interesting?" you asked her.
"Yes, we found out that the red and black hairs belonged to two individuals of the same species," she replied.
"Does that change anything?" your colleague asked.
"Depends on what you mean by that. We don't know what the connection between these two was, as we don't know what the average genetic difference between unrelated individuals is. They might be related or completely unrelated, from what we know. Neither option can be excluded at this point," she stated.
"So what are you going to do now?" you asked.
"Same thing as before, find that Lucario as it probably knows more about the situation," she said.
"Isn't there anyone else, like friends or family, who might know or shine a light on anything?" you asked.
"They don't know anything either other than it happened. Without a breakthrough, that Lucario is the only thing that might help in the case," she continued.
You kept on driving around until you got an emergency call.
The Aggron broke containment and wasnow chomping down on the train tracks like on a Slim Jim.
Your colleagueturned on the police siren and tooka sharp 180-degree turn.
The turn was enough to put the fear of death into the Fedoark.
By the time you arrived, it was already over thanks to a familiar face.
The Aggron was returning into its junkyard through hole in a chain-linked fence out of all things.
In your mind it would have been replaced with something more durableby now.
Especially considering that the fence is made from a material that makes up most of an Aggron's food pyramid.
In the meantime, the Zoroark recovered from the driving experience and crawled outside.
"This is a perfect opportunity; I'm going to follow it to its den," she said to you, talking about the Lucario.
"And what if it notices and tries to attack you?" you replied.
"I'll change the way I look or simply run away," she replied.
Before you managed to dissuade her from doing it, she was already gone.
"Now what? Are we going to wait for her to return?" asked your colleague, noticing her disappearance.
"We are going to stay here for as long as we don't get recalled. If our agent friend manages to come back before that, then we'll pick her up. If not, she can walk or take public transportation," you said while leaning back into your seat.
Drops of rain started hitting the windshield as it started to rain.
"Do you think she is going to be bothered by the rain?" you asked your colleague.
"I don't know, but I hope that her hair is waterproof, or else she's going to drench this car," you replied, getting comfy in the seat.
Some other police cars started arriving on the scene as the guys responsible for babysitting the Aggron family didn't recall you or them.
Guess we are going to be staying here for a while.
After a while the captain arrived at the scene, and not soon after some guys from the military showed up.
Engineering Corps, to be precise.
You didn't know what they were talking about due to the distance and rain muffling what was said.
After a while the captain returned to his call and recalled all of you to return to your regularly scheduled patrol duties.
And the Fedoark was nowhere to be seen.
You drove away from the scene, leaving the engineers to do their work.
Some time was spent driving around the city with some water types showing up to play in the rain, but they usually ran away when approached.
Your phone started buzzing.
Number unknown.
"Who's there?" you answered the phone.
"It is me. Can you pick me up from somewhere?" you heard the voice of the Zoroark.
"How did you get my number?!" you asked, shocked.
"Stupid question. I got them from your captain when I asked nicely," she replied.
"Yeah... asked nicely..." you said.
"Are you going to pick me up or not?" she asked with irritation in her voice.
"Where are you then?" you asked her.
She proceeded to give you the location.
A bus station.
She could have just taken the bus back to the station, but no, she had to waste your time.
Either way, you drove there and picked her up in her illusory form.
"And did you catch it?" asked your colleague.
"No. It escaped me," she said.
"Did you learn something interesting about it at least?" you asked.
"It did enter into an apartment," she said.
"So you know where it lives?" you inquired further.
"No. It wasn't its apartment but someone else's; it broke in," she said.
"Are you sure this wasn't its apartment?" you asked.
"When I was following it, the Lucario behaved like someone who knew that he was being followed before I cornered it in the apartment," she said.
"So you got yourself caught following it and then cornered it, and now it knows that it is being hunted. Also, why didn't you question it when you managed to corner it?" said your colleague, smelling bullshit.
"I got too far without thinking it through," she said.
"What do you mean by that exactly?" you inquired.
"I realized that I was cornering a creature with way more experience than me. Fair, it was wounded, but I'm not even a Pokemon for a week, and that thing took down that metallic dinosaur in that state," she stated.