Chp. 13 is going to be from Sara's POV. I'd like to thank all my readers who've reviewed and/or sent me e-mails since I've begun the story. You've all been a source of inspiration for me(except for the people who gave bad reviews. They'll never hear the black helicopters coming for them...) *sigh* I guess I better stop babbling and start writing. Please read and tell me what you think when you are done; I shall again appricate it very much. Here's Chp. 13! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chp. 13- An Egnima Wrapped in Water "Sara? Sara?" Someone was shaking me, trying to wake me up. I tried to pull away from them, thinking it was that guy who captured me before. If it was, he was about to be very surprised when I didn't obey him. When I opened my eyes, though, I saw not him, but Joy, not really able to give me a good hard shake with her handless arms. "Joy?" I mumbled, still half-asleep. "Did he get Vul too?" "What? No, were back at my house. Dan found us and helped get us out of there." I looked around and noticed the familiar surroundings that Joy's house had become in the past few days. Dan slept in a nearby chair, and our Poke'mon slept in various places around the room. I sat on the edge of the couch, pulling some of my hair out of my eyes. "Are you O.K.? We were worried about you when we realized you were captured." "No, Vul fine now." I assured her. Now that I thought about it, I barely even remembered falling asleep in there. It must have been hours before I finally just gave up and closed my eyes. All I really remembered about being in that ball is worrying about being forced to obey the man who caught me, even if he was a cruel old fool. Apparently, that wasn't the case. I felt no need to find the person behind my capture and follow his orders. Now that I was awake, I ate breakfast and changed into some clothes that Joy bought me when I first came here. I've watched Dan eat sometimes, and I must say, it's kinda distirbing watching him stuff his face like that. With all that food he must eat, it's amazing that he hasn't gained any weight since all this started. He asks me if I ever feel like that. Sure, I can see I'm hungrier than I used to be, but I can control myself. He just loses control and leaves a path of wrappers and crumbs in his wake, and sometimes there aren't even any crumbs. Anyway, Dan soon woke up, and we once again made the trek across the street to the Poke'mon Center. In my head, I was debating what I should do with myself now if I had no idea what was currently happening in my town. I'd already tried calling home once from a pay phone during our search for Bulbasaur. All I got was one of those, "This number had been disconnected," messages. It kind of made sense, since the police had cut all the phone lines in the town to keep anyone from phoning for help. "Huh?" Joy pulled off a piece of paper from the glass doors that had been stuck there. She looked it over, then muttered, "Wish they'd tell me these things..." "What is Rai?" Dan asked. "There's supposed to be an auction tonight for Poke'mon who couldn't be kept by their trainers or were abandoned." "So what's Vul problem?" I asked. "It's supposed to be held here, and no one said a thing to me about it." "Pix." Now I could see a problem. "Guys, you know I hate to ask, but there's going to be a lot of little kids..." "Sure. Raichu help Chu out tonight." "Thank you." She smiled and laughed a little. "How'd I survive these things before you two came along?" We went in the Center and Joy headed to the phone. While Dan and I went to go check on his Vaporeon that didn't want to seem to listen to anyone, we could hear Joy talking with the head Joy the PNA(Poke'mon Nurses' Association), complaining about all this work being dropped on her without any notice at all. Vaporeon still layed in one of the recovery room beds. As soon as he saw us come in, he turned around to face away from us. I stood at the foot of the bed, and Dan sat on the edge next to his Poke'mon. "Hey, Vaporeon. How Rai things?" Silence. "Not in Rai mood to talk?" Silence. "Are Chu alright? Rai really starting to worry Raichu." Silence. No matter what Dan said or asked, Vaporeon still faced away from us, not saying a word. It had it's head buried in it's pillow, so you couldn't even tell if it was upset, sick, mad or whatever the problem was. Finally Dan just gave up. He walked out of the room, obviously upset. I went over to Vaporeon, even though my mind kept screaming at me to get away from him. I had to fight this insane urge to keep away from him, probably because of my type disadvantage. It's never been a problem around rock or ground types, though I never figured out why. I asked Dan if he ever got really scared of ground or rock-types. He said no more than he has been in the past. "Vaporeon..." What could I say that would be any different? "Why are Vul acting this way? Are Vul scared of Vul trainer? If Pix it, there's nothing to be scared Vulpix. If Vul scared of him because he's half-electric type, Vul shouldn't be. Pix a fire-type Hybrid, but Pix here, talking to Vul, a water type. Vul can soak me to the bone Pix water, but Vul here. Know why? Because Pix know Vul not going to hurt me. Dan won't hurt Vul, either. He's not like that." Vaporeon still refused to say anything. I thought maybe I could try to get him to ease up a little, but he refused to open up at all. He must have been going through some real emotional struggles; what or why, I didn't know. I got up and started to leave when Vaporeon said something/ "Vaporeon stand Eon Vaporeon?" "Stand? Stand Vul?" Silence again. I left after that, not bothering to really think about what he had said. Besides, "stand", isn't a lot to go on. Once again, we were flooded with little kids within a few minutes, and the next few hours were spent trying to keep them from causing all sorts of havoc. I'd worried about people maybe realizing that we actually weren't wearing, "costumes", especially the older people who stopped in to drop off Poke'mon or their kids. No one ever said anything about it, though, other than that they looked very realistic. Maybe people are more dense than I give them credit for. Joy said she's shifted forms right in front of the kids, and they tell their parents, who still don't believe it. That makes some sense, I guess. Kids make things up all the time. A story about Nurse Joy becoming all pink and singing a song that put everyone to sleep probably sounded like a tall tale to the parents. We worked for about ten hours straight, taking care of the kids and setting up chairs for the auction. We still had to take care of little kids, but their were fewer of them, probably because some of their parents attended the auction, so they went and bugged them. We weren't as busy as before, which was good, because otherwise Dan wouldn't have noticed the auctioneer(the guy who stands at the podium, presents the items, and talks so fast no one can understand him). He groaned when he saw the large man, then said he'd be right back. I watched go up to the guy, who looked angrily at him when he first noticed him. They exchanged a few words, then Dan handed the guy a large amount of money. The man smiled, said something, then left. "Did Vul just bribe him?!" I asked when Dan came back. He shook his head. "When Rai first came into the city, Rai got a little crazy Chu ate a Raichu of food Chu that guy, not Raichu that Rai had to pay for it. Rai ran away when Rai didn't have any money, but now Rai just paid him back. He's not Chu bad as a guy as Raichu he was..." "Vul. How much money do Vulpix have on hand now?" "Five bucks. The rest is back Rai Joy's house." Oh well. He probably wasn't going to get much of anything now. The auction soon started, and the bidding got underway. We were in a side room, but we could still hear most of the auction. I had a good deal of money on me, so I kept my ears open for anything intresting. There were a lot of different types called, but I was looking for a water-type in paticular. I figured I could use it for protection from rock and ground types. Finally, at one point, I heard them call out for a Totodile. I asked Dan to watch all the kids for a minute, then when out. "Let's start the bidding at 50 dollars." "50!" I called out from the back. "I hear 50, do I hear 75?" "75!" another person called out. "100!" I responded. "125!" "150!" "175!" "200!" a third person called out. "250!" I made my final bid for the Totodile. The other people who had been competing with me gave up. Seeing no one else was making an attempt for it, the auctioneer sold it to me for $250. I went up, paid for my new Poke'mon, got it and it's papers, then went back to the others. "Let's check Vul out." I released Totodile from its ball. It was barely out when all the kids rushed over to see this new Poke'mon. I had to dig between them and haul it up from their little hands. "Totodile!" it said, looking down at all the kids who'd just surrounded it. I set it down on a table and looked over it's papers. It was at level 14, knew Scratch, Water Gun, Leer and Rage, and was a boy. He had been orphaned as a baby, and was taken to the auction in hopes of giving him a good trainer. "Vul, that's sad. Don't worry Totodile," I assured my new Poke'mon, "Vul in good hands." Totodile seemed a little confused as to why this person holding him was covered in fur, spoke part Vulpix, and yet still looked kind of like a human. While I took care of the kids, Pidgeotto flew over to where I'd left Totodile, and they had a long conversation. I didn't have any idea what they were talking about, but it was safe to bet it had something to do with me being a Hybrid, and the whole story behind it. Needless to say, Totodile was a little scared of me at first, judging by the way it was hesitant to approach me, but I guess Pidgeotto convinced it that I wasn't a bad person, for toward the end of the auction, Totodile was helping us with the kids. I missed the name of the last Poke'mon called, but there was a long pause after it was announced. No one appeared to want this Poke'mon. "That's Rai right..." I think more out of pity than want, Dan called out, "5 dollars!" No one responded to this. When we heard the auctionner bang his gavel, we were dumbstruck. Dan left for a minute, then came back with a Poke Ball and a bunch of papers in his hands. "Who said 5 bucks can't Raichu anything..." he mused, looking over the papers. "What'd Vul get?" He opened the Poke Ball, and the usual jagged light beam hit the floor and formed into a Poke'mon. "Furret!" "A Furret?" I gotta admit, when I first saw Furret, several emotions rose up at once. One was that it was big. Heck, it's longer than I am tall! Another thing I thought about was what moves this thing could possibly learn. The last thing that hit me at that moment was that you couldn't tell where its tail began and it's body ended. That's kinda unsettling. "Rai see what the Poke'Dex says..." Dan pulled out his Poke'Dex and pointed it at Furret, then hit the scan button. "Furret, the evolved form of Sentret. The mystery of where its tail begins and its body ends has puzzled trainers and scientists alike for years." That wasn't very helpful. Furret looked around for a minute, not sure what to make of all this. The kids looked oddly at Furret, and unlike with all our other Poke'mon, they didn't rush over to see it immediatly. Finally, Bulbasaur approached Furret. The two of them spoke for a while as the kids were picked up by their parents. Once we'd gotten everyone out, we helped Joy close down before going back to her house. We studied over the information from our new Poke'mon for a while before going to bed. Furret seemed to have gotten a little used to all this now, and curled up on the carpet by the couch. Everyone fell asleep after a while, except me. I don't know, I just wasn't tired. Furret's papers were sitting on the table next to me. I took them and glanced over them, bored. Name: Furret Original Trainer: Unknown Original Trainer ID#: Unknown Reason for being auctioned: Previous owners family allergic to Pokemon's fur. Level: 20 Sex: Female Moves: Fury Swipes, Quick Attack, Tackle...Surf?! "Vul?" Furret knew Surf? That's a HM move, and this Poke'mon knew it? Well, maybe Furret had a little promise after all. I yawned and put the papers back, my eyes slowly drifting closed. It'd been an intresting week, all right. I doubted anything else could top this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three days later... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We'd just finished up the last day of babysitting at the Center. The festival was over as of today, and tomorrow, Dan and I were going to head out. He'd invited me to come along, and I'd been a bit hesitant at first. I agreed a while later, but only after I tried to call home again. Still got that stupid disconnect message. I admit; I was scared to go back. For all I knew, I'd be walking right into a trap if I went home now. Besides, like Joy pointed out, we could help each other through our Hybrid problems. Here's a little list of current events from the past few days: -Lt. Surge was still AWOL, according to the newspapers. The little girl I'd learned about hadn't been seen anywhere around the gym, but no one has seen Surge anywhere. -Vaporeon still refuses to listen to anyone. He continues to just lay in bed, ignoring everyone. -I've learned I can become human again for small periods of time. I always thought that just Joy could do it, like some kind of special ability. Naturally, when I found out I could do it, too, I was a little upset. It took a while, but I understood why they held it back. They didn't want to get my hopes up over being normal for just a few minutes, only to get really upset when I had to go back to being a Hybrid. They were right; the first time I did it, I was really sad when I changed back, so much so I almost cried. -Both Dan and I have been practicing our powers. I've almost got down the ability to spit Embers whenever I want; once in a while, it dies in my throat. Dan's finally learned how to form bolts that go away from his body in his Hybrid form, but they're pretty weak. It's about twice as strong as the shock you get from static electricity like when you touch someone, or you flick on a light switch. -Our Poke'mon(minus Vaporeon) seem to have totally or almost totally accepted us for what we are. Even Furret and Totodile seem to be getting used to it. Dan said he wished Vaporeon was this understanding. That seems to be pretty much it. Anyway, back to the last day of our stay in Vermilion... It was about three in the morning. Everyone was sleeping rather peacefully. Well, everyone except one person. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! "VUL!" "RAI!" "Bulba!" "Nido! "Fur!" "Rai!" "Pidge!" "Toto!" Everyone awoke with a start, scared by the sudden noise. Joy abruptly looked out at us from her room. "Is Chansey O.K.?" she asked. "We're fine, but Vulpix else isn't." I informed her, throwing off the blankets that covered me. "Rai sounds like Rai coming from the Center!" Dan scrambled out of his sleeping bag, dashing off to where Joy kept the key to the Center. Joy was quickly getting dressed while the rest of us ran over to see what was happening. Once we'd unlocked the door, we quickly searched the Center. Bulbasaur found the screamer first. "Bulbasaur!" We followed the sound of Bulbasaur's voice into the recovery room. Looking back, I almost wish we'd never went in there. "Oh my..." I gasped. "Rai don't believe it..." Dan seemed to be in an equal state of shock. Vaporeon was the one who was doing the screaming...or at least, I THOUGHT it was Vaporeon. See, Vaporeon was under the covers of his bed, so all I could see was his head. Plus, there were two problems. One; Vaporeon head was getting bigger with each passing second. Second; the outline of his body under the covers was certainly NOT that of a Vaporeon. It looked...not human...but not Poke'mon, either. Vaporeon continued to scream, and the rest of us were too shocked to do anything except watch this horrible event unfold. The mass under the sheets continued to reshape and mutate as Vaporeon's head grew. Then the change was over quickly as it started. Vaporeon now seemed to be about as big as Dan, maybe a hair shorter, with a human sized Vaporeon head, and an oddly changed body. The thing that had once been a Poke'mon looked over at us, seemed to get scared, and try to escape. As soon as he rose, though, Vaporeon collpased onto the bed, worn out. Dan was clearly trembling at this. He looked as though he was about to be sick. Myself? I just plain passed out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Sara? Sara!" "Pix..." Joy was kneeling down next to me by the time I came to. I was still in the recovery room, and Vaporeon was laying on the bed still, so I must've been out only a few minutes. Dan was standing by the side of the bed, looking over at us. "Rai she O.K.?" "She'll be fine." I slowly got to my feet, then went over to see the newly changed Poke'mon. Now the urge to stay away from Vaporeon was almost undeniable. Not only could he hurt me with water, but now he might be able to physically overpower me. It took everything I had in me to ignore my frantic instincts. No one said anything for a while. What could be said at all? What everyone believed to be a disobdient Poke'mon was actually a Hybrid of sorts. How do you react to that? Oddly, Nidoran was the one to break the ice. "Nido?" He walked over to Vaporeon's tail, which was sticking out from under the sheets. It was pretty much like a regular Vaporeon's tail, except it was about two meters long, and a lot bigger in size altogether. He ran a paw up around near the tip of Vaporeon's tail. Vaporeon seemed none too pleased with this, and scooted over a little to pull it away. Suddenly, Nidoran shouted, "Nidoran Nido, Ran Nido gym! Nido, Nidoran tail!" "It is?" Joy said. "What'd Rai say?" "He said this was the thing he found back at the gym that night. It was Vaporeon's tail!" "Vaporeon? Vaporeon Eon Vapor..." "Huh?" "He said he thought he felt something that night, but he wasn't sure what." "Pix. Joy, can Vul translate for us?" Joy nodded at that. Good, that would make things a lot simpler. "Vaporeon, Vapor Eon me? Vaporeon Vaporeon." *Why are you helping me? I made you these abominations.* "Chu?" Dan sounded confused. "How'd Chu do this to Rai?" "Vaporeon. That Vaporeon Eon Vaporeon Vap Vaporeon, Vaporeon? Vaporeon, Vapor Eon Eon?" *I know I did. That girl did this to you to get to me, didn't she? She made you monsters just like me, didn't she?* "The girl?" I'd heard about that story from the others. They said she was psyhic, and threatened to turn everyone in the gym into a Hybrid. Thankfully, she didn't have the chance, but still, how could she? "Bulbasaur, Saur Bulb?" Bulbasaur said from his spot on the floor. *Why is she after you?* "Vaporeon...Vaporeon Vapor Eon Eon." *I saw something...something that could destroy her.* "Raichu?" Railina called out. *What?" "Vaporeon. Vaporeon know, Vapor Eon." *I won't say. The less you know, the better.* "Vaporeon, tell Rai. We can help Chu!" Vaporeon said nothing, just looked down at the bed. "Tell Rai!" "Vaporeon, Vaporeon Vapor? Put Eon Vaporeon? Vaporeon you Vaporeon. Vaporeon Vapor Eon Eon, Vaporeon ball. Eon, Vaporeon Vaporeon." Joy didn't translate for us at first. She seemed kinda shocked at what Vaporeon had just said. It took a little convincing from both of us before she spoke again. "He said, 'What are you going to do if I don't? Put me back in my ball? I'm just like you now. I know you can't stand being in a ball. You'd be a hypocrite to put me in one.'. That's what he said." That hit home for all of us. Vaporeon may have been stubborn, but he was smart. We'd kept our Poke'mon out of their balls for the past few days, but what could we do when we were traveling? There'd be no way to keep track of all of them if we let them loose, but the only alternative was to put them in balls. What right did we have to do that, especially if we're half Poke'mon ourselves? Or any person at all for that matter? Sure, our Poke'mon didn't seem to mind a whole lot, but still, I couldn't help but feel guilty for that. Dan too, looked distirubed by this realization. "Vaporeon, where you the one who made all those weird holes we found all over the place?" Joy asked. "Vaporeon. Vaporeon Center, Vaporeon, Vaporeon; Eon made Vaporeon." he said, nodding. *Yes I did. The one in the Center, the one in the gym, the one in the vent; I made them all.* There was a long pause after this. We'd solved a few mysteries, only to have even more dumped in our lap. I looked down at our Poke'mon, then over to Vaporeon. It was all so confusing... "Come on, Vaporeon. Get Rai." "Vap?" "Chu don't want to tell Rai whats going on? Fine. Chu coming with Rai." "Vapor..." he started to say, but Dan cut him off. "The way Rai see it, Chu have two options. One; come with Rai, let Rai earn Chu trust, and tell Rai later what's going on, or two; wait around, feel bad for Raichu, and wait for that girl to come after Chu again. So, what'd do Chu say to that?" Vaporeon stopped to think that one over. Those were some good points. Vaporeon eventually got up, slowly at first, and hopped down, were I got my first real good look at him. The only clothing he had on him were a pair of jean shorts (Dan later explained that he'd given them to Vaporeon while Joy tried to revive me earlier). Vaporeon was still mostly shaped like a normal Vaporeon. Now, though, his front legs were jointed like a humans arm, with a long fin-like structure running down it, stopping at his wrist. His paws were human in shape, but his fingers each had its own little fin, and he only had four fingers on each paw, lacking thumbs. His back paws looked like normal Vaporeon feet, and while his legs didn't appear to have any fin structure, his knees were in reverse direction of a humans knees(While human knnes face forward, Vaporeons face backwards). His tail was just high enough so he could put on the shorts and cover up anything that one might find offensive without having to tear or rip anything. He stood on all fours, and walked around like that the whole time. We all went back to Joy's house and began to pack up. Joy had went out and bought everything we'd need to travel over the week, like a sleeping bag, clothes and a backpack for me, as well as food and supplies. Of course we ate, but we had to put Vaporeon's food down on the floor for him, since he couldn't stand up straight. Actually, he didn't seem to be able to do any human thing we could, like speak mostly English, walk on two legs, or anything like that. Vaporeon explained(and Joy translated) that Vaporeon had never been human, so he'd never learned how to do any of that stuff. We left about four, wanting to get out of the city before everyone else woke. Joy wished us good luck, and made us promise to stay in contact with her. We did put all our other Poke'mon back in their balls, but we also made some guidelines for doing so. We could only put them in when they wanted to go in, or if there was an emergency where leaving them out would be a bad idea. Even still, I can't help but feel guilty every now and then. Oh, one last thing. I asked Vaporeon to repeat what he'd said to me that day of the auction for Joy. He did, and Joy translated one last time. "How do you stand being like that?" I had to think about that. How did I stand it? I've gotten to a point where I'm not exactly pleased to be a Hybrid, but I've realized it's not all bad either. Still, how exactly can a person who was once human stand belching fire, having the worlds worst case of hydrophobia, and still get through the day? "Vaporeon," I said as we'd reached the route that led to Lavander Town, "do Vul still want to know how Pix stand it?" "Vapor." he said with a nod. I gave him my honest answer. "One day Vul time. One day Vul time..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alright, that might have been a touch on the lame side with the ending, I admit. As always, please send me your e-mails with ideas, thoughts on the story; anything related to it at all.I hope to get have 14 out soon. Thanks once again to all my readers! You're the ones who drive me to keep on writing, even when it all seems pointless to everyone around me. Thank you! Once again, I'm ending with a little scene from the 8-bit theater at nuklearpower.com. Black Mage: Are you saying that black magic and anyone who uses it is inheritly evil? White Mage: Tell me one good thing black magic can do. Black Mage: Hah! That's easy! Just give me a scenario. White Mage: O.K... An orphange is on fire. What do you... Black Mage: Use Fire 3 to torch the building, then use Bolt 2 set at a wide dispersal to pick off any survivors. White Mage: You are truly an evil person. Black Mage:(aside) Hah! Stupid kids wouldn't see it coming, either!