Pokérus: Case Zero (Pokémon Short Story) [Complete]

Chapter 2: Stage Two Effects

Alex and Melanie woke up in Alex's room. They looked at each other. "What happened? Are we at your house?", said Melanie. "Yeah, my DS is on the dresser, and I recognize that small TV and N64 over there." He looked at the clock. It was 9:26 when they passed out. Now it was 12:00. "Ok, it's noon. Status report.", said Alex. Melanie checked herself for a minute, and then replied "A lot of my hair has fallen out, my index, middle, and ring fingers have fused into one finger, my skin around my chest has turned paler, and my chest has gone completely flat, with the heart fully sticking out on both sides of me."

"My hair has fallen out, my hips are completely rounded now, and my heart is sticking out fully. My thumb and pinky fingers have been absorbed by my now bigger than my hands arms, my other fingers have fused together, my arm is turning a shade of dark green, and my hips down are now a very pale color. It's official, we're turning into a Gallade and Gardevoir." "Well, it could be worse. Only one of us could be turning into a Pokémon, leaving the other jealous and to eventually join a lynch mob to run them out of town."

"Yeah, and we could be killed on the spot if anyone saw what is happening to us." "And, if we are run out of town, we can make a home in the woods to live in, where we won't be hunted down or berated for 'No longer being human.' We can live there, hunt for our food, maybe even have kids! And we won't have to obey social norms! This may be the greatest thing that's ever happened to us!" "Yeah, it does sound pretty great to do that. It also sounds scary, but change can be scary sometimes, and we just have to push through it." "Yeah, and we will push through it, together! So, wanna go through the Battle Maison?" "Heck yeah!"

So they went through Multi Battles, and then Super Multi Battles, and they stopped every 10 or so rounds to assess the damage done to them. By round 10 of Multi Battles, Alex's head was throbbing harder, with a hard sheet of skin going over his head. Both Alex's and Melanie's ears atrophied, but they didn't notice as they had been replaced by spiky outgrowths that let them hear. By round 15, their skin had become completely white around their legs and chest, and started turning shades of green where it wasn't white.

By round 10 of Super Multi Battles, Melanie's hair turned from red to green, Alex's head had turned dark green, with a plume coming up out of it. By round 20, Melanie's skin had gone completely white and light green, while Alex's arms had become like a Gallade's arms, with a single finger in the middle of the arms, the bottoms of the arms razor sharp, and the arm to blade arm areas becoming incredibly thin.

By round 30, Melanie's transformation was fully complete. Her chest, thinned so far that the only organs left in her body were her stomach and brain, with the latter becoming bigger and gaining more synapses, which complimented her new psychic powers. Her head, with red eyes that used to be green, and medium-length green hair that used to be long and red. Her legs, thin and white, obscured by a dress-like arrangement of strips of flesh. Melanie was human no more, and was now a Gardevoir, something other then human.

Alex's chest had also become thin, with his organs atrophying excluding the new heart, his stomach, and his more evolved brain. His skin had also become white and dark green. The plume had almost fully grown, and was starting to turn light blue. Then, at 1:30, at round 45, Alex's transformation was fully complete. His head, now covered by a green helmet with a light blue plume, along with spiky outgrowths that functioned as ears. His forearms, now replaced by dark green extendable blades. His chest, now pierced with a red triangle that functioned as his heart, became shorter and thinner than when he was a human. His hips, white as snow and incredibly round, like a football, that connected to his legs, now wider and stronger then before. Alex was also no longer a human, but was instead a Gallade, meaning that he and Melanie had become something other than human, like in Alex's dream.

After clearing Round 47, they looked at each other. They stood up with shock at what they looked like. "Melanie, your hair! It's green now! I've never seen it that short before! And your chest is so thin! How is there room for any organs in there?" "Alex, your head! You have a helmet instead of hair! And your forearms! You have blades on them! That seems like a double-edged sword!" They stared into each others eyes, then hugged each other for a long time. It only stopped because Alex sensed something. "Mom's coming up to check on us! Hide under my bed!" They crawled under Alex's bed and waited until his mom came in.

"Alex! Melanie! Are you in here?" They tried to stay hidden until she left, not wanting to reveal their new forms to her. Unfortunately, the floor under the bed was quite dusty, and caused Melanie to sneeze. "Hello? Who sneezed?" She looked under the bed. "Are you guys under there?" "Yes, mom, we are!" "There you guys are! Come on out! I can't see you under there!" "Ok, we will, but promise to close your eyes until we say to open them, and please don't freak out." "Okay then, dear. I promise." "Okay, thank you. We're coming out."

Melanie stopped him. "What are you doing? We don't know how she'll act!" "We won't know until we try it! We have to do this! If anyone should know what happened, it should be our parents!" "Ok, I see your point. Let's show her." Luckily, Alex's mom couldn't hear what they were saying, as they were speaking telepathically. They came out from under the bed, held each others hands to comfort each other, before Alex told his mother "Ok, you can look now."

Alex's mom uncovered her eyes, and almost fainted from shock. "Is this a joke? Where is my son?" "I'm right here, mom. I'm not sure what happened, but I've become the Pokémon Gallade, the one with the helmet and forearm blades. Melanie has also become a Pokémon called Gardevoir, and I am holding her hands right now." "I....I can't believe it. I don't know how my son and his girlfriend, can both become creatures with red triangles sticking out of their chests, a dress coming out of their body, and blades for arms! It....it doesn't make sense to me!"

"It's okay, Ms. Smith, it doesn't make very much sense to us as well, but all we know is that it happened and we have the same personalities as before, just in different bodies. Alex is still your son, only he doesn't very much look like it." "I appreciate that you're trying to comfort me, Melanie, but it's still unbelievable to me, and I don't know that it ever will be. I'll leave you two be." She walked out the room and closed the door. "Man, did she ever look confused. She must be in a large amount of traumatic shock right now. Wouldn't you agree, Alex? Alex?"

Alex was sitting on the floor, with his head in between his legs. "I heard what she was thinking as she went out the door. Her thoughts were saying that she didn't consider me her son anymore. That I'm an alien with her son's voice and personality, and not her actual son. Do you know what that feels like? It's the worst feeling in the world." "Oh, Alex, I'm so sorry. That must stink for you." She kneeled down next to Alex. "Don't worry, Alex. You still have me, and I'll never leave you. You're a Pokémon now, I'm a Pokémon now, and if everyone abandons us, we'll still have each other."

Alex started chuckling. "It's funny, how you keep using the speech I gave to you to make you feel better to make me feel better." "What can I say? It truly inspired me, and I'm glad it inspires you too." They shared a long, heartfelt kiss, one that felt like all the stress and complexity of their situation just melted away. When they stopped, they felt like they were in a whole new world, where they would be accepted for their ailment of being Pokémon, but they looked around afterwards to see that they were still in their own world.

"I don't know, should we run away? Make a home in the woods and live our lives together with no one else?", Alex asked. "Only if things get bad, like our parents try to kill us, or the town forms a lynch mob against us. Then we flee, but until then, wanna keep going through the Maison?" "Sure, let's keep going!" They beat the Super Multi Battles, and were looking up what happened in Super Multi Battles when you went past Round 50, when there was a knock on Alex's bedroom door. He read their intentions, then said "Come in." A doctor came in, holding a bag. "Hello, children. I am Doctor Fleming. Mrs. Smith called me after seeing what happened to you."

"So what are you here for? To take us to a government lab that'll experiment on us to see the effects of things like nuclear radiation on us?", asked Melanie. "No, ma'am, I am just here to take a blood sample from the both of you, to see if we can pinpoint what caused this to happen to you." "Well then, I see nothing wrong with this. How about you Alex?" "I'm okay with it." "Great! Just let me see your shoulder!" He took Melanie's blood first. He put a syringe in her arm, and took some of her blood. He put the syringe in his bag, then pulled out another one. He stuck it into Alex's arm, and took his blood as well. Dr. Fleming put the syringe of Alex's blood in the bag.

"Thank you children, for letting me do this." "You're welcome, Mr. Fleming!", Melanie said, before he left the room. "Wow, I wish everyone could be like him. He was so accepting of us. Why can't everyone have that attitude towards our new forms?", Melanie said. "Well, doctors are expected to be accepting of everyone, so he must have had so many cases of foreign patients that he just sees us as two more foreign patients." "That's a nice thought. Better then him giving us a drug that would knock us out and allow him to kidnap us." Alex gave her a weird look after saying that. "Back to research! So, after 100 and 200 battles, we get special berries as rewards, plus tons of BP."