Angel's Story part 2

They had been flying for several minutes, Angel clutching the Ralts to her chest, not knowing what was going to happen to them. Then Angel looked down and noticed that they were flying toward an old abandoned warehouse. She had seen this warehouse and knew that it was about thirty minutes outside of the city. They angled their flight path toward the entrance to the building and landed within a few seconds. Angel climbed off the Pidgeot, not knowing what was going to happen, then yelped in protest as the Frostlass pushed her toward the door.

"Hey! You're supposed to not even exist!" she protested as she stumbled forward, then she reached a hand out for the door handle, the other clutching the Ralts, and opened the door. She heard the Ralts whimper softly as a puff of purple mist sprayed out from the door as it opened and caught them right in the face. She gasped in surprise as she felt her vision blur and she slumped to the ground, quickly losing conscienceness. She closed her eyes as the world finally fell into darkness, the Ralts already passed out in her arms.

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Angel awoke with her head pounding. She groaned as she sat up and looked around. She was in a room of steel walls and a single lightbulb in the middle of the ceiling. The room itself was about twenty feet square, she was lying in the middle staring up at the light. She looked to her left and saw the Ralts lying on its side, unconscious.

"Ah! Hey, wake up! We need to find a way out of here!" Angel slid over to the Ralts and started to shake it. It groaned and opened its eyes, squinting at the light.

Where are we? it asked.

"I don't know, but I do not like it here," Angel stood up and walked toward the door. It was completely smooth with no door handle. She started to bang on the door. "Hey! I think it was a mistake. I want out of here!"

A few seconds later the door swung open, scaring Angel and causing her to step back. A man was standing in the doorway with something in his hand, Angel couldn't quite see what it was, the light from the corridor behind him hid the object from view. He placed it down on the floor and Angel saw that it was a tray of food. Turkey, potatoes, vegetables and a glass of water sat on it. He stood up and smiled at her.

"Hey, I want out of here!" she said.

"Don't worry, you'll get out of here. Eventually," the man stated. He had a gentle voice, almost like a breeze. He turned and walked out, closing the door behind him. Angel looked down at the food and her stomach growled. How long had she been out? She bent down and picked up the tray, then moved back to the middle of the room, crouching down next to the Ralts. She picked up the fork on the tray and, stabbing a bit of turkey on it, raised it to her nose and sniffed. It didn't smell any different and so she popped the piece into her mouth and chewed on it. She gasped as her taste buds went into overdrive from the taste. It was sweet and tangy, soft and tantalizingly delicious. She picked another piece of turkey, then picked up the Ralts and laid it in her lap, then placed the piece of turkey close to its mouth.

"Come on, I don't know if this is something I should feed Pokémon, but you need to eat something," she said softly. The Ralts opened its mouth slightly and Angel pushed the turkey into its mouth, then pulled out the fork as the Ralts closed its mouth around the meat. Angel smiled as she saw it start to chew, then it smiled up at her.

Thank you.

"Don't worry about it. They can't keep us here forever, we'll find a way out of here," Angel said, reaching for the glass of water and took a gulp. Her mouth tingled slightly as the water hydrated her tongue, then washed down her throat. She smiled, then gasped as she felt something she had never felt before, she felt her ears twitch. She reached a hand up to her ears to touch them, or at least she would have, if her ears were on the side of her head. But her hand touched nothing but soft hair. She gasped as she dropped the fork and, raising both hands, started to search her head for her ears, fearing that they had somehow vanished. She gasped as she finally found her ears, but they were not where they were supposed to be. She found them higher on her head than they were usually. She ran her hands over them and gasped as she found that they were quite a bit longer than usual, as well as softer almost like fur had covered them. She felt the outline of her ears and a tear ran down her cheek.

"What is happening to me? First I see creatures that shouldn't even be alive now I'm turning into something freaky," she whispered, pulling her knees up to her chin. She sat there for several minutes as tears ran down her face, dampening her pajama pants. Then she felt something small touch her side and she looked up to see the Ralts standing next to her.

I'm sorry. I know it's scary, it was scary for me too. She felt a sense of sorrow and understanding coming from the little Pokémon.

"You mean, you were like me once?" Angel asked and the Ralts nodded.

I was once a human, two years ago.

"But what happened? Why are you a Ralts?"

The Ralts smiled.

First of all, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Carly and I'm ten years old. Carly extended her hand and Angel shook it.

"I'm Angel, it's nice to meet you Carly."

Carly smiled, then looked up at her.

There is a tale, quite a long one, that explains why we are the way we are, Carly said, motioning for Angel to get comfortable. Long ago, before the age of the humans but just after the dinosaurs went extinct, Pokémon walked the Earth. Unlike the game versions, they were the most intelligent species on the planet, even more than humans are today. They could adapt to any environment and smart enough to build advanced technologies using ordinary materials. These times were peaceful, and happy. Much later, the first humans evolved. The Pokémon were cautious around them, but realized that they were less intelligent than they were. The Pokémon had created a rock that could change them into humans. Under their human disguises, many of them helped the humans gain knowledge and become more advanced. Some even started families with the humans. This went on for many years. Then humans became smarter and few millennia later and discovered the great powers of Pokémon and began to abuse them, holding them against their will and forcing them to use their abilities for the human's own selfish needs. One day, they rebelled. It was an all out war and many were injured and hurt. The Pokémon couldn't take it anymore, so they decided to leave. They destroyed any and all evidence of their existence, including their bones and fossils which thousands of Diglett and Dugtrio dug out. Then they amplified Uxie's powers and wiped the memories of all the humans of the world so that they would never remember them. Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina and Celebi opened a giant portal to another dimension, and all Pokémon crossed to the other side. They did however leave a Mew behind to watch the humans to make sure they were truly forgotten. The Mew wanders the Earth to this day under many different guises.

"But how does that explain why I'm turning into....something," Angel asked.

Well, it all started about a century ago. A man under the name Mr. X had accidentally discovered the hair of the Mew while on a jungle excursion. Mr. X is an expert on cloning, memory and genetic experiments. He was working on a machine that would turn the smallest particle of DNA into the respective creature it came from. Unfortunately, the machine was only a prototype, and it caused a nuclear reaction. The genetic shockwave circled the world and that's when the Pokéumans began to appear. All but Mr. X and another worker were instantly vaporized, but when the smoke cleared, Mr. X had turned into a Mewtwo. With his transformation, the memories of the age of the Pokémon had awoken in his mind. He was angry at the Pokémon's decision to rebel and sought to destroy them. He began to notice that children were turning into these set creatures. You see, when the Pokémon used their technology to turn themselves human, a gene was passed down to their children. The genetic shockwave altered the gene, and now was turning their hosts into their Pokémon ancestors. He wanted to get rid of them. So, he created millions of artificial people to take these Pokéumans and take them to be genetically fixed. The cloned humans started taking ordinary jobs, to see who was a Pokémon. He also invented a memory alternator, to cover up his actions. This became the Pokéxtinction organization; that is where we are now, within one of their many bases.

Fortunately, the Mew saw what had happened and was determined to revive the Pokémon population. He helped rescue the kidnapped children. Unfortunately he was unable to reverse the effects of the memory alternator, so he decided to start the Pokéumans organization. The organization takes in Pokéumans and trains them to fight the Pokéxtinction organization.

It wasn't long until a devastating war broke out throughout the world. Mr. X tries to prevent Pokéumans from turning. It's quite a delicate timetable. There is no set time nor age when children turn, and thus he has to be quite alert to any potential Pokéumans.

Now all was not lost. Mew did not let Mr. X run amok throughout the world. He took on one particular form and created something that would awaken the world to the existance of Pokémon. You know him as the creator of the Pokémon games. He created the games for two reasons, one so that the world would become aware of Pokéumans' plight and two as a detection device. You see, the Pokéuman gene, whether dominant or reccesive, would cause the person to gravitate toward the games themselves. Many of us do not know why, but we do know that Pokémon fans make up about 90% of all Pokéumans. There are the few that do not know of Pokémon, or have not played the games. Many of them have joined Mr. X in his goal to erase Pokéumans from the earth.

"That's awful!" cried Angel, "he shouldn't be allowed to do that! Pokémon should never be forgotten. They should be allowed to live the way that they want to live." Then she thought for a minute, her hand wiping her eyes.

"But what does this have to do with me?" she asked.

Carly smiled.

This has a lot to do with you. You now have  a choice, you can either let the Pokéxtinction organization do what they want with you, perhaps you might return to live with your parents, happily forgetting everything you know about Pokémon. Or the second option is you help us fight back, just like your brother is doing at this moment.

Angel gasped.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that my brother is one of you Pokéumans?" she said, scooting closer to Carly.

Carly nodded. He was the Latios that you rode on.

Angel sat back, stunned. Not only was her brother alive, but he was a Pokémon. And, from what she had seen of him, a Legendary Pokémon.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he was part of the rescue team that will be sent to safe us. Carly walked over to the tray and, spearing another piece of turkey with the fork, popped it into her mouth, chewing.

Angel sat back, thinking.

"But how is he going to find us? Where are we anyways?" she asked Carly.

Well, it won't matter where we are. Your brother is the best tracker in the world, or at least in the base. He'll be hacking the system any day now.

Angel scratched her head. From what she could remember, Latios was not the best when it came to typing on a keyboard and she told Carly this.

Of course they're not, but we're lucky that he's not a Latios. He's a new species, not seen very often. I understand that the new Pokémon game calls his species Zoroark.

Angel gasped, then gathered Carly up in her arms.

"Are you telling me that my brother is a Zoroark?" she asked. Carly nodded and Angel squeezed Carly into a tight hug. Carly struggled to free herself and, after a few seconds, Angel released her.

"Zoroark was one of my favorite Pokémon, I remember when I caught him and would always have him in my party so I could raise his level as fast as I could." Angel was almost giddy with excitement at this news. She plopped down on the floor and scooted next to Carly and the tray of food. With the news that her brother was alive, she felt more cheerful than she had since she woke up. She started to eat, sharing some with Carly, though she noticed that Carly didn't eat much. She drank the rest of the water to wash down the food, then sat back against the wall, partially hidden in shadow. She enjoyed the dark, there was something about it that was comforting. She had never been scared of the dark when she was younger, in fact she had reveled in the dark, the night sky shining through her window and casting the moon's pale blue light onto her bedroom floor.

She yawned slightly. Even though she had been knocked out with that weird gas, she was tired. She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. She felt Carly snuggle down next to her and she curled her body around the small Pokémon. She fell asleep with the look on her parents' faces when she told them that her brother was still alive in her mind.

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About a week later Angel blinked awake. She yawned and grimaced as she rolled over, freeing her tail from below her. Her tail had grown a few days ago, it was long and bushy with silver fur from the base up to about two-thirds up the length. The last third had white fur that ended in a point that swished as she wagged her tail from side to side. She kind of liked her tail, though it had disturbed and surprised her when it had grown. She sat up, stretching. She looked down at Carly who was rubbing her eyes. Carly looked up at her and gasped.

Wait, that's impossible! She exclaimed.

"What is, Carly?" Angel asked, looking at her.

You should already be in your Poké form! The transformation only takes a week and we've been here longer than that! Carly stood up and started to walk around Angel, looking at her, poking and prodding.

"Well, maybe I'm a late bloomer," Angel replied.

No, that's impossible. Every transformation takes exactly one week, no more no less. There must be something slowing your progression.

Just then the door opened and the man stepped in, placing the tray of food on the ground. It wasn't much different from the food that she had been given this past week, though the glass of water was always there. She had asked for soda or even milk several times, but was always denied.

The man looked at Angel, glancing at her tail, then sighed. He turned to look behind him.

"Well, another failed experiment. Guess we'll have to up the dose," he said to no one in particular. Angel looked up at him, surprised.

"What do you mean, experiment?" she asked.

The man just shook his head, then turned and walked out. Angel scrambled off the floor and ran toward him, intending on pulling him back into the room and making him explain, but was too late as the door slammed shut. She banged on the door, shouting for an explanation, but to no avail. She turned around to find Carly sniffing the food.

It's not the food, I've been eating it and I don't feel any different. She said, thinking. Then she turned to the glass of water. That means it has to be in here. She raised the glass a few inches from the tray with a psychic pull. She dipped the tip of her arm into the water, then yanked it out like it had caught fire. She turned to look at Angel, backing away from the glass of water.

Whatever is causing your slow progression is in that water, she pointed at it.

Angel stared at the glass of water, a spark of anger rising within her. "Are you telling me that these people are drugging me just to reverse my transformation? That they wouldn't even give me a choice, that they would never see fit to ask me if I wanted to be a Pokéuman? They would just make that decision for me, not even giving me a chance to think about it or ask questions? I can't believe it, I don't want to believe that there are people like them that take away that choice from those that don't even know what they are," her voice rose, anger pouring into it as she continued to spout out her frustrations.

Um, Angel?

A small part of Angel's mind acknowledged that Carly had said something, but the rest of her mind didn't care. She felt anger flood through her, and she wanted to give this Mr. X a piece of her mind.

"They want to force everyone to live the life that they want everyone to live. They're not even going to give people the choice, they'll just make it for them, regardless of what the rest of us want. I can't stand people like them," her anger came to a pitch and she felt something well up within her, a fountain of power. She reached within her with her mind and grabbed it. It seemed to burst within her, spreading outward until she could feel it in her fingers. There it seemed to collect, the power forming a sphere.

Angel, look at your hands, Carly whispered, almost in fear.

Angel snapped out of her anger and glanced down at her hands. She gasped as she saw an orb of purple energy sitting in her palm, small wisps of blackness leaking from it. She looked at Carly then back at the orb of energy. She stared at it and noticed that there seemed to be a small tendril of energy that bled into the shadows behind her, or was it the other way around? She gasped as she felt a wave of power pulse through her and a single phrase passed through her mind.

Shadow Ball.

She gasped as she recognised the name. It was a Dark-based attack and effective against-- Her head snapped up and she looked at Carly.

"Why has no one tried to escape from here?" she asked.

Because they could never get out of their cell. All the doors seemed to be protected by a Psychic force field. Carly replied.

"A Psychic force field, huh? What do you know of Dark Pokémon?" Angel asked Carly. Carly tilted her head, slightly confused.

There isn't much I know about them. I just know that they are effective against-

"Psychic!" Angel finished her sentence. Carly looked up at Angel with a look of surprise and confusion on her face.

But I don't understand how this knowledge will help us.

"How are you at Psychic attacks?" Angel asked her.

Fairly decent, but-

"That's all I need to know. Carly, we're getting out of here!" Angel shouted, throwing the Shadow Ball at the door. It slammed into the door, exploding with such force that it made her ears ring. Smoke filled the room and Angel tried to peer through it to see how the door fared. The smoke cleared slightly and Angel saw, to her pleasure, that the door had been blown off its hinges. The door itself had been blown back until it had slammed into the wall opposite her room, several arms and legs poking from behind it. She picked up Carly and ran out of the room, looking around for something. She saw a thermos sitting on one of the desks just inside the room. She grabbed it and, opening it up, dumped the contents onto the ground. She rushed back in, scooping up the glass of water and dumping the water into the thermos, screwing the lid on. She handed the thermos to Carly.

"Hold onto this. Whatever is in it, we'll need to analyze it."

She turned and headed for the door, but paused in surprise as the door swung open.

"What is going on in he--" a man dressed in a lab coat started to say, but stopped when he saw Angel running toward him. She leapt up and roundhouse kicked him in his stomach, sending him back through the door and into the room he had come out of. She ran in behind him, not pausing as she noted four more scientists sitting at desks. They all looked up as the man came flying back into the room, then started to stand as she came bolting in after him.

Angel looked around, thinking she didn't have enough time to fight them all, looking for the door. She saw it on the wall to her right and she summoned another Shadow Ball in her hand, tossing it toward the door. It exploded, sending a cloud of dust into the air, masking her as she skirted around the corner of a desk and out the door, the scientists yelling after her.

She kept running down the corridor that she had entered, turning right as she emerged from the door. She prayed that she would find the exit quickly and she turned left at the first intersection.

"Crap!" she shouted as she saw a Scizor turn the corner a few dozen feet in front of her. She felt her body surge with energy as she leapt into the air and slammed her knee into its face, knocking it out before it had barely enough time to see her come flying toward it. She landed and kept running.

"I hope we can find an exit soon, otherwise we might be doing this for nothing," she voiced to Carly. Carly nodded, then the nodes on her head started to glow softly.

We are close to the surface. At the end of this hallway we will be right below the surface.

Angel nodded and summoned another Shadow Ball, tossing it down the corridor just as two Hitmonchan turned the corner, cutting off her escape. It streaked past their heads and slammed into the wall at the end, causing a cloud of dust to rise up.

Angel gritted her teeth as she saw them ready a Mach Punch, their fists speeding up as they punched the air in anticipation. When she got within ten feet of them, she pushed off the ground. She had noticed that as she had progressed her body had gotten stronger and quicker, she was just grateful that it hadn't failed her now as she soared over the two Mach Punches that the two Hitmonchan sent her way. She landed on the other side of them and raced through the hole that she had made before they had turned around.

She burst out into the night air and she breathed a deep breath, then froze as she saw that she had emerged in the middle of a small group of Pokémon. She glanced around as the hole behind her collapsed in on itself, noting a Charizard, a Graveler, and a Porygon staring at her. She readied herself for a battle when Carly struggled out of her arms and plopped down on the ground, running over to the Charizard.

Jordan! It's so nice to see you! She cried, hugging his leg, the thermos dropping onto the ground.

"Carly, how did you get out? We were just about to start the mission," Jordan roared. Angel brought her hands up to her ears and covered them slightly.

"Could you please tone it down? Some of us have sensitive ears."

Jordan turned and looked at her.

"You're the third one that we tried to rescue that day," he stated and Angel nodded.

"Um, this is nice and all, saving us the hassle of going in and getting you, but can we please save this kind of talk for when we're back in the base?" Angel turned to look to her right and smiled at the Graveler.

"You're right. I guess I'm a little anxious to get away from here. I have been in there for a little more than a week," Angel stated, nodding in agreement.

Indeed. This came from the Porygon. A ring of purple energy formed around its head and passed down its body, changing it's shape from a Porygon to that of a Latios. Angel gasped as she realized who she was looking at and she ran over and clamped her arms around its neck, hugging it.

"Big brother," she whispered into its fur.

"Ryan!" Ryan turned and looked at the Graveler.

Brad.

"We've got some trouble!" Brad growled, raising one of his arms to point a few dozen feet away where a swarm of Ninjask were emerging from the ground. Ryan nodded, then his body began to glow, turning invisible. He extended the invisibility to include Jordan, Angel, Carly, and Brad.

Time to go. He said, tossing his neck and pushing Angel onto his back. Carly hurried over and Angel bent down and picked her up, setting her in her lap. Jordan flapped his wings a few times to get some height, then grasped Brad with his arms.

Ryan shot off, causing Angel to grab onto his fur to prevent her from falling off. Jordan gasped in surprise then, flapping his wings furiously, soared off behind Ryan.

Angel looked behind them as they soared off into the night sky and saw that the Ninjask were buzzing around where they had been, tearing up the bushes and breaking the branches of several of the trees there. She smiled to herself, glad to be away from that place. She leaned down and rubbed Ryan's neck, feeling the soft fur that ran between her fingers. She kept a hold on Carly and looked forward, wondering where they were going and what new adventures would she have in store for her when they got there.