Chapter Text
“Leo? Earth to Leo, are you even listening?” My eyes ripped themselves away from the television as I turned back to Ryan. “All that news crap is bad for your brain, you know they did a study in Unova about it.”
He took a sip from his soda and pointed his finger at me, “you worry way too much about what’s going on in the world. Remember that whole nonsense in Kalos last year? You almost gave yourself a stress induced hernia worrying about that team of morons. I mean, you must be pretty awful terrorists to blow your own weapon up without even using it.”
He went on and on for a few minutes before he finally stopped to take a breath. I took a bite from my sandwich and gave him a knowing look. He sighed and gestured at me again, as if giving me the stage. I swallowed and set down the rest of my meal before answering, “look Ryan, this really is serious. I mean, people all over the world are getting sick, this isn’t the flu or something. If we’re not careful it won’t be long before Caelora starts seeing cases.”
“Worried about getting a little sick?
“I’m serious Ryan, this is a big deal! Almost a thousand cases across five different regions isn’t a joke. This could turn into a massive pandemic and they don’t even know where it came from!”
“If it’s really that big of a deal why don't you go ask a professor about it then?”
“You know Pokémon can’t catch it Ryan. A Pokémon professor isn’t gonna know any more than you or me about virology, that’s a pretty specific field of study.”
“Well you seem to know a lot about it for someone who isn’t even a ranger yet. Maybe if you studied more for your exam and quit worrying about every little thing on the news you’d have your license already, or you know… it’s not too late to become a trainer. You’re a bit old but that’s never stopped anyone before.”
“That’s a ridiculous notion, you know that…” My voice trailed off as I pressed a hand against my forehead, usually Ryan didn’t give me migraines so early into lunch but perhaps I really was stressing more than usual.
“You alright there bud? Need me to get you some ice or something? Froslass wouldn’t mind–”
I stood up suddenly, my chair screeched in protest against the floor and almost fell over as I steadied myself against the bar. The lights pierced my eyelids even when I pressed a hand over them and the sound of multiple televisions playing different programs got louder and louder as if someone was turning up the volume all at once. I vomited all over the spotless white floor as Ryan tried to steady me.
“Shit, Leo, are you okay? You’re freezing cold! I’m calling someone, man, you need to see a doctor right now.”
My hand slipped off the bar and I felt Ryan grab me as I fell, my sides suddenly screamed in agony as if he stabbed me with his nails rather than grabbing my shirt to hold me up. I choked and spat up more of something, for the first time I looked at what I was throwing up as I hung there halfway to the floor where he held me. Whatever I had coughed up clearly wasn’t what I’d just been eating. It looked like pure bile, clear, viscous, and a bit foamy, but the amount I was vomiting up was like id drank a gallon of water and it was coming up as well, I was choking on the bile as my eyes shot open and my head slammed into something hard and cold.
I reached forward to push myself up off the floor, but instead, as I found purchase, I realized I was pushing myself down. My eyes were teary and my vision was blurred as my hands rubbed against a cold hard surface above me. Was my back on the floor? No, I couldn't be. Why would there be something above me? Was I in an MRI machine perhaps? Maybe I had lost consciousness and now I was at the hospital. My lungs throbbed as I realized I was holding my breath and when I started to breathe in I choked again. I was underwater?
I slammed my hands above me trying to find a way out and I banged my head against a padded headrest under me, at least I’d be comfortable while I drowned to death. When I tried to sit up I felt that familiar stabbing into my sides and flinched before reaching down and finding a cold metal clamp attached to my side, and when I reached down with my other hand I felt the same on the opposite side. I grabbed them and pulled, my mind screamed since my mouth was wired shut to stop myself from inhaling more water.
The pain was harsh as I yanked and they ripped out of my sides, they lay on the bottom of the chamber and as my vision began to fade a loud blaring alarm sounded and suddenly the roof above me opened. I pushed off the padded bottom wearily and collapsed to the floor in a thick puddle of the water from the thing. It had begun to drain into the floor through a rusty grate, the alarm quit after a moment and the only sound that filled the room was my hacking and coughing mixed with the sound of draining water. My eyes burned, but I managed to look back at my coffin. It was some sort of large metal cylinder with a glass hatch on the front that had opened when I ripped those… tendrils from my ribcage. My fingers traced the spot where they'd been, my skin was unnaturally red around where they'd been and small holes indicated they'd actually had some sort of needle that had been in me.
Four neat little holes in a circle pattern and a slightly larger central one on both sides, they leaked a bit of blood down my side, it didn't seem like much but my hand was already stained. No wait, my hand couldn't be stained, I hadn't even touched the marks had I? I looked at my hands, they weren’t red at all—they were an odd shade of orange, vibrant and like a carrot. My eyes ran their way over my hand and down my arm, my whole body was a strange shade of orange and now that I looked closer I didn't have the right number of fingers and they were far too small to be mine.
My eyes fell to the puddle of water slowly draining beneath me and in it I saw someone else’s reflection. No, something else’s reflection. The eyes were mine, a bright green, but the bald orange head and short stubby snout that I saw in the water wasn’t mine.
“Char– charmander?”