Loss of Humanity
by Char & Mephis
Note: Mephis and me, Char, have come up with this little story here. We took turns typing parts of the chapters. I type in red; he types in purple. Um, I hope you all enjoy this. There will be more!
-Char
Red = Char
Purple = Mephis
Chapter 1: Friends
David Ronan peered out his bedroom window. From the second story of his apartment building, he could tell that it was a very calm Wednesday night. But it was also somewhat strange. It was only 7:30 PM, but already it was pitch-black. Quite unusual for summer.
David sat on his bed, wondering what could be for dinner, and was listening for the sound of someone setting up the dinner table. This was the time dinner was always served. He put his ear to the door and heard the strangest thing. Silence. He got up and opened the door, only to see the entire room empty. David walked around, checking all of the doors of his small apartment, but could not see head nor tail of his mom or dad. He decided that he would wait for them and sat down on the couch.
Suddenly, David felt a chill go along his spine. He could tell something was wrong. Very wrong. His senses seemed to tell him that the problem - whatever it was - was in the apartment building next to his...
30 minutes earlier, in the apartment building next door...
Daniel Sani was getting ready for a whole night of staying up, playing games, eating junk food, and just hanging out with his friend Lupin.
*ding dong!*
He got up from the couch and opened the door. A smiling face greeted him.
"Hey Lupin! How's it going?" Daniel said to his guest.
"It's all good. Hey man, you mind helping me with all this stuff?" replied Lupin as he heaved three suitcases. One of them was extremely large and very bulky, which was handed over to Daniel. Daniel took it, and they walked inside, leading them to a well furnished living room.
"So Daniel, what're we going to do?" called Lupin from the kitchen, apparrently raiding the fridge.
"I dunno, Lupe. Hey, what's in these things anyway?" replied Daniel as he half dragged, half carried the suitcase over to the 27-inch TV.
"Hm? Oh, those are just all the game systems I brought over. You know, the usual. Xbox, PS2, GBA, etc. Anyways, where the heck are your parents?"
"Oh. I dunno. They just left, telling me to invite someone over and the house was mine until the weekend. They were carrying someairline tickets too. I think they won that trip to Hawaii." Daniel replied as Lupin walked into the living room, carrying a heavily laden tray of their favorite junk foods; like popcorn, cheez doodles, etc.
"Yo Lupe, you mind setting this up? I'm supposed to call this phone number."
"Kay!" replied Lupin, and started gathering up wires and things of that sort. Daniel walked over to the phone, grabbed it, reached into his pocket for a note, and punched the numbers on it into the phone.
*Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! Ri--*
"Hello? Is there somebody on the other line? Excuse me, but I was supposed to call this number." Daniel said. He knew that someone was on the other line, but wasn't answering. "Okay, uhm... call back or something." Daniel said, and hung up.
"Yo! X! Come on man! I've got a game going!" called Lupin from the living room.
"Oh carp! All right! Hang on!" With that, he ran into the living room, prepared for a whole weekend of fun.
Chapter 2: The Start of the Trouble
After ten minutes of playing games like, 'Twisted Metal: Black', 'Tactics Ogre', and 'Halo', the two friends had already polished off all the junk food on the tray.
"Dude! I just beat the final boss! I won the game!" stated Daniel, referring to his game on Final Fantasy Adventure 3. Lupin, who was in the middle of the battle with Yunalesca in Final Fantasy 10, hardly heard him.
"Darnit! She keeps paralyzing me! X, how the hey did you beat this creep?" Lupin asked Daniel.
"Hold on...gotta save..." Daniel responded, and then turned off the GameBoy Advance. "Okay! You fighting her third form?"
"Yeah, the big head thing." Lupin answered.
"Well," started Daniel, turning to the screen. "I had the Auto-Medicine armor on Tidus."
"Where'd you get the get that armor?" Lupin demanded.
"Um...I forgot." Daniel shrugged. "Looks like it doesn't matter now, though."
"Huh?" Lupin turned back to the TV, only to see Yunalesca finish off his last team member, Aaron. "Aw, man! Now I have to battle through all those forms again!"
All of a sudden, the phone started ringing.
"Hey, maybe that's the person on the phone who didn't say anything." Daniel said.
"They didn't talk? That's rude." said Lupin, giving a thumbs-down.
Daniel got up from his seat on the couch, and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" he said.
*click*
"Hey man! Oh, that just plain sucks. Somebody just hung up on me! Again! Man, if I ever figure out who the heck this is, I am so gonna..."
"Yo! Daniel! Come here quick!" yelled Lupin from the living room.
When Daniel got into the room, he saw that the news was on, and Lupin was starting intently at it.
"Last night," said the anchor woman, "there was another attack of a humanoid Poke'mon, also called a 'Poke'hybrid'. He has just been seen in the Northern district. This particular hybrid is considered very dangerous, as he has just blown up the local police station. We strongly urge everyone to arm themselves immediately. Bar the doors and lock the windows. If all else fails, run as far as you can. If you are with another person, run in different directions to the town of Middlebury."
"Holy Magikarp!" yelled Lupin as he got up. "Come on, X! We have to bar the doors and stuff like that anchor woman said!"
"Uhh... I'll go get my bat. I think you can hide in my room. There aren't any large windows there and only one door, so it's pretty safe." said Daniel as he ran towards the closet, where he stashed his favorite aluminum bat. Lupin ran for Daniel's room.
"Holy carp! X! Hit the--" Lupin started from Daniel's room.
A loud smashing and crashing followed by a yelp of pain ensued from Daniel's room. Daniel tore into the room, only to see what was once left of his wall. Lupin's body was trapped under the debris from the shattered wall.
As Daniel's eyes moved higher, he saw a creature levitating in mid-air. It looked somewhat like a human man, but was completely yellow, and holding two spoons in its hands.
"No! It's an Alakazam Poke'hybrid!" Daniel said with fear. He could run away...but... He took another look at Lupin. His friend was too pinned down, and could never get away in time.
"Daniel...help..." Lupin pleaded weakly.
Daniel readied his bat. "Don't worry, Lupin! I'm gonna save you!"
Chapter 3: End of Their Humanity
Suddenly, the Poke'hybid's eyes began glowing. The creature started chanting strange words. Daniel dropped his bat and fell to the ground in pain. "Ahhh! What...is....this?! My whole body's burning!"
Glancing over at Lupin, Daniel could tell that he was going through the same pain.
*Rrrrip!*
Daniel looked behind him. A flaming, red tail had forced its way out of the back of his pants. Before he could even think about it, his feet began hurting even worse than they were before. Quickly, Daniel slipped his shoes and socks off, only to see his feet turning red, reshaping, reducing to three toes, and his toenails being overtaken by claws. A similar things happened to his hands just seconds later, growing claws, reducing to three fingers, and turning red.
At that moment, it clicked in Daniel's head. He was becoming a Charmeleon Poke'hybrid!
He tried to stand up, but was quickly pushed back down by a psychic force from the Alakazam Poke'hybid. Daniel felt his chest and back go numb, so he furiously tore off his shirt, only to see his chest turning mostly red. What wasn't red was white, and in a oval shape, like a Charmeleon's white belly mark. His arms were also red, and getting much shorter.
Daniel once again tried to stand up, and this time the Alakazam Poke'hybrid let him. It was obvious why, because after taking only two clumsy steps, Daniel fell flat on his face. He was shrinking, and his pants had become baggy, making him fall. He slipped them off with his feet, only to see that his legs were red also, and shrinking just like his arms.
At this point, Daniel's underwear became extremely loose. He tried to hold onto the underwear, not wanting for it to fall off. However, his arms were now too short, and so the undies slipped off. Embarressed and scared, Daniel covered his eyes with his new hands. The pain became worse and worse. He felt his whole body shrink.
Then, all of a sudden, the pain was gone. Daniel slowly opened his eyes. Looking around, he noticed that the Alakazam had vanished. Looking down upon his new body, he could tell that he was a Lv. 3 Poke'hybrid. There wasn't a trace of humanity on his body, but he still was in his right mind.
Daniel then realized that Lupin probably had the same result as himself from the Alakazam Poke'hybrid's chants. He looked over, and was amazed by what he saw...
Meanwhile, during Daniel's transformation, Lupin was completely pinned down under the debris and couldn't move. Suddenly, he felt as if his entire body was being set aflame. For a second Lupin thought the house was burning and wanted to get away. He felt pain all over his body. He could hear Daniel yelling something, but couldn't understand what he was saying.
"Ahhh!!! It Hurts!!!" Lupin reached out to a piece of wood jammed deeply into the ground, only to see the skin on his arm becoming paler and paler, until it was white, and his ring and pinky fingers fusing together.
"Oh my gosh! What's-" he was suddenly distracted, as he felt a pain at the base of his spine. Lupin grabbed the wood and pulled himself out. He turned around to look at a white tail with 2 fins at the end of it.
"What...what's happening to me?" Then, a light flicked on inside Lupin's head. He was turning into a Lugia Poke'hybrid!
He bent over and winced while numerous amounts of fins ripped through the back of his shirt. He took 2 clumsy steps forward before there was an extremely sharp pain in his shoes. Lupin tried to kick them off, but they exploded into a dozen pieces, giving him a very good view of his now very large feet. He watched as his toes fused into 3 digits. He then sat down and watched the rest of his transformation in bewilderment as a very light amount of feathers covered his feet and his legs.
He felt a strange sensation on his face as it elongated into a small muzzle-like beak. Lupin could feel something protruding around his eyes as the small black fins stuck up around his eyes. He felt like someone was pulling on his arms and his head. After that, the pain slowly subsided. He was now a LV. 3 Poke'hybrid. However, he was a much smaller version of a real Lugia, being only 5 feet tall. He looked around at the hole in the wall, expecting to see his assailant, but saw only the sky and half a tree. He heard a sound behind him, and thinking that his assailant was there, he spun around.
Daniel saw that he friend had turned into a Lugia Poke'hybrid. He got up slowly, hoping that Lupin was not a LV. 4 Poke'hybrid, which means he would have almost no human characteristics whatsoever; but a LV. 3 Poke'hybrid, like himself.Even though Daniel tried his best to be silent, Lupin turned around and faced Daniel in a flash. He had a mad look in his eyes, but they quickly turned to surprise.
"Daniel...is that...you?" Lupin struggled to say, staring at him. Daniel closed his eyes.
"L - Lupe..." Daniel stammered. He suddenly burst into tears, and fell on his knees.
Lupin was stunned. His friend had never cried before. Not knowing what else to do, he walked over to Daniel and threw his arms around him in a hug.. As Daniel buried his face in Lupin's wing, the Lugia Poke'hybrid closed his eyes and thought, 'What's a better comfort than a friend?'
Chapter 4: Meeting With the BB Gun Master
David Ronan wondered what was going on next door, as he had heard a loud crash. He put his ear to the floor to check if anyone had heard it too. Apparently, no one did, as he heard no movement of footsteps. So he got up, grabbed his Little Red Ryder BB gun, and walked out into the hallway.
David had reached the other apartment building. He peeked his head around the door to see if anyone was coming.
"All clear!" he said to no one.
He walked over to apartment number 102 and knocked on the door. David stood there for a couple of minutes, then knocked again. His second knock was a bit too hard, as the door just flew open. He peeked his head inside and looked around. Apparently, this was some kind of video game fanatic's apartment. He saw the games; the snack-ridden trays; and the TV on to the news, where an anchor woman with a really bad hairdo was talking about something that concerns an explosion.
Meanwhile, in Daniel's room...
"Hello? Anybody here? HellOoOo?" Daniel and Lupin both heard the voice coming from the living room.
"Darn it!" exclaimed Lupin. "How the heck are we supposed to get out of this?"
"Well, maybe we don't have to show ourselves. We'll just hang around near the bathroom and start yelling things like 'Hey! Get out! I'm calling the cops!!' and stuff like that." answered Daniel.
Lupin looked dumbfounded at Daniel. "Wow man, where are you pulling all these antics out of? Thin air?"
While the two PKH's were getting ready, David decided to poke around the apartment. He started walking around, calling if anyone was home, and knocking on doors. When he got to a door with a little engraving of a toilet on it, he knocked. He wasn't really expecting an answer, so he just walked on by.
"Hey! Who the heck are you? Get out! I'm calling the cops!" yelled someone from inside the bathroom. David was so surprised, he jumped up, and ran into a door, pulled it open, and closed it behind him.
David turned around, only to see what looks like a bedroom. It looked like a missle had just exploded through the wall. He started walking around, when he saw ripped articles of clothing.
"Man... are these guys going for the 'grunge' look, or what?" He turned around when he heard voices coming towards him.
"Do ya think he left?" said a voice that was likely a male's, but was slightly higher pitched.
"Well, I dunno. I just heard a door slam. I think he left. Good thing he closed to door, too. Let's get a move on cleaning up this pile of..."
Just then, the door swung open, revealing what seemed to be a Lugia and a Charmeleon. They began staring at David with looks in their eyes that he didn't particularly feel was good.
"Oh....... Carp." all three of them said in unison.
"What'd you think you're... OW!" said the Lugia, as David shot him with his Red Ryder.
"Hey! What was that fo-* OUCH!!" said the Charmeleon as another little pellet hit his arm.
The Lugia swung around, whipping his tail at David. David jumped backwards as his Ryder was smacked away to the other end of the room.
David realized he was now disarmed. "Don't hurt me!" he said, throwing his hands up in surrender."Why not..." Daniel growled. "I've had a very bad day..."
"Who are you?" Lupin demanded.
"J-just a kid! I heard a explosion...went over to check it out...t-that's all!" David stammered. "W-what's going on?"
"Ack...just our luck..." Daniel mumbled, leaning against the wall. "Lupin?"
Lupin nodded. "We should tell him. It won't do us any good otherwise, now that we're discovered."
"Wait...a...minute..." David said slowly. "You guys are either Poke'mon that can talk...or..."
"Or we're Poke'hybrids. Which we are." Lupin said, finishing David's statement.
"Wow..." David grinned. "Lucky!"
"Lucky? You must be insane..." Daniel rolled his eyes. "After getting pummeled by waves of psychic energy, feeling like your body's on fire, and having your body stretch and reshape, you would say otherwise."
"No, you're wrong. I'd go through anything to be a Poke'mon!" David answered.
"You had better not tell anyone of this. Understand?" Lupin told David.
"I won't...." David sadly said.
Lupin turned to Daniel. "Let's go figure out how we can become human again. We should track down that Poke'hybrid that did this to us..."
"Good idea. I don't like being naked." Daniel answered.
Suddenly, David showed a smile. "Actually, I think I will tell people about what happened here."
"What?!" Daniel and Lupin exclaimed in unison.
"Unless...you guys take me along with you." David said, throwing his card.
"You dirty little...." Daniel began.
Lupin crossed his wings and sighed. "Fine."
"Alright!" David shouted in joy. "By the way, didn't catch your names?"
"I'm Lupin, and this is Daniel." Lupin said about himself and Xaiver.
"Call me David!" the boy said. "Where should we go?"
"I have my Poke'mon at the Day Care Center in the South part of town." Lupin answered. "Why don't we go get them?"
"Heh, you're a Poke'mon Trainer?" David laughed. "In your condition, you really are a 'Poke'mon' Trainer!"
"Ah, quiet." Daniel grumbled.
"Let's get going." Lupin responded, ignoring the comment.
"Wait...let's get some clothes. I feel just a little weird being naked." Daniel suggested.
At that, him and Lupin grabbed some parkas from the closet, and the three of them headed outside.
Chapter 5: Accusations, Don't Know How to Take Them!
After packing up their things, and grabbing some cloaks with hoods (Lupin had to leave all of his games and stuff in a closet at Daniel's home), the trio arrived at: 'Southern Day Care! Where all of your Pokemon are treated as you yourself would treat them! (Maybe even better)!'
"Argh... I've never thought of coming here as a Poke'mon..." Lupin said under his breath.
"Well, better get used to it!" said David with a smirk. "Anyways, why are you just standing there?
"Ahem! If you hadn't noticed, I can't exactly walk in there and ask for my Pokemon back." Lupin shot back.
"I have an idea! Hey David, why don't you go get them for him?" suggested Daniel. "He'll lend you his Poke'dex as proof, too.""Alright... but only if we continue on, from here on to the end." said David as he grabbed Lupin's Poke'dex. The boy walked inside.
5 minutes later...
"Okay, here ya go. I've got your Poke'mon right here." said David as he exited the Day Care Center. "They sorta want their money for raising it. They've got a discount because your Poke'mon behaved so well, or something."
"Oh, right, I almost forgot." said Lupin as he fidgited with his wallet, trying to get some money out. However, his new wings made things difficult, as they were not designed to hold things."Here." Lupin grabbed a $20, and gave it to David. David went inside, while Lupin tried to attach the belt onto his waist, but he couldn't due to his large physique. As Lupin struggled to get his belt on, David came out and looked around.
"Hey uhh... where's Daniel?"
"Rggh--Rggh--! He's trying to get us some food. Darn this thing! I knew I shoulda paid for the X-tra large size!" said Lupin in an exasparated tone."Here!" said David as he grabbed Lupin's belt and attached it to the Poke'hybrid's tail.
"Oh... thanks Dave." Lupin said.
"No prob. Also, tie your tail onto your body so nobody will see it." replied David. "Man! I'm starved. When is Daniel gonna get those... foods...?"
A large mob was chasing a somewhat small figure, and they were coming towards Lupin and David.
"Run guys! Run!" Daniel yelled as he ran past, his tail swinging crazily. "I stole some chow, and they're not too happy about it!""Hey! You! In the cloak! Where did that freak go?" said a man with gristly hair from the mob.
Lupin turned away from the crowd and pointed towards an alley almost in the complete oppostie direction of where Daniel went. "He went thadda way!"
"Thanks, kid!" said the man. He led the mob towards where Lupin was pointing."Whew!" said Lupin as he wiped some sweat from his brow. He looked around and saw that the mob had completely gone away, so he called out to Daniel. "Hey! Daniel! Come back! They're gone now!"
Within 5 seconds, Daniel came panting back. "Wow, thanks man."
"Don't mention it. Anyhow, I'm getting hot in this thing." Lupin pulled back his hood and looked at the reflection staring back at him from a glass store window. "Ohhh man... this is really going to kill me sooner or later."
A sigh escaped from Lupin's mouth. "I wonder what my parents will think of this... they had such high hopes of me..."
"Hey... don't worry. Your parents will understand. For as long as I've known them; and, might I add, that's a very long time; they will understand the situation." said Daniel.
Lupin smiled at the comment. "Your right! Anyways, I have to tha-*"
"Hey! That alley led us to a dead end...!" said a voice behind them. As Lupin turned around, the man from the mob gasped. "Hey! It's that freak who stole that burger, and his partner in crime too!" He then pointed at David. "They've even got a hostage!"
"Not only that, they've stolen a Poke'mon Trainer's Poke'mon!" said the young (and vain-looking) girl who helped run the Day-Care, stepping outside.
The mob started coming from the alley, yelling and shouting rude words. "Hey! Heads up!" A large object came from the crowd and was headed towards the three kids that were completely surrounded. Then everything went black.
Chapter 6: Lovestruck
David watched in horror as his newfound friends got struck by two Poke'balls that came from the crowd. Upon impact, Lupin and Daniel were sucked inside the Poke'balls. There was no struggle from them after they entered the Poke'balls, probably because they didn't know what had happened."What...what..." David stuttered, extremely angry. He looked down at the ground.
"Are you alright? That was a pretty bad situation." said someone from the crowd, approching David.
"Alright!? Alright?! You just-" David looked up and saw a beautiful teenage girl, looking at him with concern.
"Just what?" she asked.
"Just....ummm..." David looked at her, dumbfounded by her beauty. In seconds, he forgot all about Lupin and Daniel. "You free for a date?"
The girl looked at him with surprise, then laughed. "You seem okay. My name's Karen."
"Mine's David..." he said, swooned.
Karen turned back to the crowd. "Okay, people! I captured the Hybrids, break it up!"
As the crowd dispersed, David exclaimed. "You order people around great!"
Karen laughed again, then gathered up the Poke'balls Daniel and Lupin were in, and placed them in her backpack. "Are you a Poke'mon trainer?"
"Uh...yeah! Yeah!" Daivd said hurriedly, taking all of Lupin's Poke'balls and throwing them in his own backpack.
"Well, I'm free." Karen said. "I just lost a job at the Fast 'N Burgers joint."
"Free?" David said, gazing at her.
"You asked me for a date, remember?" Karen reminded him.
"Uh, oh yeah! So, let's go somewhere!" David said.
Karen laughed. "You're funny, David. I know a great restaurant down at the corner. Let's go!"
David and Karen entered Alenn's, a nice little restaurant on the corner of the street. There was a 'Please seat yourself.' sign, so they sat down across from each other in a nearby booth. After they had ordered their food, they began to make small talk.
"Yeah, my parents went on some trip that they won." Karen began. "I had to be left with my creep of a little brother..."
"I bet he's as pretty as you..." David mumbled, still mesmerized.
"What?" Karen chuckled. "You sure are strange, David!"
"Heh..." David's face turned red. "A-Anyhow, what's your brother's name?"
At that point, their food arrived. Still embarressed, David immeadiately began chowing down on his bowl of soup.
"Oh, it's Lupin. And that's another thing about him!" Karen huffed. "He's always acting so special just because he's got a unique name."
David dropped his spoon. The realization struck him. This was Lupin's sister! His own sister had unknowingly captured him! And what was he doing, dating this girl when Lupin and Daniel were captive?
"You alright, David?" Karen said, concerned.
"Um..." David thought quickly. Then, an idea came to him. "Let's have a Poke'mon battle!"
Karen stared at him for a few seconds, then laughed. "Sure! There's a field just a little bit away. We'll go there to battle after we eat."
David crossed his toes. This was his only chance to save Lupin and Daniel without revealing anything to Karen...