I'm Human

Hello, Bobby

A/N: Writing this chapter took a lot longer than I thought it would take. Ugh. Sorry.
I was hoping to make it a little longer, but I think you've all waited long enough. Hope ya'll like this next chapter...not my best, but the next few will be better! Enjoy!     

        Rowan suddenly woke with a start. His head was pounding, but a headache was the least of his concerns. He had to know where they were and if they were all safe.
        The room—no, cavern? Wherever they were was dark and felt moist. The ground was loose and soft like soil…actually it was soil. They had escaped the lab and were now in this strange den, but where exactly was this hideaway and how did they get out of the lab?
        Rowan scanned the earthy cavern, using his new tail as a torch to clear out the shadows. Everyone from his group was resting on the ground, including some other Poke-humans. They must have fled all together during…during…what exactly happened again?
        Rowan rubbed his thumping head as he tried to recall what had occurred earlier. “I remember pulling Marcy out of her cage…and then--”
 
Flashback
        Rowan lifted Marcy’s furry body out of the cage and held her close. “Don’t worry, Marcy. We’re getting out of here.” He looked over his shoulder for his friends and spotted them shoving grunts out of the way as they battled their way towards the now busted door.
        Poke-humans were attempting to flee the room, but the grunts’ Pokemon were fighting relentlessly to keep them from escaping. The grunts were also using control poles and heavy nets to recapture the Poke-humans.
        The room was in complete chaos.
        Rowan swallowed as he thought of how he was going to get his sister across the room without getting them both caught. It wasn’t going to be easy.
        “Rowan! Aaron, wait!”
        Rowan’s gaze snapped over to his friends. Sora and Flynn were calling to him and Aaron. They were all standing in the doorway with the exception of Aaron. He was rolling himself over to Rowan and Marcy.
        “Are you and Marcy alright?” The older boy asked as he stopped beside Rowan.
        “Y-Yeah. We’re good.”
        “Good. We’ve got to leave right now. Follow me!” Aaron ordered as he started rolling back over to the doorway.
        Rowan hoisted Marcy onto his back as he chased after Aaron. It still barely fazed him that he was now able to use his legs, but now wasn’t exactly the best time to dwell on the miracle. He had to get Marcy out of this hellish situation.
        The boys dodged and weaved around the Poke-humans and Pokemon as they edged closer and closer to the doorway. They were only yards away from the others when one grunt, Alex, stepped in between Aaron and Rowan.
        He glowered down at Rowan. There was a control pole in his hands, while a Muk stood beside him. “Where do you think you’re going, twerp? Muk, grab them.”
        The larger Pokemon slithered over to the two children, but Rowan took quick retreating steps backwards as the Muk tried to close the distance between them. He wasn’t about to let this Pokemon or grunt catch them.
        “You’re just making this hard on yourself, freak.” The Muk hissed. “Come quietly and this won’t hurt as much.”
        “…I…I can understand that Muk. It sounds like its speaking English. This shouldn’t be possible.” Rowan quickly shook the thought from his mind as he refocused on the approaching danger. However, unbeknownst to him, the Muk, or Alex, a teenage time bomb had stopped himself right behind Alex. Rowan didn’t notice his friend until he began sparking and…glowing. “A-Aaron? What are you doing?”
        There was a furious gleam in the older boy’s eyes that unnerved the younger boy. “Run, Rowan.” He growled darkly.
        “Huh?”
 

BANG!

 
        Rowan’s vision instantly went dark as both he and Marcy were sent flying backwards.
        The next few minutes consisted of brief moments of conscious and blurred images. He could feel himself being carried, and occasionally caught sight of Poke-humans fleeing down the hallways, but was eventually blinded by sunlight.
        That was the last thing he remembered before finally waking up within the earthy hideout.
End of Flashback
 
        Rowan rubbed his head again and groaned. “Aaron…where is Aaron?”
        He scanned the area again, but Aaron was the only one that could not be found. Where could he have gone off to? “He hadn’t been caught, had he? No, Grandpa Reece and the others wouldn’t have allowed that. He should have fainted after that self-destruct attack. We’re Pokemon now so…attacks like that would only cause us to faint. Right?”
        Marcy groaned softly as her eyes fluttered open. “…?”
        “Marcy? Are you alright?” Rowan asked gently.
        The young girl looked up at him with big, brown, tear-filled eyes. They had changed her eye color… “Ro-Ro…I-I…I’m sowwy I told. I’m sowwy I disobeyed.”
        “Marcy, this is not your fault. Trust me.” Rowan hugged his sister close to his scaly chest.
        “Is…Is this like your game? W-Will we be able to change back? Can we change back?” Her voice chocked as she spoke. “I’ll obey this time. I’ll follow the wules. I pwomise, Ro-Ro. I’ll listen. I’ll play your game.”
        “Marcy,…I can’t promise--”
        He was cut off by the sound of someone or something shuffling above the hideaway. It was crawling towards the entrance of the earthy cavern. Both Rowan and Marcy grew still as the creature slid down into the cavern.
        It was a Pikachu.
        Rowan relaxed as the Pikachu cautiously maneuvered around the cavern, sniffing each sleeping Poke-human. It seemed curious.         “H-Hello?”
        The Pikachu instantly stiffened as its head snapped over to Rowan. Its eyes were wide with shock, but once realizing that it was Rowan, a young Charmander, who spoke, it seemed to relax. “Hello. I didn’t wake you, did I? I saw your group flee into the tree a while ago.”
        Rowan blinked. He could understand this Pokemon as well. His mind was reeling in disbelief as he stared at the electrical Pokemon. He opened his mouth to speak—to ask it questions, but the only thing that he could say was, “Tree?”
        “Uh…yeah. We’re under a tree. You and your group have been here since morning.” The Pikachu explained. He hopped over one of the Poke-humans and crawled over to Rowan and Marcy so he wouldn’t risk waking anyone else up. “Why are you all down here?”
        Rowan scanned the cavern again. This time he was able to pick out all of the tree roots poking out of the soil above them. “We’re hiding…from a group of men—a large group of men who changed us into…this.”
        “This?” Pikachu asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion. “What is this?”
        “Pokemon.”
        The yellow Pokemon blinked before narrowing his eyes at Rowan. “…uh…what? You want to run that by me one more time, buddy?”
        “We’re humans. Honest.” Marcy responded with a soft sniffle. She was trying to be sound brave.
        The Pikachu’s eyes darted from Rowan to Marcy and back. “…Uh-huh. And how were you turned into a Charmander and a Vulpix?” He didn’t sound convinced, but at least he was giving the Rowk siblings a chance to explain themselves.
        “We were unconscious for a majority of the time. They changed our skeletal system and…many other things.” Rowan grimaced. He wasn’t going to be able to convince the Pikachu this way. “When we were human, Marcy and I lived in the States until a couple weeks ago. We moved to a small neighborhood to escape the war. We can take you there and show you our home if you don’t believe us. We can show you pictures of what we used to look like.”
        The Pikachu still looked skeptical. “Say I believe you. Say you were once humans and you did live in a ‘neighborhood’—whatever that is—how are you planning on turning back?”
        Rowan shrugged. They would probably have to be put under the knife once more in order to regain their human forms, but that wasn’t exactly an experience Rowan wanted to go through again. Plus, there was a slim to none chance that any of the scientists that changed them would be willing to revert them back to normal.
        “Maybe your game could help us, Ro-Ro.” Marcy suggested.
        “How could a game help you?” Pikachu asked quizzedly. They were starting to lose him again to doubt.
        “Ro-Ro is searching for a way to turn back into a human in his game. If he beats it and becomes human again, then maybe we can copy the game. We can be human again.” Marcy exclaimed hopefully. “We’ve already got our Pokemon friend, Ro-Ro.”
        “Friend?” Pikachu repeated with crossed paws. “We’ve just met.”
        “He’s right, Marc. And besides, I don’t think it’ll work the same way. We can return to the neighborhood and retrieve my game to see how it ends, but…I can’t promise it will help us. Not to mention I still need to finish it first.”
        “But…there is a chance it might help. Right?” Rowan, Marcy and the Pikachu looked over to see Elen and a few other Poke-humans stirring. Each of their expressions held a mixture of fear and dread. Elen sat up on her new legs and scuttled over to her friends and the Pikachu. “Could it possibly give us an idea as to how we may become human again?”
        Pikachu blinked. The situation was getting stranger by the minute for him.
        “Like I said before; I don’t know. I don’t think it will.” Rowan replied.
        “But we can tell someone. We can go back home and alert the authorities about our situation. They can help us!” One of the adult Poke-humans declared excitedly. “We should leave right away.”
        “Don’t be a moron. We’ve just escaped.” There was exhaustion and sorrow in Grandpa Reece’s voice as he tried to keep the others from making a horrible mistake. “Returning home will only lead to our recapture.”
        “He’s right. Our homes will undoubtedly be the first place those men will search for us.” Another Poke-human pointed out. “We should wait a few days until we’re sure it’s safe enough for us to go back.”
        “But what if they go after everyone else? We have to warn them!”
        “How? Back in the lab those men couldn’t understand us. How will our friends be able to understand us if those men couldn’t?”
        “Besides, we don’t know how long we’ve been gone. For all we do know, our friends back home have already sent in a missing persons report to the authorities for all of us. They could be looking for us and staying cautious to any suspicious characters.”
        A few nods of agreement were cast around the cavern. Hope was slowly being restored to the present Poke-humans. However, there were still quite a few questions on their minds. One main question being…
        “Where is everyone else who was with us in the lab?”
        Many Poke-humans glanced around the dim cavern as they scanned the faces of their companions. Only a few of them recognized each other due to receiving the chance of running into friends or loved ones within the cinder box room.
        “How many of us got out?” A Gloom asked.
        “Don’t know.”
        “Some of us did go back for those trapped within the lab, but that’s all I know.”
        Rowan slowly tuned their voices out as he looked over at the Pikachu only to see him sauntering towards the cavern entrance.         “Wha—Hey!”
        The Pikachu flinched, but he didn’t stop. He had had enough of their craziness.
        Unfortunately for the wild Pokemon, Rowan wasn’t going to let him leave that easily. He willed himself to stand, but stumbled over his new feet. It was much easier the first time due to a rush of rage and adrenaline flowing through his veins. “Wait!”
        Marcy stood up to help her brother, but she too had to struggle with her new short, furry legs. “Ro-Ro, lemme help you.”
        Rowan leaned against his sister as she helped him stand.
        “Is something wrong with your legs?” The Mr. Mime asked as he watched Rowan fight to stay up.
        “This is the first time I’ve been able to use them.” Rowan muttered under his breath. Even though the Mr. Mime may have meant no offense, his question still sent a wave of irritation through the young boy.
        “What do you mean by that?” The Pikachu asked. Rowan had perked his attention.
        “Ro-Ro had to use a wheelchair to get around, but now he can use his legs.” Marcy explained. She gazed up at Rowan and gave him a weak smile. “That was one good thing those men did for us, or rather you.”
        Rowan pursed his lips. He didn’t want to agree with Marcy, but he’d be lying if he said that being given the ability to use his legs from the scientists was a bad thing. He let his eyes drift down to his feet as he wiggled his clawed toes. “…”
        “Wheel chair?” The Pikachu repeated. He narrowed his eyes at Rowan before cocking his head to the side. “Were…were you with the little girl with the sweet treats?”
        “Sweet treats? You mean the cookies?” Sora asked.
        “Hang on! You’re that Pikachu that Marcy chased after into the tall grass.” Flynn exclaimed. “Are you the same Pikachu who Rowan tried to talk to a few days before? He was the boy in the wheelchair.”
        “Uh…yeah. The little girl I didn’t mind following me, but the human boy…wait.” Pikachu’s head snapped over to Rowan. “You’re that idiot who tried to speak Pokemon! Aren’t you?!”
        Rowan flinched. “Idiot?”
        “I think you caught him off guard.” Sora said in Rowan’s defense. “He wasn’t expecting a Pikachu to suddenly appear before him. He just said the first thing that came to mind.”
        “So does this mean that you believe us?” Flynn asked quickly.
        Everyone had their eyes on the Pikachu.
        The wild Pokemon seemed to shrink when he noticed that the spotlight was now on him. “I-I guess, but what are you expecting me to do about it? I can’t make you all human again.”
        “We’re not asking you to do that. We just need to know…do you know where we are from our neighborhood? From our home?” An adult Poke-human asked. “Can you take us once we know it’s safe enough to return?”
        The Pikachu shrugged. “I guess I could, but…”
        “But what?” The Mr. Mime asked. “What’s the matter?”
        “Nothing. It’s just that—you’re all humans from the same neighborhood? And you were all taken around the same time?”
        “At the same time.” Grandpa Reece corrected. “Why?”
        “Do any of you know how long you have been missing? Because the last time I saw you kids as humans was a little over a year ago.”

 
Elsewhere--Following Madam Boss
        “Excuse you?!” The woman roared. “What happened within the lab?”
        “There was an explosion, ma’am. Many of the test subjects escaped during the confusion.” A grunt on the other end of the telecomputer explained. “We tried to recapture as many as we could, but--”
        “How many?”
        “Beg pardon?” The grunt squeaked.
        “How many escaped?” The woman repeated with a hiss.
        “A-About…95% of them.”
        Dead silence.
        “Ma’am?”
        “Are you KIDDING ME?! 95%?! How the Hell am I supposed to hold the auction with only 5% available—I’ll have to up the prices to account for property loss. No one may buy because of this, let alone bid.”
        “We’re searching for them. If it puts your mind at ease, we could start a new batch.”
        “And how do you plan on doing that? The auction is within a week and, no thanks to your idiocy, the lab is destroyed!”
        “N-Not completely, ma’am. We can repair--”
        “You’re not listening! There is no time! It took about a year for Adam and his men to create and perfect those Pokemon.” Madam Boss groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose in between her thumb and index finger. “Send the remaining 5% over. Hold them until the auction. Do you think you can do that?”
        “Yes, ma’am.” The grunt replied quickly.
        “Get to it then. No. More. Mistakes.” Madam Boss hung up and reclined in her chair. “Just when things were going well.” She checked the clock on her desk. 2:43. “I’m meeting with those damn buyers at three. They’re coming in from their own regions. At least they may be willing to wait to see the Pokemon…I can keep them distracted. I’m sure…damn it. I don’t want to ask him for help, nor do I want my buyers spending money on anything other than on the Pokemon I am selling, but…I need them to remain occupied for a few days. Damn it.”
        Madam Boss glared at the phone on her desk. She really didn’t want to call on her son for help. “…Maybe if I…I can make it sound like a simple favor. He won’t know any better.”
        She reached out for the phone and dialed Giovanni’s number. It rung twice before being picked up.
        “Mother? How can I help you?”
        “I have a favor to ask of you. As you know, there are buyers coming to Kanto for my auction. Many will be coming early.”
        “And? Are you asking me to host them for a while?”
        “That would be helpful.”
        “Shall I take them to my casino and amuse--”
        “Giovanni, *sigh* do not drain them of their money.”
        Giovanni could be heard snickering on the other end of the phone. “I make no promises, mother.”