Anonymous {2nd Place in Miscellaneous (PWA 2018)}

Prologue: Escape

"There it is! Get it!"

Feet pattered furiously along the metal floors along with the soft clicks of paws that were fleeing anxiously away. The hallway was riddled with a tense atmosphere that none were exempt from, and all of the hearts that were present were either beating rapidly with exertion or apprehension.

"Grab the anesthetic gun! We have to contain it by all means necessary!"

Upon hearing that, the fretful padding quickened. The Pokémon that it belonged to felt no better. In fact, the creature developed shivers just from hearing the unending rage within the loud commands.

He knew.

He knew that they were angry with him. He even knew that what he was doing was absolutely unacceptable. Why he would be considered dead to them at this rate.

But what he also knew...

He knew for a fact that he had to get out of that place. That hell.

If he didn't, he'd surely wind up in those horrid experiments until the day they overexerted him. He didn't want to see that day, no, he wanted to see anything but that.

"Shoot, dammit! It's getting away!"

Loud clanks began to hit the areas beside the Pokémon. It startled him half to death as the needles sounded to be landing only inches away from him. His mind just kept telling him to run for his life; giving him the directions to the exit that he had studied all those times before.

Soon, he found the air to be much cleaner. The absence of chemicals wafting through his nose gave him the determination to push forward until the sight of the exit entered his field of vision...

"Don't let it escape!"

One of the men who managed to catch up to him slid in front of the door to his freedom with his arms outstretched, a tense purse appearing on his lips. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "Not this time."

The Pokémon felt his teeth grit, rage bubbling within him. Thoughts and memories began to swirl in his mind. After everything they did to him. He was so close... And now back to a life of confinement he would go, forever tormented and stuck with those monsters...

Trapped until the day they were finally satisfied...

...

...However, he wouldn't accept it this time.

Not this time.

Not ever.

As if he had no control over his body, he felt his teeth turn to stone as he raised his paw up and leaped.

The man before him flinched.

"ANDERSON! WATCH OUT—!"

Flesh punctured against the Pokémon's fangs as they sank into the soft tissue, only moments later leading to howling screams of sheer agony. He felt something warm spill onto his pelt, but the darkness of the room made it impossible to identify. Either way, it was the least of his concerns. He was flung from the man's body in a desperate attempt to stop the wound from getting any deeper than it already was.

Head-butting the door open, the small creature bolted out of the building into the moonlit night, not looking back at the past he was leaving behind.

He was finally free...

...for now.