This is the journey of a man named Chris, who had dreams shared by many, yet lived experiences known by so few... There are many people in the world of Pokemon, who come in just as many varieties as these strange creatures. And you are about to discover, perhaps, one you may just consider the rarest of all...
Chapter 18 - Snapped Sanity!
Throughout the night Chris sat in his cell, thinking of ways to get out of the trouble he found himself spiraling into deeper and deeper as time passed. Unfortunately, when putting everything into consideration that was against him, it was as if any answer he could think of just wouldn't work out... If anything, what he thought up to would make him sound like a liar and even more guilty... Who's really gonna believe he didn't abuse two Pokemon he just happened to find like that...? He randomly got up to pace around his cell nervously, wondering what would happen to him if, and likely when, they started throwing charge after charge over his shoulders. He wasn't the type that could handle court and pressure like that... He definitely wasn't the prison type... Second after second... Minute after minute... Time passed as he stressed, until the officer eventually came back into the cell room with a plate of food. "So... Having as much fun in here as you did doing what you did out in the open?" the officer sneered, sitting down on a chair in front of his cell. "This meal is supposed to be for you... But it really does look good..." and suddenly the officer shrugged and started eating most of it himself, leaving only scraps when he opened the cell and tossed the plate onto the floor, shutting the cell and walking off with a laugh. "Hows it feel to be on the other end of the stick kid?" he sneered, looking back at him and shutting the door.
"Man... You really get treated like dirt in these places... Guess it wouldn't be called jail otherwise..." he sighed, looking down at the plate of leftover food in front of him. "I'm not even hungry..." he scowled, suddenly hearing squeaks coming from under his bed. Jolting in response, he jerked up his feet nervously and slowly peeked under the mattress, seeing a bunch of Rattata huddled together in a hole in the wall looking back at him. "Oh... Hey..." he responded, getting off the bed and on all fours. "Two big ones... Two small ones... Family huh...? Must be nice..." he smiled, backing away and sitting on the floor, crossing his legs. "I'm not hungry... If you want, you can have it..." he told them as he pulled the plate up to him, setting it down near the front of the bed. He spent some time trying to coax them out, and eventually they inched their way to him little by little, until finally the group was huddled around the plate, sniffing at the food. "Its... Well... Prison food... Dunno how good it might taste... Sorry if it isn't too great..." he laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "I'd probably have something just a little tastier in my rucksack... But that officer has it all cleaned out by now..." he sighed, slumping as he watched them start eating. Seeing the small family enjoying the small meal made him smile slightly, thinking about his meals with his grandfather, and with Kirlia, making him laugh slightly from the happy memories he had made so far, even thinking about the Snivy he fed before being imprisoned.
"Well... Guess something good came out of this... You guys looked like you were as starved as that Snivy just about... Maybe if they let me out of here I can get you guys out too..." he smiled. Once they finished all the food, they started licking and rubbing each other clean, looking up at Chris and randomly tilting their heads. Eventually the smallest one went up to him, causing the rest to stand up in anger with hair on end as they hissed, making him sweat slightly. "B... Better not get too cl... Close now... I've got nothing to treat b... Bites and scratches in here..." he stuttered, keeping his hands away from the infant as it sniffed its way around his body, sitting down in front of him and looking up. The group continued hissing, warning both, the infant not to get too close, and him not to make sudden moves, until the infant suddenly jumped up into his lap, walking in a circle until curling up with a yawn and closing its eyes. The group jumped towards him hissing, and he kept his hands high up in the air, sweating badly. "Not... Touching... N... Not touching... See?" he said as his body shuddered nervously, not even swallowing as they too started circling him and sniffing his body all over. They then sat in front of him as the infant had, tilting their heads confused for a moment. In a weird way... It was as if they couldn't tell if he was even human... Seeming to see something he couldn't as they looked at one another and chattered. Finally they too climbed up onto his lap, the two adults curling around the infant as the second infant climbed atop his shoulders and sniffed at them until laying down with a yawn, the two adults doing the same until they all fell asleep.
"Ha... Ha ha... Better than being attacked I guess..." he chuckled, now stuck in his position. After a few moments, he decided to try petting them, and although the contact made the adults glare at him with growls at first, they slowly calmed down and allowed him to pet them, one by one starting to make sounds as if purring causing his body to vibrate and slightly tickle him. "Well... Its not SO bad in here now at least... I've got you fellas to spend time with..." he smiled, scratching them under the chin and behind the ears, making them rapidly kick their paws in response. With a laugh, he slowly inched his way towards the wall little by little, until he was able to comfortably rest his back against it with a sigh. Over time, he found himself slowly growing more and more weary, until eventually his eyes closed and he nodded off alongside the relaxed Rattata as they seemingly purred and shared their warmth with him. Over time, the night slowly passed by in the cell of stone and iron, until Chris was startled by the sound of the entrance opening, several footsteps being heard walking in and towards his direction. His eyes slowly widened as his pulse rapidly quickened, fearing the officer had brought more to take him elsewhere. Staying where he sat, Chris kept his face down as he heard the footsteps stop in front of his cell, glancing towards the feet of who came to get him.
He saw the officers shoes, and next to him were two set of feet, both wearing heels with a delicate look. "...Women...?" he muttered quietly to himself, slowly looking up to see who they were. "I uh... Was a bit rough on him... So it'll be a... Shock when you see him..." he heard the officer say as Chris heard him unlocking his cell and opening the door. They walked in and stood in front of him, and as they quietly spoke to one another, the Rattata suddenly woke with a startle and ran off his body, dashing back under the bed into their small hole, his glance turning towards their direction. "...Who...?" he thought to himself, slowly lifting his face to look towards the faces of the people before him. Looking up at the officer first, who suddenly looked away from him with a guilty expression in silence, he turned towards the two next to him, seeing the nurses from the Pokemon center. Looking at his face, the nurses eyes suddenly went wide as they covered their mouths in shock, suddenly bowing down to him together. Confused, Chris slowly stood and raised his hands slightly. "I uh... Haven't... Done anything... I... If its about those Rattata... They were just... Hungry and... I... Swear I didn't hurt them or anything..." he told them nervously, thinking the officer had them come in to take care of the Pokemon he found.
The nurses shook their heads and straightened up, the both of them looking over his face and trying to touch it, causing Chris to hiss and jerk away. They looked down sadly as the officer turned away and walked out of the cell room, the two nurses standing silently with deeply sad and guilty expressions. "Umm... R... Really... I didn't hurt them... Or... Did... Something happen to... Kirlia and Snivy...?" he asked nervously with concern in his tone. The two nurses rapidly shook their heads as they stood unable to speak, tears welling up in their eyes until together they both quietly told him "We're sorry..." as they wiped their tears. The officer then returned with Chris's belongings in one hand and his Pokeball in another, setting the rucksack down at his feet and holding out the Pokeball with his face turned away. "Uhh... But... I don't... Get it..." Chris responded confused, having been treated so harshly one moment and now having the three in front of him, looking guilty and not saying a word. "Take your things and get out... You're free to go." the officer said, glancing towards his face then away again. Taking the Pokeball and lifting his rucksack, he blinked confused at the three, slowly inching his way towards the exit of his cell. "So... I'm... Walking... Out now... Um... Is that... Okay?" he asked nervously, keeping his hands up as he stopped at his cell door. The officer crossed his arms and turned away as the nurses walked up to him, nodding together as they turned him around and helped guide Chris out of his imprisonment.
"Uhh... So... Where are we... I mean... Umm..." he said nervously, his arms being gently pulled along by each of the nurses as they looked down in silence. "S... Seriously... Did something... Happen...?" he asked them as they went towards the exit of the building. Once he stepped out, he suddenly saw Kirlia standing at the steps, her face turning from side to side as she stood alone, nervously waiting. Chris's eyes went wide as he stopped, saying her name as the nurses let him go. Kirlia started waving her arms around in a panic after hearing his voice, calling out loudly as he looked at the two nurses. They nodded at him in response and he slowly got on his knees, calling out to her again. "Over here! Silly girl... I told you to stay with Snivy and take care of her, didn't I?" he told Kirlia as she suddenly ran towards him, jumping up into his arms shouting loudly. "Ha ha! Easy, easy! Its great to see you again too..." he told her, and as Kirlia touched his face, he suddenly shouted and pulled away in response, causing her to quickly pull her hands back in a panic. "S... Sorry... It just really hurts at the moment..." he laughed nervously. Confused, she slowly and carefully touched his face again, feeling it all over as softly as she could.
He felt... Weird... His face was all... Big... And puffy... But... Slowly... The more she felt, the more she was able to understand why he reacted so oddly to being touched, her horns slowly glowing a brighter and brighter red as she went over various bruises, her small hands jolting as she felt the sensitive pain he felt when each bruise was touched. Her voice went from curious, to sad... And they suddenly saw tears streaming from her eyes as she looked inside his heart and felt all of his emotions from during his time away from her, peering inside his mind to see how roughly he had been treated at the same time... She suddenly grit her teeth and trembled all over in response to these discoveries, facing the nurses direction and letting out a loud scream, trying to jump out of his arms towards them as her eyes began to dimly, then brightly glow red in an enraged state. Stepping back, the nurses were suddenly stopped in place and began lifting off the ground, screaming in a panic. In response, Chris quickly covered her eyes and pulled her away from their direction. "K... Kirlia!! Its alright... Everything's fine now!! I... I'm free to go and all... So calm down!!" he shouted, trying to hold onto her as she thrashed, screaming more and more in a state of fury. Its a well known fact that Kirlia and her other evolutions are more connected in various ways to their trainer than most Pokemon, and knowing Chris had been abused had made something... Dark... Flip inside of her, knowing what happened to him after he was taken away from her. The more she thought about how he was abused when she couldn't be close by to help him, the louder her screams became, and next thing they knew they heard the ground around the station trembling, parts of its outer walls cracking as Kirlia vented her rage because of how Chris, who went through so much to help her and Snivy, had been mistreated because of his kindness. "S... Stop it Kirlia!! It was a misunderstanding!!" he shouted as he too began to drift up into the air, a dark aura slowly oozing out of her. "G... Gah!! Wh... Wha...? She's... Cold...?" Chris said, feeling her temperature seemingly drop as the strange aura made him feel... Seemingly numb...
After a moment, the officer suddenly ran outside, shouting at the group as he asked what was going on. "GET BACK INSIDE!!" Chris screamed at him in response as Kirlia suddenly jerked her face in the officers direction. His warning came too late however, as the officer was already trapped by Kirlia's influence, and with a scream, she let out a sudden burst of energy that sent the nurses and Chris himself flying back as she float in the air, her teeth grit and seeming to sharpen as she hovered in the officers direction, slamming him against the wall of the building with her psychic abilities. With her usual bright and cheery self now seemingly deep within the chilling aura swarming her body, she hissed at the officer and spoke to him in her own Pokemon tongue, her voice sounding raspy as if choked by the dark emotions seeping from her skin itself. "KiiRRRlll... iiii... KiirrrLLL... iiii..." she told the officer, sounding as if she was eerily saying... "Kill you... Kill you..." instead, the officer pale as a ghost as he looked into her glowing, seemingly demonic glazed eyes. "G ge... Get this Pokemon kid!!! She's lost it!!!" he shouted, flailing against the wall as she kept him firmly pinned against it. "Sh... She's a... S... Shadow..." one of the nurses suddenly said as the two held each other in fear. Chris raised up with a groan, clutching his torso which felt the blunt of her blast that sent them flying. "Sh... Shadow... What?" he asked, looking at them. "Sh... Shadow Pokemon... The state they fall into... When they shut their hearts... A terrifying state... Where the rawest power seeps out... Something... Evil... Its just like... Years ago... When we heard those reports from the Orre region... But... None of those Pokemon... Willingly turned into... That..." the nurse whimpered as they both shivered against each other. "It w... Was an... Artificial ch... Change... No P... Pokemon... Has ever... Naturally..." the nurse paused, the two looking at the enraged Pokemon before them in terror.
Looking at Kirlia himself, Chris saw her teeth, now sharp as daggers, and her glazed eyes were rapidly twitching... Her body seeming to jerk itself as it convulsed from the raw darkness taking control. "...She really has lost it..." Chris whispered, watching wide eyed and in disbelief. Kirlia suddenly slammed the officer against the wall several times like a plaything before smashing him down into a bush, hovering over him while facing down, her body dangling like that of a haunted puppet. She lifted him up again as he shouted, and holding his face up to hers, Chris suddenly saw an eerie and disturbingly bloodthirsty grin show on Kirlia's face. Reaching her hand out to the building, they felt the ground shake again as the building rumbled, until one of the cell doors from within suddenly burst through the roof, its bars being ripped apart in pieces and brought to Kirlia. Holding one of the bars in her hands, she suddenly jerked her face to look in Chris's direction, pointing at the bar with what sounded like a chuckle as she then pointed at the officers face, signalling she was going to do the same to him, only much, much worse as the other bars swarmed around the officer, some pointing their sharp and jagged tips towards him, ready to beat him senselessly and impale him. Kirlia slowly raised the bar in her hands, which twisted and warped as her aura swarmed around it, and the other bars followed the same movement, lifting back and ready to slam down onto the human in front of her. Finally, she suddenly sent the bar in her hands crashing down towards the officers face as the others aimed for the rest of his body, but as they came within an inch of hitting him, Chris quickly jumped and grabbed the officer, the both of them slamming to the ground together.
"RUN!!!" he shouted at him and the nurses, making them get in his car and speed off towards the center as Kirlia thrashed her body around, trying to figure out where they went. As she heard the sound of the car speeding off, she suddenly grinned with another hiss, jerking her body to face its direction. "KiiRRRlll... KiirrLLL!!!" she screamed, launching herself and the bars in the same direction as the car until she suddenly slammed against Chris, standing with his arms out to block her. Getting ready to beat him with the bars, she lifted them up and sent them down towards him until he suddenly shouted her name, making Kirlia freeze with a jolt when she learned it was him in her way. "That's... Enough... You taught them a lesson... I don't know why or how... But they gave me back my freedom... They brought you to me so the moment I walked out, I'd see you... Please Kirlia... Don't make things worse on anyone than they already are..." he told her, getting an enraged expression in response as she screamed at him, motioning countless times for him to get out of the way and pointing at his face, suddenly showing tears in her eyes once again through her blind fury. "I... I know... I got beat up pretty bad... But they don't need to be hurt like me... To feel the same kind of pain... Inside they know what's happened is wrong... They know they made a mistake and they feel bad enough..." he told Kirlia, slowly touching her face with a smile. She jerked herself back and shook her head, tears now streaming from her eyes as the bars trembled in the air.
"...The nurses were shocked when they saw what happened to me. They had tears in their eyes too... They felt horrible. And the officer... He felt so bad he couldn't even look at me... Couldn't you sense how much pain they must have been in on the inside... Doing all that to an innocent person? Please Kirlia... I don't want to actually become a criminal... And there's no way I would ever want to let you become one... Just... Put... The bars... Down..." he said slowly, reaching out and holding the one in her grasp. She hesitated in response, jerking it back towards her as she shook her head rapidly. But slowly... More and more... She loosened her grip... Her resistance fading... Until she let it go and lowered to the ground, the other bars suddenly falling with loud clangs into the dirt as her darkness simmered down, covering her face as she wept in front of him in frustration. Standing still for a moment, he too suddenly slumped to the ground. "Holy... Crap..." he pant, clutching his chest while watching Kirlia slowly return to normal, her teeth dulling and eyes dimming. The evil that had been consuming her was leaving her bit by bit until all that was left was a small and confused Pokemon before him. "...Thank you Kirlia..." he said softly, reaching out to touch her head. She suddenly slapped his hand away with a shout in response, turning her back to him as she held her legs against her, hiding her face in her small knees.
"...I know its hard. Most of the time... That's how forgiveness is... And... Its selfish of me to make you be this way. Its... Unfair of me to ask this of you... But... I need you to show me that same Pokemon... Who put what another human did behind her and joined me on my own journey. I know... We haven't even had that long together... So wanting you to listen to me is all the more unfair because of that... But... Please...? Be stronger than this for me...?" he asked her, reaching out yet again to touch her, this time placing his hand on her head and rubbing it softly. "...I'm sorry for being such a troublesome human. I should be the one working as hard as I can to make others forget their troubles... I should be the one making people happy without a care in the world... But in the end I guess I can't really do it without messing up too, huh...?" he said quietly, a somber smile on his face as he wiped his eyes, slight tears in his as well. Kirlia picked up on his sense of guilt, his feelings for her pushing concern over himself in second place yet again, and she suddenly stood and turned to him, stomping up and tapping her hand roughly against his chest as she yelled. She knew exactly why he couldn't get the revenge he deserved himself! She knew why he had his passive forgive and forget attitude! It wasn't fair for him at all to suffer such pain and be forced to forget about it! It wasn't fair for his good deeds to cause him to get punished! And when she tried to get revenge for him, she wasn't allowed to do something he deserved either?! How could she live with herself that way?! Knowing whenever someone or something hurt him, she was just supposed to forget about it too?!
Chris sadly looked down at her as Kirlia's expression repeatedly changed while her emotions swirled, until finally he gently put a finger over her mouth and pulled her close. "...I need to show you something. To introduce you to someone." Chris told her calmly, standing and heading into the police office as she struggled to pull away from him, feeling as if her frustration hadn't vented enough. But he suddenly stopped and set her down, causing Kirlia to freeze and throw out her arm, quickly grabbing his pant leg to ensure he wasn't leaving her again. She felt him squatting down, and he suddenly started calling for something, making her blink and tilt her head bewildered. She heard strange sounds coming from in front of her, and suddenly she felt a bunch of... Something... Pressing against her all over. She clutched Chris on the leg with both hands, suddenly shivering all nervously. "Kirlia... These are the Rattata who were stuck in here. I found them living in the wall under the bed in this prison cell... Its a mom... A dad... And two small infants... They were starving in here, kind of like that Snivy was... Thanks to me being put in here, I was able to feed them a little. And now I'll be able to help them get out..." he said, petting the Rattata as several climbed up all over him. Chris let out a slight laugh as they played on top of him, with Kirlia lowering her face with a sigh in response. Shaking her head, she suddenly felt one of them rubbing against her, and with a nervous expression, she reached out carefully and felt the Rattata, petting it as it paced around her, pressing its cheek against hers with purr like sounds. "See there...? If you caused this place to collapse... They would have been killed..." he suddenly told Kirlia with a serious yet soft tone. She jolted with a slight gasp in response, stepping away from the Rattata's touch. "...When someone gets angry enough, everything around them doesn't matter. They don't... Really take anything into consideration. Who they might hurt... Or why... What they might damage... Its another reason you have to be careful... You can be really powerful... But that kind of power... Power gained from anger and hatred... You should never want any part of that..." he said as he picked up all the Rattata.
"...Lets get them out of here. We need to go get Snivy too... Alright...?" he said, with Kirlia silently nodding in response, keeping her head down as they slowly walked out of the cell room...
A young man named Chris, now 23, who discovered he carries a curse placed on him by a Ninetails his grandfather saved long ago by grabbing its tail as it fell from a cliff, is to forever put others first before doing what he wishes in life, and has now finally set off on his own Pokemon journey, a little later in life than most, after dedicating his youth to care for his grandfather and the other elders in his village, part of the fate the Ninetails told his grandfather would befall Chris after his birth when the curse was placed.
Now that his grandfather has passed away and the elders have sent him on his way to live life as he should, his curse now strings him along as he walks the path of a Pokemon trainer, doing what he always dreamed while also, unknowingly, conveniently fulfilling his part of the Ninetails curse...
