Experiment

Everything was wrong. The small, gray fox shivered in a corner of her spacious cell, wondering how this all could have happened. Could it be a dream? An incredibly realistic and terrifying nightmare? Seems unlikely, at this point. Rina had been held in captivity for a few days now, but no one ever came to rescue her. Today, her captors had initiated their experiment, and though she started the day as a human, she was now a pokemon, a zorua, if her memory was correct. She’d only been like this for roughly an hour. She could barely walk; it felt wrong to even try. Nothing moved the way she expected it to. At least she wasn’t cold anymore, but it bothered her to know that it was due to her new fur. She shivered anyway, though, from fear and despair.

Suddenly, a loud crash erupted from hallway beyond the door of the room that held her cage. She looked up slowly, her train of thoughts broken. More experiments? she thought. She heard shouting, but it was muffled, so she couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying despite her improved hearing. A blur of pink flew by the window in the door across the room. What was that? she wondered.

Moments later, the pink thing flew back towards the window and looked inside. It was some kind of small, pink fairy creature. It seemed to be surprised to see Rina, then backed up from the window. Moments later, the thick, reinforced door was launched from its hinges, and it slammed directly into her cage. She flinched, terrified, and tried to press herself further into the corner she was cowering in. She then heard a slight twinkling noise. Looking up, she saw the pink fairy fly into the room. Slowly, she approached the bars and inspected Rina. After a few moments, she smiled sympathetically and said, “You’re not really a pokemon, are you?”

Rina shook her head. “N-no…”

“Thought so. Um, this is going to be loud, but don’t be scared,” the fairy said, then raised her tiny hands in front of her. With a quick motion she thrust her arms away from each other, and the bars of her cell responded in kind in a cacophony of screeching and crashing metal. With Rina looked again, there was a massive hole in the cell. This fairy creature may have been small, but she was horrifyingly powerful.

“Wh-who are you?” Rina asked tentatively.

The fairy smiled. “I’m a celebi. But you may call me Allee, if you prefer. That was my human name.”

After taking a moment to process this, Rina’s eyes widened and she spouted, “You were a human too!?”

Allee nodded. “Yeah. Though unlike you, I asked for this. But we can talk later. This place is crawling with goons, so we’ll need to get you out of here pretty quick. Can you walk?”

Rina grimaced and took a deep breath. She pulled herself up to her feet, then took a step. She took another, then another, and then promptly fell over. “S-sorry… This all feels wrong still… I don’t know what I’m doing… Y-you’re obvious super strong with psychic powers, can’t you just levitate me or something?”

The celebi smiles softly. “Unfortunately, zorua are dark-type pokemon. My psychic powers have entirely zero effect on you. Um… But I can probably just carry you.” Allee floats over above Rina, and wraps her arms around her midsection. The two of them were roughly the same size, but Allee still managed to get the two of them airborne. “Just try not to squirm, okay?”

Rina tried her best to stay still as Allee flew out of the room then quickly down the hall. It was like an action movie, but somehow, Rina wasn’t exactly having any fun. Surely her life was over. She couldn’t go back to anything she knew. Was she to live as some animal from here on? Maybe… maybe someone could reverse this…? But likely, the only ones who knew how to do that were the very people who did this to her, so it seemed impossible.

As Allee flew, whenever someone tried to get in their way, they found themselves thrust against the nearby wall, allowing the fairy to fly passed. She expertly navigated hallway after hallway, blowing doors open or apart depending on their strength, before finally coming to the largest set of doors. After Allee psychically shoved them open, Rina saw sunlight for the first time in days. A forest stretched beyond the open doors, seemingly forever, and standing on the path through the trees was a huge, blue deer-like creature.

Allee flew over to it and set Rina down on the path. Her feet struggled to stand after being jostled around too much, but thankfully four legs is more stable than two, and she managed to keep her balance. Allee nodded to the deer creature, who then nodded back. It stepped further onto the path so it stared directly at the facility they came from, the closed its eyes. Its antlers glowed with an array of colors for a few moments, then, a large ball of pink light formed in the sky above them, glowing with awesome power. Then, the deer opened its eyes, and the ball of light was launched at the facility. Upon making contact, it, and the facility, exploded loudly into flames and light.

“Y-you destroyed it…” Rina muttered, unable to look away from the wreckage.

“That’s right,” the deer creature said with a powerful but androgynous voice. “Now they can no longer do to anyone else what they have done to you.”

“S-so… I’m… I’m probably stuck –ack!” Rina was cut off as she was yanked from the ground by the fur around the back of her neck. It hurt something awful, and she struggled to move. Allee and the deer creature turned to see what was happening and immediately assumed defensive stances.

“Careful. Wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt,” a deep, sinister voice taunted from behind Rina. A cold metallic object was pressed against the underside of her muzzle. A human had grabbed her was holding a knife to her neck. Rina mewled weakly as her blood ran cold with fear.

“Let her go,” Allee demanded as her eyes glowed with powerful intent.

“Maybe. But I believe you all owe me a new facility, since you rudely destroyed my last one,” the villain explained. “You seem to care about this experimental freak, so how about this – One of you will agree to be captured in a pokeball to be sold off as recompense for the damages and your little friend here doesn’t get gutted like magicarp? How does that sound?”

“D-don’t…” Rina muttered. Her life didn’t matter anyway if she was going to be stuck like this. These two were legendary pokemon, who knows what kind of havoc a criminal could wreak with that kind of power?

Allee sighed. “Fine,” she said, then looked with purpose at the person holding Rina. The villain seemed to understand, perhaps by telepathy, because he laughed and said, “Good! There’s an empty pokeball by my belt. Once you’re securely inside and the Xerneas leaves, I’ll release the zorua.”

Allee nodded, then flew over to the man’s belt. Rina shuddered. No! I’m not worth that! She couldn’t stand it. These legendary creatures hardly knew her, and they were willing to give up everything for her? And besides, this guy holding her was in charge of the people who turned her into a zorua anyway, right? He’s the reason she was like this!

Time slowed as she could feel her blood pumping in her ears. Soon, she could feel… something. It was like a roaring river of power, just out of reach. She concentrated, and pulled herself closer to it. It was overwhelming, she had never felt anything like it. With a cry, she reached it and-

“Aaah!” the guy shouted. Rina felt immediate relief as she was let go, and threw herself to side just in time to dodge the large knife the imbedded itself in the ground moments later. The zorua looked back the man, who was clutching his head in pain. A black and red aura coursed around him. She was doing that to him. Somehow. It felt… good. Rage burned within her, and she redoubled her efforts. The man screamed, clearly in agony. Good! She thought, furious. This is all your fault! Rina didn’t let up, instead focusing even harder. You ruined EVERYTHING! The world was becoming blurry from her own tears and exhaustion, but she still kept it up. The man fell to his knees, but he continued to cry out from a pain so intense it was like his skin was being ripped off.

A hand touched Rina’s shoulder. “Hey. That’s enough.” It was Allee. Rina’s rage began to fade, and so too did the aura around the man. He collapsed, unconscious, as Rina panted, clearly spent. After finally regaining her senses, she looked at the guy on the ground and backed up a few steps. “D-did I do that…?”

The celebi nodded. “Yeah. You were pretty mad. Still, that was one of the most powerful Dark Pulses I’ve ever seen, so good job,” she said, chuckling softly.

“I… That was an attack. A proper pokemon move. I… I felt so much power, it was like a hurricane. Is that what that’s supposed to feel like? It’s… scary… I almost lost myself…” Rina mumbled.

Xerneas stepped closer. “It’s only natural. I could feel your rage from here. Most people don’t realize how much power a pokemon can wield when they’re giving it everything. Though most pokemon don’t go there, because it can tear them apart. You’re lucky you’re still in one piece.”

The zorua looked down. “S-sorry… I… I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Allee shook her head. “It’s okay, you don’t need to apologize. That guy had it coming anyway. After all, he’s the reason that…” She trailed off. “Speaking of… what are you going to do now? For better or worse, you’re a pokemon now. Time to make a new life for yourself!”

Rina sighed. “I don’t know.” After a moment, she asked, “Can’t I just stay with you, Allee?”

The celebi seemed surprised, then looked to Xerneas. It tilted its head, then said, “Well, I don’t see a problem with that. But Allee is a nature guardian. She regularly goes up against powerful foes and criminal organizations to help keep the world safe. You have to be willing to accept that it’s not going to be easy, and you’ll be in danger fairly often.”

Rina nods. “I kinda figured. But… I don’t have a life right now. If I can’t go back to being a human, then… I need do something with myself. I may as well help you guys help others, i-if you’ll have me. I know I don’t really know how to do anything, but… I just don’t know what I’d do on my own…”

Allee smiled softly. “Fair enough. I’ll teach you whatever you need to know. You’ve already established a link to your internal power, so that’s the first step taken care of. Everything else will be easy!”

Rina nodded, and for the first time since becoming a zorua, she smiled.

~~~~~

A few months later…

Rina studied the men and women walking beneath for a few moments. She was crouching in a ventilation shaft and waiting for just right the moment. Then, with glowing paws, she slammed into the vent beneath her, shattering the metal and dropping her to the floor below. Landing on her feet, she looked around. The criminals around her gasped in surprise and reached for a pokeball at their waste, likely a pokemon stolen from innocent people, but Rina simply grinned and giggled as their attention was drawn upward. A torrent of water gushed from the hole in the vent she made, splashing against the floor with tremendous force. The grunts panicked and fled from the impending flood which didn’t seem to affect the zorua at all. After they left, she simply chuckled and the water vanished. Allee peeked her head out of the vent and fluttered down next to her.

“You’re getting really good at those illusions, you know that?” the celebi mentioned.

Rina giggled mischievously. “Thanks! It’s a ton of fun. But uh, we should chat later.”

“Good point!” Allee said, then flew down one of the two hallways.

Rina took a deep breath, then as her whole body became enveloped with white light, she sprinted down the other hallway with supernatural speed.