The Aftermath

In my life, I never enjoyed waking up. No matter the day, no matter the time, rising from the land of slumber always put me in a bad mood. I would always be groggy, I would always be incoherent, but never have I awoken to such immense pain.

My body was shivering in cold sweat, electric needles running all over my skin. Each drop of perspiration was a red hot knife, dripping across my epidermis.

The worse was my back. I could tell I was laying on harsh dirt and leaves. I could feel each granule, every shaving of dried leaf, all like a bed of nails digging into my flesh.

Opening my eyes, I was blinded by the darkness in the cave. The details I was able to catch were beyond my brains comprehension, with how detailed and vivid they were. It was awful. All my senses were dialed to eleven.

I could hear my heartbeat, feel the vibrations from the earth, taste the damp musk in the air, smell the blood and fur of the creatures nearby. Not to mention seeing my eyelids as if there was a spotlight on me.

Movement was not possible, my muscles felt like strewn up wires pulled to their limit. Digging my hand into the floors, can only be compared to grabbing broken glass.

Vibrations from the ground alerted me to approaching creatures. Their fur rustled as they walked, and the heat from their breath scorched my flesh. I squirmed trying to move away from this overwhelming stimulus.

They moved faster and grabbed me, pushing me down. I screamed from the contact. Hearing my reaction, they let go, and I took the opportunity to crawl into a corner, each movement creating caustic pain. The wall lit aflame my senses.

I sobbed, causing more pain, making the sobbing worse, creating a continuous loop of suffering. The creatures did not move, but I can feel a different kind of sensation coming from them. Like a swarm of ants crawling all over me. I wailed at the sensation, trying to rub it off, only making my situation worse. I moaned and cried and screamed profanities, but the sensation cared not and continued crawling up my body, until it reached my nape.

There it sank its fangs into my skull invading my brain. Giving a guttural roar I shoved the feeling from my body. It cowered and then disappeared. I was left sobbing in the corner. After an uncountable amount of time, gravity somehow became meaningless to me as I floated in the air. A completely smooth and soft force had picked me up.

Free from the harsh textures of the ground, the pain was lessened, but only by a small margin. Time rolled by and the tears just stopped. My throat was raw and constricted, only giving out the occasional moan. All my mind could do was try to cope with the increased amount of input.

It was still hell.

More time passed and at some point, a ridiculously sour and sweet juice was forced between my lips. I coughed it back up immediately. A moment passed and then it was forced down my throat again, only this time something pinched my nose. Swallowing the juice, I was repulsed by the feeling of it sliding down my throat.

Not wanting to feel it come back up, I attempt to push it down.

I feinted from the effort.

My life was now filled with this. I begged for death, but it would not come. Every time I awoke, my senses would be assaulted by sensation. The air was always too hot or too cold. Cold sweat brought pain, making noise slammed my eardrums. That liquid would be shoved down my throat and then everything would repeat over and over.

I soon just came to accept this. This was my life now. I had to compartmentalize all the pain just to get a thought through.

An eternity passed and slowly, I was able to gain some awareness. Opening my eyes was still a big no, but eating what I assume is berry juice was alright. My skin still tingled, but I could handle the shifting air currents. The ground was too much so I stayed in the air, by whatever was holding me.

Each day slowly became easier to bear. The pain soon morphed into high sensation. To feel everything in high definition, which when strong was still a problem, but can slowly be handled. One day I tried opening my eyes. It was intense but the detail and colors were amazing. Quickly closing them again, I adapted to it. Every so often, I would peak at my surroundings. Slowly, I was able to keep my eyes open longer, especially if I squinted.

It was during one of these sessions, I saw my caretakers.

......…

Meowstic POV Weeks ago

I was a father. Espurr had been born healthily and was he such a cutie. He would surely be the apple of every Meowstics eye when he grew up. His life would perfect, if it weren't for the recent attacks.

A rogue Toxicroak and his lackeys had claimed the bottom of the mountain as his territory. Now none could pass into or out of the mountain without his favor. If that was not the only problem, he actively harasses Pokemon, trying to claim their territory. We had to build a burrow underground to save ourselves from his ambushes.

Eventually, however, I had to go out with my little Espurr to teach him our ways. This world is equally cruel as it is kind. To eat, one is required to kill. Meat is a rare commodity, but it is still necessary to live and get strong.

I showed him the best places to hunt water type Pokemon and routes to avoid the stronger Pokemon on the mountain. I even got him to use his first move, confusion.

The sun had reached its zenith and I had an ominous feeling. Calling it early, we headed home.

As we followed the trail, Toxicroak attacked, slashing deeply into Espurr's shoulder.

Shouting for Espurr to run, I defended against the psychotic toad. He slammed against me with sucker punch before following up with pursuit. I raised a reflect and pushed back with psychic. The battle was not in my favor. I was more defensive then my wife was. I only had a few attack moves and my opponent brushed them off with ease. If that were not bad enough, Toxicroak's strikes were as heavy as boulders, breaking through my barriers like paper. Soon the battle had been pushed to the river. I was struck with a poison jab and sent flying. Expecting water, I was surprised to find that my fall was broken by bony flesh.

Looking up, I was mortified seeing my child, dying in the arms of a human. Before I could get another thought in, I was flung over by the human, barely missing the toad's attack. The Toxicroak turned and used venoshock, unknowingly crushing an Inkay spine under its foot.

Acting fast, the I used light screen to minimize the damage, only to have it destroyed moments later. Going for the kill, Toxicroak jabbed, only to be stopped by my reflect. Using psychic next, the Toxicroak was flung away. I followed after giving a glance back, seeing the human run towards a town.

Deciding it was for the best for Espurr to be treated by the humans, I delayed the Toxicroak for as long as possible.

It did not count for long as I was sucker punched into a tree. The beast of a Pokemon laughing. Unconsciousness devoured me, but not before feeling the human picking me up and running.

......…..

Elsewhere

I was in the burrow, waiting for my husband and son to return. In the pit of my stomach, I felt that something was wrong. When the ground quaked and a blast of psychic power was unleashed, I knew something terrible happened. Activating psychic, I flew.

Tracing the blast, I passively noticed that the energy was receding at a rapid rate.

Reaching the center, I froze to the core. In a crater several feet deep, an unconscious human boy was lying with my mate and cradling the corpse of my child. Fury boiled in my stomach, I wanted to tear whoever did this to my child to shreds!

In the air, I could smell the vestiges of poison. I could guess the culprit from that alone. I swore that the toad will pay for what it did to my family. Looking at the boy, likely collateral damage, I examined him for wounds. Nothing was on the surface, I delved deeper with my minds eye.

Shocked, at the unbelievable sight, I subconsciously backed away. Everything about the boys body was different. The control lines were sparking erratically, the tiny blobs composing his body morphed into something different. New, foreign energy contaminated these amorphous blocks.

The fact that this boy was on the mountain was concerning. With Toxicroak and his spawn guarding the base, no human should be here. Especially one so young.

Picking up the child and her mate up psychically, I headed home. The grief of losing my child weighed on my mind. He was so young and full of life. Now….

Once at home, I took my Espurr and gently wrapped him up in leaves. Shedding tears in sorrow, I then attended to my mate. Examining his body, I discovered several broken ribs, bruising everywhere, and violet slashes on his back and chest.

If it weren't for the fact he was a psychic type, the poison would have killed him ages ago. That was a problem when dealing with poison types. Along with dark and ghost types, they are efficient killers. All it takes for them is one attack and then they can wait for them to die from the poison.

Psychics types are exempt from this rule as all their cells are soaked in psychic energy. This energy is slightly sentient; therefore, they are adept at healing the body. Diseases, poisons, even wounds will heal so long as a psychic type has the energy to recover.

Transferring some of my energy via helping hand, I watched as the wounds lose some of their purple pallor. Giving enough to were he would be healed in a few days, I sighed in relief. Turning to the boy, I continued examining him.

He appeared unharmed, but that made no sense as he was in the middle of that blast. My mate could handle something like that, he was stubborn that way. But this was an unprotected child, he should be mush.

Using my hidden eyes, I scanned his body again. For the most part, he was human, but she did see a little essence that was not. There was a slippery bit, if I were to make a comparison, I would say there was like a dark type. It composed about half of the major essences in each blob. The other half was distinctly psychic in nature. Most from my little Espurr and the rest seemed to be paired to the dark. Then there were hints of other energies as well.

The easiest to identify was definitely energy from the forest. There is not a psychic type out there that couldn't detect the life force in trees or plants.

Then there was what looked like a black spot in each cell. Every time she tried to get close with her sight, it moved away, as if hiding. Shadow? I questioned to myself.

Shadow was a component to ghost types. Its how they can become invisible or incorporeal.

Further scouring showed a repulsive energy, it was an energy of decay and destruction. Poison, I concluded.

Zooming out she studied the interactions of these energies. It was a bizarre conglomerate that was somehow harmonious. Life energy acted as the shell, psychic maintained the form and shape, the dark provided defense, shadow served as communication to the other bits, and poison caused this odd reaction, breaking down the energies and then fusing them together. It was white and bright but beyond that, I did not know what it was. All in all, each blob had become a super charged generator.

Taking a step back, I waited for my husband to awaken to discuss this human.

......…..

A day later, he woke up, groaning like the big baby he was. Connecting to him, I began to interrogate him.

Recounting his tale, I looked at the human deciding what to do with him. Following my gaze, the male Meowstic saw the same boy that had presumably saved him.

While he wanted to believe the boy was doing it from the goodness of his heart, there were to many trainers that have taken advantage of Pokemon in these kinds of scenarios.

Sighing, he decided to wait and see what the boy was like before passing judgment.

......…..

Two days have passed and the boy had not woke up from his coma. I along with my wife watched over him, force feeding him and examining his rather unique body for signs of damage. We buried our child near the heart of the tree.

I had almost healed fully, but still acted like I was severely hurt. Being pampered by my wife was something I was not hoping to give up yet.

When noon came, the boy had all of a sudden started to scream. We rushed over, only to hear him get louder. Grabbing unto him to try and calm the boy, he struggled. Backing off, we tried to psychically probe his mind to see the problem, but as soon we touched it, we were violently ejected. Perplexed, I looked at him a little closer.

He had curled up into a ball and was acting like he was on fire, strange words flying from his mouth. Glancing at my wife, she seemed to figure out what was wrong. She was always the smart one in this relationship.

Revealing her hidden eyes, she used psychic on the air to cradle the child. Lifting him up seemed to help. From what my wife mentioned, the boys body was charged with several energies and his neurons were firing at an incredible rate. I guess he was having a sensory overload.

Asking if that was the case, my wife chirped in agreement. After sometime, we fed the kid a juiced berry. He spat it back out. Trying again, we used a trick from when we were raising Espurr and held his nose. It worked but he seemed like he was going to vomit it back up. He did not.

After fainting, we examined his body again only to find that the neurons weren't firing with electricity anymore. It was the new energy! Doing some calculations, we guessed that his senses were running a hundred times their normal capacity. The ground, the air, sounds and smells must feel like torture to him. Not to mention what his eyes must feel like.

Being a psychic type, were are familiar with messing with our senses to dull or sharpen them. What he is feeling right now is comparable to being hit by a hundred extrasensory attacks simultaneously each second. Even the most gentle of things will feel like hell. Unless he adapts. At which point, the world will look very different to him.

......…..

Weeks passed by and the boy seemed to start coping with his new sensory prowess. During that time, we noticed his shadow darken, and that he would passively emit thought rays. These rays are what most Pokemon use to communicate and the fact he has them means he should be able to telepathically understand us.

As time continued, we noticed his eyes would flutter for a split second. Eventually, we walked in on his floating form, and saw golden eyes looking back.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any shape or form.