Chapter 9

"YOU DID WHAT!"

Deep in the underground caves of the Calgary faction of the Poke-Human Society, Wallis slithers angrily through the cave. Following close by him, Giovani only shows a happy and relaxed look on his face as he follows his friend through the cave leading to the main hall.

"I cannot believe you sent Leah of all people with that crazy Poke-Human boy," Wallis says angrily. "As the one in charge of the Forest Sentry Unit, I should have say in what my sentries do and you took away one of my best sentries!"

Giovani continues to walk with Wallis, his relaxed look un-killable. "She seemed very excited at the prospect of being friends with the boy who smacked the truth of our existence into the world's face. Her skill at using her abilities is incredible, I do not believe she is in danger of being hurt."

"This was a very big mistake," Wallis says. "Not only should you have not let Leah go, you should have kept that boy from leaving as well. If what you are saying is true, if that boy really tries to break out a Poke-Human from the Canadian government! It would be unspeakably disastrous to Poke-Humans. He will lose any trust with the government and the people he's trying to bring over to his side!"

"It's true," Giovani says as he stops walking. Wallis stops as well and turns his head to look at Giovani. "What the boy is trying to do as we speak has unknowable consequences. His actions may well pose a challenge for us all."

Wallis scowls. "Then why do I have a sinking feeling you're still on his side?" Wallis asks.

Giovani looks up, deep in thought before letting out a sigh. "As much as I would like a smooth transition from secrecy to out in the open existence, it would be foolish to believe many wouldn't try to shun us or cause us harm. Having a good relationship to the regular Human populous is what I want, but we cannot sit aside and allow humans to have their way with our kind."

"Which means it is for the best that no one finds out that humans know of our existence," Wallis says. The two walk into the main chamber where nearly all the members are standing reading something on the wall. "It gives us time to plan out how to handle the overall reaction of both our society members coming out of hiding and humans learning of a full-blown city of Poke-Humans living in the nearby forest."

Wallis waits for his friend to respond before noticing Giovani staring at what the other Society members are looking at. Wallis looks at what they are all staring at and in an instant, all the blood in Wallis's body goes ice cold. With wide eyes and a mouth dropped as low as possible, Wallis sees the sloppily drawn writing on the wall in front of everyone. "SECRETS OUT! HUMANS KNOW!"

Chatter from one Poke-Human to another causes the whole entire room to be abuzz with multiple different conversations, some worried while others are of excitement and interest. Giovani's eyes move to one of the cave entrances and sees Colt along with his friends Rem and Brandt standing there. As Wallis gawks in horror, Giovani looks at Wallis.

"I guess we should work on that plan," Giovani smiles.

Inside an elevator, we stand listening to the terrible music that plays on the intercom as we wait patiently for the elevator to make its way to the 9th floor.

Inside the room on the 9th floor, scientists run and shuffle around as the glass separating them from the Riolu. "Everyone get to the exits!" one of the scientists' yells. "We have a hostile in the building!"

"Don't let it bite you!" a female scientist shouts before ducking for cover as the glass finally breaks.

Still inside the elevator, Rini nervously coughs as we nearly reach the 9th floor. "So, you think this Poke-Human is gonna be nice?" Leah asks.

Red eyes, heavily breathing, the Riolu walks through the glass. The room is already empty by the time the Riolu enters the other room. Looking around, the heavily breathing Riolu looks to the open door just as an armed guard enters, his gun pointing at the Riolu. The Riolu looks at the guard before the guard is suddenly flung across the room into the wall.

The Riolu walks out of the room into the hallway, looking in each direction. Suddenly, the Riolu clutches its head in pain, its eyes flickering back and forth between red, blue, then red again. Resting against the wall, breathing raged, the Riolu tries to calm itself before a couple of security guards come around the corner. Not wasting a second, the guards fire at the Riolu who stands where it is unflinching. As the bullets race through the air they suddenly come to a stop in front of the Riolu who propels them back at the guards. The guards take cover, one takes out a radio device.

"The Pokémon is in a hallway, still on the 9th room," the guard reports. "Pokémon knows the move Psychic, use caution when confronting it." The guard turns around the corner only to find that the Riolu has vanished. "Shit!"

All of us brace ourselves for any humans we see the moment the elevator door opens. Leah's ability to keep my family under her illusion is on a short time limit so we have to get past all the humans, find the Poke-Human, get them all the way back to my house very quickly so the moment the elevator door opens we have to find it quick.

The elevator stops and opens and as we prepare to deal with humans on the other side, we do absolutely nothing as the door opens completely to a Riolu standing on the other side. None of us say a word as we stare at the Riolu who looks back at us, breathing noticeably hard. Behind it, a couple guards and scientists on the ground unconscious. The Riolu walks into the elevator just as it automatically closes just as guards run from around the hallways unable to find the Riolu.

Inside the elevator, the Riolu stands quietly as the rest of us stand around it gazing at it with bewildered amazement. I pull myself out of my delirium and approach the possibly scared out its mind Poke-Human. "Um…did you used to be human?" I ask.

The Riolu looks as if pondering the question before it is hit with another wave of pain as it clutches its head. The elevator suddenly begins to shake as we all brace ourselves.

"Whoa!" Jack says.

"What is happening?" Leah asks.

As the elevator shakes and screeches, I try to stabilize myself next to the Riolu who looks as if it is having the worst case of a headache of its life. The shaking intensifies and almost feels as if the elevator is going to fall to the very bottom until it finally stops. To everyone's surprise, the elevator door opens by itself with the Riolu stumbling out. Not wanting to stay in that elevator anymore, we all rush out along with the Riolu.

"We're on the 3rd floor," Rini says, pointing to a sign. The Riolu stumbles down a hallway and I quickly try to go to it before we suddenly run into some workers coming out of a room in front of us.

"Excuse me, what are all of you doing here?" the worker asks. The Riolu winces and cries in pain, holding its head before holding its arm in front of the worker. The confused worker looks at the Riolu not knowing what to expect before the Riolu swipes its arm which causes the worker to fling back into the room he was just in, the lock on the door clicking into action.

Leah floats next to me. "A Riolu that knows Psychic," Leah says bewildered. "COOL!" The Riolu's eyes dim from blue to a more reddish color. We all start to hear growling noise coming from the Riolu as it stands in front of us before slowly turning around and turning its attention to us. "Oh, that is a lot less cool," Leah says. "RUN!"

We all bolt in different directions as the Riolu lunges toward us wildly. I look behind me as we run and the Riolu stands from where I was standing, a green glow surrounds its body, just like the Espeon that bit me. Fear builds up in me that propels me to run faster. Rini and Leah run alongside me, Jack, Jon and Ada must have gone a different direction but I have to worry about them another time as the Riolu focuses on us instead as it runs full throttle toward us.

"We have to knock it unconscious," Leah says. "That'll snap it out."

"You've dealt with Poke-Humans that have that glow?" I ask.

"Not a lot," Leah says, not wanting to bring up the incident back then. "Its worked before so why not try again." Continuing to run, Leah turns around and tries to put it in an illusion. Trying the hardest she's ever had to put someone in an illusion, Leah pulls back exhausted. "I can't do it. It's almost as if its immune from being placed under a hallucination. I'm all out of gas at this point, if I try another attack my hold on your family might break and they'll wake up."

"It's a good thing I've been practicing," I say. Getting ready to turn around and fire off a Psychic attack. Just as I'm about to turn around and attack, a door opens in front of me and I hit it face first. Rini and Leah are able to dodge as they run past the worker coming from the room. "W-well there goes that idea."

The Riolu does not waste time as it lunges toward us. Rini pushes the worker back into the room closing the door as the Riolu is midair in front of her. Rini is saved however as Leah pushes the Riolu back with a well-placed Tackle.

"Did that work?" I ask, looking at the Riolu still on the floor. The Riolu begins to move and staggers to its feet before looking at us with a fierce look in its red eyes. "Nope, no it did not work. Run!" The three of us bolt away as the Riolu gives chase again.

In another hallway on the 3rd floor, Jack, Jon, and Ada sit down together in a circle. "Alright, turns out we didn't plan for the Poke-Human to be bat-shit insane," Jack says.

"You think it's like the Espeon that Sam ran into?" Jon asks. As Jack and Jon talk to each other about the situation, Ada thinks to herself about how to get that Riolu to switch back to normal. Over the years of being a Poke-Human, Ada has not had any interaction with feral Poke-Humans save for that freak incident with Sam. A Riolu that knows Psychic though is something no one has seen before, it's not a move Riolus are even supposed to know.

"If we're gonna take this Riolu down we're gonna need to be careful about doing it, especially if it is infectious," Ada thinks to herself. Shooting water into Sam's face seemed to work for him, so might as well try it once more. Tapping her paw on the ground, Ada tries to get Jack and Jon's attention who are still bickering about what to do.

"You have an idea Ada?" Jack asks. Ada nods and begins to lay out her plan to the both of them as the two humans try to listen. After Ada finishes speaking she looks at both boys who try not to look confused after listening to the Vaporeon speak Poke speech.

Ada lets out a sigh and proceeds to shoot Jon in the face with Water Gun. As Jon falls onto his back Jack immediately understands what Ada has in mind and nods in agreement.

We continue to run through the hallway, the Riolu chasing us not that far behind. The Riolu lifts its hand forward and Rini feels a pressure forcing her back toward the Riolu. I quickly turn around as I see Rini being lifted off her feet and toward the infectious Poke-Human.

"S-Sam!" Rini yells. "Help!"

I slam my front paws forward and concentrate as hard as possible and using my own Psychic stop Rini from getting any closer. The Riolu and I soon have our own Rini tug-of-war. Leah, too exhausted to attack, watches from the sidelines as I try to pull back Rini who is still levitating midair. The Riolu struggles to keep up its attack as it clutches its head again as another stinging headache hits it.

"Hey psycho!" someone shouts from behind us. Ada suddenly jumps in front of me. "Take this!" Ada fires a powerful blast of water from her mouth and it connects with the Riolu's face, knocking it off its feet and on to the ground. Rini lands on her feet as the Psychic from both the Riolu and me ends.

"Rini are you okay?" I ask coming to her side. With a shaky nod, Rini gives me a thumbs up. I then turn my attention to the still grounded Riolu, the green glow fading away from the Riolu's body. Jack and Jon come running to the rest of the group as the Riolu groans and rubs its head.

Jon runs over to the Riolu and looks it over. "Hey there little guy," Jon says, picking the Riolu up and into his shoulder before running back to us. "Please don't be feral! Please don't be feral!"

Jack comes over to us. "Security is probably going through each floor looking for the Riolu," Jack says. "We need to get out of here while the little guy is still groggy."

We quickly do just that as we make our way to the stairway, head all the way back to the first floor, run past the still passed out workers and security guards in the lobby. Not wanting to risk running into anyone just getting to work, we make our way to the back exit of the building into an alleyway between buildings. Just as we make it out, we quickly hear police sirens getting loud toward the front of the building.

With the Riolu still in Jon's arms, we make our way further into the alleyway, we go one direction to another trying to keep ourselves off the streets. In the distance in front of us, we suddenly see a Lucario and Dusclops, warming themselves up by a trashcan on fire.

"Hmm," the Dusclops ponders to itself as both Pokémon look at our group with unease. The Lucario's attention is solely on me as its gaze gets more and more serious before it suddenly looks at the Dusclops.

"We need to take them to Carol," the Lucario says.

"Are you sure?" the Dusclops responds. "She won't like us bringing humans to our hideout."

"They can stay outside," the Lucario says. "She'll want to meet him." The Lucario points to me. "She'll want to meet the Poke-Human that screwed it all up for all of us."

Upon hearing this, the Dusclops turns to me and begins giving me the same alarmed stare. "Come with us," the Lucario tells us, no longer talking in Poke Speech.

"Wait!" Jack says. "Y-You can speak English?"

"You're both Poke-Humans too?!" I breath out.

"Come with us," the Lucario repeats, gesturing to come with them as they walk away. "Our leader has wanted to meet you for a while. Sam Healman."