Forced Evolution --Chapter 1: Carnival Destiny--

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Rainbow colored lights twinkled like stars in the Viridian City skyline. The almost full moon shone softly through a haze as twenty different tunes from the carnival fought to be heard. However, the competing melodies fell only to a hush over the forest between Viridian City and Pallet Town. There even the carnival lights melded into a single soft glow. It was the blinking lights of fireflies that filed those jet black skies. An streak of blue light cut through a sea of these spirit lanterns. The streak of light suddenly stopped. It faded away revealing a small, white cat-like animal with large blue eyes. On the base of it's tail, the tips of its ears and feet and across the bridge of its nose where blue markings.

The little animal had been attracted by the bright lights and cheerful music of the carnival. However, curiosity is a thing that needs to constantly be fed with new experiences. Watching the carnival from a distance only allowed it to see and here so much. It would have to go inside to get the full experience, but with so many trainers around, that was too risky. It grew bored. Craving new thrills, it had set off over the forest, to play among the the fireflies. Yet it soon found something far more interesting. Not more than 35 yards away hovered an fascinating object. Though it was partially obscured by the darkness, the red armor that covered its body gave off a metallic sheen in the moonlight, and the pair of white feathery wings shone in the onyx sky. The little feline had no idea what the creature was. Maybe, if it got a closer look, then it would know.

Slowly and silently, it approached the armored being. The armored creature remained fixed in the sky above a grove of pine trees. The little one felt confident that it had not been noticed. It floated closer and closer. The armor was so pretty-- almost like jewelry -- adorned with round orange gems and trimmed in gold. The orange and gold blended with the ruby red, reminding the tiny creature of a blazing sunset. They were now separated by less than fifteen feet. The little cat began to doubt that the being in armor was even alive. Maybe it was a just a jewel hanging from the heavens by a thread? If it could only touch it... then it would know.

No sooner had the smaller creature decided upon this than the armored entity spun around. It leapt back in shock, startled as the armored one stared at it with icy blue eyes. Those cold eyes were all that could be made of the face, which was hidden in the darkness. With one gloved hand it snatched the little creature up by the neck.

The demon in armor than pitched the mew towards the forest floor. The mew overcame its shock. It pulled out of the dive just in time to meet with a blast of energy from behind. It cried pitifully as it desperately tried to flee from its attacked. However, as the mew fled, the armored monster followed. It struggled to dodge the blazing orbs of white light that its enemy constantly launched at it. It was hopeless. Only a few minutes later it parried too late, and another orb of energy collided with the mew's side. The hapless creature froze in pain and started to lose altitude. As its long tail passed before the armored creature, it grabbed onto it. Its eyes flashed a revolting shade of orange. A blue and violet light shot down from its arm in a lightning-like bolt and then passing through the tail and body of the mew. It hurt too much to cry; all it could do is tremble as the searing pain coursed through its body. Seeing that its victim was unconscious, it released the mew. It waited for the soft thud of the body hitting the forest floor before teleporting away.

Ash and Misty strolled south down Route One. They had spent the day at the carnival and were just heading back to Pallet Town. Misty struggled to find the best way to carry the humongous seel plushie that they had won at the carnival. Ash had definitely picked a good time to visit home. It had been over a year since he had won the earth badge and begun his training to join the Orange League. There had been a lot of changes in their party since then. Brock had left to study the Pokemon of Orange Island, and they had met new people. However, only Ash and Misty had made the trip to Pallet Town. Even their looks had changed a little. Ash had gotten a little taller and had decided to grow his hair out (though it just looked shaggier than normal to her). She had also grown and filled out a bit more. For a moment, she let her thoughts drift away, until she came back to the present. She tilted her head slightly towards Ash.

"Yeah! The best part was when the Carnie at the pitching game forgot to rig the milk balls. He must've lost a fortune in stuffed Pokemon!" replied Ash.

"Heh.. yeah. Everyone was a winner. Too bad you spent all your money trying to win that TM from the dart game."

"Oh well, that's too easy for me," boated Ash. "It'd only count if I won the game under their rules."

Ash's words had barely trailed off into the night air than he felt his foot press against a patch of ground that felt a little off. It was a bit squishier than it ought to be, and he could feel the top layer pull away from the lower ones as he dug his foot into it. Seeing Ash's puzzled look, Misty looked down at his feet to see what had caused him to stop. She gasped in horror at what she witnessed.
"ASH!! Get your foot off that poor pokemon before you KILL IT!" she screeched.
Shocked, Ash looked down at his feet. Sure enough his left foot was buried deep into the side of a small white pokemon. He pulled away with a yelp, and then dropped down beside the poor creature. Its breathing was labored and its face was contorted from pain. Could his foot have done this much damage? The though made him so anxious and humiliated that he felt like he could just throw up.

"Ash, it sounds terrible. We've got to bring it to Nurse Joy immediately. Otherwise it may die," remarked Misty.

"Yeah. We can bring it to the Poke-clinic in Pallet. Or maybe Professor Oak can help it. Do you think I should take it in a Pokeball?"

"No," replied Misty, "it might belong to someone. It looks too badly injured to have been a wild pokemon that got into a fight. Maybe it was separated from its master and attacked by jealous wild pokemon."

Ash picked up the injured mew in his arms, taking special care not to harm it further. Once he was sure he had a secure grip on it, he dashed off towards Pallet Town. Misty lumbered behind him, unable to run while carrying her gigantic prize.

Gasping for breath and completely drained, Ash shoved his way through the front door of the Poke-clinic. He collapsed upon the reception desk, hitting the service bell as he fell. Nurse Joy soon came out of the backroom where she had been tending to a few pokemon. She looked down upon the boy who was sprawled across her desk. He looked as if he could use a rest, but anyone who would wear himself out so severely must be on urgent business.

Ash lifted his head up off the desk and looked up at Joy. He took another minute to catch his breath before answering her.

"...When I was coming back from the carnival..., the one in Viridian City, ... I found a pokemon. It looks like it's hurt... badly. It's not mine, I dunno if it's anyone's. ... I had to take it so it wouldn't die. You'll help it, right?"

Ash slide the unconscious pokemon into the waiting arms of Nurse Joy. She looked down upon the beaten creature with pity and curiosity. She had never seen a pokemon like this one before. It had been in none of the text books on pokemon medicine. Was it a new species? She felt a tingle of doubt creep up her spine. It made her head feel light. Could she tend to a creature that she had never seen before? Its breathing was shallow and labored. Without immediate care it would die within a few hours. She had to try.

"All right now. I will do my best with this unfortunate pokemon. However, it won't be easy to care for, and I cannot guarantee that I will succeed. I will do my best, though, but that will take a lot of effort and concentration," explained Joy. "You have done all you can for now, ...Ash, right? Please, go back to your home. It's late, and you are probably tired. Just make sure to come in tomorrow morning to check on this pokemon."

Nurse Joy turned and left the reception area with the injured mew in hand. Ash caught a glimpse of her assistant, Chansey, as she slipped away into the emergency room. The door slammed shut behind her and the "in use" light to the side of it turned on. Ash knew that he might as well go home. After all, he could either wait in Clinic office or at home (and his house was far more comfortable). However, his thoughts were stuck on the wounded pokemon that he had crushed. Haunted by thoughts that he had crushed a few of its fragile ribs, he waited at the reception desk for another seven minutes. He might have waited there silently for the entire night if Misty had not finally pushed her way through the door. Her seel plushie had gotten muddy on her run to Pallet town. She had probably fallen while trying to run with it, leaving it to take the blunt of the damage. She dashed over to Ash, and looked up at him with cloudy, sad eyes. She feared for the pokemon as much as he did and also shared his fear. He wished he could tell her something to comfort her, but nothing came to mind. With his mind a blank, he cast his gaze away from Misty and examined the gaps in the tile floor instead.

"Yeah, but Nurse Joy said she would do her best for it," whispered Ash. "It'll take all night to treat though."

As the first rays of sunlight tinted the meadows around Pallet Town a soft orange, Ash was already tying the laces of his sneakers. He had woken up before dawn, anxious to go to the Pokemon Clinic to see how the little mew had fared. Last night had been a restless one for the young trainer. He could barely sleep for five minutes without waking up, and when he finally did sleep he was haunted with nightmares of finding out that the pokemon had died. Ash put on his official pokemon league hat and crept silently out of his room.

Ash slipped past his mother's room without waking her and tip-toed down the stairs. Even though his heart was filled with dread over thoughts of the mew, he couldn't help but feel a little proud of stealth. After all, not only had he snuck past the all hearing ears of his mother, but he had managed to get out of bed, get dressed (in the dark at that!), and leave his room without waking up Pikachu! That was well worth a few feelings of pride. Feeling quite full of himself, Ash grew careless. Revealing in his new found sense of pride, he never saw that a shadowed form hung in the doorway, still darkened as it waited for the dawn. Ash walked straight into it, digging his nose into the back of its neck. Realizing now that something was in the doorway, he drew back. As the agitated barricade turned around, he saw her face.

"Don't you ever watch where you're going?! My God, you'd probably walk off a cliff if someone wasn't there to tell you not to!" Misty snapped back at him.

"Give me a break, I already said I was sorry!" pleaded Ash, "Hey, what are you doing up? It's five in the morning!"

"Why not? Were you worried about that injured mew, too? It kept me up all night."

"Yeah..." confessed Misty, "Well, now that we are both up and headed to the Pokemon Clinic, why not go together?"

Ash agreed and the two kids left for the Pokemon Clinic. The doors were always unlocked there, just in case of a late night emergency. However, Nurse Joy was not on full time duty yet, so no one was at the reception desk. Ash and Misty agreed not to ring the bell and awaken Joy. She was a diligent pokemon caretaker and all hard working people need their rest to do their best. It was a small building, they ought to be able to find the mew on their own. However, kids weren't allowed back in the intensive care unit without supervision. If Nurse Joy caught them there, she might be upset with them. Concern for the pokemon greatly outweighed their fear of punishment. What could one little peak hurt? They took their first tentative steps past the reception desk and then cautiously looked around. Satisfied that no one would see them, they walked into the backroom.

The backroom was filled with injured pokemon who needed special care to heal. There was a pigeotto with one wing in a splint, and a sick rattatta receiving medication through an IV. The two children looked around for the mew to no avail. Their hearts sank. Maybe it had already died and been removed. As they reached the back of the room, they saw an incubator-like enclosure hooked up to a small monitor. On the monitor a green line of light peaked and sank and from which a rhythmic beeping pulsed. Slowly, they leaned over the incubator. They peered through the transparent box and looked down upon the pokemon inside. It was the mew! What a relief! The little feline had its back turned to them. All that could be seen of its odd markings was the blue tips of its ears and the blue on the base of its tail.

From their view of the mew, Ash and Misty could not see it slowly open one eye as it began to come around. Still groggy and disoriented, it examined its plastic prison. Even though it never lifted its head off of the padding, it was able to see enough of its surroundings to know that it was completely enclosed. As the beeping grew more rapid and the green line zipped frantically across the screen, Misty, than Ash, turned away from the pokemon to see what had happened with the machine. The green path grew more erratic every minute, and the beeping so sharp and rapid that Misty had to plug her ears. When it seemed as if it had reached its breaking point, an explosion sounded, and the room clouded with smoke. The smoke stung their eyes and made them cough. The machine had stopped beeping, but with all the smoke there was no way to tell that the green line had vanished from the cracked monitor.

"I don't know... But how are we going to explain THIS to Nurse Joy?" exclaimed Ash, in-between coughs.

The smoke was already starting to clear as Ash posed his question. He could already see the shattered dome of the incubator through the gray clouds. It was empty. What could have happened to the pokemon? Was it blow up? That sickening feeling returned, but was soon replaced was awe as the smoke completely faded away, revealing a little white cat-like creature, its blue ears tilted back, and its head dipped as it panted.

The mew's ears perked up as it heard Ash's voice. It quickly spun around and faced him. It looked deep into his eyes with it's own large vibrant blue ones. Ash was struck by how eerie, yet curious, that gaze was. Misty remained silent, and watched from her post beside Ash. The little mew was the first to break the silence.

"What is it, girl? Do you want to say something?" asked Ash, wishing that he had taken Pikachu with him after all.

Suddenly, the mew's eyes began to glow blue. Ash barely had time to step back before it was completely surrounded by a light blue aura. A growing sense of fear in the pit of Misty's stomach snapped here out of her trance.

As the blue light faded away, Ash fell to his knees with a groan. He thought of nothing, not having the order of mind to comprehend even the smallest detail or memory. His head hurt, yet he rubbed it more out of reflex than any realization of the feeling. Misty ran over to him and helped him to his feet. She asked him several times if he were all right, but he was too dumbstruck to reply. In a few minutes his sense began to return to him. Finally able to see his friend's concern for him upon her face, and hear it in her voice, he responded.

Misty and Ash turned their heads in the direction of the voice. Amidst the rubble of the incubator stood the mew. Its eyes were closed in joyful way and a warm smile stretched across its feline face.

"Yeah, yeah, it was me," confirmed the mew. "And ya known, I do have a name... it's Rikou!"

"All mews GIRLS?!" hollered Rikou. "Damn... Well, Mr. Biology...ya see...it doesn't work that way. Where the burin' hell would kittens come from then?! Don't you know anything about that? Or do I hafta explain all of it to you?"

"Don't you DARE get into that, Rikou!" demanded Misty. "Also, could you try toning it down, you'll wake the dead and roll nuns over in their graves talking like that!"

"Well, how would you like it if someone called you a boy? ...Then insisted you didn't know your own gender?" huffed Rikou.

"Well, I would be pretty mad... that would hurt, even if it was just an accident," admitted Misty.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you," apologized Misty. "Hey, wait... I got so side tracked by all this I forgot to ask you. How do you know how to talk when most pokemon can only repeat their names?"

"Heh... funny ya should ask that. Ya see when I zapped your boyfriend I took the ability to speak human language from him!" announced Rikou, with a proud air.

Ash hunched over, like he was going to pounce on the little pokemon. His faced contorted with anger from the feeling of violation Rikou's mental raiding left him with.

"Ya know, ten minutes ago I'd've had to agree with you. I'm pleasantly surprised I didn't scramble or fry yer brains into gray mush. I must be better than I think!"

"You...could have...fried my brains?" stuttered Ash, suddenly overcome by a wave of nausea.

"Sure could've! Ya know, just overload your brain or something. Yer head would have exploded like a watermelon and there would be scrambled brain chunks just everywhere--on the walls; on the floor; hell, even on the ceilings! Ick... slimy and gooey! Just makes quiver and my flesh crawl. Yuck! Not to mention brain gunk stains can just never be washed out..."

Ash felt weak in the knees and began to slip. He would have hit the floor if Misty had not been there to catch him. She held the almost swooning boy up by shoulders as Rikou jabbered on. Finally, the psychic cat stopped talking long enough to notice the state of shock he had put Ash in. Feeling foolish, he quickly tried to correct the problem and cover up his errors.

"Uh..." moaned Ash, still not fully recovered from the disgusting description and feeling a rehash from the blast.

"Hey, I know! I'll make it up to ya, kid! If you've heard of mews, then you must know we're INCREDIBLY powerful! Think of all the battles ya could win with ME in yer corner!" exclaimed Rikou.

Hearing about winning battles perked Ash right up. Winning battles... with his own pokemon--what a concept! That was something he rarely did at the time, having a rare and powerful pokemon could fix that minor problem. Even though Rikou had almost turned his brain into wall decorations, he couldn't resist such a tempting offer.

Rikou looked nervously at the white and red prison. His mother had been warning him about this human device since before he was weaned as a kitten. Being trapped in one of those is the end, plain and simple. He choked back a lump in his throat as he continued to stare at his own reflection on the surface of the pokeball.

"Cuz that's not what I'm suggesting at all! You aren't gonna make a slave out of me--not while I'm breathin'! Ya see I said I'd HELP you, never said I was gonna let you make me your personal slave, and lock me up in a little ball and keep me there for hours, days, weeks, months, maybe even YEARS! No, I'm agreeing to hang with you for a bit. Ya know... follow you around, help you out, but when I feel like it's time for me to go, then I'm outta here!"

"It better be, cuz if you dare ta try and put me in one of those balls, then I'll fill your shoes with snails and... um...burn your house down!"

"Good... cuz you know if there's one thing I hate more than small, enclosed places, it's not being free to do what ever I want to."

"Do you have any other terms I should know, Rikou,--to avoid the whole snail/fire thing?"

"Yeah! Two more! I'm not working totally out of charity. I gotta make a livin'! Or you for me. You're gonna need ta give me food when I'm hungry, and give me a nice place to stay. Make sure it's roomy too! I don't wanna hafta explode it like I did that see-through shoebox."

"Hell no!" replied Rikou, "I wanna get some food. Take me to your kitchen! I haven't eaten in almost 10 hours. I'm starving!"