The Stone
Here's another story from another ill-fated series, as well as one of the few Pokemon TFs you'll see from me. Yeah, this was supposed to develop into another high-school centric series with Pokemon instead of werecreatures, but it kinda failed to take off. Yeah, I wrote a lot of this stuff in high school in case it wasn't obvious. I still really liked this story in particular, though, so I decided to post it here anyway. Hopefully you enjoy it!
Rain. That was all that he felt.
The man opened the door to his house, taking off his soaked raincoat as he walked inside. As he hung the raincoat up, he looked back outside at the storm. The rain poured down all around his house, and the thunder rumbled as the lightning flashes lit up the sky. The man knew that it was stupid to have gone outside in weather like this, but he didn't care. He had to get out.
Slowly, the man began climbing up the stairs, looking up at the one place he didn't want to go: his bedroom. Inside that room was the object that had plagued him for the past week, the one that had kept him up at night with worry and caused him to question his own mental stability.
It was a stone. But not just any stone. For one thing, it was shaped unlike anything the man had ever seen before. It looked like some kind of... animal head. It had a small section in the front that was sticking out slightly, making it look a bit like a small snout. It had two more parts sticking out in the back, looking a bit like horns. And of course, there was the most unnerving feature: the two indents on the sides, which looked like a pair of cold, dead eyes. The color of the stone was also strange, appearing to be a very light gray, almost white.
The man walked into his room, staring at the object with fear and dismay. If he could, he would have thrown it out the window... but he couldn't. Every time he tried to pick it up, he immediately felt like all of his strength had left him, as if the stone was trying to prevent him from moving it.
The man had always found it strange, of course, as he had no trouble at all picking the stone up when he first found it. He could still remember what had happened clearly: he had been hiking along a beautiful trail just outside of his town. Just him, away from his work, away from his responsibilities.... just a break, to get away from everything and spend some time with himself. He always enjoyed going for walks like this, and this trail in particular was one of his favorites. But then...
Stop.
_ _...He heard the voice. A very subtle voice, one that only sounded like it had happened in his head. So subtle, in fact, that he wasn't even sure if he had actually heard it. "Hello?" he yelled. "Is anyone there?"
Come to me. Now.
He was sure that he had heard the voice that time. Determined to find out what it was, he had stepped off the trail, onto a rocky hill just beside it. He had never set foot on this hill before, since some of the rocks were loose and could fall if he stepped on them, but he knew that he had to this time. He had to find the source of the voice.
After climbing about halfway up the hill, he saw something that caught his eye: the oddly shaped, oddly colored stone. He didn't know what, but something about it seemed to cause him to take interest in it. He even thought that it looked a bit familiar... but he couldn't place it.
Maybe it had something to do with how familiar it looked, but the man couldn't help becoming... intrigued by it. He had always liked mysterious things, and thanks to its color, shape, and strange familiarity, this stone certainly qualified. He picked the stone up, spinning it around in his hands a bit before putting it in his backpack. When he got home, he could examine it a bit more carefully. Maybe he could find out why its shape and color were so odd, or why it looked so familiar.
As soon as he had gotten home, the man had taken the stone out of his backpack and placed it onto his desk. But then... he heard it. The same voice that had spoken to him on the trail spoke to him again. So.... It seems you are interested in me, it said. Then I will take interest in you as well, human. Perhaps you could even help me....
Even now, he could still remember the exact words. He remembered staring at the stone, shocked and confused. "Did... did I just hear... what I think I heard?" he had asked.
_ _Yes, human. You did indeed just hear that. I assure you, you are not crazy. Now, if you do not mind, I would like to examine you. I need to see if you will really be able to help me...
The man had heard enough. He immediately fled the room, running downstairs to his living room as fast as he could. Once he got there, he immediately tried to collect himself. As soon as he calmed down, he looked back up at his room. He desperately wanted to go back up there, to make sure that what he heard wasn't real... but he couldn't. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't bring himself to enter that room again. He simply didn't have the courage.
All of that had happened over a week ago. Since then, he had done all he could do to keep from entering that room again. He hadn't even slept in his room: instead, he had done all of his sleeping on the couch in the living room. The few times he was able to muster up the courage to enter the room again... he always heard the voice. Sometimes it would mutter to itself, and sometimes it would speak directly to him. Other times, it would simply chuckle. A deep, ominous chuckle that would send the man fleeing the room to spend another sleepless night on the couch downstairs.
Now, the man had returned. Returned for yet another step in the cycle he was trapped in. He already knew what would happen. He would hear the voice, run downstairs again, and be too scared to enter the room again for another day or two. This time, though, he planned on seeking professional help if he heard the voice again. And given everything that had happened to him over the past week, that seemed pretty likely.
_ So... you have returned._ The voice was right on cue, just as it was all of the other times that the man had entered. I do not know why you would want to go out in a storm like this one. As far as I know, you have no way to protect yourself from...
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Something in the man had snapped. He couldn't take not being able to enter his own room anymore. He couldn't take living in fear of the stone that he had brought home for another day. He had to face up to his fear. "Why are you doing this to me?" he cried. "What do you want from me?"
The voice chuckled._ _I do not understand. I believe that I already told you what I want. Somehow, the voice's tone was even deeper than before. I want you to help me. And in return... I believe that I can help you.
The man blinked. He keeled down, until he was eye level with the stone. "What do you mean, you can help me?" he asked.
_ _I can help you... by giving you what you have always desired. The voice paused for a moment. Do you know what it is that you have always desired?
The man shook his head. "No" he said. "No, I don't."
The voice chuckled again. Oh, but I believe you do, it said._ _You have merely forgotten. But do not worry. I shall... refresh your memory. Just sit down... and relax.
The man hesitated. Did he really want to trust this voice? The same voice that had filled him with fear to the point where he couldn't even be in the same room as it? In the end, though, his curiosity got the better of him. "All right" he said, sitting down. "What are you going to do to me?"
The voice did not respond. Instead, something on the stone began to change. The indents on the side that looked like eyes were beginning to... light up? Before the man knew it, they were engulfed in a purple light, making them look even more eerie than before.
Something inside the man stirred. As much as he tried, he found that he could not look away from the stone's light. It was as if the stone was staring into the man's soul. In fact, it almost felt like the man's entire body was being filled with... something, like some kind of energy.
Then, after about a minute, the glow began to die down. Within seconds, it had disappeared completely, leaving the stone looking exactly the same as it had looked before. But as soon as the glow disappeared, cracks began appearing on the stone. Before long, the the cracks had completely covered it, and it looked like it was beginning to.... disintegrate? Yes, the stone was quickly falling apart, and soon it was nothing more than some gray and white dust on the man's desk.
For a moment, the man just stared. "....Okay" he finally said, standing up. "That was really weir- ahh!" The moment he stood up, he felt a massive head rush, causing his had to fly up to his forehead. "Ugh..." he groaned, rubbing his forehead. "What's... going on..." Some part of his mind felt... strange, as if it was being changed somehow. He continued rubbing his forehead, closing his eyes in pain, until... "Hang on... wait a minute..."
As he was rubbing his forehead, his hand happened to rub against his scalp. But as he did, he felt... something strange. It felt like his hair was... disappearing? Immediately, he ran to the bathroom mirror. Once he got there, he quickly glanced at himself... and gasped. His dark brown hair was quickly vanishing, but that wasn't the thing that shocked him the most. His skin did not look normal; in fact it had changed color completely! It had become light gray, almost white... just like the stone. Suddenly the man's eye's widened. "The stone..." he said. "No... it couldn't be..."
But the next change confirmed the man's fears. As he watched in horror, two strange looking growths began emerging from the sides of the his head. They looked like... horns, similar to the ones on the stone. His face also began changing, pushing out and reshaping until it looked like.... an animal muzzle. The man stared at his reflection, his face now looking exactly like the stone that had been on his desk just moments ago.
Cautiously, the man ran his hand down his face and across his head. "No..." he said, feeling the muzzle, the horns, the light gray skin. "This isn't possib-" He stopped short, having just gotten a good look at his arm. It, too, was turning light gray. Realizing that the changes weren't over yet, the man tore off his shirt to see if anything else was happening to him. Sure enough, most of his torso was also turning light gray, with the areas around his belly turning... purple? What was going on?
As the man stared at his torso, his gaze shifted over to his hand, which was also undergoing rapid changes. Not only was it turning gray, but the fingers were beginning to fuse together, leaving him with only two fingers and a thumb. His fingertips also appeared to be... rounding out slightly. Panicking, the man looked at his other hand, seeing the same thing happening to it. Before long, his hands had changed completely, without a trace of humanity left behind.
All of this was already enough to terrify the man completely, but what happened next only made things worse. Pressure began building in the seat of his pants, before bursting through the back with a loud ripping sound. The man looked behind him, his mouth falling open at what he saw: a long, purple tail, extending from his backside. "Oh my god..." said the man, brushing his hand against the new appendage. "This... this is real...." As he examined the tail, he began feeling something else happening, this time to his legs. Looking down, he saw that his legs were growing larger, destroying his pants even further. Reluctantly, the man reached down and tore them off, seeing the light gray color spreading to cover his legs and feet. That wasn't the only change, though: his feet were growing longer, his toes merging together until only two remained on each foot. His stance also shifted, forcing him onto the balls of his feet, and two circular growths appeared on the inside of each foot, near his heels.
The man could only stare. His feet, his legs, his tail, his arms, his torso... every part of him had changed in some way. He closed his eyes, gathering his courage to look in the mirror again. Even though he had already seen his face, the thought of looking a second time made him more nervous than even the voice had. When he could finally bring himself to look in the mirror again, he found himself staring at a pair of cold, almost glowing eyes. Along with the eyes was the gray skin, the horns, the muzzle... his face had truly become identical to the one on the stone. In addition, he noticed something else behind him: some kind of tube, connecting his upper back to the back of his head. Something about the whole image looked so familiar, though... yet he couldn't place-
Suddenly, his cold eyes widened. Of course! How could he have forgotten? Looking over his body, the man immediately realized what he had become. He had become a creature from his childhood, something that he had always looked up to with wonder, something that he practically idolized: the Pokemon know only as Mewtwo.
The man chuckled to himself. Mewtwo... that was what he was. One of his favorite Pokemon of all time. He could still remember stepping into Cerulean Cave in Pokemon Red, walking up to the majestic beast, and, of course, the battle that followed. He had accidentally thrown his master ball earlier in the game, so he was able to experience firsthand just how powerful this creature really was. It had almost knocked out his entire team, but luckily, a lucky throw from a regular Pokeball was enough to seal the deal.
"What are the odds..." chuckled the man. From that moment, he had practically become obsessed with the Pokemon. He couldn't get over how powerful it was, how cold and commanding it seemed, how it could do seemingly anything.... In fact, he had even secretly wondered what it would be like to become Mewtwo. No, not just wondered: desired. He wanted to know what it was like, to have all of this power under your control, to be able to do anything, defeat anyone.... it was a desire that had haunted him, burned within him, only to be eventually forgotten....
Wait... the man looked over himself again. If he really had become Mewtwo, then.... did that mean that he also had Mewtwo's powers? Eager to find out, the man walked back into his bedroom, his gaze falling onto his bed in the center. If he really was as powerful as Mewtwo, then he should be able to lift it, right? He held one of his three-fingered hands out, concentrating, focusing all of his power onto the bed. Within seconds, the bed was surrounded by a blue glow, and... it began to rise. It floated up off the ground, until it touched the ceiling above. The man could hardly believe it: he had just lifted his bed off the ground with almost no effort!
After setting the bed down, the man remembered another ability of Mewtwo's. He concentrated again, this time on himself. He concentrated on manipulating gravity, on making himself rise off the ground, just like the bed had. Sure enough, the man felt his feet leave the ground as he rose up, into the air. Once again, he could hardly believe it: here he was, levitating through the power of his own mind!
He floated back down to the ground, smiling to himself. Even his mind had changed: it felt stronger, more clear, more... powerful. He could solve equations in an instant, tell exactly when or how something would happen, predict the exact movements of an opponent... anything at all was within his grasp. He had never felt such power, such strength! He could go anywhere, do anything... whatever he wanted, it was possible.
But as he thought about what to do next, an idea occurred to him. All of this power... why should he have it all? Even with it all, there was only so much that one person could do alone, right? If he could spread it around to other people like him... people who desired this kind of power, the chance to elevate themselves beyond humanity... he could give it to them! He could start an army... no, a revolution! Why shouldn't he? He could do anything now!
Excited, the man ran over to his window, using his telekinesis to force it open. Once he reached it, the man jumped out, activating his levitation again as soon as he was outside. Rain fell all around him, but he didn't feel it this time. Thanks to his powers, he could prevent the rain from even touching him. He floated up into the sky, not stopping until he was above the very center of the town. Once there, he closed his eyes, building up all of his psychic energy within himself... and releasing it. It spread to all corners of the town, hitting every house, every building... every single inch of the town was hit by this blast of energy.
Satisfied, the man opened his eyes, floating back to his house. Soon the energy would find its way to the chosen people, the ones who wanted to elevate themselves. It would change them... give them new forms, new lives... new power. And they would join him in his revolution... his revolution against all of those who would oppose him.
All he had to do now... was wait.