The Celadon Incident (Pokemon TF/TGs)
A small little story written for an event I held called TF Month which was a story a day for the month of February. Felt fitting I do at least one Pokerus story, and I opted for less of a plot one and more of a little one off one. Fun stuff.
It had been quite some time since the Celadon Incident, and the city was abandoned for quite some time. However, in recent times people have started to flock back to the city. The threat of Pokerus was long gone by this point, which was discovered by some thrill seekers staying the night there. There were Pokemon sure, some from the original outbreak but their infection had been long gone. Soon the place became a bit of a tourist attraction, the city where many credit the first major outbreak occurring.
For those of you who don't know, Pokerus is a virus that makes pokemon sick, almost like the flu. And while normally only affects Pokemon, a new form of the virus had emerged in recent years, one that could infect humans as well. The worst part? It was lethal to them, however there had yet to be one case of a fatal infection. This was because the virus would alter the human's DNA to that of a Pokemon's, therefore turning them into a Pokemon themselves and allow them to live through the infection. The DNA re-write would ignore the aspects of the human, which could result in changes of both gender and age.
That wasn't the end of it either. Pokerus was a highly contagious infection. It would last one week and then be gone. However, the change would get rid of any human DNA, and thus make them indistinguishable from any other Pokemon. The transformation itself can be instant and or last up to a week. The transformed Pokemon is still infected for a week after it becomes a full Pokemon, even if the transformation into one lasted a week.
It all sounded like something out of some twisted horror movie, especially with all the major incidents that had occurred. As a matter of fact, for filmmaker Josh Bruin it seemed like a perfect film idea. There were so many to chose from. Fall of Crescent was the most well-known one, but the lack of eye-witness accounts would lead to a historically inaccurate film. There was all that Pokerus Prevention stuff with Pokerus Prevention and Pokerus Prevention X was all too recent and would be in poor taste to do it so soon. Those who escaped what would be dubbed the "Infectious Cruise" refused to talk about the events that transpired there. There was one event that would end up making the cut.
The infamous Celadon Incident. There were actually a lot eye-witnesses willing to discuss the events that transpired. However the main issue was no one knew exactly what was the original cause of it. Many say it was something on the roof of the department store that kickstarted the whole thing. Creative liberties would have to be taken, and they put a simple Pidgey to blame.
The movie began production and would actually turn out quite well. The effects looked rather good and the plot was there. The cast were all great and gave out rather excellent performances. The last scene would be the one with the Pidgey, and to ensure it looked real they opted to use a real one.
The Pidgey would be courtesy of an unknown trainer. He gave the Pokemon to Josh and would disappear and be unable to be found after that. It was an oddity that Josh elected to ignore. They began to do the last shot of the movie as the Pidgey was released from its Pokeball. It flew around, poking at some people's feet and eventually flew to where it was meant to land. They had finally got the shot.
There was one thing that wasn't supposed to happen though. In the shot, the bird landed on a man's shoulders before landing on the perch he was meant to be on. However, this triggered an instant change for the man, much to the fear of the whole crew. The man's ears became longer, moving to the top of his head while his boy grew red and faded red fur all over. His eyes altered and now only looked like swirls that made him look dizzy. A small tail formed behind him as his arms and legs became much shorter, now a Spinda.
Nothing but commotion happened, and it was all caught on film. Crew members turning into various Pokemon. One fell into a goop pile and ended up a Grimer. A shell formed on someone else and she was sucked into it, now a Cloyster, only her eyes and tongue were visible.
The lead actor, who was intended to be in the last shot transforming into a Pokemon was having that happening for real. His ears became much larger, with a rigid look to them. His jaw became much large as cream scales formed on the bottom jaw. Light blue scales formed over most of his body. However, two cream circles formed at his chest, resembling breasts. More cream scales formed on the lower part of his belly and down to between his legs, where something became missing there, signaling a different gender entirely. Her hands only had three, very small digits, the nails now white claws. Her feet became larger and suffered the same fate. Lastly spikes going down her back elongated out to a tail as it ended the changes.
A handful of cast and crew were able to get out unscathed, Josh Bruin being one of these. Some of them questioned if it would be morally right if work continued. Some argued they didn't want to have the same thing happened while others argued then those who got transformed would have done so in vein. All that remained was editing. They would hit a snag when the only footage they had of the initial infection was the one that turned a quarter of the staff into Pokemon. The editors said they would need to reshoot it. However, Josh insisted they use the actual footage they had shot during the outbreak in the studio. Despite a small argument Josh would end up winning it all. There was a dedication at the end of the movie for all who got transformed as well.
Josh went to Celadon City to premiere the film himself. Tourist and locals alike flocked to the theater to see the finished product. They had filmed most of it on an island just off of Cinnabar, so they didn't know the events that transpired on set. The film was greeting with rather generous applause, many thoroughly enjoying the film. Josh got up to say a few words to those who came out, and noticed a small Weedle in the corner of the room, his eyes widening. The only question was: "Is it infected?"