Psychosomatic

Darkness surrounded her on all sides, broken here and there by pinpricks of light of varying colors. Faint whispers sounded from all around her, but she couldn’t make out any words. At long last, it was time.

Time for what?

For her to accept the gift. Her glorious role had only just begun.

What? What gift?

She would discover the gift on her own before long. Once she did, everything would be clear.

Roz? Wakey-wakey.

~~~

Roz cracked her eyes open, only to immediately squeeze them shut again. Bright! So bright! She rubbed a hand on her face. Every movement was stiff and painful. “Ugghhh.” She tried to push herself upright, but it hurt too much. Instead, she decided to just float up off of whatever she was laying on and, after turning away from whatever light source had nearly blinded her earlier, forced her eyes open.

She was in an unfamiliar room, hovering over a bed. She was far from the only one: beds lined the walls throughout the entire room. All were occupied by Pokémon, many of them groaning or coughing. An Audino tending to one of them noticed her.

“Oh thank goodness you’re awake! We thought you might be a lost cause!” She approached with a clipboard in hand. “Regaining the power of levitation so soon after waking up is a promising sign though. How are you feeling?”

Roz groaned again. “Not the best. What happened?” That was when she finally caught a glimpse of her arm.

“I’m afraid no one knows for sure. There was an explosion in the Elegant Gorge. When a group of Rangers finally made it, they found you and four others on the ground unconscious. Do you happen to remember anything?

Roz stared at her hands in disbelief and looked over the rest of her body as well. In place of its normal light blue, her whole body was now dark brown. “I…metamorphosed.”

“Meta-what?”

“Where are the others?” Roz demanded. “Terry, Zygarde, and the Head Rangers?”

“Terry’s a few beds down that way,” the Audino pointed. “I haven’t heard anything about Zygarde, but the Head Rangers woke up a couple days ago and set off doing…something. We haven’t heard from them since. 

“Days? How long was I out?”

“Ten days,” the nurse answered.

“Ten days!? What happened?” Suddenly, it all came back to her. All six of them together hadn’t been enough to take on Subject 386, though frankly they should consider themselves lucky to be alive. 

It also explained why so many people were sick: psychosomasis, the disease spread by Subject 386. No, no, no, no…

Roz flew toward where the Audino had indicated Terry was, ignoring her protests. She wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Maybe he’d gone through metamorphosis like her? 

Terry looked like no Marowak Roz had ever seen. His scales were dark purple instead of tan, and he had a strange mark on his forehead. His chest wasn’t moving.

“No,”Roz muttered. She buried her face on his chest…and found it was warm. Surprisingly warm. More importantly, she felt a heartbeat.

<Terry?>

~~~

Darkness. Darkness everywhere. Wordless whispers sounded from all directions, promising everything. All he had to do was enter that darkness.

No.

Others had already accepted and found the true path to everything they’d ever wanted. All that could be his.

I’ve already found my purpose.

The gift was already inside him. Given enough time he’d accept it anyway. Why prolong the inevitable?

Terry?

~~~

“Ugnghhhh”

Terry opened his eyes to see a Beheeyem and an Audino leaning over.“Did someone call me?”

The Beheeyem heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”

“Roz, is that you?” Terry’s voice was hoarse from disuse. Everything was stiff.

“Yes,” she answered. “We should probably go to your place to discuss further though. Looks like they need all the space they can get.”

It was then that he noticed the beds full of sick Pokémon. “Woah! What happened to everyone?” That was when he noticed his arm. “What happened to me?”

“You’ve…evolved,” said the nurse. Terry looked himself over, trying to understand what was going on. “We’re not entirely sure what happened. You don’t seem to be a pure Ground-type anymore.”

“How can you tell?” Terry asked.

“You’ve mostly stopped breathing. That’s common in Ghost and Rock-types, since, with a few exceptions, they don’t need air to survive.”

Audino held her clipboard to her chest and continued with his other question. “Everyone’s been getting sick all of the sudden. We can’t figure out what’s going on.”

“Well at least you seem okay,” Terry tried to reassure her. Bad idea.

“Well I’m not! No one’s died yet, but whole villages are shutting down! It’s not even consistent! People in one village come down with completely different symptoms from the next town over!”

“Terry, we should go.”

Terry sighed. “Yeah, we probably should. Sorry if I bothered you,” he added to the Audino.

“No, I’m sorry I snapped at you. I haven’t slept in days.”

Roz looked closer at the Audino, eyes widening. “That should be your first priority then.”

“Oh I’ve tried. I’ve even taken sleep seeds, but nothing works.”

“I hope you find something that does soon,” said Terry.

“Thanks. Are you sure you two feel up to leaving?”

“Surprisingly, yes, I think I do,” Roz answered.

“Getting home’s gonna be a bit rough, but I think I can manage,” Terry added. “Do you know where our stuff is?”

“I’m afraid I don’t. You could check to see if the Rangers have it,” she suggested.

The two of them thanked her and made their way out of the tent. The sunlight was painful after so long, but once they adjusted, they wished they hadn’t. The makeshift clinic they’d just walked out of was one of five, all packed into what used to be the town square of Crosswind Town.

Storefronts stood deserted all around them, market stalls empty. The usual buzz of conversation was replaced by the sounds of sick Pokémon suffering.

“This is all because of Subject 386, isn’t it?” said Terry.

“Yeah.”

“Will it ever stop?”

“Only if we can recapture it somehow. But the humans needed the Master Ball to do that, and there’s no way this world has the technology to produce one.”

Terry huffed. “Fine then. We’ll just have to find another way.”

A few open stores came into view once they were a bit further away from the tents. Maybe it was to try to slow the spread of disease to shopkeepers and customers. At least the economy hadn’t completely shut down, and basic necessities were still available. All the same, the sight of the once bustling town square reduced to a small handful of Pokémon was sombering, and Roz knew it was only the beginning of what was to come if they couldn’t find a way to defeat Subject 386.

“Hello, can I help you?” Dulce greeted as they entered Ranger Headquarters. “Wait, Roz and Terry?”

“Hi Dulce,” Terry waved. “Glad to see you’re okay.”

“You’re glad I’m okay? You’ve both been in a coma for over a week! What happened?”

“I thought the Head Rangers already woke up. Didn’t they explain the situation?” said Roz.

“No, not really. They said they needed to investigate the Elegant Gorge and took off without explaining anything. No one’s seen them since.”

“What about the disasters?” Terry asked.

“They’re not as severe, thankfully, but last we heard they haven’t stopped entirely. You’ve seen how sick everyone’s getting though right? It’s really slowing down communication. How long ago did you two wake up?”

“About 10 minutes ago,” Roz answered.

“Ten–?! Go home! Get some rest!”

“We were just stopping by to see if you had our stuff,” Terry explained.

“Ah. Well, that I suppose is reasonable. One moment.”

Terry noticed some discolored patches on the leaves growing from the Steenee’s waist when she stood up. Wasn’t that what had tipped Roz off about something being wrong near Mt. Steel? Dulce walked through a door behind her desk and came back a few seconds later carrying two backpacks and a bone. “Here you are. We took out all the perishable food. Hope you don’t mind.”

They both looked through their packs and confirmed that everything unspoilable was still there. “Thank you very much,” Roz said, inclining her head slightly.

Terry though, was preoccupied with his club. “Y’know, this doesn’t feel right anymore. I’m gonna need a new one. Anyway, thanks Dulce. We’ll get a report in as soon as we can.”

By the time they made it back to Terry’s house, the soreness was mostly gone. Pokémon recovered fast, but Terry expected to need at least a few hours to recover from what they’d been through.

“With how bad things are, I bet the place has been totally ransacked,” Terry noted sourly when they reached the door.

“Unfortunately, you’re probably right.” Bracing themselves, they entered to find…

Everything was right where it belonged. There were even some dried insects and berries in the cupboard.

Flabbergasted, they both searched the place for any sign of squatters, but found no trace of anyone. No fur or feathers lying around, no personal belongings they didn’t recognize. 

“Okay, what’s going on here?” said Terry. “The food we had before leaving for Sky Tower is still here. Maybe things aren’t quite as bad as we thought they were?”

“I somehow doubt that. You saw how full those makeshift clinics are.” Roz focused and extended her presence sense. There was Terry, of course, but…

<Terry, there’s someone here.>

<Can you figure out where?>

She looked at the floor, the ceiling, and all around. <It’s odd. It seems to be right where we are right now, but I can’t see anything.>

<I guess we can check outside?> Terry suggested.

<It probably won’t help, but we might as well.>

They set their packs down and exited through the front door. Roz searched again. <It followed us.>

Terry brandished his club. “Alright, we know you’re there.”

No response.

“Come out already. You’re not fooling anyone.”

Roz detected something moving near a neighbor’s house. A Swalot waddled his way out the door. She sensed the same presence coming from him!

“What are you two hollering about?” he asked before breaking into a coughing fit.

“Were you inside Terry’s house?” Roz asked, eyes narrowed.

“Why would I go in there?”

“Answer the question.”

“No. Happy? Wait a minute…you’re that Roz fella, aren’t you?”

“If it wasn’t you then why do I detect your mental signature inside?” she demanded.

“Oh don’t give me that psychic mumbo jumbo. You can make up whatever you want and claim you ‘felt’ it and we both know it.”

<Roz, do your powers even work like that? Do people leave traces of themselves behind?> asked Terry.

No. As a matter of fact her powers did not work like that. What was she thinking? The Beheeyem shook herself. “I’m sorry. Even if you were inside at one point I wouldn’t be able to tell.”

The Swalot gave her the stink eye, then turned around and waddled home, coughing and muttering to himself.

Roz rested her face in her hands. “I sensed Subject 386.”

“What?”

“Let’s go back inside. I need to explain what’s going on.”

They went back in and sat down. “When Subject 386 invaded the human world, it spread a disease worldwide. That’s why everyone’s getting sick.”

“Right.”

“386 is…how do I put this. Do you know what a virus is?”

“No,” Terry admitted.

“The only way I can think to describe it is a really small…thing that causes disease. And in doing so, it creates lots and lots of copies of itself. Those copies can then spread to other individuals and get them sick as well, which in turn makes more viruses that can spread again…you get the idea.”

Terry recoiled. “That’s horrifying!”

“I suppose they are, but they’re also very normal. 386 though, has some odd similarities with them. Obviously it’s far larger, but it almost seems to be one.” Roz absentmindedly floated toward the ceiling, lost in her explanation. “In fact, we know the disease associated with it is caused by a virus. See, the thing is, usually viruses spread through the air, by eating contaminated food, or something along those lines. The disease associated with Subject 386 spreads telepathically.”

“That should mean that only Psychic-types can get it though, right?” Terry asked hopefully

Roz shook her head. “You might think so, but virtually all Pokémon have at least some psychic potential. Fundamentally, psychic powers are the ability to break the boundary between your mind and reality so that your thoughts have impacts in the real world. You know the move Rest?”

“Yeah.”

Roz drifted back down in front of Terry. “Nearly all Pokémon can learn it. But there’s a lot more to it than just a bit of relaxation. When a Pokémon uses Rest, it’s psionically manifesting its desire to recover into reality. It’s a form of biomanipulation where the user wills itself to heal. The user does fall asleep briefly from the physical and mental strain, but Rest achieves healing far more quickly than ordinary recuperation.”

“Huh, interesting. What does that have to do with Subject 386 though?”

“Well, like I said, nearly all Pokémon can learn Rest, which means nearly all Pokémon have some ability to manifest their will into reality.” Roz folded her arms. “The thing is, with the disease 386 spreads, it’s the patient’s fears rather than its desires manifesting.

“Once you’re infected with psychosomasis, you become convinced that you’re sick. Maybe you picked up that cough from someone you saw on the street the other day, or something that you heard has been going around. Is that sore on your arm infected? Is there a disease that runs in your family? Maybe that was a symptom you felt the other day.

“As soon as that idea takes hold, your body makes it real, and in doing so, it produces viruses.” Roz pulled up her holotab and searched through her files for a moment before finding the one she was looking for. It showed a black and white image of…well Terry didn’t recognize what he was looking at. Roz pointed out a mass of black blobs. “Those are viruses inside of a cell.” She pulled up another image. “And this is a reconstruction of what we think they look like.”

The image showed an indistinct purple blob. Part of it was cut away, revealing some squiggly stuff inside. What stuck out to Terry most though… “That looks kinda like the purple blob that came out of the meteor.”

“The color is just artistic license. But yes, the shape is similar to 386’s core.”

Terry’s eyes widened. “Wait, does that mean all those sick people could produce a whole army of 386s?”

“I wouldn’t count on it. Afterall, we never saw more than one on the human world, and capturing that one solved our problems, which means the virus particles likely need 386’s influence to do anything.”

“When you say you never saw more than one, does that include those copies we saw it produce?”

“Hmmm, no, I don’t think I ever saw mention of those,” Roz admitted. “Then again, I admit I didn’t look much into the specifics of how it battled, so I probably wouldn’t know anyway.”

“Okay, so it might be getting stronger, fantastic,” Terry grumbled, smacking the ground with his tail. “But you said everyone who tried to fight it back on the human world got sick right? So why not us?”

“Humans were mostly unaffected since so few of them have any trace of psychic abilities, but that’s a good question actually. Back during 386’s invasion, Pokémon were able to transmit the virus just by being close to each other. With how long we were in that clinic we had ample time to get infected, not to mention being exposed to 386 directly. I know it can spread psychosomasis through touch, but I don’t ever remember reading anything about it, you know…” she touched a finger to her head and pushed.

“Cliff went down after biting its tentacle off, right? Then it just regrew it.”

Roz nodded. “386 has extremely powerful regenerative abilities, but its core is vulnerable. Well, more vulnerable than the rest of it anyway, which isn’t saying much.”

Terry rubbed his face. “Right, so that’s all well and good, but what exactly are we supposed to do next?”

“I don’t know. The only thing I can think of is to go to the impact site to try and regroup with the Head Rangers. They left several days ago, but I just don’t know what else to try.”

“If we encounter 386 again, could you try to capture it?”

Roz shook her head. “I’d need the Master Ball for that, which I definitely do not have.”

“Then shouldn’t we stay away in case it’s still there?”

Roz rubbed her temples. “I just don’t know what else to do.”

Terry’s tail thrashed about for a moment as he considered their options. “Maybe we could see if the Head Rangers left any kind of note behind?” he suggested.

“Dulce would’ve told us if they did,” Roz said. “But I guess we can ask tomorrow.”

Terry opened and closed his fist a few times. “Weird isn’t it? We just recovered from a week plus-long coma, and I feel better than ever.”

Roz studied her hands. “I wondered if metamorphosis might have something to do with it, but by all rights we should barely be able to move. Still, I’m not about to complain.”

“So we go back to the Rangers tomorrow and see if there are any messages for us to find. And I suppose we fill out our report as well. What do we tell them about Subject 386?”

Roz closed her eyes for a few moments. “Everything. We need to act fast and we’re already more than a week behind. Without the medical technology the humans had, psychosomasis is going to wreak utter havok on this world.”

~~~

“I’ve looked high and low through their offices and I can’t find anything,” Dulce informed them the next day. “We have what Rangers we can spare looking for them though, and I’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything. In the meantime, we could sure use your help moving supplies around.”

“Understood,” Roz sighed.

The Steenee directed them toward the clinical tents. A few Rangers were on duty transporting boxes of food and medical supplies, which mostly consisted of Lum berries. Sadly, the berries were of little use. There was no cure for psychosomasis other than perhaps capturing or defeating Subject 386. The best anyone could do in the meantime was treat the symptoms and hope patients recovered on their own. Unfortunately, reinfection could and would happen.

Despite her recent condition, Roz found herself easily handling loads that had put quite a bit of strain on her when she helped set up emergency shelters before. It seemed metamorphosis had some real perks. Terry’s strength and stamina had noticeably improved as well.

They started moving on the next day as well but were interrupted around midday when a Diglett popped out of the ground next to them. “Roz and Terry? There’s someone at headquarters who wants to see you.”

“Who?” Terry asked.

“Dunno. Some Skarmory. He said to hurry. He didn’t look too good.”

Roz teleported them back to Headquarters and, sure enough, a familiar Skarmory awaited them in the lobby.

“There you…are,” Razor panted. He leaned against the wall, too tired to hold himself up. Most concerning though, were the swaths of rust covering his wings.

“Razor!” Terry ran over to the Skarmory and examined him. “You look awful!”

“Yeah…thanks. Shut up…listen. Cliff…barely made it. Need…help.” Razor’s eyes rolled back and his head fell to the floor with a metallic clang.

Roz floated next to him and did her own examination. He was still breathing. She turned to Terry. “We need to get him treatment immediately. He was in no state to fly this far on these wings.”

“Right.” Terry bent down and heaved. “Hrnnnng…ya!”

The Skarmory was almost half again his size, yet Terry lifted him anyway.

“Uh, a little help here? Can’t see where I’m going.” Razor also proved difficult to balance, as Terry teetered side to side while supporting him.

Roz raised a hand and focused. Terry stabilized. “Thanks. Hey, I thought you couldn’t lift other Pokémon?”

“I didn’t think I could either, but I’ve felt a lot stronger since going through metamorphosis, so I thought I’d try.”

Roz didn’t feel comfortable trying to move Razor on her own, so she and Terry both carried him to one of the medical tents. 

“You can set him down over there,” the Indeedee nurse instructed.

“He needs attention now,” Roz protested. His whole body is rusting–”

“Everyone needs attention now,” the nurse countered. “We’ll get to him when we get to him. Without another word, he rushed off to take care of an Electabuzz going through a coughing fit.

“We should go to Greenmetal Village,” Terry suggested. “We need to figure out what happened to him.” The two of them started back toward Headquarters.

“I can almost guarantee you he contracted psychosomasis and that’s why he’s rusting. We won’t be able to help.”

“I guessed as much, but he said something about barely making it, didn’t he? It almost sounded like he had to escape from something. I know for a fact he explicitly said he needed help.”

“I assume he was referring to barely making it here on those wings of his.”

Terry crossed in front of Roz and blocked her path. “Come on, Roz. If that was all this was about, why would he come all the way out here? Why would we be able to help with a rust problem?”

Roz folded her arms. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe because I was able to recognize signs of mineral depletion earlier? He did specifically ask for us afterall.”

“He also mentioned Cliff.”

Roz raised a hand to her chin. “I’d assumed he meant a cliff, but I suppose he could’ve been referring to a certain Tyranitar.”

“All we’re doing is waiting for news on the Head Rangers anyway. And it sounds to me like we might’ve found one.”

Roz nodded, “Very true. Right then, let’s go home and prepare.”