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The Human Species	By : RingsOfSaturn Category: Pokemon > General Views: 4051 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I am not in possession of the Pokemon trademark. If I was, the games might get a decent plot for once! No monetary profit stands to be made from this story, as the market for selling fanfiction will always be fully occupied by Hollywood.

Chapter List
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After only a few hours of wandering, the snow had completely disappeared beneath their feet. It had been replaced by grassy plains in the wide open and sandy soil whenever there was a mountain nearby. It was as if they had walked directly into spring, leaving winter behind them.

"This damn climate, it..." Lucario said to himself as he looked around, "It boggles the mind!"

"Ahh, I'm going to miss the refreshing northern cold" Zerobi said with a longing sigh, "It's much too hot everywhere else..."

"Hey, you're the one who decided on going south!" Lucario pointed out, "We don't even have a real destination, we can go north if you want to!"

"... Don't you think we've overstayed our welcome when it comes to those parts?" Zerobi replied, looking behind them and noticing that Snowpoint City was no longer within visible range.

"Dunno" Lucario mumbled as his stomach growled, "Sure could've gone for a bite somewhere. We could always just, you know, go past it. See what lies further up."

"That would be a bad idea" Zerobi said, "Mostly because there's nothing up north."

"... Nothing?" Lucario asked as he looked up with a bewildered face, "How could there possibly be nothing? Isn't the world round?"

"Alright, correction" Zerobi rectified with another sigh, "There's water, and lots of it. Feel like starving to death on a raft?"

"Starving to death on the sea, starving to death on land..." Lucario muttered as his stomach growled again, "All the same to me."

"Just eat a couple of berries, already!" Zerobi suddenly shouted, pointing to the backpack he had been carrying around all this time.

"... I bloody hate those things" Lucario kept muttering and ended with a shudder, "I'd kill to get some real food before I die... And I just might!"

"If you stop eating, there's no doubt about it" Zerobi snapped back while telling herself to be more reasonable, "You just need to find a taste that you like. Have you tried dry berries before?"

"Dry is not a taste, damn it!" Lucario yelled much louder than necessary, "Surely Pokèmon can eat rice, curry or something you actually cook!"

"Yeah, I've heard of those before" Zerobi continued in her normal voice, "Do they grow on bushes?"

"... Uh..." Lucario whispered, thinking it was a trick question, "Even when compared to everything else in this world, I think that would be a bit farfetched..."

"So is Farfe-" Zerobi said as a reflex before intentionally stopping herself, "I mean, that means you're not getting any. Unless you can find it in nature, you're going to come up empty."

The two of them became quiet for a while, as Lucario ended up in a foul mood and started walking faster. As soon as Lucario passed Zerobi, she noticed the stingers from their last battle remained on his back.

"... And do something about that poison!" Zerobi shouted while pointing at the thorns covering his back, "Man, why do I have to be your caretaker all of a sudden!?"

"Simple - You're a worrywart" Lucario replied while shrugging, "I'm OK so far. Why would I need any help?"

"Are you sure?" Zerobi asked as her eyes fixed on his backpack again, "We bought an antidote for just this occasion, after all..."

"I'm telling you, I feel fine!" Lucario said with a big, forced smile.

"You're fine now, but you're going to be in big trouble later!" Zerobi pointed out, "At least let me pull the stingers out of your back!"

"... With those?" Lucario asked while looking at her sharp claws, "No thanks. I don't need more holes in me..."

"I promise I'll be careful..." Zerobi said quietly while looking down at her body, "Guess what you'll be if I don't pull them out? Dead weight... Followed quickly by simply 'dead'."

"... Hmm..." Lucario muttered as he looked more carefully at the lethal hands of his partner before shuddering, "Still, I think I'd rather take my chances with the poison."

"It's not like it's not risky for me either!" Zerobi yelled angrily, "One slip and there'll be blood spraying all over the place!"

"... OK, let me rephrase that" Lucario said sternly as his face turned white in horror, "You are NEVER, EVER allowed to do any form of medical work on me."

"Come on! It's the only way I'll ever learn!" Zerobi shouted as she moved closer to him.

"No! Stay away!" Lucario yelled while shooing her away. As he did so, he couldn't help but feel a bit bad. She was just trying to help him, it's not like it was her fault she had giant knives for hands.

"Hey, I'm sorry" Lucario said while putting a hand on Zerobi's shoulder, making her twitch.

"About what?" she replied, eyeing his arm carefully to make sure there wasn't any blood on it.

"I mean, it can't be easy, having claws like that..." he said with a sympathetic voice, looking down at the long and slender blades sticking out of her limbs.

"You kidding?" she responded as she tried to put the whole thing in a positive light, "Do you know how many times they've saved me in battle? Sure beats just having normal hands, like you..."

"... You're right!" Lucario blurted out, suddenly feeling a pang of jealousy when he imagined how easy his battles up until now would have been if he claws like that, "But I guess I could just use a couple of swords or something."

"Sworn'd?" Zerobi asked in a confused tone, "Wait... You have a few allies, after all?"

"Huh? No, I said 'sword'" Lucario tried to correct her, "You know... A long weapon..."

"Oh. Well, you can't expect me to know the name of every move, can you?" Zerobi snickered while waving her hand around, "Which kind of Pokèmon uses it?"

"Actually, it's a weapon for humans" Lucario said, still dreaming about how he'd be cutting off limbs left and right if his nails had been a bit sharper.

"A weapon... For humans?" Zerobi asked questioningly, "Why would humans need weapons?"

"... Eh!?" Lucario exclaimed in surprise as a thought suddenly hit him, "That reminds me, why didn't the police just grab a couple of guns and shoot us if they wanted us both dead?"

"Gun..." Zerobi whispered to herself while crossing her arms, "... Projectiles? I think that Kojofu used one of those, but you dodged it."

"Wait, wait, wait..." Lucario said slowly and held out his arms in a stopping motion, "You mean to tell me there are no weapons in this world? You know, that humans use?"

"... Why would they need that? They can catch and train Pokèmon just fine!" Zerobi explained while desperately trying to understand what her partner was talking about, "Sure, some fight and stuff... But I've never heard of a human actually defeating a Pokèmon."

"... Hmm... Yeah, I see your point" Lucario mumbled before scratching his head, "In a world of monsters, I doubt bullets would be good against anything weaker than a bear."

As the wandered, they came across a small waterhole in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. Lucario remembered something about water in nature sometimes being poisonous, to which Zerobi pointed out that he was already poisoned and started drinking. After making sure that she hadn't gone blind after a few moments, Lucario started drinking as well.

"Those two back there really hated you" Lucario said as he wiped some of the water away from the sides of his mouth, "What happened to make them want you dead?"

"I... Really don't want to talk about it..." Zerobi said, Lucario noticing the emptiness from earlier making itself apparent in her eyes and voice, "What's done is done."

"That's... Surprisingly content" Lucario said, not wanting to make her depressed yet still not willing to drop the subject, "I saw you have a complete breakdown not that long ago."

"I've already spent several years worrying that someone deceived me and feeling sorrowful over past sins" Zerobi sighed deeply, "Living a life like that... I think I'd rather be dead."

The two of them finished up by the waterhole and decided to keep moving. Zerobi looked at the digital map they had bought, checking the built in compass to make sure that they were on the right track.

"By the way, how did they even find us?" Lucario asked as Zerobi opened up the backpack he was carrying and put the map back, "You said something about 'detectors'..."

"Oh yeah..." Zerobi responded in an attempt to shake away her depression, "They somehow sense the presence of strong Pokèmon."

"... What? That's kind of like what I can do with the aura!" Lucario said, recalling his newfound ability to sense creatures near him, "Wait... That means we were the only powerful Pokèmon in town?"

"Uh, I guess..." Zerobi said quickly before lowering her pace slightly, "I'm a Dark-type, so psychic types can't sense me. I don't think the detectors can either. Must've been you."

"Well, I AM pretty strong..." Lucario smiled, unintentionally flexing the muscles on his upper body.

"That's what got us into this mess..." Zerobi muttered, "I thought you were weak, so I never expected those things to notice us."

"... Took 'em a while though, didn't it?" Lucario chimed in, remembering how much time he spent in the store persuading Zerobi to buy actual food instead of a bunch of occult magazines.

"They're honestly not that reliable" Zerobi continued explaining, "They malfunction all the time, and take forever to lock on a target."

"Good news for us, then" Lucario laughed before noticing that true to her words, he had been unable to sense her presence with the aura up until, "I mean, me. Just me. Anyway, what are they? Machines?"

"I have no idea" Zerobi answered while shaking her head a little, "Every city got one after that whole thing with Deoxys..."

"... Dexo-sys?" Lucario asked, the word feeling very unfamiliar to him, "Some kind of viral outbreak?"

"... Wait, you don't know about that either!?" Zerobi suddenly shouted in surprise, "I've literally been living in a cave for the past seven years, and even I know about it!"

"Bah, that's nothing!" Lucario replied with an annoyed tone, "You just got surprised over me not knowing anything! What is this, the eighteenth time that's happened?"

"Still, to now know anything about that..." Zerobi mumbled in disbelief before crossing her arms, "I mean, I don't know too many details myself, but supposedly the entire world was coming to an end." Lucario looked at her strangely, getting somewhat tired of having to take in so much new information all the time.

"A creature called 'Deoxys' appeared out of nowhere and ran around, killing everything in its path" Zerobi explained bluntly without batting an eye, "Calling it 'strong' would be the understatement of the century. From what I heard, the combined forces of entire cities could not even touch it."

"... From what you heard?" Lucairo asked, "Sounds like a massive exaggeration to me."

"Well, information about Deoxys was not so strangely limited, seeing how everything within a mile's radius of it died" Zerobi answered as she continued explaining, "The occasional camera was all that 'survived'. At any rate, it was unstoppable. Cities from every continent were reduced to rubble as it wandered the earth, and every challenger was instantly killed. Everyone lived each day in fear of dying... It was pretty much judgment day."

"... Man! I sure am glad I wasn't around here for that!" Lucario blurted out in a worried tone, "Wait... What happened? How'd it stop?"

"Hmm... Uh, I'm not sure" Zerobi said with a shrug, "I think someone killed it. A legendary, probably."

"S-Someone killed it!?" Lucario stammered as he almost tripped after stepping in a small hole in the ground, "Someone killed a creature so powerful that it was bringing about the apocalypse!?"

"It's always like that" Zerobi said slowly as she peeked up in the sky with a dreamy look, "A single hero stands up to the evil monster and defeats it..."

"... Bullshit!" Lucario suddenly exclaimed, "More like the army sends eighty guys with machineguns and blows it to bits! I mean, there aren't any weapons here... But still..."

"There are like fifteen articles about it in every Occult Magazine released after the incident..." Zerobi muttered in annoyance, "... In other words, your answers lie in that bandage."

Lucario looked at her with a confused face. Zerobi then pointed to his right shoulder, where he had tied up the remains of one of the magazines charred by Raikou to cover up a wound created by Suicune. He lightly tapped it a little in hopes that it could still be read, but gave up within seconds.

"Ugh... It's all torn up... Burnt... And drenched in dried up blood!" Lucario mumbled with a disgusted voice.

"Not to mention MY magazine... You jerkoff!" Zerobi growled angrily, "Maybe that'll teach you not to ruin my possessions!"

"... Like that's my fault!" Lucario snapped back, "Still quite absorbing for a magazine... I mean, absorbent!"

They continued talking, bickering and laughing until nightfall, during which Lucario pulled out two sleeping bags from the backpack. They had been searching for a cave to rest in, but the plains they were in the middle of seemed to go on forever, and in the end they had to settle for an open sky and grassy floor.

"Hey, maybe we should have tried these out before buying them?" Lucario mentioned as he sat down next to the fairly bland and unimaginative bed.

"... It's a sleeping bag" Zerobi responded bluntly, "They'd have to actually be trying to screw it up."

"Only one way to find out..." Lucario told himself while carefully opening it up and moving inside of it. He made it all the way in and felt the soft insides caressing his body, making him sigh in relief as he slowly leaned back.

"YIKES AND GAZOOT!" Lucario screamed as he flew out of his bag, making Zerobi look at him with a curious face.

"Damn it, my back...!" he whined and turned around, making her catch a glimpse of the poison thorns from earlier, still stuck in him.

"Told ya" she said smugly as she got up and walked over to him, "You ready for an extraction?"

"... Don't kid around, It's much too dark for that!" he groaned while futilely trying to locate and pull out the stingers himself, "I'd like to spend the night in a sleeping bag, not a body bag..."

"I can see fine in the darkness" Zerobi said quietly.

"I said no! This is insane!" Lucario responded loudly, "Gouging them out is not going to help at all!"

"Actually, I was planning on using my claws as pincers..." Zerobi said as she held up her claws in front of her.

"Pincers..." Lucario whispered to himself as a faint memory resurfaced. He was looking at his finger, doing his best to claw out the painful splinter lodged within. Suddenly, a pair of sharp objects appear above the wound. He tries to twist his hand away, but something is preventing him! In an instant, the pain flares up before vanishing altogether, a tiny object caught between the two...

"... Alright" Lucario muttered as he laid down on the sleeping bag on his stomach, "I'm placing my back in your hands... Literally."

"About time!" Zerobi replied cheerfully, leaping up and crashing down on Lucario's pants, making him jump slightly in terror.

"Are you crazy!? Don't just sit down on them!" Lucario yelled, trying to look at the creature both above and behind him.

"They're on your back, not backside..." Zerobi muttered before quickly looking at her current seat and shuddering a bit, "... I hope..."

Looking down at his back, she noticed that several spikes were sticking out among the large hairs growing out of his torso. Zerobi used her hands to lightly brush aside some of the hair on the back, just to make sure where the fur stopped and hair began. Instead she was met by a sight far more horrifying than she had expected.

"... Scars... " Zerobi whispered as she stared at the misshapen body beneath her. Even though no hair was growing out of these parts, the large gashes across his back had been all but invisible until now, hidden under the yellow fur.

"... What!?" Lucario shouted, oblivious to what she was referring to, "Those thorns were lodged in that deep!?" The scars were closed now, but she was certain that no one could just forget wounds that massive. Simply looking at them brought her back some unpleasant memories from her time in Cerulean City.

"No, I mean... I'm not a doctor, but these look old" Zerobi mumbled as she winced, "... Man, they look painful, too...!"

"You mean to tell me you're NOT a doctor?" Lucario chipped sarcastically, "You... At least you've done something like this before, right?"

"As if! One little slip and blood'll..." she said before stopping herself, "... I mean, just don't move around too much."

"Uh, you know, maybe I could just sleep on my stomach..." Lucario whispered frightfully, "... Actually, that's a great idea! Let's do that!"

"Are you sure about that?" Zerobi asked with an unusually calm tone, "I've already extracted six of them."

"... Really?" Lucario replied hopefully as relief washed over him, "Whoa! I didn't feel a thing! You're good at this!"

"Yeah, I know..." Zerobi snickered, "I'm lying." Instantly she grabbed the first of the thorns and pulled it out, making Lucario yelp in surprise.

"ARGH!" Lucario shouted as he once again tried to turn around and look at her, "Damn you! That's SO not cool!"

"What?" Zerobi asked with a sinister smile, "Is it too much for the little crybaby?"

"... Just get it over with" Lucario mumbled. The pain of having it pulled out had been bad, but nothing compared to his battles against Suicune, Raikou or the aura that lay dormant within him.

As he lay there, he realized that so far trying to use the aura had ended up in a catastrophe each time. He knew that if he wanted to learn how to use it, he would have to try something different. The female Lucario from earlier popped into his mind and he thought about asking her for pointers, though a more pressing matter suddenly came upon him...

"... You still believe me, right?" Lucario asked after a while, "That I'm human and that Rukario wasn't my wife?"

"Well, the way you treat women I doubt you could ever land a sh..." Zerobi started before suddenly converting her snide remark into an explanation, "... That was a shiny Lucario back there, you know."

"Oh... Uh..." Lucario mumbled as while closing his eyes, "If you compared her to what she looked like in that picture, she was actually a bit meager."

"Shiny is a term used to describe Pokèmon with different colors than what's usual" Zerobi explained, mentally telling herself to do that right away the next time so that she wouldn't have to listen to his nonsensical replies.

"Oh..." Lucario mumbled again, "So it's like racism?"

"Ra... Huh?" Zerobi asked with a confused tone, before remembering her earlier plans, "Anyway, they're extremely rare and constantly sought after by trainers. The fact that she even showed herself... Well, let's just say she's going to be heckled unless she quickly hides again."

"... So IT IS like racism!" Lucario continued as a particularly painful thorn was pulled out in the middle of the sentence, "She and that Cyon were some kind of inter-racial couple, then?"

"Now I don't have a clue what you're talking about" Zerobi groaned, "Just... Forget about it. Also, I'm done."

"... Oh?" Lucario mumbled for a third time, "... Why aren't you getting off me, then?"

"... Alright, you got me" Zerobi said with a mischievous smile as she pulled out the final prick, making Lucario twitch, "NOW it's done!"

"DAMN YOU!" Lucario shouted in fury, "Why you gotta do that!?"

"Because you were so stubborn, and wouldn't let me help you unless I practically begged" Zerobi said with annoyance as she lectured him, "Don't be such a hardass, or there'll be hell to pay in the future."

"Fine... I don't know what you're expecting, but you've made your point" Lucario replied as he wiggled around a bit while trying to get up, "Speaking of ass, would you mind separating yours from mine?"

"I don't know, I kind of like it here" Zerobi snickered as she leaned back and tried getting comfortable, "You wanna sleep together?"

"... Great, I get the spikes replaced with a Siamese twin..." Lucario muttered to himself before slowly rising up, making Zerobi fall off him. She landed on her back as Lucario walked over to his sleeping bag and picked it up.

"... But really, you seemed reluctant back there" Zerobi said as she got up and walked back to her own sleeping bag, "She was so kind! What kind of girl do you like, anyway?"

"Human" Lucario said bluntly as he uncurled the sleeping bag, and in a quick, fluent motion slipped into it. He sighed of relief as his back hit the soft underside of it. Even though it still hurt, it was nothing compared to earlier.

"Hmm... Figures" Zerobi replied as she also decided to lie down, lying down on top of her own sleeping bag.

"You aren't going to crawl into it?" Lucario asked while turning his head in her direction, "It feels damn good, you know!"

"That will be much too hot for someone like me" "I tried telling you this, but you just HAD to buy two sleeping bags..."

"Weirdo..." Lucario mumbled as he leaned his head back on the pillow and looked up at the heavens. It was fairly cloudy, but nothing that could completely cover up the infinite blackness of the sky that peered at them.

"... Pokèmon don't get married, you know" Zerobi suddenly whispered.

"... Huh? Where'd that come from?" Lucario asked in a whispering tone as well.

"She said she was your wife" Zerobi said, "I've never heard a Pokèmon call themselves that. It's strictly a human thing."

"And me knowing this is going to save our lives in the near future... How?" Lucario asked while sitting up and looking over at Zerobi, who was busy staring up into the sky.

"Hey, I'm trying to solve the mystery here!" Zerobi replied with a short snicker, "Help out a little, will ya?"

"There's no mystery" Lucario sighed as he lay down on his back again, "Listen, the last thing I want is psychotherapy that'll convince me that I'm a stinkin' Pokèmon. Show me a way to turn back, or forget about it."

"Even so..." Zerobi said slowly, "You've yet to tell me anything of what it's like being human..."

"We've been kind of buys not dying, remember?" Lucario chuckled, "I'll tell you now. What do you want to know?"

"Well..." Zerobi mumbled as she thought, "Anything, I guess. You're the only creature that has been both human and Pokèmon, what's different?"

"I eat berries for sustenance" Lucario responded bluntly, "And I'm talking to something not human."

"... That's it?" Zerobi asked with disappointment in her voice.

"I'm still human within, so mentally I was never a Pokèmon" Lucario said.

"Come on!" Zerobi exclaimed loudly, "You've met with Pokèmon and talked to them! There must be something!"

"There is, but... How do I explain..." Lucario sighed as he thought very hard of a way to explain what was on his mind, "... Like... What do you see when you look up at the sky right now?"

"... Clouds..." Zerobi mumbled an answer, "The moon... Stars..."

"Heh..." Lucario smiled, "All I see are gigantic rocks and balls of fire, swirling around in a great big void."

"... Huh?" Zerobi exclaimed, not understanding him at all.

"See it like this - We are both less than a dot on a speck of a planet in a tiny little solar system in the edges of a galaxy, that there are millions of" Lucario explained in a depressing tone before lightening up, "But we're not worthless! Every time we close our eyes in a blink, we give birth to new life in the form of cells, only to kill them off the moment our eyes open."

"... Whoa..." Zerobi whispered to herself, "Deep."

"That means that depending on our perspective, we are both an almighty god..." Lucario continued, "... And barely even nothingness."

"So that's how a human thinks, eh?" Zerobi said quietly, somewhat disappointed in his answer, "Alright, something less... Existential... What did you look like as a human?"

"This is going to sound weird coming from a canine" Lucario chuckled, "But I was actually pretty ugly."

"That's... An unexpected answer" Zerobi replied, again feeling disappointed, "Feel free to lie, it's not like I can prove you wrong."

"Nah, that's just the way things were" Lucario kept going, "Constant fighting does that to you."

"Huh... Funny to think that someone so handsome was once..." Zerobi started but suddenly trailed off after realizing what she had just said, "... Uh, human!"

"Handsome?" Lucario said with an uninterested tone, "I can't tell... And I really don't care, either."

"You don't care?" Zerobi asked with surprise in her voice, "... Really? Not even a little?"

"I'm a freak, either way" Lucario mumbled and wished he could shrug more naturally when lying down, "To any human, at least... I don't think I'd be real popular as the dog-man with no job, money or viable future."

"Alright..." Zerobi mumbled as she was getting tired of all the boring answers, "I'm done. Goodnight."

"Aw, come on! Ask me something more!" Lucario said excitedly.

"... We'll have plenty of time tomorrow..." Zerobi yawned while closing her eyes.

"Talking like this is fun!" Lucario exclaimed, "What, you're immune to fun?"

"Go ahead. Talk to yourself" Zerobi muttered as she turned around, facing him with her back.

"... Fine" Lucario said as he closed his eyes as well, "Just know that out of all the odd things I've met since I got here... You're the best."

Zerobi felt a bit insulted at being called an 'odd thing', but nevertheless fell asleep not long after that. Lucario's head was still spinning with all the new information it had taken in, and his blood was rushing from the battles earlier in the day. All of it finally collided in him, as exhaustion kicked in and he was instantly overtaken by sleep.
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The Human Species