Symbiosis

Chapter 13

Alex blinked his eyes open to small amounts of daylight hitting his eyes. He gave a small irritated groan and rolled away from the trace amounts of light that had filtered through his blinds. He blinked several more times, gathering his bearings, and finally sat up. He recoiled in pain and gave a soft grunt, holding onto his chest. He became more and more lucid with every passing second and recalled the events that took place the day before. Specifically during the night. He let go of his chest and looked down at his body. He was still in his day clothes from the other day. He was clearly incredibly exhausted that night.

Yet that wasn't the biggest thing on Alex's mind as he looked down to his body. It was the pain in his chest. Or rather, the lack of pain. He still felt sore, and his chest still felt tender to the touch, but it was more than manageable compared to before. Alex chuckled, turned to the edge of his bed, and hopped off of it in a lazy fashion. 'I've a feeling I'm going to be impressed by what pokemon are capable of many times over before I get used to it,' he thought to himself, recalling the pokemon girl of an unknown species he encountered last night, as well as how she managed to heal his injuries. Alex looked over to his bedside radio. It read 10:32am. Alex's eyebrow raised and he gave a swift, surprised exhale. 'Damn, I really was tired.' Alex stretched his body, even through the dull throbbing pain of his aches, and made his way towards the living room.

Alex glanced around, but the apartment was entirely still. Alex did a delayed double take out of confusion, wondering where his roommate was, until Alex recalled Isaac mentioning that he had started work again. So Alex was on his own for the time being. Alex felt a small wave of relief, which was then almost immediately replaced by guilt. He felt bad for wanting to be away from his roommate for a while, but quite frankly, he just didn't feel like dealing with Isaac's smothering concern for Alex after yesterday's events. It may have only been that one day because Alex's trauma was incredibly fresh, and after seeing that Alex was going to be just fine, Alex imagined that his roommate would've given him whatever space he needed. Regardless, Alex decided that being on his own was better than the best case scenario of Isaac being home for the simple fact that he wanted to work through his thoughts completely on his own.

Alex toasted an english muffin for himself, grabbed a banana, and started idly chewing on his quick breakfast at the dining room table as he quietly started mentally working through his troubles. The issues began yesterday when he and Eli had an errant encounter with two very aggressive and prejudicial men. Alex shook his head, feeling anger swell up in his chest. He had a bad feeling after seeing the news report about the explosion he got caught up in, and it seemed like yesterday's encounter only strengthened his worries. People were becoming very distrusting towards pokemon, even to a hostile extent. It hardly felt fair to Alex, being judged on what he and others like him could do. Hell, everyone could do things that'd be incredibly harmful to others, but do they? 'Okay, okay, back up, Alex,' he thought to himself, derailing any further pessimistic thoughts for the moment, 'for all you know, those two dipshits could've just been outliers. Keep in mind, there have been multiple issues with people like them being loud and aggressive in this complex, even before the transformation happened.'Alex took a calming breath, trying to keep himself from getting worked up too much.

'It's a good thing Isaac was there too. Those morons would've really hurt us if he hadn't gotten involved.' Alex let a remorseful gaze rest on his banana. 'I mean... I think I'd have stopped it if it really came down to it. At least, I like to think I would. But looking back, I was just so messed up in the moment. Those two hit all of my injured spots... I could barely form a coherent thought, let alone have the wherewithal to will myself into my pokemon form if I had to. Could I have actually done something...?' Alex gripped onto his banana harder, almost crushing it in its peel, and gave a frustrated grunt. "I am sick of feeling utterly useless!" he shouted out loud. 'I mean, I'm a fucking mew, for God's sake! I should be able to train up whatever techniques I want and save anyone around me that happens to be in some sort of trouble!' Alex set down his half eaten banana, rested an elbow on the table, and rested his head against the palm of his hand, stewing in his frustration.