Pokeumans II: Ghosts of the Past chapter 4 Updated

Chapter 4: New steps!

We all got up, a little late, like 10 AM. Like the days before, John was already out when we got up.
Our mutations were neary done yesterday. I'm so excited about my new look!

As I got out of my bed, I saw that I was covered in blue and black fur. It seems that I got the so famous "shorts"!
As I looke at me, I saw a big metallic thing on my chest. It was the also famous chest spike... I should watch out when I hug my siblings!

I saw then Nathan getting up slowly and a bit dizzy. His mutation was visibly done, as his face was a bit closer to a fox's face, he was covered in blue and black fur, just like me and had three metallic bump things. He looks so cuddly!

"Hello Nathan!... You look so cute!" told I right before hugging him.
I pursued "Looks like being a pokemon looks great with you!"
He replied, pleased "I may look cute, but you look just awesome!"
I smiled upon hearing this.
He continued "I feel a little dizzy... Do you think that the transformation itself is tiring, or just that I'm a sleepyhead?"
I replied, with a smile "A bit of both, I guess!"

Jean was also getting up, like if she took over 9000!!!!!!! beers last night.

I sat down on her bed, looking at her cute, elongated and furry face.

She emmited a sound "Eeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr?..."
She yawned then, nearly falling asleep again. I kissed her on the muzzle, and she woke up for good.

She said, still dizzy "Good morning big bro!... I feel so dizzy!..."
I commented "Well, I woke you up, a bit like that tale..."

She replied, half asleep "Errrrrr?... I think I got it!... John said yesterday that our mutation will be done today... Is everyone alright?"
I told her simply "Yes! And my transformation, and Nathan's too is done! He is even more cute!"

She woke up for good, in a shock and said "Really?"
She then realized that I became fully a lucario and commented "You are really cute! And a bit badass to!"

I said right then "Really? You are adorable!"

She smiled as she heared me, but one second after she looked around, with a bit of concern in her eyes. I wonder what's happening.

I asked her What the matter lil sis?

She replied, quickly "Nothing, nothing!"

Definitely, something was going wrong!
I decided to wait a little to try learning more. Maybe she was concerned about her transformation. Maybe she is scared by that mafia... Or is she concerned to about dad and mom? That's so strange!

She got out of her bed to see if John was around, but he was already out.

On his bed, there was a note with the classes plannings of the base.
I said "Visibly, we are going to go first in a sciences class, room S12, at 10:30AM, as we already missed the history class! I hope we wont get blamed! Errrr... Jean, what time it is?"
She pulled out her phone of her FUR and said "It's 10:00!"
I looked at her, suprised, and told then "Gotta go fast!"
She saw my expression and said, amused "I used to sneak my phone anywhere in my pants! And I'm not going to change!"
I smiled as I heared her. Maybe she was just in a blank moment... But actually, I'm a bit worried about what will happen next... I really hope my parents are safe!
As no one else reacted much I shouted "Gotta go faster!"

Nathan replied, "Okay!"
On those worlds, we got out, and I saw Georges in the corridor.
I asked him "Hello Georges! Do you know where is the sciences class? We are going to be a little late!"
He replied "Just get out and get to the green door in the hall, then in the room 12, for the first grade in Pokeuman's history!"
I said, a bit confused "The first grade... But I don't know the system..."

Georges explained, smiling "Well, basically the classes are actually independent so no one would have to train again for a skill that is already mastered by passing again the whole year of lessons due to a lacking skill! And if you get strong enough, you could even enter the PRT by defeating the elite four! Acctually, the philosophy of the Pokeuman learning system revolves entirely around flexibility and acceptation! And as if it wasn't great already, there is no homework! Just imagine my face when I learned about that!"
Jean asked, interested "But what is the "elite four"?"
Georges replied "This is a quatuor composed by four elite fighters. If you challenge them, you are quite likely to see a professor or a very high ranked PRT member, but their identity is kept secret in order to avoid the specialisation of any challenger. Just don't challenge them before you get much, much more experienced... They are insanely strong!"
Nathan commented "Interesting..."

Mack said with a sign of stress "Errrrrr, guys... Maybe we should go for it... We are going to be late! I dont want to give a bad impression..."

I nearly leaped as I heard him!
I said quickly "Gotta go REALLY fast!", before we got back in the hall and fetched for the green door. As we entered, we saw a considerable number of rooms and heard a lot of voices. We walked through the corridor until we saw the room 12.
I knocked on the door and I heard: " Quickly everyone! The class is about to start!"

We entered swiftly the room, filled with various pokemon, greeting everyone as we went to the unoccupied seats at the back.
This clasroom seems to be built around new technologies, as I saw some animations showing the anatomy of various pokemon among other stuff like how carbon fiber reinforces a plane's wing. It feels like coming into the next century!
Nathan chuckled, while Mack was more thoughtful, "I guess it will be great!"
Jean answered "Sure it will!"
I saw a massive, but empty flowerpot behind the teacher's desk
As I sat on my chair, I felt the soft cushion...
I thought "Well, this is going to be much, MUCH better than the old, lower back pain-inducing school chairs!"
But strangely, the teacher wasn't here... I thought I heard him though...
We heard a distant scrapping noise coming from the pot, becoming more intense. A second later, something jumped out of the flowerpot. It was a bunnelby!
He jumped quickly to the desk and greeted enthusiastically his class "Hello everyone! I'm Jerry Hopkins, ressearcher in radiology and I will teach you the basics of Pokeuman technology..."
He then gave a quick look around the class, stopping on me, Jean, Nathan and Mack, only to say "I see that we have four new students around! Albert told me about you!"

He then pursued "Don't open the laptops inside your desks, these won't be useful today. Today, we will study in detail the functionment of the humanizing rings, a staple for our society."
As he typed some command on his desk, an image of a ring, complete with gemstones popped up behind him.
Jerry told then "The humanizing rings are well... rings built for transforming back into a human form. As you may have remarked they are also designed to look pretty much like standard human jewelry. Coming back to a human form is motivated by two purporses: living a normal life into one of the many pokeuman villages, or even around humans, for those who have graduated, and to undertake various missions for the PRT, to avoid causing a ruckus by running around as a never seen before animal.
Behind this old school design, those rings pack an incredible amount of technology"
He typed again on his computer, causing the ring on the wall to be disassembled and to be seen with annotations, then followed
"As you can see on the wall behind me, the rings are constituted of three gems, a highly minaturized transistor, courtesy of Mew, a couple copper wires, and last but not least two tiny spurs on the inside of the ring."
Mack looked a little dazed by this explanation.

Jerry continued "The ring is programmed to supress temporarily the genes that cause the transformation and logically cause the subject to transform. The three gem arn't diamonds despite the looks, but synthetic evolutions stones derivated from the better known fire stones, water stones and even more. The spurs I mentionned detect the genes of the wearer, which allows the transistor to sort out the DNA in common with humans from pokemon-specific genes. The transistor then energizes the stones to make them emit radiation to "deactivate" the necessary genes by altering them for some time"

A young Patrat, at the front asked "But sir, isn't there a risk of hurting the wearer, as it affects DNA?"

The professor answered "Ahhh... Yes... The risks... Of course, messing around with one's DNA never comes without risks. There were indeed a couple "accidents" caused by those devices, namely permanent, deadly mutations, caused by prolongated use. These were found to be actually quite dangerous so the scientists worked around this problem and created a second generation of rings to mitigate the risks. However  I didn't find yet the blueprints and the rest about this model so we won't be studying it today."

The whole class sighed in disapointment.
A trecco, puzzled asked "But I have seen so many pokeumans with only mechanical arms, so is there any way they could use one?"

Jerry precised "Actually, they can! The mechanical arms have a DNA contact system. As complex as it sounds, it simply uses a sample of blood to detect the user's DNA and a transmettor to bring the effect of the radiation to another area of the body, like the torso."
A serperior at the back of the class mumbled "Hmmm... Groovy...le"
Jerry kept explaining, unaware of the serperior's mumbling "However, humanizing rings are fairly hard to produce, as they require some hard to get ores to create the cristals, like uranium and many others, so they are reserved only to graduates and PRT members. Given that rare earths have to be purified from lage quantities of ore, we have to use a well covered up industrial setup  in Africa. The real problem is actually transporting the materials, as we would start drawing the attention from both the legal autorities AND the Pokextinction by passing frontiers with either the finished cristals or the raw materials in great quantities, so the transporters have to improvise constantly with teleportation, tunnels and disaffected railroads depending on the possibilities. And showing up with a crate of rings isn't a good idea either."

He kept explaining the system until the end of the class... While I started to get a little dizzy... Jean would say that my mutation strains my metabolism or something like that.

Once the class was finished Jerry told "Well, that will be everything for today. I will detail more the functionment of mechanical arms during the next class."

As everyone stood and started to leave, eager to enjoy... Well... I dunno what... What was planned already?, Jerry called me "So how are you doing? I see that you are actually fairly well accustomed to your transformations!"
Jean answered "Despite what I thought, it's actually going pretty well."
Mack's stomach growled loudly. Jerry continued "Well, I guess its time to have lunch!"
Nathan chuckled "Well you are right! I'm getting hungry as well!"
Once we said goodbye to Jerry we headed out in the corridor. As we came to it's end, I saw a door with "Archives" marked on it.
I told my siblings and Mack "Err, I think we made a mistake on the directions... Lets got the other..." I stopped as the door opened. Then, John came out of the room. He said, surprised "Good afternoon guys! But what are you doing here?"
I answered, bashful "We went the wrong direction... We were going to the cantina!"
He replied "Don't worry, its just the other way!"
Thus we went the other way into the corridor and we came back to the principal room and then to the cantina.
The cantina was just as full as yesterday, but Raiden wasn't around... Or was he? He IS a dark type after all!

We went near the kitchen to get our meals. As we came by the counter the attendant, a male meowstic, called us "So you are the new recruits? Come, come! I'm Monsieur Dubocal, the base's cook! How are you feeling today?"
Jean answered "Actually, we are feeling a little tired today. Maybe It's because we just finished transforming this morning..."
The cook answered, looking fired up "Then I'll fix you up with a mint berry ratatouille!"
He then prepared four plates of vegetables with some bright berries. I guess that's how mint berries look like...

We then proceeded to eat together our meals on a free table. On the next table I saw a Greninja drinking a coke alongside a tough looking lucario.
I overheard a bit of their talk "Eh bien, professeur Lupus, on dirait bien que les problèmes recommencent ici... Il y a eu déjà une dizaine d'enfants transformés depuis 3 mois et la Pokextinction commence à devenir agressive... C'est vrai Kevin. Malgré la disparition de  Shadow, cette folie continue. Il faut qu'on continue nous aussi... Après tout, on a Paul et Pierre de nôtre côté!
... Pokextinction?... Damnit I'm not so good in French... Looks like they are talking about serious stuff!

Right as I started eating, I felt a refreshing sensation.
Mack said "Well, the cook was damn right! I feel energized!"
The meal went on peacefully, without any event in particular. We just talked about what we will do next...
As we finished our meals, Nathan asked "What was the next class already? Maybe we should try not to be late this time! But where is the planning already?"
I answered, feeling stupid "Damnit I should have thought about picking up John's note!"
Jean then smiled and pulled out  her phone of her fur again, selected something and finally told "It will be general battle class for this afternoon! Its 12:45 so we have fifteen minutes to get there. I'll just need to go to the bathroom before."
Nathan and Mack nodded before I answered "Me too!"
I gave a quick look around and said, pointing "It's right over there!"
I went quickly to the bathroom door with Jean and entered. The base's bathroom look a little like that of a restaurant, complete with mirrors. We both went to the toilets. While I did... whatever one does in the toilets, I heard a faint phone ring, followed by a refrained cry. Something was really going downhill about Jean!
As I went out of the cabinet I waited for her to come out, worried.
A few seconds later, she came out as well, looking seriously disturbed. She came at me while trying to say something, only to fail to emit any sound. I hugged her immediately and tried to comfort her "Dont worry Jean! Whatever happens we will stick together! If you are felling bad just tell me! We will find a solution!"
She answered me with a flickering voice "Jack, I'm so f****** worried about dad and mom right now... I can't find a way to contact them right now... I can't join the network! What will happen to them?... I just want to go home and see them again..."
The thought of what will happen next to my parents while we are away hit me like a train. They must be so worried right now... And what if they are targeted by the Pokextinction?... Oh dear...
I had a blank moment, nearly breaking down, before telling her "I know what you feel. We have to stay strong whatever happens. We will try to talk to the headmaster ASAP. He may help us."
I saw a glimpse of determination on her face. That's my sister!
She followed, bashful "...I guess you are right... I don't want everyone to know that I broke down... Let's keep that between us, OK?"
I answered "OK!"
I wonder why there is no direct signal in the bases... I saw that I could access the Internet via the computer, but why can't we phone outside?