Having grown up with a drunkard for mother who would often rant and scream at him about ruining her life by robbing her of the chance at being the fashion model she always wanted to be, Jonathan was left painfully stunted in his knowledge of how to have positive relationships with other people. Not helping this fact along any was the issue of his businessman father not showing him strong emotional support, as the older man was often away on extended trips overseas. The only thing Johnathan had found solace in growing up was watching the various pokemon battles which aired on tv, as the other children in his neighborhood and school didn’t like being around him out of fear of crossing his harpy mother. So when Johnathan turned ten years old he was more than ready to go off on his first pokemon journey, his eagerness to have a grand adventure like the other boys he saw filled his heart with a sense of glee, the likes of which could almost literally be seen radiating out from his body.

So of course his father had come to him one day and told him that he was not going off on such a journey, but would instead be enrolling in an upstanding boarding school to learn the ins and outs of finance.

Jonathan had tried and plead with the older man to allow him the chance to go off on his own but the older man had chosen to ignore his protests. Instead he shipped Jonathan off to the private school far, far away from the city where he had grown up the day after his tenth birthday. Jonathan found out later on that this was part of his father’s strategy to divorce his wife and give her as little alimony as possible, seeing as he could claim that she was nothing but a leech once they got into a courtroom, as she wasn’t taking care of Jonathan and just spending his money on drink and wild sex. 

Going through boarding school had been easy enough for the crimson haired boy as everyone there was so focused on scoring high marks in their classes that they barely paid him any attention and so he could study what he needed to learn in peace. Sadly this meant that by the time he graduated at the age of eighteen Jonathan had no friends, no pokemon, and no knowledge of some of the more dangerous aspects of the world that existed beyond the brick walls for which he had spent a significant majority of his life. So of course life decided to throw Johnathan a curve ball by having his father die of a heart attack several weeks after the man had gotten him a job working as a junior accountant at a prestigious investment firm. The funeral itself had been quick and easy, as the older man had planned everything well in advance, and so a few days after the proceedings, for which his mother hadn’t shown up, Johnathan’s was back at work like nothing had ever happened. 

The people at his job gave him the usual rounds of condolences the week of the older man’s death, yet after that they returned to being their cold and indifferent selves, leaving Jonathan in a state of dull emptiness, the likes of which made him somewhat shy and uncertain of himself during the years to follow.

These feelings wound up making him particularly vulnerable to a new client who had recently decided to make use of the firm for which Jonathan worked.

“You seem rather bothered by something, Mr. Rains.” the orange haired man dressed in the two thousand dollar business suit stated while looking at the crimson haired accountant. 

“My father passed away three years ago today, Mr. Ages.” Jonathan replied somewhat tiredly as he typed up the business report for which he had been asked to go over. “So I apologize if I don’t seem all that chipper. I promise to be more pleasant in a couple of days.” the crimson haired man smiled tiredly.

“Aww, that’s so terrible to hear.” the older man huffed solemnly. “I imagine that it must be very hard on you and your mother right now, what with this being the anniversary of his passing.” 

“My mother…” Jonathan hesitated for a moment as an unfamiliar emotion welled up within his chest. “My father divorced my mother when I was around eleven, and so I haven’t seen her since I went off to boarding school.” 

“Ohh, I’m so sorry.” Mr. Ages whispered while a slow smile spread its way across his face. “You must give your pokemon a lot of hugs in order to keep the stress down.” 

“I don’t have a pokemon.” Mr. Ages winced at that making Johnathan continue speaking. “My father thought that it would be better for me to go to work into business rather than go out on a pokemon journey, and so I never got the chance to bond with one.” it was a sad truth that often made Jonathan feel somewhat out of sorts whenever he looked to see other people with their monster companions happily walking down the street while he was out shopping for household supplies.

“Oh dear. Now that just won’t do at all!” the older man shook his head making Jonathan turn from where he was grabbing the printout to look him in the eye. “You’re still pretty young, and so you should know the joy of being able to care for a pokemon.” 

“I think it’s a little late for that, don’t you think, Mr. Ages?” Jonathan asked with innocent curiosity.

“Of course not!” The well dressed man said while reaching into his pocket. “My organization believes that people and pokemon should be united together, no matter the age.” he pulled out his business card and then placed it onto Jonathan’s desk. The crimson haired youth picked up the small piece of decorated paper and then looked it over with curious black eyes. “I know that you might not understand, as you just took me on as a client, but I can assure you that if you come down to my place of business you’ll understand exactly what I mean.” 

Jonathan didn’t know what to think about this offer, however when he noticed the eager look within Mr. Ages’ brown eyes he promised the older man that he would stop by this weekend. 

Several days later Jonathan was being shown around Mr. Ages’ warehouse facility. Walking around the vast building made the crimson haired youth feel as though he were in the presence of something indescribable as he looked around to see various pokemon and humans ambling about the place; whether it working out inside of large gyms, training against each other’s pokemon in mock battles, or eating side by side next to one another within large cafeteria, the entire facility seemed to show off the depths of camaraderie for which could help to deepen the bonds between human and pokemon. 

“This is amazing!” the crimson haired youth exclaimed as he was shown the first three floors of the building before being lead upstairs to Mr. Ages’ office. “I can’t believe that you have all of this set up here in the middle of the city like this.” 

The older man laughed as he set himself down within his plush leather chair. “Well, I know how to pull a few strings in order to get what I want.” He waved for Jonathan to sit once he noticed that the other seemed to be too nervous to do anything more than shuffle where he stood next to the closed door. “However, it takes a lot of hard work to keep what I have built up here, you understand that, right?” Jonathan merely nodded, as he could guess that it must be costing the man a small fortune to keep his business going all the while granting his employees the lavish luxuries that he had seen spread about the place. “With that in mind, I’d like to make you an offer, Mr. Rains.” these words made the crimson haired youth blink owlishly back at the older man. “I would like to steal you away from your firm so that you can come work for me.” 

“Why? I’m not that important.” Jonathan said without really even thinking over the offer. 

“Such a lack of self-worth,” the orange haired man shook his head sadly while staring at the young accountant. “it’s such a pity for someone with your talents to be so discouraging of yourself.” 

“I really don’t see my talents as being anything better than anyone else’s.” It was true, as there were several others within the office where he worked who could crunch numbers much better that he could blindfolded.

“But I do. That’s why I want you to work here at my business.” Mr. Ages smiled reassuringly.

“Um, alright.” Jonathan nodded without thought. “I just hope that you won’t be disappointed in my work.” 

“I have a feeling that your work will be most beneficial to my business, Jonathan.” the orange haired man said while reaching into his desk to pull out a set of transfer papers. 

A few days later Jonathan relocated from his old firm to Mr Ages’ business. His job was still the same, though now the crimson haired youth often spent time speaking with other trainers whenever he had an hour or two where he wasn’t busy going over the costs of the business. To say that these new interactions greatly boosted his confidence would have been an overstatement, however they did help to make the young man come out of his shell, if just a little bit. 

The first few weeks working for Mr. Ages was somewhat stressful for Jonathan as most of the programs that the company had been using seemed to be rather ancient...not to mention chaotically structured. It took three months of working with the software before Jonathan had finally had enough and ordered some new computers and software for the company, as the old ones were just too much hassle to wrestle with any longer. Once he was able to get that situated the crimson haired accountant found himself crunching the numbers for the company much more swiftly, something for which Mr. Ages was all too happy to hear as Jonathan was able to save the older man thousands of dollars in expenditures now that he knew what he was dealing at. This made him something of a hero to the trainers working within the company as the money was used to purchase a number of amenities for everyone, including, but not limited to, new training equipment, more exotic foods, and extra little treats for which the pokemon seemed to greatly enjoy.

In the following months the crimson haired man felt as sense of happiness, the likes of which he had never experienced before, overcome his mind.

So as with most things in his life, misfortune decided to start pestering him.

It was three months later that Jonathan began to notice some odd things happening about the facility for which he wasn’t sure how to properly explain. 

For one thing, there were some odd purchases that kept popping up week after week on his spreadsheet. At first the young accountant filed them away within a separate spreadsheet, as he assumed that they were just mistakes which were being made by those who were logging in their purchases for the company, but after six months those ‘mistakes’ were totalling themselves up to nearly a quarter of a million bucks. Once he was sure that this wasn’t some kind of clerical error on his part Jonathan immediately called up Mr. Ages to let him know what he had found, though strangely enough the older man seemed not to be that worried over the matter. He instead told him to catalogue the purchases in question under a file he wanted termed ‘private loss’ and then send him the spreadsheet every three months so that he could personally keep an eye on it. 

The second oddity that caught his attention was how the new pokemon brought into the facility seemed to have reservations about the trainers that they worked with. More often than not Jonathan would look out his office window to see a pokemon cower whenever their trainer called for them, the monsters almost frightened beyond words to have to deal with the human in question. At first this didn’t really set off any alarms, however a red flag began to go up as Johnathan began to notice that these interactions seemed to increase throughout the year. 

Again, Jonathan brought this situation up to Mr. Ages, however the older man told him somewhat solemnly that some of the new hires had very heavy hands, and that things like this would be worked out within the following months.  Jonathan had asked some of the older trainers that worked within the facility about this, and while most of them said that this was normal, a few of the humans he was rather close to would shudder before telling him to drop the subject. Thankfully though the older man’s words turned out to be quite true, as the pokemon in question seemed to become much more docile around their new trainers...even when said trainers physical assaulted them.

The final oddity came after a year and a half of working at the company. 

Johnathan had come into work rather early one morning and had literally stumbled into a little rockruff that seemed to have been badly injured. The brown furred wolf pup quickly darted behind him just as two trainers came from around a corner. Not knowing what was going on the crimson haired youth stood in silence as the others asked him if he had seen the runaway canine. Now Johnathan might not have known what was going on here but he was more than a little sure that the wolf pup shivering against his leg wouldn’t like what would happen to it if the trainers found him, so instead of telling them the truth he simply pointed a finger behind himself. The trainers assumed that the other must have run off around the next corner and so quickly took off about their way, much to the crimson haired accountant’s relief. 

Once they were gone the little rockruff seemed quite happy to not be found by the pair as he clung tightly onto Johnathan’s pant’s leg. When the crimson haired man heard the rock type begin to whimper up at him he felt his heart break. Without thought Jonathan knelt down to comfort the other, rubbing his hand across the smaller creature’s belly he noticed that the young pokemon seemed to be have not been fed properly as its belly was a bit sunken in. Picking the rockruff up Johnathan cuddled the scared pup close to his chest as he made his way to his office. 

For the rest of the day the rockruff refused to come out from under his desk, choosing instead to hide in the underspace around the accountant’s legs. When it was finally time to leave Jonathan found the rockruff desperately clinging onto him again, so much so that he accidently bit Jonathan when the human tried to pull him away. The youth had let out a sharp hiss as pain surged up his hand but didn’t hold anything against the other for being so frightened. Instead, he helped the pup out of the building by way of one of the bookbags the company kept for their trainers working there. 

Once he got home to his apartment Jonathan took the little rockruff to a local pokemon center and then told the Nurse Joy on duty about what had happened to him...or what he assumed had happened with the other. The nurse took down his statement, place of business, and then offered to keep the pup for him until the rockruff was better. 

“I think it would be better if someone else took care of him.” Johnathan said while looking down at the sleeping bundle on the white bed in between him and Nurse Joy. 

“Are you sure? You seem like you enjoy being around him.” the pink haired woman spoke gently.

“I know, but I don’t know anything about training pokemon, plus I...don’t think my lifestyle is a good one for a sporty pup like this little guy.” the crimson haired man chuckled sadly as he reached out to stroke over the sleeping wolf’s head. 

“I see. Well, please do make sure that you come back to see him, as I think he would enjoy your presence.” 

“I will. I promise.” 

Sadly this promise would never come to be because a few days later the door to Jonathan’s office was thrown open by several trainers who he had never seen before. 

“Where is it?!” one of them barked barked making Jonathan pause his typing.

“Where is who?” the crimson haired man asked as he looked over the obviously incensed group.

“The rockruff, you idiot!!” another trainer snapped while coming over to the side of his desk.

“I don’t know.” it was the first thing that came to Jonathan’s mind to say, as instinct made him subconsciously aware of the fact that these people did not have the pup’s best interest at heart.

“You’re lying!” the trainer by his chair shouted before snatching him up from out of his seat! 

“I’m not!” Jonathan was then thrust face first onto his desk, the hardwood smacked painfully into his nose making him wince.

“Yes. You. Are.” the other trainer said slowly. “We checked all around the place and couldn’t find the mutt, but someone said that they spotted you leaving out of the building with a backpack on, which everyone said that you never do. Kind of coincidental, given that you were seen right as the little mutt disappeared.” 

“I use a backpack to carry out some documents I don’t feel like carrying. That’s not unusual, even though it’s not common.” Jonathan said while struggling against the trainer holding him down.

“Then what’s this about?” the one holding him down asked while ripping off the bandage while was covering his injured hand. “Did that thing bite you?” the trainer whispered with some fear in his voice.

Before he could answer that question Jonathan was forcibly dragged out of the room down the hall to the elevators. He quickly learned that the elevators led into an underground chamber, the likes of which he had never seen before, after one of the trainers swiped a keycard into the elevator’s control panel and then pressed the bottomost button. Jonathan was then swiftly pulled down another hallway, which just so happened to showcase several rooms which contained various...creatures within them, all of whom roared and snarled at those who walked passed them. Before he could ask what was going on here Jonathan found himself being literally thrown into a white padded room. The sound of the only door leading into the room being locked made him gasp in fear.

Just what was going on here?!

A day later Jonathan found this question out as he was forcibly woken up by someone coming into the room. He tried to ask the person, who was not any trainer that he had ever seen before, what was happening here but the other ignored him in favor of yanking him away from the corner where he had fallen asleep and then pulling him out of the padded room. Jonathan tried again to ask the other person some questions, however this time he was told to shut up right before he was punched over the head by a large fist. Once he was brought into an odd looking room filled with various scientific devices Jonathan was strapped to a table and then asked several questions regarding the rockruff he had helped to escape this place. Most of them he refused to answer, yet when it came to the bandaged bite marks on his hand the crimson haired accountant was then asked a different series of inquiries.

“How are you feeling?” one man dressed in a long white coat inquired while poking at his injury.

“A little out of sorts at the moment, but fine.” Jonathan answered honestly as he looked to the other.

“I see. You’re not feeling hot? Or dizzy?”

“No? Should I be?” the man ignored him for a moment as he looked to a colleague who was writing something down on a brown clipboard. 

“Do you have any diseases related to your heart or liver?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Does your family have a history of allergic reactions to any medicines that you are aware of?”

“No.” Jonathan was getting somewhat scared now because none of this was making a lick of sense to him. “Why are you asking me all of this?”

Instead of answering him the people, who he assumed were scientists, moved over to the side of the room that Jonathan couldn’t see to converse with one another. What they spoke about the accountant couldn't quite hear, however he didn’t have to know what was being said because several minutes later the group returned to his side, though this time wheeling a large table topped with numerous surgical needles. 

“What’s going on here?!” was the last Jonathan got out for the day before he found himself suddenly injected with brightly colored solutions.

After that Jonathan’s world became one of pain and agony as he was experimented on by the men and women that held him captive. 

Hours of injections followed with the crimson haired man being thrown back into his cell, his stomach grumbling like mad, as whatever chemicals had been shoved into his bloodstream began to do things to him that he wasn’t sure that he approved of. The next day followed with the scientists cutting him open with scalpels and then inserting things inside of his body, Johnathan begged and pleaded with them to stop what they were doing and to let him go, however his words fell on deaf ears. Once more he was thrown back into his cell, and once more his stomach felt as though it was about to turn in on itself, though this time he retched up what little was inside of his stomach. Huddled into the corner of his room when the lights were turned off for the evening, Jonathan curled up into a fetal position as he rocked himself back and forth. 

A day later the scientists finally decided to give him some food and water, but only once it became clear that he would expire without having something inside of his body. Some argued that it might cause a negative reaction with their experiments, but others said that a dead subject would be worthless for their purposes. Johnathan didn’t care either way, his rational mind was just so happy to be getting something to eat. That his next few meals came with conditions placed upon them, something for which the accountant growled about but had to finally acquiesce to since he wanted to survive.

Johnathan was made to go through a number of exercises all the while clear probes were attached to his body; from training with weights, to running on treadmills, to lifting up sacks filled with sand, the crimson haired man was forced to perform task after grueling task in order to get his next meal. Trying to speak to the lab coat wearing men and women proved useless as they all but ignored his questions whenever he tried to pipe up. 

How much time went by Johnathan would never know, as there were now windows within the underground area, however the former accountant did notice that as the hours ticked by his hair began to grow longer and shaggier while thick mats of crimson began to pool around various areas of his body where they hadn't once been. He also began to notice how much easier it was for him to smell things around the room, Johnathan would often snort as he took in the pungent scent for which often collected around him. The scientists didn’t allow him to bathe, and would instead give him a bucket of water and sponge to clean himself with every couple of days. 

What he would have given to splash around in a lake!

Things soon to become worse for Johnathan as more and more time went by as the crimson haired man slowly began to forget things which once been important to him; the faces of his parents now stood as blurry visions within his head, while knowledge of finances and coding were all but gone, and worse yet his ability to form actual words was becoming harder and harder for him to do. 

By the time a half a year had passed Jonathan had all but forgotten his own name, though by this point it was hard to tell that the young man who had once been a shy and somewhat naive accountant was even the same person that he had been half a year earlier. Since he hadn’t been properly groomed his hair now hung long and shaggy down the sides of his shoulders, his eyes, which had once been black as a starless night, now burned red as he quickly took in everything happening in the world around him. The long strands of fur which had been growing out from the sides of his body now covered almost his entire form making the former accountant look like some kind of savage barbarian from out of a history book. Not helping matters at all was the fact that Jonathan barely even walked upright anymore, the feral human had taken to stalking on all fours around the white tiled room, his spine seemed to have grown enough to allow him to do so with ease despite the implausibility of such a thing being so. Frustration at being kept within the tightly confined room had made the crimson haired man lash out at the pads stuck onto the walls with his black claws to the point where deep gouges lined the solid walls behind them. Thankfully sleep quickly found him after he ate his meager meal of the day, and so Johnathan took to gorging on what little was given to him and then curling himself up within the corner of his room in order to calm the rage burning within his mind.

The animal tendencies for which Johnathan exuded slowly made him forget his earlier fear of being physically reprimanded by the humans around him, as one day he bit the hand of one of the people who come to fetch him so hard that he had shattered the man’s bones. The sick sounds of bone being destroyed was almost musical to the feral man’s ears, however after this little stunt those around him took to use drastic measures in order to punish him. In the days to come those sent to fetch him would use a rock type pokemon to subdue him, as they knew full well that his fangs and claws would do little to creatures with such hard outer skins. The pain Jonathan felt as he was beaten down by the rock type pokemon would often make him angrier than he already was, and yet there was little he could do about the situation in question. 

That was until someone thought it a brilliant idea to inject him with a liquified moonstone. 

What the scientists had been thinking Jonathan would never know, however once the ice cold fluid entered into his body the feral man howled through the gag that had been placed over his face as he struggled like mad onto the table he had been strapped down onto. His body, which had already been through so much stress from the constant injections and strange new growth, had finally had enough, and as the liquid raced through his veins his heart finally went into cardiac arrest. The humans around him immediately attempted to do everything they could think of to try and save him, however Jonathan’s body was just too far gone to save and soon the crimson haired man went limp as he gave two final twitches before dying on the table. 

The darkness that encompassed Jonathan’s mind was like sweet bliss as it finally made all of the pain he had been feeling up to then just...stop. 

Swimming within the eternal gloom of nothingness what was left of Jonathan’s rational mind shattered into stardust and then disappeared into small vapors of nothingness as he gave up thought and reason for the sweet embrace of eternity. 

So when the full moon shone down upon his limp form the thing that had once been Jonathan didn’t know how to act its heart suddenly began beating within its chest hard enough to make the rest of its body visibly slam up and down against the garbage for which he had been dumped within.