TF contest submission: Alex's day off.

TF contest story
"I can't believe it." Alex thought. He had very little money left to his name. It was a struggle. No mater how much he searched, how many papers he read, he couldn't find a job that he could fulfill. It seemed like an awful nightmare, but he couldn't wake up from it. As he woke up. Funny, how life works. Alex had no plans for the day, but he intended to do some wondering around the nearby town. He got dressed at a slow pace, as he still felt groggy from his early wake up. After dressing, he went to his kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. 
See, Alex had just started living on his own. He was going to a college nearby next Thursday, which meant he still had plenty of free time. He had just enough money coming in from past jobs to give himself a small one bedroom, one bathroom apartment. But Alex didn't really care about how great of a house he had, or fine of clothes to wear. He was happy just to have enough to live comfortably. Alex finished up his coffee and got his shoes on. He then walked out of his door into the outdoors, being completely ready for the day (or not?). 
It was only a short stroll to the small town, called Ft. Michael. The first thing he wanted to do was get himself some food. He was famished. He walked around for a bit, until he came upon a humble cafe. It looked nice enough. He opened the door and heard a little bell chime, signaling his entrance. The woman at the counter looked up and asked him, "hello sir, what would you like?" Alex looked up at the menu to his right. He decided on a bagel with cream cheese. The woman went to go get his order. Alex looked around the cafe. There was local art displayed on the wall to his left. The rest of the walls were mostly cream colored. The floors were oak planks. It was a nice looking shop. The lady gave him his order. Alex walked over to one of the wooden tables placed around the cafe. He sat down, laying his plate down gently on the table. He ate his bagel quickly. It was delicious. Before he left he went to the restroom. But, on his way out, he saw that, on the back of the door, it read, "order the 'where am i'" in blue ink. This was awfully weird. He wanted to just leave the cafe at this point, but something that could possibly lead to an adventure really intrigued him. Alex had had a fairly boring and regular life at this point, and he had a big thirst for adventure of any kind. He decided to ask the woman for the item. He went back to the counter.
"Want anything else today sir?" She asked. 
"Actually, yes, I would." He replied, "Could I get the 'where am i'?" A look of surprise crossed her face. "Sure, let me go get it." The woman walked into a back room. Alex managed to hear the woman and a man talking, but he couldn't distinguish what they were saying. Later, the woman came back with an extremely dark coffee. She whispered, "When you finish, my manager would like to speak with you." Alright, Alex thought. He went over and made his coffee a little sweeter, and drank it down. It tasted pretty good, he thought. Anyways, Alex kinda liked where this was going. Why would a manager want to talk to a random person? 
Alex finished up and walked back to the woman at the counter. She quickly led him to a door, which probably led to the manager's office. She let him inside, and Alex looked around, taking the room in. There were mostly papers laid everywhere, especially on the desk where a plump man sat, in his 40's. The walls were clustered with random art pieces. Alex felt a little uncomfortable, and the man seemed to notice. He said, "do not feel afraid, you are not in any danger." 
"What do you want from me?" Alex asked. 
"Well, I want you to know something. You're special, Alex." 
"What do you mean? And how do you know my name?!" Alex was a bit shocked by this. 
"It's okay. But you need to be quiet while I explain. Follow me." He walked over to a certain area above the floor, and reached down and pulled it off. It was an extremely well hidden trap door. There was a ladder that lead down. The manager went down first, but Alex was hesitant. For good reason! But, Alex desperately wanted an adventure, so he followed suit. It seemed like the ladder went down for a long time. 
When they finally reached the bottom, they descended into a small room. This said room had two chairs and one door. The manager sat in one of them, and signaled Alex to sit in the other. 
"Alright, Alex, first things first. You are what's called, a 'pokeshifter'. Pokeshifters are people who are blessed, or as some people describe it, cursed, with turning into a specific Pokemon. This is extremely rare, and usually comes with a negative connotation. You see, I am what's called a 'guardian', as I am supposed to find and protect Pokeshifters. Do you follow?" Alex nodded his head. This was a lot of information to be suddenly thrown at him. "Good, now, the words you saw on the back of the door are only visible to Pokeshifters. That's how I get Pokeshifters only, and not regular people. You will turn into a random Pokemon.Your transformation should begin in the next few hours. Do you understand?" Alex nodded again, except this time, slowly. He couldn't believe it. It was like a dream come true. He wondered, that if this man was telling the truth, then what Pokemon would he become? He couldn't wait. 
"Alright Alex, I'm going to pair you with one of our more older Pokeshifters. You will have to work for your stay here, but you will have some free time. You will be assigned a job after your transformation." The manager pulled out some kind of contraption and pressed a button on it. " I need Jackson out here as soon as possible, he has a new room mate." The manager said. 
They sat there for a good few minutes, until the door opened on Alex's right. Inside walked a kid at about the age 14. He had brown hair, like him, and light red eyes. Why would I be paired with a 14 year old?! 
Suddenly, the boy spoke, "Hello, Alex. I'm your room mate. But this isn't what I really look like." Suddenly, the kid became smaller, as fur sprouted all over his body. His ears moved to the top of his head and became fox-like. His mouth thrust forward into a snout. A big tuft of fur grew on top of his head, with blue on top. His hands and feet turned into paws with blue fur about one third of the way from his digits. The rest of his fur was black, except for his face, which had what seemed like little blue eyebrows on top. A grey tail thrust from his back. And finally, a ring of thick fur grew around his neck. He had done this all in about two seconds. He was now a "shiny" zorua. Alex had been drawing Pokemon TF's for quite a while, but seeing it in real life. It was a whole different thing.
"What do you think?" The boy/zorua asked. 
"I can understand you?!"
"Of course you can, Alex. You ARE a Pokeshifter, after all." 
"I suppose... Were you a human a couple seconds ago?"
"No, it was just an illusion. We should get you settled into your new room before you change." 
"Good idea." Alex was starting to feel really excited about what he was going to become. He almost couldn't hold in his joy!
They got to their room, number 15. Jackson showed Alex his own bed. There wasn't much in the room, but there was a tv, so that was a good thing. Jackson asked Alex if he wanted a tour, and Alex accepted. The first stop was the most important, the battle arena. I saw some other Pokeshifters battling others. Jackson explained that, as a Pokeshifter, we get stronger by battling. Every Pokeshifter needed to be able to defend themselves. He showed me the water pools, where the water type Pokemon usually battle and swim. The other stops were mainly unimportant. 
We got to our room when I felt a burning sensation on my skin on the top of my head. I reached my hand there and felt some short fur hairs there. It was spreading near my ears. As the fur covered my ears, they shifted to the top of my head, and changed to be more pointy. Jackson noticed my changes. "Hmmm... Yellow fur... Big fur tuft replacing hair..." He pondered. The fur spread around my eyes. My vision suddenly gained a subtle red tint. I guessed my eyes became red. The fur spread to the rest of my face, and my mouth elongated into a big yellow snout with a black nose at the tip. This was amazing! What was I becoming? I felt weird as the fur wrapped around my arms. When it got to my hands, I felt a tingling as they turned into paws with three digits! My entire torso started shifting shape, as I felt my organs shifting shape and position. Then the fur reached my hips. Suddenly, I felt as though my spine was being pulled in many different ways. It continued until I had nine big tails. I realized what I was becoming, as if it weren't obvious enough. Ninetails. Not a bad choice. I pulled on the tails to see if they were real. This all seemed so surreal! My legs started to change form and shape as they became double jointed. Their digits became 3 from 5. The transformation had finally finished! Looked around at my new body. I was so excited. Jackson was staring at me. He stopped when I saw him. "Sorry, but I had never seen a ninetails before," He said,"well, we should be going to lunch, it's almost noon."
"Alright. Lead the way!" It took a bit of time to learn how to walk on all fours, but eventually I got used to it.
When we entered the cafeteria, everyone seemed surprised. There were only about 20 people there, so I guess it was rare to get a new guy in this place. Whatever, soon people went back to their business. I got in line and grabbed a tray. Even though I had no thumbs, I was able to do things that required one. Well that's a relief. The food was an assortment of fries, burgers, and vegetables. I took a burger and some fries. I found jackson sitting with a group of Pokeshifters. I carried the tray over to them and I sat next to Jackson. There was a vaporeon, a snivy, and an umbreon sitting with him. "Who's this, Jackson?" The snivy asked. 
"This is Alex. He just changed before we got here." 
"Cool. Hey Alex, my name is Randall. I'm one of Jackson's friends." 
"Hi, Alex," the vaporeon said, "My name is Jacob. Nice to meet you."
The umbreon said nothing. He just sat there.
"Nice to meet you too," I said.
"Hey, you guys want to battle later?" Asked Randall.
"Sure thing. How about right after lunch?" Said Jackson. 
"That's a good time. So it's settled. We'll do it after lunch." What have I been dragged into?!
We all met up in the battle arena after lunch. Everyone but me knew how to battle! I didn't even know what my moves where! I asked Jackson, but all he said was that I would know if I looked into my mind. What did that mean? Maybe... I went up to one of the dummies and searched my mind for anything resembling a move. Suddenly, my claws grew to a wicked length, as I scratched the dummy down the center. I thought of some different moves and realized I knew ember and tackle too. 
It was time for the fight. Me and Jackson versus Randall and Jacob. Jacob went first with a water gun. A strong stream of water headed straight for me. I tried to dodge, but I wasn't nimble enough on paws yet. I was shoved against the wall. It had hurt a lot. Bad type advantages... Then a Jackson did a pursuit on Jacob. A dark aura surrounded Jackson as he charged towards Jacob. It happened too quick for Jacob to dodge. He was hit head-on. Then Randall tried to use a tackle on Jackson, but he dodged just in time. While Randall was getting up, I took the chance and used ember on Randall. It did massive damage as he caught fire. I thought he might die, but then I realized that Pokemon just fainted. Randall fainted from fire. Suddenly vaporeon tried to tackle me, but I quickly jumped out of the way in time. Jackson took this advantage to use scratch. His claws extended as he raked Randall. Randall cried in pain. I tried to use scratch as well, but Randall used water gun on me when I was mid air. I flew up to the ceiling and fell down. I hit the ground with a thump. I could feel myself losing consciousness. I couldn't let that happen. I got up as I saw Jackson get scratched in the face by Randall. Ouch. Jackson was out like a light. The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion. As Randall jumped at me for the final blow, I used the move scratch. I let my claws rake his belly. It was over. Randall was down. I had won my first battle. Then I fainted. 
I couldn't believe what had happened today. I was curled up on my bed. I had changed into a Pokemon and won my first battle. I couldn't wait for the next. What a lucky turn of events... I wouldn't have it any other way...