Cashe opened his eyes and rolled out of bed, ever the early bird. His wife was already up, he could hear her clanking around the kitchen. He really should get the bedroom soundproofed. It might finally stop the neighbors from complaining and it would spare his wife once she was able to sleep in again.

She was probably preparing some monstrosity of a breakfast. Yesterday it had been water chestnuts and peanut butter on a toasted bagel, topped with chili flakes and chocolate chips. The sight of it made his stomach churn as at the thought, but that was pregnancy for you. It made people crazy.

Cashe descended the stairs of their small townhouse. Despite its size, it was horrendously expensive, but it was expected of him. A person in his position needed to stoop to the occasional displays of wealth. Besides, he loved his home.

He grabbed a jug of milk from the fridge and poured himself a bowl of cereal, ignoring whatever it was his wife was cooking on the blazing stove. It looked like wet grain and balsamic vinegar with a side of runny eggs. Ick. That had to be on purpose, too. She was an amazing cook. She wouldn’t have runny eggs by accident.

Cashe kissed his wife on the back of her neck, gently laying his hands on her swollen belly. She grumbled and shrugged him off.

“Let me cook,” she muttered. Cashe grinned. The baby must have woken her up early. She never was a morning person.

“I love you, too,” Cashe responded.

She sighed and leaned back, pressing against him, “Sorry.”

Cashe kissed her neck again and sat down to eat his breakfast, ignoring his wife’s apology. It wasn’t necessary. He understood pregnancy was not a pleasant experience.

Cashe finished his break and returned to their bedroom to get ready for the day. It was a big day for him. First day of the promotion. He had to look the part. Cashe showered, shaved, and donned his suit - a new one he had made for exactly this. A few minutes later, he was out the door.

Perhaps the only part of the banker image Cashe refused to conform to was the car. Well, the corruption, too, but also the car. He would not buy one. Not when he lived within walking distance of his work and the weather was so mild. Besides, summer in Vancouver was probably the best weather one could ask for anywhere in the world. He wasn’t going to spend it in a freaking car.

The walk was short and sweet, Cashe on cloud nine the entire way. He was only a few blocks from Burrard and the morning sun reflected off the windows of the tall buildings all around him, making the day feel brighter than it was. Guess they didn’t call Vancouver the City of Glass for nothing.

He entered his building, guard frisking him on the way in, and took the elevator all the way to the top floor. When he told people he worked at ‘the bank’ they usually imagined a crowded room with cheap linoleum floors and overworked tellers dealing with the lines. They never imagined an entire floor reserved for three offices and a receptionist. They never imagined marble floors and sunken lounges for hosting clients. But when he said he worked at a ‘the bank’, that was what he meant.

“Cashe!” Paul called out. He was always here early and always a mess. He took ages to get ready in the morning so he showed up in a bathrobe most days. No one cared unless a client was around, and he was usually dressed properly by noon. “Or should I say boss? You're still stuck down here with us?”

“I got a promotion, they didn’t fire anyone,” Cashe laughed.

“New suit? Damn.” Paul nodded, “Don’t know how you look so good so early.

Cashe shrugged. “It’s a secret, sorry, friend.”

“Guard it well,” Paul said, with a tired smile, “Hey, have you seen Caroll yet? She sent someone down here looking for you a minute ago.”

“Crap. No. Do you know what she wanted?”

“Probably to welcome you to the ranks. She’s upstairs.”

Cashe nodded and returned to the elevator, taking it all the way to the executive suite on the top floor. A thought twinged in his head, a strange sense of deja-vu. A wave of vertigo hit him as the elevator rose, and he pressed his hands to the door to steady himself, the metal cool under his. He shivered as the vertigo was replaced with a bone deep chill. What was going on?

“Mankey!”

Cashe looked up. The doors were open and Caroll was smiling at him.

“What?”

“Blood Money!” Caroll smiled and held out her hand, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. That wife of yours finally have your screaming brat?”

“She’s going to be a beautiful baby girl,” Cashe said, ignoring Caroll’s jibe. She was always like that. You just had to know her a bit to understand when she was kidding.

“What was her name again? Your wife, not the brat.”

“It’s -”

“I don’t really care,” Caroll said, cutting him off, “I wanted to say welcome to the team. The real team. We’re the ones that get things done, everyone else is just extra. We’ll get you out of that drab space as soon as Michael kicks the bucket.”

“He’ll outlive all of us,” Cashe laughed. The ancient partner was constantly at death’s door, but he refused to retire. Or die. He really should do one or the other.

“Really though, we have to get you out of that hell hole down there,” Caroll continued.

Cashe shrugged. He wasn't sure about calling the top floor a hell hole, with its marble ceilings and diamond chandeliers, but the executive suite was literally made out of clouds. You didn’t get much better than that. They floated by him, swirling in a hypnotic pattern.

“Now go make us some money,” Caroll said.

Cashe nodded and returned to his office, taking the stairs to the top floor. The suit clung to his body from the exertion of taking the stairs all the way. He didn’t know how James Bond did it. Cashe stumbled into his office, sitting down at his desk and attending to his levers. He checked the signs on each lever, noting they were both in the off position. One lever was marked “Up” and the other was marked “Down”. It got tricky, but his main job as an investment banker was turning on the lever “Up” for the stocks he invested in and turning on the “Down” lever for everything else.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Cashe got to work, keeping up his hustle as he worked the levers. Once, he accidentally hit the wrong lever and cost a business millions. That would probably get hundreds fired. He grit his teeth. He needed to focus.

His phone rang, distracting him again.

“Hello?” Cashe said, fumbling the thing to his ear. It was nearly impossible to do while operating the levers.

“Cashe, the baby!” His wife. Cashe shifted the levers into the off position. He needed to go. Now.

He was in the hospital in an instant, pacing outside of a door. In his mind’s eye, he imagined everything going wrong. He could see it happening all at once. The baby would be born a moody little brat. His wife would be driven to the tipping point because of it, no natural cure available. The more he paced the more he worried, until the door burst open and a doctor stumbled out.

“Cashe,” she said, “She's a healthy girl. She is very well behaved.”

“Oh thank god,” Cashe almost wept at the news, entering the room. It was packed with doctors and nurses, all clapping as he entered. One stuffed a child into his arms. Instantly he felt the parental bond take hold. She was beautiful, a tiny bundle of joy and happiness. Like the doctor said, she was very well behaved.

She laughed and squealed in delight and Cashe danced for joy, his daughter in his arms until he froze, midair.

“Wait,” Cashe said, holding up his child to the light. The applause of the doctors and nurses stopped, “Why is she Asian? I’m not Asian.”

“Mr Cashe,” a nurse said, “What are you talking about? Look at your wife.”

Cashe looked up. His beautiful wife lay in bed, long hair wet with sweat from the delivery, her body wrapped in a mussed and wrinkled hospital gown. She was smiling at him, he could feel its radiance on his skin, but he couldn’t see it. He couldn’t see his wife’s face at all.

“What’s going on?” Cashe said. His head throbbed. “What’s happening?”

“What do you mean, Cashe?” His wife said. Her voice was wrong. Hollow and dull. That wasn’t his wife's voice, was it? Had he really married someone that sounded like that? “I love you.”

Cashe shivered at her words, a chill permeating the room. Cashe held his baby closer to his chest to stop the cold from getting to her. He wouldn’t let anything touch her.

The nurses and doctors were disappearing around him, fading into the background. His wife’s bed grew larger, and she with it, “What do you mean Cashe?” She said, her voice modulating down several octaves into a warbling baritone, “I love you.”

The walls of the hospital room began to dissolve and his baby screeched. The walls broke down further, flying away in tiny chunks and revealing a bottomless, yawning darkness all around them. His baby screeched again. He looked down. It had been replaced by Mankey.

She leapt out of his arms and attacked his wife, her fists flying through the air as she shrieked.

“NO!” Cashe yelled, but like so many times before, Mankey ignored him. She was supposed to be over this, but now she was attacking his wife!

The great hospital bed disappeared and his faceless wife floated into the air, her giant tongue lolling out of her mouth. Mankey’s fist lashed out at her and Cashe flinched bracing for the impact, but it didn’t come. Mankey’s hand passed straight through his wife’s faceless…face and a moment later, so did Mankey.

“Mankey, that’s my wife!” Cashe shouted, “Don’t attack my wife!”

Mankey paused at his words, stopping before she jumped again and turned to shriek at Cashe.

“Mankey! Mankey! Man-Man-key!”

“She’s my wife,” Cashe insisted. He shook his head and Mankey quivered in rage.

“Mankey!” Mankey jumped again and Cashe ran forward, inserting himself between Mankey and his floating, giant wife.

“No, Mankey!” Cashe caught Mankey in his arms, tumbling over as she slammed against his chest. That hurt. Mankey was way too small and heavy to be caught like that. He wrapped his arms around Mankey, “You can’t attack her, she’s my wife.”

“Mankey!” Mankey squirmed in his grip but Cashe refused to let go.

“That’s not right!” Cashe insisted, “She’s not a pokemon, she’s my wife.”

“Mankey! Mank!”

Mankey struggled harder, her eyes glowing red in frustration as she tried to escape Cashe’s grip without hurting him. She thrashed and Cashe held her away from his body, letting her kick helplessly at the air.

“CASHE.” Cashe turned around. His wife was even larger now, her tongue wide and pink, hanging down from her face almost to the ground. It was the only part of her face he could make out, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”

“This is Mankey,” Cashe struggled to keep the squirming pokemon in his grip, “I won’t let her hurt you.”

Mankey screeched and thrashed more violently, tearing herself from Cashe’s arms. Her eyes were dark red, aflame with fury, her entire body shaking as she rounded on Cashe.

“Mankey!” She screamed, “Mankey!”

“You’re wrong!” Cashe shook his head and crossed his arms, “I can recognize my wife by her giant tongue!”

“Man-man-man-man” Mankey stuttered in her anger, almost jumping forward at Cashe and attacking him directly. She halted mid-stride, falling forward onto her face. She writhed on the ground, her eyes glowing an even deeper red, she screeched and pounded at the ground before erupting in an explosion of light.

Cashe flinched away, Mankey’s light too bright for his eyes. What was this? Did Mankey know Hyper Beam?

Behind him, his wife made a warbling noise of fear, Cashe turned to look at her, moving his eyes away from Mankey and towards his wife. He blinked in surprise. He could see her face now! She was purple, with a long tongue and angry eyes. She was trying to hide in his shadow to get away from the light.

“Don’t worry,” Cashe said, “Mankey won’t hurt you. Look.” Cashe turned back around to address Mankey, but she wasn’t there. Instead of a glowing Mankey, there was a glowing Primeape.

“APE!” Primeape screamed.

She was taller than Mankey by several feet, and broader, too. Her hands were balled into boxing glove-like fists and her limbs were thick with dense muscle, a band of solid metal wrapped around her wrists and ankles. Her tail had disappeared as well, but otherwise, she looked like a scaled up version of Mankey. A very angry version of her, at that.

Primeape roared, flexing both her arms and concentrating energy around her fists. One began to glow with an ethereal light, purple and gray. It solidified into a mottled gray energy, pulsing with power and hate filled energies.

Cashe staggered back, tripping over his wife, but no - she was gone too. In her place floated a Haunter. It had her same large tongue and angry eyes, but its body was purple and insubstantial. Little trails of gas leaked from its body, floating away from it, carried by a nonexistent wind.

As soon as Cashe tripped, Primeape shot forward, her glowing fist striking directly at the Haunter’s face. Unlike her previous attacks, Primeape’s new attack connected directly with Haunter. As it did, the entire world around him cracked, a great divide of white light rippling out like a spider web from the punch.

Haunter spun away and Primeape struck again, jumping through the darkness. Both her fists were glowing with ghostly light now, her anger palpable and powerful in the energy that surrounded them. She struck again, even before Haunter had a chance to recover. More webbed cracks cascaded out from the impact.

Where they intersected with the previous cracks, great chunks of the world fell away. Cashe could see the night sky through them, stars hanging in the sky above.

Haunter screamed, firing a ball of dark purple energy away from it as Primeape attacked again. She jumped straight through the attack, ignoring its power and striking out with both glowing fists. Two great rents in the universe appeared and Cashe could see Emilia sleeping against Charmeleon, worry etched into her features as she shifted in place.

He felt a warmth rush through his veins as Primeape struck again and the dark, yawning void dissolved into one of piercing light.

*****