Choice, a Pokemon Shifters RP

[PureDark006]

Instead of Z, the one that opened the door was a woman wearing something that looked kind of like Lambert's clothing without the spikes. Rhapsody thought he had seen her before entering the Center, but he hadn't paid attention to her since Lambert had been addressing him. He was about to think he got the wrong room when the woman spoke, gesturing to the mass of blue and pink on the floor.

 

"Z!" Pooch exclaimed, running over to the kid. They were making weird deep sounds that she'd never heard before, and only when she was at their side did she notice it was their breathing, as if there was something invisible lodged on their throat blocking the normal flow of air.

 

"No, we're only traveling together," Rhapsody answered the woman's question neutrally, stepping inside. He believed her when she said she had nothing to do with Z's current state - he had seen the door closing, there wasn't enough time for her to do anything.

 

Pooch was already with the kid, trying to speak to them in a soothing tone, but it didn't seem to be working. Were they scared or something? It should be fine now that they were back outside. Maybe they were scared of the woman, Z seemed to have problems with strangers. "Oi, kid," he said, putting a hand on their shoulder to shake them slightly.

[octopi]

Z stared at the floor tiles, trying and failing to focus their vision. They weren't sure when their lungs decided to go into overdrive, but they couldn't convince themself to stop taking shaky, gasping breaths. Back there in the computer - they felt their heart jolt and emitted a strangled cough; apparently, even though their mind was otherwise stubbornly refusing to cooperate with them, that wasn't a safe train of thought. Had anyone seen them transform? They tried once again to make their shaking limbs cooperate, to at least face something other than the floor, without much success. They gritted their teeth. What was going on? This couldn't be normal human behaviour, or at least, they hadn't heard of anything of the sort -

 

They felt pressure on their shoulder and felt another flare of panic. Instinctively, they uncoiled their limbs with a choked shriek and lashed out in the direction of the touch before falling onto their back. They looked up, and even through their panicked haze, recognized one of the figures standing there as Rhapsody. Their eyes widened. "Wh - I - R-R - I - n-no - s-s-sorry, I - don't - " they gasped between breaths, shuffling backward a little.

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Dunsparce looked as Sine ran forward and transformed into a Pokémon that had wings and was extremely multi-colored. So that's what a Sigilyph looked like. He watched as she whipped up an Air Slash and split a berry in two. The little snake Pokémon then decided to use his own attack to knock some berries down as well. Slithering as fast as he could, he lowered his head to use Headbutt on a tree. He paused before eating a Sitrus Berry as Sine asked a very interesting question.

 

"Hmm...well," Dunsparce said. "Normally, Pokémon are only supposed to learn four moves. But you guys are shapeshifters, anything with you guys can be possible." Out of habit, Dunsparce started drilling his tail into the earth again. "Now that I think about it, you guys do look like a Pokémon in your human form." He bit into the sitrus berry as he thought once again. "But hey, I'm just a Dunsparce that lives in the mountains, so what do I know?"

 

A couple minutes later, he heard the sound of Chompers stomping over to the berry grove. Dunsparce blinked as the Tyrantrum came through the trees. "Hey, you're back," Dunsparce said. "I am," Chompers said, nodding. "And I found one of those...devices just laying around." "Devices?" Dunsparce asked, cocking his head. "What do you mean?" "One of those red and white things," Chompers said, putting the Pokeball on the ground. "Oh, a Pokeball," Dunsparce stated. Chompers blinked. He had seen the gym leader use these things. It made Pokémon appear and disappear. Chompers looked up to see a multi-colored Pokémon flying about. "Who's that?" he asked. "That would be Sine," Dunsparce said grinning. Chompers blinked, looking at Sine. "What did you say you were Sine?" Chompers asked. "Silyph or something?"

[ValidEmotions]

Gaes sighed, leaning back on the couch. "Yeah, you have a point there. Why do humans even bother with money? I mean, wouldn't it just be simpler to trade favors or berries or something?" she questioned, frowning. Falling silent for a moment, the woman examined her outfit. She wondered how they became so clean, leaving no evidence of her trip earlier that day. Some kind of magic trick likely related to the shifting power. "Say," she started up again. "Do you wonder what you were before this 'game', what you agreed to losing your memory for?" she inquired, her voice hushed from mumbling.

 

Glancing in the direction that Z, Rap, and Pooch had disappeared to, Gaes sat forward in her seat. "I figured out I was a Pokémon before all this, not a very hard thing to conclude. I like pranking people - you can attest to that - but I don't like people being displeased with me," she admitted, counting off on her fingers. "I wonder if I had a trainer..." Her thought trailed off as that uneasy feeling crawled up her chest again. Shaking her head, she waved dismissively. "Sorry. I know it's only been a day as a traveling group so if you don't want to spill any inner thoughts, you don't have to," she said quickly.

 

~~~~

 

"I see you're dressed up all fancy."

 

Emil blinked slowly, turning his attention onto the Dark-type. "Hm? You're still here? Do you have a trainer to get back to? Or are you just one of those wild Pokémon that live in the streets?" he inquired, tugging at his left earlobe. It sounded female but he could be wrong. "Oh. Maybe I should bring Nix out. You two can probably have a conversation." Digging into his bag, the man withdrew the small Pokéball and clicked the button. The sphere expanded and, in another moment, a beam of light shot out, releasing the Shinx within.

 

Nix shook out their fur and gave a small yawn. Yellow and red eyes quickly took in their surroundings before landing on Emil and the Purrloin. "I hope you're not planning on challenging the gym leader..." they commented idly, staring at the other Pokémon a moment later. Sitting down, the Shinx scrubbed their face with a paw. "Is this a new friend?" Nix asked, not bothering to wait for an answer as they got up to move closer and sniff at the Purrloin. "You smell like humans. Where's your trainer?" they repeated the question Emil already asked.

[hazeh]

Whatever was going on with the teenager, it didn't look to be pleasant. Allison only briefly eyed the man that entered the room after she'd opened the door. He had two capable hands, why hadn't he opened it himself? But, instead of dwelling on the thought, her gaze refocused on the kid-- "Z" seemed to be their name-- and she watched the Houndour attempt to get their attention. She was certain that wasn't a seizure, though why the conclusion had randomly occurred to her wasn't clear.

 

When Z jerked at the man's touch, Allison's eyebrows furrowed slightly. Cassandra would know what to do-- she was good with this sort of thing. If there was anytime that Allison actually wished her to be nearby, it was now. Slowly, like she had seen Cass do with the nervous girl outside, Allison crouched down, the leather of her pants creaking faintly. She waited until the sounds stopped sputtering from Z's mouth, and then said in a quiet voice, "Z, no one is going to hurt you." She glanced up at the man for a second, as if confirming that he had no intentions to do so, and then continued, "You're having a panic attack. Have you had one of those before?" What, did she have a medical license before all this? How did she know what a panic attack was? Allison's mind reeled, albeit her expression remained cool and collected.

 

Then, just in case the child was unable to answer quite yet, she tilted her chin up to gaze at Rhapsody. "You seem to know them. Does this occur often? Have they encountered any sort of strong stimulus recently?" she questioned, and the methodical nonchalance in which she spoke surprised even herself. Hell, even the concern she felt-- however minimal-- surprised her, too. As much as she might have wanted to just leave the kid to this bizarre man who couldn't open a door, there was a nagging in the back of her mind that forced her to stay behind. I wonder if I used to have panic attacks, she thought suddenly.

[PureDark006]

Z reacted the second Rhapsody touched them, yelling and swinging at his face; luckily, some of his reflexes seemed to be working fine even if others didn't, and Rhapsody managed to raise the arm that hadn't been shrugged off and block the weak hit. Usually he'd think the other was trying to pick a fight, but with how scared Z looked now and how he had seen them fumbling around earlier like a newborn Deerling, Rhapsody really couldn't think of Z as any kind of threat.

 

The woman spoke up then, lowering to Z's eye level. Something about her words seemed off to Rhapsody, but he couldn't place exactly what it was, so he ignored it and answered normally. "Only known them for a day, this is the first time they've been like this. Dunno what they were doing earlier." He omitted the thing about the computer since he had only seen Z doing it in their Pokémon form, so it might be something that humans shouldn't be capable of doing.

 

Pooch had backed off at Z's outburst, managing to not start barking her head off by some kind of miracle. As concerned as she looked, her stiff, hesitant posture and the fact she kept glancing between Z and the woman made it clear she had as much experience with panic attacks as Rhapsody (aka none at all), so he decided to let the human take charge and stepped back, trying to relax his posture and letting his arms hang down. "Calm down, kid. You're fine now," he said, following the stranger's example.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Puredark006

[TehUltimateMage]

Lambert did not want to start a lesson on human economics, mostly because it was a topic that he knew very little about. "Ancient humans used items, but money ended up being easier in the end."

 

A long silence hung between them. He wondered if Rhapsody was having any trouble, or if Z was alright. Kid looked really shaken, but he was convinced that a relative stranger was the last thing they wanted to see.

 

"Say, do you wonder what you were before this 'game'?"

 

He didn't know why, but the question hit him hard. His throat tightened. Gaes' backpedalling apology did little to nothing to silence his feelings, but he closed his eyes and assembled his thoughts. He let out a deep breath through his nose. "No. It's alright. I'll talk."

 

Without any memories, all he had was scattered knowledge and a handful of strong emotions. It was difficult to fill in the missing blanks, because sometimes he was unaware those blanks even existed. Where did he come from? He didn't know. But he was sure that he'd recognize it in a heartbeat. "I was a trainer." A certainty. "Not the best around, but... I used to collect badges."

 

~~~

 

"Don't put yourself down. You're pretty smart for a snake in the mountains." Now that she thought about it a little, Sine concluded that Dunsparce's observation was correct. Her clothes bore the bright patterns of her pokemon form. And, she thought she remembered Chompers having a collar similar to the crest on a Tyrantrum. Laren's clothes had a little Anorith flavor to them, while the Garchomp's trainer even had the decorative thigh-spikes of his flagship pokemon. How did she not realize before? At first she thought it was just her being an anomaly, but this 'game' seemed to be more structured than anyone had assumed.

 

While she spaced out, she floated still in the air, unmoving, until Chompers came back and forced her to put her thoughts on hold. Only then she remembered to flap her wings to stop herself from sinking.

 

"Sigilyph," Sine answered slowly so the other pokemon would catch the syllables. "I think it's a flying and psychic type." She didn't want to admit that she didn't have a handle on the psychic part yet. How was it even supposed to work? (Psychic pokemon made it look so easy...) "Speaking of types, do you have six moves?"

 

Seemed like he found a dropped pokeball in the forest. It wasn't exactly an uncommon event, but Sine felt just a twinge of something considering she hadn't found anything in the past three days wandering.

 

She was startled to see that the pokeball was surrounded with a blue light and had started floating up towards her. If she could have jumped backwards if she were able. Her astonishment made her lose whatever focus she had, and the ball dropped to the ground, bounced once, and landed in front of Dunsparce. "...whoops."

Edited March 26, 2016 by TehUltimateMage

[octopi]

Z squinted at the unfamiliar woman as they processed her words. Of course no one was going to hurt them; that wasn't the problem here. They opened their mouth to explain as much, but the most they could manage was a quiet "mhh". Now frustrated on top of everything else, they shuffled backward a little more and continued breathing through gritted teeth. But on the other hand, although the term "panic attack" didn't sound familiar, they took some comfort in the fact that the woman seemed to know what was happening. If this were a documented phenomenon and not just some kind of strange one-time occurrence, that meant they could look it up. They stared down at their shaking hands. Well, later, once it went away. All they could do right now was wait and try to calm down.

 

They drew their knees in toward their body and wrapped their arms around them, trying to think of something other than the computer. A panic attack - the term seemed fairly straightforward, although they couldn't imagine any kind of evolutionary advantage to this behaviour. None of the others they'd travelled with had experienced it, as far as they knew; maybe it was some kind of side effect of the game - no, no, not safe, they hissed at themself as they hugged their limbs closer to their body. At any rate, although they'd been moving their limbs around properly this entire time, only now were they really registering the fact that they'd shifted. They had headed for the back room just to get away from everything for a while (and now they were trapped by two separate people; typical), but it ended up being a good decision for an entirely different reason. Was it connected to the panic attack? Or -

 

They jerked their head upward as a realization washed over them and stared at the stranger, eyes wide. If they had shifted because of the panic attack - and it was certainly still going - what if they did again?

 

The kid on the floor swallowed once, slowly and deliberately, then looked wildly around the room for some kind of escape route, even as their limbs shook too violently for them to even stand. Yellow sparks began to fill the air around them as they twitched, trying to drag themself further toward the corner.

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Zoey smirked as the guy in green-Meganium- asked if she belonged to someone. "No, I sure ain't one of those wild Pokémon," Zoey said, smiling up at the Meganium man. She blinked as the Meganium man said something about a Pokémon named Nix before fooling about in his bag before taking out a Pokeball and bringing out a Pokémon she has never seen before. It was blue and black with yellow rings around its paws. She also noted it had yellow in it's ears and the star on the end of its tail was also yellow. It then said something about Meganium man not challenging the gym before its attention drifted on her.

 

"Is this a new friend?" the Pokémon she assumed its name was Nix asked. "You smell like humans. Where's your trainer?" "My trainer?" Zoey snickered this time. "I'm my own trainer buddy. Besides, what are you? I've never seen a Pokémon like you before." She sniffed the Pokémon back as it sniffed her. Odd...this Pokémon seemed to be neither male or female. Zoey blinked, was it one of those genderless Pokémon? She looked up at the ceiling in thought. "You know, your trainer looks like a Meganium." She looked back to Nix's trainer before looking back at Nix. "Why?"

 

--------------------------------------------------------

 

Anhew listened as Jasper said that the Deerling- Sweet Voice- was his and she was not. Anhew looked up and waited patiently as Sweet Voice stuttered a bit. Did Sweet Voice not know what she meant? "O-oh," Anhew said as Sweet Voice finally responded. "B-but she seemed nice to the...um...bird." Anew pawed the ground again and looked at Ev. Anhew swore once again she had heard Ev's voice somewhere. "I-I think I heard your voice somewhere. I really don't know."

 

-----------------------------------------------------

 

Dunsparce blinked up at Sine as she called him clever. Me, clever? he asked himself. He then turned his attention to Chompers as he said something. "Sigilyph, excuse me," Chompers said, clearing his throat. "Yes, I do have six moves. Crunch, Dragon Claw, Stomp, Ancient Power, Head Smash, and Giga Impact. Why do you ask?" He then watched as Sine started lifting the Pokeball he dropped with a blue light. He stared in awe before it dropped and rolled in front of Dunsparce. Chompers blinked before he looked at Sine. "How'd you do that?" he asked in intrigue.

 

Dunsparce, however, stared at the Pokeball that landed in front of him. A small little laugh escaped his mouth. "I must be absolutely crazy," he said. "Chompers, you are really interesting and don't try to stop me." "What?" Chompers asked as he looked at the snake Pokémon. "What do you mean?" Dunpsarce looked up at Chompers grinning. "You're going to need someone's help when Sine's not around," Dunsparce said before ramming his head onto the Pokeball button and he was engulfed in a red light. "Uh....what just happened?" Chompers asked, a bit confused before lowering himself and sniffing the Pokeball.

Edited March 26, 2016 by Raptor of Dragons

[Kiran]

Ev was amazed by how nice Cassandra had been so far. She’d expected, what, laughter? For her mistakes to be glossed over with a cruel glance and never mentioned again? Not cheerful acceptance, anyway. It was almost strange, but she was sure she could relax. There was no point in continuing to stare at and bend and twist her fingers again and again.

 

Yet there was still the tension in her chest, like she was waiting for something to happen, like something awful would come and there was nothing she could do about it. It was irrational, but there was always a what if. What if Cassandra was just pretending to be nice, what if she was wrong, what if everyone knew what was going on but her?

 

She was beginning to worry that she'd always feel like this.

 

“You alright, hon?”

 

The emotion and concern in Cassandra’s voice was so genuine that Ev felt bad lying. She rationalized it as being the lesser of the two evils. Cassandra had been so kind, and she couldn’t bother someone like that with something as minor as her own feelings. Cassandra probably had her own things to deal with. “Really, I’m okay,” she said softly, matching Cassandra’s volume. It probably wasn’t very convincing. She had lifted her gaze to meet Cassandra’s, but soon had to lower it again while biting her lip. She did manage to twist her mouth into a small, grateful smile, at least.

 

Jasper, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care much about anything at all. He had a strong air of casualness about him- that, and perhaps anger? Through her own emotions and the short period of time she had to work with, it was difficult to tell. There was a bit of roughness in the way he shoved his hands into his pockets, but that wasn’t much to go on. It was a feeling she had, nothing more or less. Whatever the truth was, he didn’t seem like a nice person, and she figured that she’d rather deal with Garrett (Gertrude…?) than him. Was that wrong of her, to judge someone like that so quickly?

 

It was all terribly awkward, anyway. Cassandra had reacted to Garrett’s voice, Jasper had probably seen her react, Garrett knew Ev- it was a mess. They’d all figured it out by now, hadn’t they? It seemed like the only one not in the loop was Anhew, and she seemed to be a child. Someone just needed to say it, and maybe they’d be able to make some progress; but there was still that nagging feeling, that what if. If Ev said something, and she was wrong- she didn’t even want to think about that!

 

Anhew was talking about her and Zoey, she noted. Anhew’s words didn’t seem all that relevant, until she turned her head towards Ev. "I-I think I heard your voice somewhere. I really don't know."

 

She froze. Her hands stopped moving, and her eyes stopped glancing back and forth to stare at a point near Anhew’s feet. Oh. It was interesting that voices stayed the same; she would have expected them to be different. What now? “I-me? I don’t- I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She gave a small, nervous laugh. Why was she even frightened? Why deny it when she was so, so obviously trapped? “I haven’t- Anhew, I haven’t seen you before, sorry, it can’t have been me. Someone else.”

[TehUltimateMage]

"Six moves is a shifter thing, then," Sine restated. "And I think--" she continued excitedly, "--that was Psychic! It's a move. I got..." the Sigilyph thought for a moment, shuffling through her moves. "Psychic, Whirlwind, Air Slash, Mirror Move, Hypnosis," she paused. "And I also have Ancientpower."

 

She wasn't sure how to operate a pokeball while she was some kind of strange, psychic bird, so Sine shifted back. Suddenly losing the power of ESP-aided flight, the girl fell flat on her face into the grass. She scrambled back onto her feet as soon as she could, picking up Dunsparce's pokeball in the process. "Alright! You just caught a Dunsparce!" The exclamation was paired with the dramatic motion of holding the ball in front of her.

 

"Oh, yeah. We should probably let him back out." She pressed the button on the pokeball, releasing the pokemon.

[hazeh]

Cassandra looked down at the Deino, whose name was Anhew, when Jasper stated the Pokemon was unowned. She wondered briefly if she had had a pokeball, would Anhew want to go with her? Probably not, given how attached she seemed to the Deerling. That was fine. Even if Cass did have some strong pull to the idea of being a trainer, she didn't want to rush it. There was something else about Pokemon, too, that lurked in her mind, but it was unreachable. She rubbed slightly at her temple to relieve some of the tension in her skull from trying to dig into empty memories.

 

She glanced back over at Ev when the timid girl spoke quietly again. At least Cass had managed a small smile out of her-- the sight of which made a bright smile grace her own features-- even if Ev's statement was unconvincing. Cass wouldn't push her, though; nothing good came out of prodding someone else's boundaries. Except Allison. Cass had no qualms prodding her boundaries. In that case, it was almost fun.

 

An awkward silence began to descend between them, until Anhew's soft stutters evoked a strong response in Evelyn. Ah, so it was as Cass suspected. Not only Jasper, but Ev, too, was like herself. That made things a little easier. She held up a hand to Ev, hoping to somehow distract her from her anxious babbling, and interrupted gently, "It's okay, Evelyn. I can understand them too, just like you, and just like Jasper." There wasn't much point to exclude him, given how his Deerling had just fired off a long string of complaints at him. Her blue eyes switched over to Jasper momentarily before settling back on Ev. Allison might not have approved of her decision to voice their current situation, but Cass was an adult too, and at this point there was little sense in keeping it concealed. "Can you transform too, like me?" she asked, though she looked between the two younger humans and then the Pokemon as if the question were posed to all of them at once. Then, in case Ev was still unconvinced-- and because Cass was getting a little tired of sneaking around the issue-- she held up her hand again and snapped her fingers lightly; a small, candle-like flame bounced up from between her fingers, and she grinned. "See? I'm in the same boat."

 

 

Allison frowned, though it barely registered on her already stony expression. So, this child had been traveling by themselves prior to meeting this man? That seemed dangerous and reckless, considering what was happening right in front of her. Perhaps this was the first time this had occurred for them, though, since the term 'panic attack' appeared to have little impact on their behavior. They also didn't seem to want to communicate with her at all.

 

That was fine. Allison wasn't much of a talker anyway. If Z didn't like her, she had no reason to care. Still, as they inched away, Allison sighed lightly and stood up again. "Z will need space and some time to relax," she told the other man, though her gaze remained on the teenager. "Nonverbal communication is difficult to assess without a previous analysis of their behavior. I can't do much if they don't want me to." A moment later, a pallor bloomed over Z's young face as they attempted to scramble away. Something had triggered that reaction, Allison knew, but as to the thoughts behind it she was not privy. However, what did manage to surprise her were the flickers of light that began to multiply in the air within the room. She moved her head slightly a spark flew toward her face, and with casual indifference she swept away another spark with the back of her and did nothing when it contacted her skin. Well, then, this made more sense to her.

 

She watched Z's twitching and sparking for a moment. If being a shifter is what provoked the panic attack, then there was little anyone could do to help them. As far as she knew, there was no cure for it; only those rules that continuously echoed in her head. Finally, Allison turned toward the man and his Houndour who were still in the room. "Are you a shifter as well?" she asked, her voice calm and blunt. Even if he wasn't, there was a small chance he wouldn't know what she meant, given Z had apparently been traveling with him for a day and Z's erratic behavior would be difficult to miss.

 

[PureDark006]

Space, huh. That he could do. The door was still open so he didn't have to figure out the human magic behind it just yet.

 

The woman had a weird way of talking, but at least she didn't use any words he didn't know. He was about to thank her for the help when Pooch barked in alarm, ears flattened against her head and fur bristled as she took a few steps back. Great, what was the problem now-

 

Z making sparks. Z making spark was the problem now.

 

He was already resigning himself to divert any and all questioning towards Lambert (who knows, maybe some humans did have access to something that could make them shoot sparks on command), when the woman surprised him by bluntly asking if he was a shifter.

 

...Of course. That's what had bothered him earlier. She had called Z by name, when the only one who had said the kid's name aloud had been Pooch. And normal humans wouldn't have understood her, now would they?

 

"2-0, Pooch. Maybe you should stop worrying about me being the one messing up," he told the Houndour with a snort and an amused smile. Pooch seemed too busy staring at the woman like she had grown a fourth head to make a coherent reply, so Rhapsody started walking towards the door as he glanced at the woman. "Every human in my group is. You a Zebstrika?" he asked, remembering Lambert's comment about the resemblance their clothes had to their Pokémon forms. He would've guessed Blitzle, but those had only one lightning-shaped strand of hair, while the woman had two like the evolved form and too many of the white stripes to be the smaller zebra.

 

Pooch seemed to finally recover, as she shook her head and willed her fur to relax. "You're just going to leave?" she asked her trainer with disbelief.

"She knows more about this than me," he said with a shrug. Pooch looked like she still didn't like it (dogs and their need for contact, geez), but she put some more distance between herself and the kid and laid down to signal she wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon.

 

He started raising his hands as he exited the room before remembering his arms lacked vocal chords in this form, and crossed them so the movement wouldn't seem pointless. "Oi, Lambert, Gaes! Kid's having a panic attack!" he called.

[ValidEmotions]

Gaes nodded slowly at Lambert's response, trying to understand his facial expressions and overall body language. When he said he'd talk, she was expecting... more, than just a sentence. "Right..." she started, wondering how to best coax him into saying more. A shout from Rhapsody interrupted her train of thought, however, and she quickly looked his way.

 

A panic attack? Getting to her feet, she hurried towards the back room, spying one of the women from before. Briefly examining the woman, Gaes had to internally snort. What was with the entire rocker getup that so many people seemed to be wearing? Refocusing her attention, she noticed Z crawling into the corner, a series of sparks flying off their body. "Whoa... What's going on?" she asked, unsure of what a panic attack consisted of. Yeah, she kind of guessed it had to do with being panicked but, that was about it.

 

"What do we do? Why'd you call us over?" she asked Rhapsody, glancing at him.

 

~~~~

 

"I'm a Shinx," Nix stated. If the Purrloin wasn't the Pokémon of a trainer, then they must be a wild one that just lived in the alleyways or something. Blinking, they considered her question, a frown crossing his features. Why was she even asking that? "Because... he wears an outfit that looks like a Meganium," they retorted. Such a stupid question! "It's none of my business why he bothers to wear the clothes that he does. It'd be like asking you why you choose to walk on two legs instead of four," they quipped.

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Chompers listened to Sine as she rambled on about what moves she had. He then looked as Sine shifted back into her human self whilst in midair and thus falling on the ground. "Alright! You just caught a Dunsparce!" Caught? Chompers looked at the Pokeball. How did he catch a Dunsparce? Thinking about it now, Chompers shifted back into his human form as Sine released Dunsparce. "Phew," Dunsparce said, stretching his wings. "It's been a while since I was in a Pokeball." Chompers blinked. "What do you mean?" he asked, watching the Dunsparce. "Oh," Dunsparce said, blushing a bit. "Did I forget to mention I once belonged to someone else?" "I think you did," Chompers said.

 

"Right," Dunsparce said, drilling his tail into the ground again. "Well, I used to belong to another person, but he would always set me up to fail. He would always send me out to fight much stronger Pokémon in order to train weaker Pokémon and didn't want to wear out his much stronger Pokémon. I would always fight my hardest, but to him, it wasn't good enough. He released me out into these mountains where I lived for a while." "Is that why you were nervous fighting the blue Pokémon with the scar?" Chompers asked. "Y-Yeah," Dunsparce replied. "I was nervous that you wouldn't like me if we lost." "I wouldn't think any less of you," Chompers said, kneeling down and rubbed the Dunsparce's head. "You were brave enough to stand up and say you'll help me fight." Dunsparce gave him a smile. "You can name me you know instead of calling me by Dunsparce all the time," Dunsparce said.

 

"A name?" Chompers blinked before closing his eyes and started to think. There was always the thing with the tail. "What do you do with your tail?" "My tail?" Dunsparce asked, looking at his tail. "Oh, you mean when I start drilling?" Drill, Drilling, Driller Chompers thought. "Driller," Chompers said. "I'll call you Driller." "Driller, huh?" Driller said. "I like it!"

 

----------------------------------

 

Zoey resisted the urge to smirk at the Shinx known as Nix. "Touché," Zoey said as Nix retorted at her question. "By the way, does he know anything about certain rules?" Why did she even bother? And why was she trying to weasel information out of them? It wasn't like her...unless, of course, she could trade Nix for that annoying little Tama she had locked up in a Pokeball.

Edited March 28, 2016 by Raptor of Dragons

[HomeForFlowers]

Garrett's ears flickered upward as Ev spoke to Anhew directly. Any fleeting doubts about her being a shifter were gone with the wind. There was no more reason to tip-toe over the issue and, frankly, Garrett was a little tired of pretending not to understand what was going on. She briefly glanced over at Jasper to see his reaction, but, much to her disappointment, he seemed as indifferent as ever. No doubt Jasper, like everyone else in the little group, had figured out that they were all shifters; whether he actually cared about the other shifters or not was another story entirely. Zoey had left a bad taste in both his and Garrett's mouth and she was the only shifter they had encountered in their travels and she did not leave a good impression. Though Garrett highly doubted Ev and Cass were anything like Zoey, Jasper's feelings on the matter were a completely different issue. He was the shifter and it was his choice if he wanted to work with others like him. So, instead of speaking up, Garrett gently pressed her side protectively into Anhew and looked up at Jasper as she waited for his response to the situation.

 

Jasper, who had only vaguely noted Garrett's intent stare, ran his fingers through his hair as he watched Cass perform a small fireshow for Ev. He frowned disapprovingly when Ev spoke for him but he made no motion to correct her. She was correct although Jasper would have preferred if he could speak for himself and not be spoken for by some stranger.

"So we're all caught up on the situation" Jasper said aloud as his eyes flickered from between Ev and Cass. "Good, it was getting annoying to try and ignore the obvious. Don't know about her, but I can transform as well." In an attempt to make his point, Jasper followed Cass's lead and outstretched his hand to show the flecks ice that began to form on his fingers. "That good enough for y'all?" Jasper asked as he shoved his hand back into his pocket and raised his eyebrows inquisitively at the other shifters.

[Kiran]

She stopped at Cassandra’s interruption, and hung her head. She’d really messed up, hadn’t she? All those attempts at hiding, and it had just made things more difficult. Out of embarrassment, or a simple desire to hide, she buried her face into her hands. A few tears leaked out of her eyes, but they were easy to hide. She inhaled deeply, forced her shoulders to relax, and let her fingertips fall along the curves of her eye sockets to massage her temples. The tears had been brushed away, and the movement masked well enough that someone wouldn’t notice unless they paid attention. Relax. She exhaled, and dropped her hands back to her waist. The momentary calm wouldn’t last, but it gave her a chance to think before looking up again. There was no point in lying anymore, but she still felt exposed. They weren’t in a great position for a private conversation, and she was careful to look around for any eavesdroppers before replying. “...Yeah, I can. Not that I, uh, really know how to do it on purpose, but, uh. Fletchinder.” Again, she glanced towards the nearby doors of the pokemon centre before whispering, “Isn’t there a better place for this, maybe?”

 

She couldn’t help but gasp as Cassandra lit a flame and Jasper let ice grown on his hand. They could do that? Would they expect her to do something similar? It didn’t look all that hard, but she'd never even attempted to use a move. To her surprise, it seemed like she knew which moves she had- but that was impossible, because there were six. It was such an odd set, too. Swords Dance, but no Roost? It looked like something cobbled together by someone who didn't know what they wanted.

 

It was tempting to spend more time analyzing the supposed moveset, but Jasper seemed to be expecting a response. Ev shifted nervously. She’d already proved that she could understand pokemon, so it wasn’t like she needed to use a move. On the other hand, wouldn't it make her look suspicious if she didn’t? Weak? At the very least, she’d stick out. It was better to try, then. She lifted an arm, and to her relief felt a light breeze. After a few seconds, she lowered her arm and the breeze stopped. She felt like she should have said something (there were more than enough questions to ask), but her throat constricted and she decided against it.

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Anhew's questions were even more confused as Ev responded to her. But her voice. It sounded darn right familiar. She then felt Sweet Voice press up against her once again. Anhew looked up when she heard the words transform and shifter. Transform and shifter. Those words seemed so familiar to her, but she couldn't place it. "Sweet Voice?" Anhew asked. "Does that mean I'm a shifter as well? I-I'm blind and I still can't remember anything." She pawed the ground in nervousness. "What's a Fletchinder?" Ev, Cass, and Grumpy was proving something. What were they trying to prove? "I-I'm still confused as ever." All of it was making her brain hurt trying to figure it all out.

 

"I'm a Deino...but I...I'm," Anhew concentrated, trying to think. "I'm...a shifter as well I think. I know of some rules: 'you will lose all memories, except of these rules, you will be granted special abilities to aid your quest, you win by remembering who you are and what you asked for. You will only start to remember when Team Helix’s research is destroyed.' Oh, is it because of these rules I don't know what's going on?" She looked to where she heard Cass's voice last. "I'm Anhew by the way." Anhew pawed the ground and thought for the first time she awoke. But those thoughts were interrupted by a gurgling noise coming from her stomach, which Anhew blushed in embarrassment.

[PureDark006]

((The parts where other characters were mentioned were written after asking what would they do. The scene with Z was written in collaboration with Pi))

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Laren truly considered himself lucky to have Anoma around to help. Heavens knew that if the Anorith hadn't reminded him he had told those women he'd meet them later by making a ruckus while pointing in the general direction of his house, he would have spent another extra two hours at work. Either case, all the Kabuto were healed, safe, and possibly swapping stories about their little unplanned adventure (Laren wondered if that would affect the group dynamic; maybe he should send Eury some help in managing all the little ones), so he had no reason to postpone the meeting any further. He had even taken some time to change out of his dirty clothes and into more presentable ones.

 

He had to say, one of the biggest advantages of being a Gym Leader was that he could get away with wearing the exact same thing all the time. Not having to pick which clothes to wear saved him a significant amount of time.

 

The elevator doors opened and he exited the inner room of the Gym. There at the entrance was the guy from before, not looking like he had been doing anything in particular. Laren was slightly impressed at that; if he himself were forced to stay somewhere without anything to do for more than five minutes, he'd probably end up covering every nearby surface in writing.

 

"Hello again, and sorry for the wait!" he said with a small wave.

"Hi, hi!" Anoma chirped.

"I'm not sure if I introduced myself before, so just in case, I'm Laren, the Gym Leader here. And this Anorith here is Anoma. Did you need anything?"

 

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"Electric move by the look of it," Rhapsody answered with a shrug. At least he remembered to keep his voice down in case the nurse or the clerk were paying attention. "And I didn't call you, I told you what was going on. Gal here says to leave them be until it passes, dunno if any of you had anything to add," he added, motioning his head towards the woman's direction.

 

"I'll be staying here," came Pooch's voice from inside the room, as her trainer went back to the spot he was occupying before he was sent to fetch Z.

 

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It took a while for Pooch to exit the room, announcing Z was feeling better. Rhapsody had nearly yelled something along the lines of 'friggin finally'; after the first few minutes he had started to pace around for lack of anything else to do and he had already been starting to consider the pros and cons of going off to explore the town (pro: he wouldn't have been bored out of his mind anymore; con: he might have gotten lost and hadn't been in the mood to ask strangers for directions). The gal from before had told them the Gym Leader wouldn't be around for a while, so they had headed to the mountains to 'practice their teamwork', and he made sure to ask Lambert what in heavens was a house and how the hell did doors open while walking there. He also remembered the man hadn't mentioned what his Pokémon form was; at first Rhapsody just wanted to see if he knew whatever species it was, but Lambert's complete refusal to answer piqued his curiosity and he didn't drop the subject until they reached their destination. Needless to say, he had fun with that ("Are you embarrassed because it's a Magikarp. What about a Sewaddle. Wait, I got it, it's a Diglett and you'll be sacrificed to their god if you reveal what you look like under the ground").

 

The training had surprisingly gone mostly well, as far as Rhapsody could tell. For some reason, he felt a great deal calmer in the caves and mountains, unlike that damn forest he was already tired and sick of. His good mood meant he didn't complain as much as he usually would have, for once making Lambert's life easier (he did aim an Earth Power at Gaes, but he'd only done it once. He could have been way more uncooperative, in his opinion). Towards the end of the training session, after the group decided to head back to the Gym Leader's house, he had gotten hungry, so he had left for a while to get himself some food. Z followed, and Pooch tagged along him to "make sure you don't get lost, since I can always sniff my way back". Now, the kid he could get, since they seemed reluctant to be left on their own, but he was pretty sure Pooch was there because she was hungry too and didn't want to say it out loud.

 

His point was proven when she ate his leftovers.

 

 

"Don't do that," Pooch scolded as he burped. Rhapsody looked at her straight in the eye, inhaled, and used all three of his Hydreigon heads to let out another one so loud there was an echo.

 

Pooch whined, fur bristled as she stopped to rub at her snout with a paw. "Why, thank you for forcing me to smell your horrible rotten breath for at least half an hour, that's just what I needed," she commented with as much sarcasm as possible as Rhapsody cackled. He earned a glare for that, which only amused him further.

 

She sharply exhaled, sounding like she sneezed as she resumed her trotting to catch up with the two shifters. "You're such a child sometimes," she grumbled under her breath.

 

"Don't make me do that again, because I will," he replied with a grin, making the dog roll her eyes.

 

"I'm a dog, Rhapsody, my sense of smell is worlds better than... wait, what's that?" Pooch stopped again, ears perking though her snout was still wrinkled because of her trainers' earlier prank.

 

Rhapsody stopped too, frowning as he stayed quiet. There was a faint sound growing louder and louder, sounding like a flock of bird Pokémon taking flight. Wings?

 

It didn't take long for Pooch's question to be answered, as a flock of blue bat Pokémon swarmed the tunnel, flying in circles around them while screeching. There were too many for Rhapsody to understand what they were saying, but he caught "intruders", "steal" and "food". Those words were enough for him to piece together what was probably happening.

 

"You two, on my back!" he shouted to be heard over the bats' screeching, landing. Pooch didn't hesitate to jump and bite on his shoulder fur to make sure she didn't fall.

 

Z, on the other hand, instinctively froze at the noise and only managed a quiet "what?" before the first of the bats arrived, shrieking as it tangled itself in the kid's hair. They staggered backward and shifted, shrinking out of the flying-type's reach, then swooped down to land in Rhapsody's fur next to Pooch. "Sorry," they gasped.

 

Rhapsody nodded and fired a Dark Pulse towards the ceiling. The bats flew out of the way, still screeching, as small pieces of rock and debris fell down on them. He had kept the move weak enough that none of the pieces were big enough to cause harm, as his goal had been to use that cleared path to go up, a column of water sprouting from the ground under him and following his flight. He didn't have much space for maneuvering, but as soon as he reached the ceiling and stopped, the water crashed down into a big wave that swept the bats and smacked them against the walls and ground.

 

Once the water disappeared, he flew down, growling at the wild Pokémon with his fangs bared. They seemed to get the hint, as the ones that weren't soaked and/or fainted quickly flew away.

 

Rhapsody huffed as he landed so Pooch and Z could climb down, his three heads held high. While he had complained a bit when he had to let Gaes ride him to practice using Surf in double battles without hurting her, now he was glad he had learned that his move wouldn't affect people or Pokémon that were on his back while he used it. "You two fine?" he asked, glancing at them.

 

"I'm, uh," Z replied, sounding slightly dazed, "well... I'm alive." They slid off Rhapsody's back and landed on a nearby rock, giving the closest fainted Pokemon a nervous look. "Must be a Zubat roost nearby."

 

Pooch jumped down too, suspiciously eyeing the closest puddle and stepping away from it. "A little warning next time would help… Wait, where are you going?" she added when she noticed her trainer had started to fly in the wrong direction as soon as they both answered.

 

"Those Pokémon thought we were going to take their food away. So now that we won, we'd disappoint them if we didn't collect it," he reasoned, flicking his tail.

 

The Houndour stared at his back with narrowed eyes and lowered ears. If she had hands, she would be smacking her forehead already. "Have you considered maybe you could, I don't know, leave them alone?"

"I can still eat more. Why not take the chance."

"Stop acting like- Wait." Pooch interrupted herself, raising her head and taking a few quick sniffs. "There's another Pokémon over there," she said, trotting a few meters forward, snout pointed at the place where the wall met the ground.

 

Now that she mentioned it, Rhapsody saw the ground there looked disturbed, as if something had dug a hole and covered it back up. Pooch took a few cautious steps, when suddenly the ground there caved, making her jump back while barking madly at the shifting ground. Something round and orange peeked out from the opened hole, small black eyes watching them behind a disproportionately huge jaw that reminded him of the one at the back of Gaes' head. Pooch continued her barking as the new Pokémon stepped out, bits of dirt falling of the tiny body.

 

"Oh, don't worry. I don't want to pick a fight," it said as it looked between Pooch and Rhapsody. By the voice, Rhapsody was guessing it was a female. “Are the three of you together?”

 

“Yes!” Pooch barked before Rhapsody could say anything. “Yes,” she repeated in a less urgent tone, clearing her throat. “We’re traveling together. Sorry to have bothered you,” she added, eyeing the now wet tunnel and the various soaked Zubats.

 

The other Pokémon blinked slowly, looking around and tilting her head. “I was underground. So no need to apologize.” She regarded the trio with a curious glance, tilting her massive head the other way. “I am not sure of the appropriate etiquette for this situation. So I’ll have to ask directly. Would it be possible for me to travel with you?”

 

Pooch couldn’t help the stare. She quickly glared at Rhapsody when he snickered at her bamboozled expression, though.

 

Recognizing the need for detail, the orange Pokémon opened her jaws again. “I lived in the side of this mountain until recently. A stronger Trapinch took my pit, so you could say I’m homeless at the moment. Joining a group would give me a better chance than being on my own. And you look diverse enough to consider it.”

 

Pooch lowered an ear, turning to questioningly glance at the two shifters. “You want a Pokémon?” Rhapsody asked Z, lowering his secondary heads.

 

The Porygon-Z, who had previously been staring at the Trapinch with interest, jumped and snapped to attention. "Wh - Uh. I, well..." They blinked at Rhapsody, then the Ground-type, then back again, looking increasingly confused with each change. A few seconds later, they settled on Rhapsody, hovering hesitantly. "I-I'm sorry. Was that... are... are you asking for my opinion?"

 

“No, I was asking Pooch if she wanted to catch a Pokémon since she's clearly the other human-like thing around,” he huffed in response, flicking his tail.

 

Z stared at him in disbelief for a second before shaking their head in resignation. "Ah. Well, since you've already said that... I was just, well - if I'd said no - uh, nevermind." They folded themself back into their perching position. "To answer, then..." They glanced away, as if they'd just remembered something highly unpleasant. "Not... particularly. I suppose."

 

Rhapsody blinked at Z’s expression, but didn’t mention it. Instead, he shrugged and turned to the Trapinch, ignoring Pooch’s pointed ‘you did not just imply you’re not a normal Pokémon in front of a complete stranger’ look. “Well, Z here doesn’t want to and I prefer only having my own types around, so better luck next time.”

 

The Trapinch hummed as if in thought, glancing at Z before looking at Rhapsody again. “Might you be a Dragon-type?”

“Yeah, so?”

“I’m a Ground-type as I am right now. But I gain the Dragon typing upon evolution. Would that be enough?”

“Do you?” Rhapsody frowned; he hadn’t seen the species before so he had no way of telling if that was accurate. Pooch was still giving him the stink eye, so he glanced questioningly at Z.

 

Z nodded distractedly in response. “Vibrava and Flygon. Ground and Dragon, if I’m remembering correctly.”

 

Rhapsody hmm’d, considering it. He did still have one empty Poké Ball. “Alright, you’re in. But if it turns out you lied just ‘cause you’re feeling lonely I’m having you for dinner. Understood?” he asked, baring his fangs for emphasis.

 

The Trapinch didn’t react to the display of aggression, walking up to them at a leisurely pace. “I understand.”

 

“Not exactly looking concerned there.”

 

The Ground-type tilted her head again. “I was not lying, and you implied that you would not follow your threat if I had said the truth. Then, why should I be worried?”

 

The Hydreigon had to snicker at that. “I like her already,” he commented to Z, nudging them with his tail.

 

Pooch sighed, resigning herself to the dragon’s latest whim. The only bright side she could see was that the new Pokémon didn’t look like a handful, and at least her impulsive trainer had forgotten about the Zubats now.

 

Rhapsody switched back to his human form, fishing the empty ball out of his pocket. “In you go,” he said, throwing it at the Trapinch. She went in with no problems, the ball rocking thrice before settling down for Rhapsody to pick up again.

 

“Can we go back now?” Pooch asked as she trotted back towards them.

“Yeah, yeah. Explain everything on the way back, won’t ya.”

“As if I have any other choice.”

 

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Rhapsody didn't know what he had expected a human house to be like, but this most definitely wasn't it.

 

The first floor had no inner walls, making it a single huge room with a staircase on one of the corners and a small kitchen in another one, the cabinets over the kitchen bursting with jars sporting labels like "Carnivore treats (sour)" among the more normal spices and food. There were a multitude of bookshelves against the walls and under the staircase, most of them full and the rest nearly reaching their limit, with books and trinkets that varied from small instruments like measuring tapes and rulers to miniature replicas of Fossil Pokémon skeletons and even what looked like a fossilized egg on one of the taller shelves. There were a couple of tables, sofas and chairs in strategic positions to get as much illumination as possible from the multiple windows. There was even a whiteboard in front of the biggest table, covered in chunks of writing that seemed to vary randomly, the dietary needs and recommended nutrition for Kabutos explained next to the average size and weight of female Aurorus which gave way to a very detailed sketch of part of the Relic Castle in Unova.

 

And every single available surface was covered in papers.

 

Piles of documents on the table and most part of the floor, stacks of files in front of the bookshelves and on top of the sofas, so many maps rolled up and stashed in boxes over the chairs one could use them to paper the walls if they hadn't already been covered by framed photos, sketches, and even more maps. To top it off, there were clumps of post-it notes everywhere, showing reminders and random thoughts, the 'longest' of which made of at least eleven yellow squares pasted to the door of the fridge, starting off as a grocery list before the small explanations next to the items grew larger and larger until it culminated with five post-it notes containing nothing but a rant about hydrogen peroxide.

 

Rhapsody, lacking the knowledge and vocabulary to adequately identify everything, could only describe it as 'stuff everywhere with more stuff over it'.

 

"Is this supposed to be normal?" he asked Lambert. Pooch was glancing at all the flammable material with a mixture of caution and horror, still not stepping inside the house, while the newest addition to his team, the Trapinch he had introduced to the group as Bugface, didn't hesitate in entering and curiously looking at the people already gathered inside.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Puredark006

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Chompers stood and stared at the Dig Site Driller suggested they go to. He felt nervous in his Tyrantrum form, something about this seemed vaguely familiar. "You okay boss?" Driller asked, looking up at him. "I'm fine," Chompers said, peering down at his new Pokémon. He still wasn't sure what had happened. He couldn't wrap his brain around it. "This Dig Site seems vaguely familiar somehow." "Maybe it has to do with...er...you know?" Driller sputtered nervously, choosing his words carefully. Chompers blinked before walking into the dig site. It was huge enough, but Chompers was careful to where he stepped. He didn't want to get in trouble with stepping on any bones that might be sticking out. He paused and bent down to dig to see something black in the dirt.

 

"What's that?" he asked, picking it up. "Uh..." Driller said, clicking his tongue. "I believe it's called an iron ball." "Is it a type of Pokeball?" Chompers asked. "I don't think so," Driller replied. "I'm not sure what it does. I only heard what I know when I was let out of my Pokeball." Chompers blinked before he wanted to keep it or discard it. Thinking it might have some value, he held it firmly in his claws. "What's that!?" Driller asked as he noticed some sort of purple cat staring wide eyed at Chompers. Chompers swung his head to look back at this purple cat. It was really tiny compared to him. Without saying anything, the purple cat turned and ran. "It couldn't have hurt us anyway," Chompers said before turning. He stopped and stared at a small blue Pokémon with two yellow sails fading into pink on top of its head and a diamond on it's body.

 

"An Amaura!" Chompers gasped as he dropped the Iron Ball in shock. He knew this Pokémon much like he knew the others. "I'm going to go talk to it!" Without hesitation, Chompers started walking up to the Amaura.

 

------------------------------------------------

 

Zoey looked around. This was a huge place! She had recognized it as a dig site. She couldn't wait to find stuff in this big place. She paused and looked up to see that huge Tyrantrum from earlier. "What's that!?" she heard before the Tyrantrum looked at her. Her eyes grew wide before she turned and ran, praying to Mew it won't chase her. Sighing out of relief, she started walking again. She stopped and scratched at the dirt to find something yellow poking out. Scratching at it more, she eventually pulled out a Nugget. Grinning to herself, she made no one else was around before turning human and stuffing the nugget in her pocket. "I'll save that for later," she hummed to herself before Tama's pokeball sounded and the little Litleo was standing there with the same annoying grin. "What do you want Tama?" Zoey asked, closing her eyes.

 

"It was stuffy in the ball," Tama said. Zoey rolled her eyes before walking again. She paused, noticing another yellow nugget stuck in the ground. She inhaled sharply. This one looked bigger then a regular nugget. "Tama, help me dig," Zoey said as she bent down and started digging the nugget out. "Okay!" Tama said, bouncing to the nugget and dug alongside his trainer. "Tama," Zoey said as they got the nugget out. "We hit the jackpot." Tama wagged his tail happily as he noticed his trainer happy for the first time they met. "I wonder how much it's worth," Tama said. "If we find the right buyer," Zoey said. "It could cost a lot." Tama sweat dropped as he could see the cash signs in Zoey's eyes.

[hazeh]

Cassandra nodded at Jasper when he made his display. He was either an ice-type or a water-type, though with his outfit she suspected he was that rabbit-eared egg Pokémon she'd seen walking around by the alleyway. She hadn't really intended to encourage the others to give a little show, since she really just wanted to make Evelyn feel better, but when the girl lifted her hand and a breeze of warm air filtered between them, Cass smiled. "Fletchinder are great Pokémon," she said, "I don't really remember, but I think before all of this I might have had one. And a Deerling." She laughed softly and flashed a smile down at Garrett, then added, "I'm a Pyroar."

 

She motioned toward the main doors of the Pokémon center. "You're right, Ev," Cass said, "Let's go inside. I should see what's taking Allison so long anyway." She paused for a moment when Anhew began to speak, and then chuckled and reached over to stroke the fur on the Deino's head. "It's very nice to meet you, Anhew. Would you like to come inside? Maybe we can find you some food."

 

The Joltik, who had been scurrying around Jasper's feet excitedly, squeaked, "Food! Time for food!" His yellow fur set off a series of tiny sparks as he raced past their small group and to the doors of the Pokémon center. With a brief jolt of electricity, the sliding doors stretched open and he darted inside.

 

 

Allison didn't react when the strange man guessed her Pokémon form. It wasn't a particularly difficult assessment, given her outfit, but what bothered her was that she couldn't figure out what he was. Not having an answer made her annoyed. Still, she didn't say anything about it, and only glanced at the woman who approached at the man's holler. Allison didn't miss the scrutiny and folded her arms in response. It seemed like these two could handle the twitching shifter child without her help, especially since they were both shifters as well.

 

She looked back at Z for a moment and watched them on the floor for a moment more. She wasn't needed here any longer. "Try to keep them out of excitable situations," she mentioned casually, turning for the door. "Unless you want to deal with more of those." However, before she left the room entirely, Allison glanced back inside. She didn't care much to tell them all about Laren's offer, but since they were shifters too, part of her felt compelled to share the information. "I met the town's gym leader earlier. He had some information on Team Helix and invited us to wait at his house," she said, "So I suppose that means you are also welcome." She gave a small shrug, and left.

 

Allison saw Cassandra at the counter chatting happily with a nurse-- whom Allison noticed was blushing whenever Cass smiled-- and rolled her eyes before placing herself directly in Cass's way. "Here's your bag," she interrupted, thrusting the small green backpack into the redhead's hands.

 

A look of surprise crossed her face for a moment, but Cass accepted the bag and questioned, "What was the hold up?"

 

The Joltik, who had been busy sucking away at the power in an electrical outlet (much to the dismay of one of the workers), skittered over the tiled floor and up Allison's leather pants. "We found more shifters!" he announced, and one of Allison's silver-white eyebrows arched in response.

 

"Apparently the same as you," she answered. "I came across some shifters in the back room." Allison decided not to divulge the specific details, because the last thing she wanted to do was follow Cassandra back to the panicking teenager and go through that entire mess again. If the girl Evelyn planned on accompanying them, Allison reasoned their party had met its anxious-child-quota for the journey.

 

----

 

"He said we could stay here until he gets back?"

 

"Yes."

 

"Unsupervised?"

 

"Yes, Cassandra."

 

"And eat his food? Sweet."

 

Allison sighed. They were already inside of Laren's house, and Cassandra was already raiding his fridge while she questioned her travel companion. Allison was leaning against the counter, watching as Cassandra pulled out the necessary items for a sandwich. Ham, tomatoes, mayonnaise, some arugula, and half a loaf of wheat bread. She wondered at Cass's ease of their circumstances and glanced at the other shifters that happened to show up at Laren's house. They were an interesting bunch, she supposed, but she made no move to engage in conversation. Unlike Cassandra, who introduced herself to everyone else and spoke to whomever cared enough to reply while she made food for anyone who wanted it.

 

Allison's gaze shifted to the massive explosion of paper that littered the house. Some notes she couldn't make out, because the haste in which they were scribbled made it nearly impossible for her to decipher. She moved through the main room, picking up some of the papers and reading what she could. Perhaps there was information written down that would be of some use; some of the things she read kindled a feeling of familiarity within her, though mostly this came from reports on evolutionary chemical analysis and data on the growth rate of newly resurrected fossil Pokémon versus those bred. Her fingers skimmed over a few graphs before landing on a well-used textbook on Pokémon behavior. Her hand stopped abruptly on its cover, and she stared down at it with shock evident on her face. She knew this book. She read it before, back--

 

A flash of frustration replaced the surprise in her expression. The memories were gone. A dark, impenetrable void filled the space where those memories had once resided. She flipped the cover up, hoping to see something else to jog her memories, but no matter which page she fell on, nothing definitive struck her. She nearly ripped through each page in search of that Eureka! moment, and then slammed the text shut with a disgusted sigh.

 

"You okay?"

 

Allison glanced over at Cass, who had stretched herself lazily over one of the previously unoccupied sofas. The redhead's bright blue eyes were fixated on Allison, and it took most of Allison's willpower not to roll her own at Cassandra's concern. "I'm fine," she muttered, moving away from the textbook. She sat herself on the arm of the sofa and leaned back against the wall the sofa was pushed against. "Not entirely thrilled about this situation," she said under her breath, but Cass caught it and frowned.

 

"Maybe it's best we stick together," she said gently, though not enough to provoke Allison's ire, "Who knows what this Team Helix is capable of." There was a brief pause, and then Cass laughed, "We could be a team, too, all of us shifters. Give Team Helix a run for its money."

 

Allison rolled her eyes.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Shiny Hazard Sign

[ValidEmotions]

Gaes wasn't amused by Rhapsody's remark but she chose not to comment. Shortly after her arrival, the strange woman left, adding a parting comment about Team Helix. Confused, she glanced at Rhapsody. "What's that all about?" she questioned. "Is she-" Gaes cut herself off, pursing her lips and humming faintly. What were the chances?

 

Large ones apparently.

 

Once Z had calmed down enough, the group vacated the Pokémon Center (with Gaes making a quick diversion to get Bree healed up). Lambert proposed training and while the Hydreigon wasn't too thrilled about "learning teamwork", Gaes didn't mind the chance to show off her skills. It felt good to battle but it felt even better to have people watching her perform. She didn't know how much time was spent on training (long enough to coax Rhapsody to try and hit her once) but Lambert eventually called it quits for the day.

 

A little dusty and scraped up but nowhere near battered, Gaes groaned as she stretched out her arms and back, hair brushing her shoulder. Reminded of its existence, she brought a hand up and followed its length until she felt a band made of hard fabric. "Weird..." she muttered, curious. "What is this?" Trying to tug it out, it was a few moments before she managed to pull the black band free, her hair falling against her back. "Oh! I think I know what this is!" Gaes exclaimed. "Band hair, right? No, wait. Hair elastic?" That still didn't sound right.

 

The words were on the tip of her tongue, she knew. Stretching it out, the band slipped from her fingers and flew a few feet to land in the dirt. "Whoops." Hurrying, she went and picked it up. "A hair tie!" she exclaimed, remembering the name. She smirked as she played with the thin band, stretching it repeatedly with the fingers of her right hand. A couple times, it landed in the dirt but she simply picked it back up. Eventually, she stopped playing with the hair tie as she started giggling.

 

She didn't know how to put her hair back up though. Fortunately, she discovered that the band remained nicely in place around her wrist. "Oh! Do you mind if I let Bree train too?" she asked Lambert. Rhapsody had gone off on his own with Z and Pooch, shortly after training. Reaching for the Spritzee's Pokéball on her belt, she clicked the button and released the pink Pokémon. Bree proceeded to shake out his feathers.

 

Since they sort of had to wait for the other three to return anyways, it was an ideal enough opportunity. Bree was strong enough to get through three battles; two bug-types and a flying-type. Though the others hadn't shown up just yet, Gaes didn't want to risk Bree getting into serious trouble from his weariness. The woman spotted Rhapsody as she was putting Bree back into his ball. Waving, she greeted them and Rhapsody made quick work at introducing her and Lambert to his newest tag-along.

 

It wasn't long after their return that everyone set out for the gym leader's house. It took some time, getting lost and asking for directions, before they reached the building. It looked similar to other houses outside but, within, Gaes frowned at the mess strewn about. "You'd think he'd pick up after himself if he invited guests over," she tsk'd. Eventually, others joined their group with similar intentions. Were all of them shifters?

 

Amazed by the growing number of shifters, Gaes almost missed the question about food. "Oh, me please!" she piped up as Cass offered. Introductions went around the room and Gaes added her name to the pot, offering the name of the Pokémon she could become. Unlike Rhapsody, however, she kept Bree in his Pokéball, letting the Spritzee rest until she could heal him.

 

"We could be a team, too, all of us shifters. Give Team Helix a run for its money."

 

For an unknown reason, Gaes felt... uneasy, with the prospect. "Are we going to prank them?" she asked.

 

~~~~

 

Rules? "You mean the gym rules? No," Nix snickered humorlessly. "My trainer doesn't know a thing about the gym rules in this region. It's why I'm hoping he's not planning on taking on the challenge right now," they commented. Shrugging, they laid back down, disinterested. "It doesn't matter though. He'll figure it out the hard way if he tries." The Purrloin didn't have much else to ask or comment about, heading down the elevator instead.

 

They waited. For the entire two hours. Nix grew bored but Emil seemed perfectly content to continue sitting there. At some point, the man did get up, only to stretch his legs at regular intervals. Sighing, the Shinx resolved to just napping. Curled up in the corner by the bench, they dozed until noise made their ears twitch.

 

Emil watched the elevator open and the dirt-covered man from before reappear. "Laren," Emil repeated, tugging his earlobe. "I'm Emil," he introduced as he stood. "I have questions about Team Helix and I was told you could answer them," he stated. "Do you have time to talk at length?"

Edited April 9, 2016 by Narvix

[PureDark006]

"You're already the third person today that's asked me about them, actually," Laren mused as Anoma made happy sounds at the trainer's Pokémon. "Have they done a publicity stunt or something? Someone from the E4 also asked me about them a while ago."

 

"Dailus! Dailus!" Anoma chirped.

 

"In any case, I told one of those people to wait for me at my house since they wanted to know more. Want to come? I'll answer any questions about Helix over there so I don't have to repeat myself," he added with a friendly smile.

[HomeForFlowers]

Satisfied that he proven his statement, Jasper wiped the flakes of ice off of his hand before folding his arms once more. He vaguely paid attention to Cassandra as she began speaking with Ev and Anhew. He figured if she wasn't talking about anything relating him or Helix, it wasn't worth paying attention to. Besides from Garrett cocking her head curiously when Cassandra claimed she was a Pyroar, Jasper only dully noted what the shifter was saying up until she mentioned food. A faint grumble from his stomach reminded Jasper that he hadn't eaten all day. After he had transformed back into a human, Jasper had grown considerably tired and found himself famished.

"Food sounds like a pretty good idea right now," Jasper commented as Cassandra stepped into the Pokemon Center. Jasper followed suit but, much to his dismay, found that both Cassandra was busy chatting away at the counter. "Is this how it's going to be from now on?" Jasper muttered to himself quietly as he backed up onto a wall and leaned on it.

"Oh quit whining," Garrett said as she marched into the building and stood beside her trainer. "It's been less than an hour, what's your problem?"

"I figured when Cass said, 'Let's go get food,' she meant we were going to get food, not that she was going to chat up the nurse."

"You're too impatient," Garrett argued with an irritated huff. "There's nothing wrong with stopping to talk to people for a few minutes. This won't end up like last time." Jasper stared down at Garrett briefly before looking up once more. Allison had reappeared and was talking to Cassandra. Jasper cursed his weakened hearing as he realized he couldn't hear a word they were saying from his position. If was an Azumarill, he'd be able to hear every word they were saying. Sighing dramatically, Jasper glanced back down at Garrett before dully saying, "I hope you're right."

 

--------------------------------------------

 

The trip to Laren's house was uneventful and the thought of waiting in his house until he arrived with a bunch of strangers was distasteful to say at the least. Jasper didn't bother interacting with the other shifters. He had laid down on one of the few couches Laren had in his house. Despite Garrett's rather annoying pleas, Jasper had refused to try and talk to buddy up with the other shifters. He didn't join the group to make friends and if he did end up befriending any of them, it would probably be a one-sided friendship since he couldn't see himself actually liking any of the other shifters. After unsuccessfully trying to convince Jasper to talk to others, she let out a frustrated growl.

"Didn't you say you were hungry?" Garrett asked. Jasper, who had both of his eyes closed, slowly opened up one of his eyes and looked at Garret. "Cassandra is making sandwiches," Garrett explained. "Why not go make some food with her?"

"No thanks," Jasper said as he closed his eye and turned away from Garrett. "I'll make my own sandwich later." Garrett puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.

"Now you're just being stubborn!" she snapped, ears flattened against her head. Deciding that she would have to take matters into her own hands, Garrett trotted away and Jasper and looked around for the other shifters. Cassandra had left the kitchen and was currently laying down on the sofa talking with Allison. Remembering how Cassandra had acted when she had first saw Garrett, figured she'd be willing to help with her dilemma. Talking to a human still felt incredibly odd, especially considering Cassandra could supposedly turn into a Pyroar, but her life was different now and she was just going to have to deal with it. "Ah, excuse me," Garrett said as she walked up to Cassandra, clearing her throat as she did so. "My trainer and I haven't eaten in a while and he's too... shy to get up and make something for himself. I'm too short and don't, uh, posses any hands to make a meal with. Would you mind helping me find something for us to eat? Oh, wait!" Garrett spun around and called over to Anhew. "Darling, have you eaten anything lately?"

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Anhew felt relief course through her when Cass stroked her head. All these new Pokémon names sounded really strange to her. Pyroar, Azumarill, Fletchinder, Deerling, Joltik. "S-Sure," Anhew said a bit nervous when Cass offered to go somewhere to eat. She followed Sweet Voice as soon as she heard her foot steps start clomping away and soon they entered the building they were in before; Anhew recognized it by scent. Odd how I can recognize stuff by sound and smell Anhew thought. I wonder if it has to do with my past. I'm still no closer to figuring out anything because no one is actually answering my questions! You would think one who just woke up and is blind would get some answers from other shifters who been at this longer. She sat close by Sweet Voice as she and Grumpy started bickering about waiting. Eventually, Cass and the other person- Allison- came up and they were off.

 

----------------------

 

The trip to the place where they were going to get food was uneventful, and Anhew sniffed around as soon as she got in. She kept hitting her head every now and then and felt frustrated for being blind. She started to feel nervous as the ones from earlier from the other building came straggling in. Pawing the floor, she made her way along a wall and settled in a corner. Something kept nagging at her though, and it then hit her that she had always been blind before this. That's why my other senses are really heightened Anhew thought. That's why I can make out the different tones in voices and the different footsteps. Grumpy walks like he does in his...Azumarill form. And that's why I could recognize Ev's voice. While it sounded it sharp in her Fletchinder form, it still held a bit of her voice. Ugh, thinking is starting to hurt my head. For a while, Anhew could hear Sweet Voice snapping at Grumpy, but it sounded distant to her. A few minutes later, Anhew jerked her head up. Her body and her mind felt exhausted. Did she fall asleep? "Huh?" Anhew asked as she scrambled up on her paws.

 

She stumbled for a moment, feeling disoriented before she processed what Sweet Voice said. "Uh, no," Anhew replied. "I haven't eaten since the Hissing Voice attack." She stumbled and hit her head on one of the couches. "Ow." Shaking it off she carefully made her way to Sweet Voice. "Does this place have any apples? I want some apples." There was one question bothering her. How did someone as nice as Sweet Voice end up with Jasper?

 

---------------------------------------------

 

After Zoey finally stuffed the huge nugget in her pocket, Tama was running around carrying something in his mouth. "Tama?" Zoey asked, raising an eyebrow. "I found this in the sand. "I can only carry one at a time though." Zoey took the item from Tama's mouth. "A leaf stone," Zoey said. "I'll hold onto this. You said you found two other items?" "Yeah," Tama said, leading Zoey to the two other items. One was a rock with icicles on it and the other was a plain looking rock. "Hmmm," Zoey hummed. "I'll hang onto these until I learn what they are." She looked at Tama. Maybe he wasn't as useless as she thought he was. "Come on Tama," Zoey said as she made her way back to the elevator. Both she and Tama went into the elevator and stopped at the lobby. She paused as Laren and the Meganium man still stood there.

 

Did the Meganium man stay here the entire two hours? She tried not to sigh as Tama noticed Nix. "Hi! My name is Tama!" Tama said, introducing himself. "My trainer over there is Zoey and she-" he paused, thinking about what the black dog said to him earlier. What was it that she said. People might try to hurt her if he goes on blabbing about how his trainer turning into a Purrloin? Tama cleared his throat. "Zoey is an amazing trainer," Tama finally added. Zoey raised an eyebrow. What just happened? "Hey, Laren," Zoey said. "How's it going?"

Edited April 10, 2016 by Raptor of Dragons