There is an old costume store in the middle of Mildew Lane entitled "Costumed Beauty". It is owned by old Donna Widow. She and a very slim few in the town of Eraldatu work there almost every day 12 hours (6 AM to 6 PM, breaks on holidays for almost every religion) Despite the small cast it is still a popular location throughout the town of Eraldatu. Job applications are always open, but some who apply don't always come out the same way they came in...


The protagonist of this story is Mathew. He was at the age of 24, was 5'11 ft tall and bisexual. He was white with hair brown like an otter. Physical appearances were the least of his worries at the moment. Right now he was here at the "Costumed Beauty" to apply for a job. He needed the money so he could pay rent and he recently got fired at his old job as janitor of a local theatre due to Insubordination. He hoped that the job here would be easier, or at least able to take no for an answer, and he'd get the money that he needed to pay of the rent. Mathew headed into the main office where he was told to wait by a secretary for the boss to come out. He waited one minute. Soon that minute became five. Then it became a half hour. Soon it became an whole ho-

"Excuse me..." said a voice that clearly came from an elder woman.

The man jumped from his chair and screamed. "Gah!"

That voice he had heard came from the owner and founder of the costumed beauty, Donna Widow. She was 67 years old and her hair was white as a little lambs woll. She wore a purple dress with a blue skirt and red glasses witch didn't cover up the beauty of her green eyes.

"Oh I'm sorry!" she said "I didn't mean to frighten you. I just wanted you to come in for the interview. I'm the owner of the store, you can call me Miss Widow."

Mathew sighed, "It's okay. I just didn't see you there. The name's Mathew."

The interview went very well, from Matthew's perspective anyways. He told the truth to almost every questions and those he lied about were the least important questions. He explained the reason he got fired from his last job and explained that he hopped that this company would be more forgiving of saying no. Of course he didn't want it to be to forgiving. Matthew wasn't applying for a job at a church or any religious place, and he was pretty sure it was just another ordinary job at a costume store. Regardless, he wouldn't hear back from the owner until tomorrow morning. Until then his fate would be unknown...


The telephone rang at 5:45 that morning. "Hello? Is Matthew home?"

Matthew, still moderately tired, picked up the phone "Yawn,what is it."

"Congratulations!" said Donna at the other end of the line "We enjoyed your interview and found the perfect job for you. Come down to the main office immediately to discover what it is."

Matthew got a sudden burst of energy and drove his Lamborghini to the store as fast as he could. He arrived by 6 AM, the usual time the store had opened, and headed to the main office like Donna said. She was already there and began to explain the job.

"I enjoyed your interview." she started. "It was very convincing and I think with that kind of attitude you'd be a great worker here. Right now though," she paused for a brief moment "I need you for something that's more important to me anyways. Business is going down recently and we need someone to advertise it. Do you think you could wear a mascot suit and head around town advertising this store, & if you think you can do you want to?"

Matthew thought that was a weird question, but he really needed the money so his only response was yes. Most people don't want to get fired on the first day of the job, and especially if they have rent to pay.

"Could I see the costume?" he asked.


To Matthew, the costume was familiar. It was Lucario from the Pokemon series. Upon seeing this wonderful costume, he couldn't help but smile. It's not because Lucario was Matthew's favorite Pokemon, (It was Pikachu, the overrated rat) but it certainly was in his top 10. Plus "Lucario and the mystery of Mew" was the first movie he and his family had watched together. No time for childhood memory flash backs though it was time to put on the costume.

"So what's the first step on putting this baby on?" Matthew Queried.

The old lady smiled. "First you'll need to put on the bodysuit. The legs are already connected to the body so you don't need to worry about putting them on separately."

Matthew did as the woman said. It took 2 minutes to get comfortable but he soon adapted. "So what's next?"

"Next," Donna continued "You need to put the head on, but slowly. Put it on to fast and you'll get an infection."

"Really?" sarcastically inquired Matthew. "An infection? HA! I highly doubt that will happen." Despite those remarks though, he put it slowly like she said because he didn't want to get fired. He noticed 2 straps and connected them together making sure that his head wouldn't fall off. Soon in a muffled voice he said "All right, what's the last step."

"Just let me put the arms on dearie." She did just that It took no more than a minute and she even tucked the arms into the sleeves. It was a really nice thing of her to do. "Tell me when the feel comfortable."

"They feel comfortable now!" said Matthew, now fully dressed in a Lucario's attire.

He looked in a nearby mirror. He could barley see himself and yet at the same time he knew he looked good. It even had the spikes location where they would be on an actual Lucario. It's clear that this company put pride into what costumes they put up for sale.

"Glad to see you like it." Donna spoke then added "However, if we just send you out without any sort of knowledge that your'e supporting 'Costume Beauty' then your'e gonna need to show it. Here, hold on to this sign."

The sign had a picture of one cartoon cat head and cartoon one dog head. Underneath it were the words "Come down Costume Beauty" in the font of Arial and they were navy blue. Donna placed it on the paw of the Lucario suit but if fell over.

"This may take a little while" they both thought.


It took a couple of minutes but soon the sign got into and stayed on the paw. And after that Matthew, dressed as a Lucario, would go around town at an assigned route to advertise the store known as "Costumed Beauty". But before he could go said something out of the blue. "You can walk and you can't talk but only when your'e off the block."

"Will there be punishments if I do talk" asked the mascot.

"What?" she responded "Oh! I'm sorry, again. It's just that I'm listening to this new song called 'Off the Block.' You can to talk if you wanna. I'll never know."

And so he finally got started walking. It was a super long and sweaty (but also circular) route. He saw all sorts of locations like Gina's Grilled Cheese, Harry's Haircut, Walmart, even went past the mayors office. He could barley make out any of them of course, the head did have limited vision after all. He could only see through the eyes with a little bit of the nostrils and even then the eyes most visible part were the irises.

The costume was starting heat. So he headed into an alleyway that was not part of the route but not to far from it that he'd lose his way. He figured he'd take his head off there and take a little rest...but the head wouldn't budge. He tried pulling on it and pulling on it and pulling on it, but it wouldn't come off. He tried removing the arms, but he couldn't reach the sleeves. He was starting to get worried. What if he was stuck like this? Since there wasn't a mouth, would he die of starvation? What will think?

At that moment her voice came from somewhere. "Mathew, are you there?"

The man was confused. " ?" he asked "Where are you?"

"Oh I forgot to mention!" she then explained how she could take to him "There's a walkie talkie hidden within the spike of the body suit. I put it there so we could communicate to each other even when we were far away. I just didn't say anything because I didn't want you to get scared. But your head's stuck?"

"Yeah." replied Mathew. "I don't get it. I should be able to take it off even with the paws on...right?"

"Don't worry! Me and your fellow co-workers will get you out of there as soon as your'e done. We'll also assign you a new job too. I'll just have someone else wear that suit instead. But you still need to Finnish your walk before we can do any of that. You think you can handle that?"

"I'm sweating like a dog in the Savannah...then again at least I'm not freezing to death. I think I can handle it, just tell me the quickest way back. I'm at the alley next Great Hill"

"The quickest way back is if you continue the pathway you headed. Head back there right away. Do you remember which way to go after that?"

"Yeah I do. Keep heading straight then turn right at and friends magic store and another right at Best Buy after that keep heading straight until you reach Marigold Street. After that head left."

"Then you'll be there in about 5-10 minutes."

"Thanks! I'll be back as soon as I cario"

Donna was confused. "...Soon as you what?"

"Heh,heh" chuckled Mathew "Just a little pun about Lucario. Get it? I replaced 'can' with 'cario' which is short for-"

"JUST HEAD BACK!" yelled the annoyed 67 year old lady

"G-Got it!" said the mascot.


Little did he realize the moment he made that terrible his body would undergo severe changes. You see, the body of the suit was merging with his own body. His stomach and the suits stomach were now the average weight of a real Lucario and his abs were covered with yellow fur all the way down to where the start of the pants began. The spike on his chest became a real one. and the walkie talkie inside it had vanished out of existence.

As Mathews body was changing so were his memories. Memories of a happy childhood were replaced with a happy Riolu stage (Riolu Lucario's Pre-Evolution) Of course Mathew was unaware of this, he was just trying to get back to the costume store so he could finally get rid this stupid...what was he trying to remove again?

While he trying to remember why he was running towards the costume store part 2 of his transformation began. The pants and legs. The thigh took on a shape similar to a frog but instead of webbed feet they became 3 toed feet. The toes were bigger than a humans toe but smaller that a rinos and appeared to be similar to a dogs.

He soon remembered the reason he was heading back to the costume store, He was trying to remove...a stain that was on his left arm spike. It had gotten there when he was advertising the costumed beauty. That was were his trainer, named Donna Widow, worked at. Not only did she work there, she was the one who had owned it. She told him to run around town carrying a sign with him, but the sign appeared to have gotten lost. Now there was a gigantic ketchup stain that had just appeared there and he couldn't wipe it off.

Speaking of arms guess what were becoming part of the body now? You guessed it, The Arms. Starting with the spikes on both arms, they transformed into real steel, similar like the one in the center. And even more similar the center though his became blue with black at the edges, the same color then came to his legs. that they were but also got thinner and buffer. After that was done a tail started to grow from over the ram hole. It was straight until around the end point where it began to head downwards. His terrible vision was replaced with a perfect one due the eyes that he had known became one with the eyes of the costume. Infact his entire face resembled one of a Lucario, if it weren't for one very noticeable difference: The mouth. There was no mouth on the original costume, only a painted one. This mouth was moveable and could easily function like his orignal. But all memories of the old mouth were replaced. He was no longer Mathew the human after all, he was Mathew the Lucario. And he could finally see his destination.


As the Steel-Fighting type Pokemon finally arrived at the "Costumed Beauty" the elder lady was happy to see him.

"There you are Mathew!" Donna said "I was wondering when you'd get back. I've been waiting 5 minutes now."

"Lu-Lucario! Lucario Lucario "Lu Lucar Lucario Lucar" Lucario? LUUUU Lucario." said Mathew. Which meant:Mrs. ! You know how you said "Stay away from ketchup" right? WELLLLL, I couldn't resit.

"Oh?" said Donna, not surprised. "You've got a ketchup mark on your spike? This is the 3rd time this week. If you weren't so adorable I'd put you in the time out corner. Here I'll wash it off."

"Lucari. Lucario rio" (I'm sorry. It won't happen again.)

And so Mathew spent the rest of his life working at the costume stand with his trainer, Donna. Too most of the workers pretty boring since she never got joined a pokemon league or contest but it was clear that she enjoyed doing it. So Mathew did what his trainer had done and tried to enjoy working at this costume stop too. He always did what his trainer asked and never said no. As such he got the No-Insubordination badge on his 6th day of work. He still goes around town occasionally and advertises the costume shop, and some times people come to her store. The important thing is, Donna is no longer poor and Mathew doesn't have to worry about paying rent since Pokemon don't do that.