Chapter II: Change
Leo Hanson stood in the middle of Treasure Town, glancing at his watch every minute or so.
"They'll get here when they get here," Sally said with a smirk, grabbing his wrist to cover up the watch. "Excited as a schoolboy, as the saying goes."
"You should talk," he returned, observing his mate was fidgeting herself.
"Touché."
"We might not have the time quite synced with this world yet," Ticonamo said after another moment, sighing as he turned about and taking in the town and its inhabitants…most of which were standing around them in anticipation with more joining by the second. "What is it you said, twenty-four and a quarter hours per day here?"
Leo nodded, just getting slightly nervous with the number of Pokémon around. He never was that comfortable in a crowd, but apparently the opening of a dimensional portal from Earth was a big event. And since they (meaning his swampert counterpart, Blaze and Grovyle) told everyone that morning what was going to happen, the town's Pokémon of course had to gather around, along with the Guild's Pokémon arriving shortly before, including the head, Wigglytuff.
But they were late.
As Sally leaned up against him and he wrapped an arm around her, he idly watched his counterpart. The swampert also seemed slightly nervous. Well, it was his 'girlfriend' and their kid who were arriving along with Christina. Definitely nervous…yet he seemed to be scanning the crowd, as if looking for someone.
Leo wanted to find the clefable, but she didn't appear to be around. She hadn't even been at Spinda's Café that morning.
"I just don't see her anywhere," Blaze said shortly in joining him along with Grovyle who was shaking his head.
He was about to ask if they should look out of town next, but it was something for later as an "Ooo" around them brought their attention to the area where the portal was supposed to open. Indeed, a grayish ball was forming, though several meters from where Ticonamo thought it would be. Apparently they hadn't gotten the precision down as much as they thought.
Within seconds, the ball solidified with defined edges to it, a slight breeze emanating from it's vicinity.
"Portal successfully formed," Ticonamo said into a small, black radio he was wearing on his front as Pokémon crowded around all of them in an effort to get a better look. "They're good to go, George." Then to him, his human self and Sally: "About two minutes."
Two minutes, then he'll see Lonny for the first time in six months, and his son for the very first time.
He nearly gulped on some water that spontaneously leaked in his mouth.
Yep, he was nervous. Would Chip even like him?
"Don't worry Leo, I just know he'll like you," Blaze said.
Somehow his partner always knew what he was thinking and what to say, bringing a slight smile to him.
"Exciting moment," Chatot said, with a slight flap of one of his multi-colored wings as he settled down beside them.
"Uh, yeah, certainly that," Leo replied, not quite able to hide his nervousness from his tone. Was his back fin shaking?
Pointing with his wing to the trio of humans beside them, "I mean, yet another human to visit us. And I can't wait to meet this Lonny swampert I've heard about."
"She does sound interesting," Wigglytuff added in a sing-song voice. "Wonder if she'll like Perfect apples."
He just hoped she wouldn't embarrass him. He never did reveal all the details of their first meeting to any of the Pokémon around them…
"What was that?" Grovyle suddenly asked quietly from behind.
Leo looked in sync with Blaze to where the gecko-like Pokémon had his gaze fixed on a nearby totem pole of various Pokémon heads…which seemed utterly ordinary.
"What was what?" Blaze asked, cocking his head somewhat.
Grovyle didn't answer for several seconds before shaking his own head. "I…thought I saw a dark…"
"Hey!" came a sharp, almost ear-splitting shout from Loudred. "There's someone…"
"I see…it?" Chatot said, uncertainty in his voice, before Loudred, Corphish and the ursaring dual took after something that had apparently moved behind one of the houses.
Leo finally saw it too as it came from out from behind, with "it" being a moving, dark shadow. A shadow with an eerily familiar shape as it raced from behind another building to half-way around the crowd, the ursarings in very hot teeth-bared pursuit, then moving toward the other end of town an apparent attempt to elude everyone.
"It can't be…" Blaze said, open mouthed.
"What's going on?" Sally asked with an urgent tone.
Loudred and the others soon had the shadow caught between them and many of the other Pokémon. And now that it was out in the open, there was no mistaking the black floating form and the tuff of white hair covering one eye.
"Darkrai," Leo breathed.
"What is he doing here?" Chatot said, both fear and incredulity in his voice.
"Let me be!" Darkrai demanded, clear warning in his low, slightly growly voice.
"You have a lot of nerve showing up here!" Loudred shouted back at ear-splitting level, to the cheers of many of the others.
"Why are you all against me?"
"Get out of here!" Corphish yelled, waving a claw in a direction that was clearly out of town.
An instant later, someone fired off a lightning bolt…which was all the incentive others needed to start attacking the dark being!
Darkrai responded by dodging and ripping off a dark pulse, draping the ground with pure dark energy and causing many Pokémon to fall.
Before Leo could do anything, Grovyle shoved past Wigglytuff and over Chatot, one of his wrist blades glowing. He really didn't feel much concern as Darkrai released a shadow ball, knowing it would be dodged by Grovyle's superior agility. The green gecko Pokémon did of course dodge, but then in horror…he realized it's trajectory as the dark nebulous ball sailed wide of him and Blaze, and toward…
All three humans and Chatot gasped together as the ball hit the portal and entered.
"Is that…" Wigglytuff started to ask before Darkrai screamed behind them.
Leo spared only a fleeting glance as Grovyle, together with Loudred and the ursarings knocked the dark being down and pinned him, instead facing the portal as his heart pounded in his chest as the seconds past…
…with nothing seemingly happening?
Then…a blonde-haired human female finally emerged from the portal…holding one blue and white mudkip. Feeling himself breathe again, he sighed at the sight of them appearing unhurt.
And that mudkip…he must be…
"Where's Lonny?" Blaze asked.
He didn't have to translate, since Ticonamo asked the same thing in human speak.
"She's right behind me, I think," Christina replied, sounding unsettled. "But, is that supposed to happen?" jabbing a thumb back toward the grey dimensional opening. "A dark ball, looked like a shadow ball I think, whizzed past me! I think it grazed me," as she looked down to her bare left arm.
Leo listened to his human self quickly explain what just happened, his concern rapidly growing as the seconds ticked past without Lonny coming out.
"This doesn't feel right," Chatot said, flapping his wings to lift up and fly toward the portal, eventually hovering over it. "Wait, I think she's arriving!"
"Thank good…" Leo started in reply as Lonny's shape started emerging…
It was immediately evident something was seriously wrong. Her shape didn't resemble that of a swampert at all, and as she fully came out, it was more like that of…
"A human?" Blaze screeched.
Human-shaped without doubt, Leo realized in horror. Yet, she was a light blue/white in the correct pattern for a swampert, along with some small head fins! She was also naked, proving how many female human attributes she had as well.
Looking dazed and stunned, Lonny stood shakily on the solid ground in front of the portal with no one moving toward her. Slowly, unsteadily, she looked down as she raised a shaky arm. "Four fingers?" she said softly…before closing her eyes and collapsing to the ground.
Feeling his heart leap into his mouth, Leo rushed to her with Blaze right behind. "Lonny!" The next few moments passed in a blur, Pokémon crowding around, Ticonamo shouting something about "Pokémon down," into the radio, Christina shaking Lonny in a futile attempt to awaken her.
Eventually, he acknowledged Sally and his human self in their advice to carry her to their house, and together with his counterpart, they did so. Not long after getting the former swampert inside, Sally wrapped the naked human in a blanket…
Leo Hanson was frozen in shock. Obviously he was familiar with how he (or rather his other self from the Future That No Longer Exists) became a Pokémon. It was an unique event from what he knew. He'd also never heard of the opposite occurring.
First thing he wanted to do was ask the other Pokémon around if they knew anything, but his swampert counterpart seemed too much in shock himself to have been translating at that moment.
But as the (former) swampert collapsed, he had to force himself to move behind Leo to try and help…whatever it was that he could do. Yet a stray thought as he looked down on the unconscious being had him wondering just how many of the Pokémon had ever seen a human female without clothes before, Kangason's accidental look at Sally when she was in the shower that one time notwithstanding. Although Lonny certainly had all the essential human features…the swampert's transformation didn't look complete…
So…what the heck happened?
Let's see, his counterpart said his change occurred after taking an erect attack from Darkrai while traveling through time. Lonny got hit while inside the dimensional portal...and the darkrai's attack had entered the portal…. The same attack, maybe?
Did it matter?
After quickly suggesting to take her to his and Sally's house and put in bed, his mind continued to swim as he helped carry the new human. Perhaps the how wasn't so important at that point; what he really was worrying about was if she was going to survive.
Dipping the washcloth in the basin of water, he hurried to where they had laid Lonny on the bed in their bedroom and put the cool cloth on her forehead. She wasn't stirring. She was breathing, and after placing a couple fingers on her neck, Sally announced after a tense moment her heartbeat seemed to be strong and steady.
"Maybe she just needs rest?" Christina said quietly with a hopeful note but with a tear on her face, finally releasing the struggling mudkip from her arms so that it could stand on floor near the bed. "Don't wake her!" she told the small Pokémon.
"Mud…kip," the poor thing replied sadly, tears running down it's own face much more freely.
Sally sighed, getting up slowly after hesitating. "Come on, let's go to the other room."
Leo followed his counterpart, Blaze, Grovyle, Christina, Ticonamo and Sally out. In the main room, the pink Guildmaster Wigglytuff apparently had let himself in and been waiting quietly by himself.
"Wigg wigg won?"
"She's sleeping," Sally answered, apparently guessing the question.
"My Lonny…a…human now?" Christina asked, leaning against one of the thick posts holding up the roof before gradually sliding down it to the rug-covered floor. "How is this possible? This can't happen!"
Oh…what could he do or say, Leo wondered. Looking to his counterpart, he seemed still stunned himself while Blaze and Grovyle were merely standing beside him, not even talking between themselves in exchanging glances with Wigglytuff.
By Christina, Sally kneeled down as Ticonamo settled himself down on one of the cut-log stools near both of them, placing his face in his hands. "Leo…was this how you became a Pokémon?"
Leo barely heard the question, only eventually noticing Ticonamo and his human self staring at him when it registered a moment later. "I…don't remember it happening, but it was from an attack. Darkrai never said what."
Lonny…his poor mate! What was he supposed to do? This also wasn't exactly the circumstances under which he thought he'd be meeting his son for the first time either. Presently, the poor little mudkip was in the bedroom, crying his eyes out.
"That damned Darkrai," Blaze mumbled in agitation, finding a corner to sit in, red skinned face braced on his yellow-haired knees. "Why did he have to come here…and at that particular moment?"
Anger came over him in an instant. "First he changed me, and now he did the reverse to her." Balling his three fingers into a fist: "I'm going to find him!"
"He's being held at the Guild," Wigglytuff provided. "We should all go and talk to him."
"I'm going to do more than talk!" Leo shot back. "I'm going to make him change her back!" Unfortunately Darkrai had already admitted about three years prior during their showdown in Dark Crater that he didn't know how he made him into a Pokémon in the first place, but given that the same type of thing has now happened twice, he sure as hell wasn't going to accept that anymore. One way or another, that damned creature was going to undo what he did!
While following Wigglytuff back to the Guild though, he began to rethink at least a few things he planned on saying. If Darkrai was still truly suffering from his own loss of memory due to Palkia's attack on him, it would probably be in everyone's best interest if he didn't bring up past events.
Damn. How he would dearly love to pay him back for all accursed things he had done, not just to him, but to everyone who was affected by his selfish actions. Then again, if it wasn't for all those events, he would still be human and probably never have met his best friend and partner. There'd still be only one of him, living on Earth, with never a change in timelines.
Walking beside him in a slightly more-upright-than-usual gate, Blaze's long red and yellow mane was puffed and his red face scowled up in clear anger. Grovyle seemed a little calmer, though he was staring straight ahead in a no nonsense, business-like manner, his long head leaf moving very little behind him as he walked.
Once on top of the small hill the Guild was located on, the pink and white Guildmaster led them down the ladder/steps to the first level, where in one corner what looked like all the Guild's Pokémon and more were keeping Darkrai surrounded. No one was saying anything, save for a mumble from the later. And for the second time that morning, his heart skipped a beat on seeing the dark Pokémon who had caused everyone, but especially him and Blaze, so much grief.
After the others parted to let them through, the Guildmaster seemed about to say something, but hesitated before whirling around and stepping aside, gesturing for him, Blaze and Grovyle to approach.
Leo knew he was glaring as he moved to stand just in front of the normally floating black Pokémon, almost wondering why with all his power, he wasn't struggling. Perhaps all of this was a trick? Still, even he wouldn't stand much of a chance against everyone present. He stared hard into the Pokémon's one uncovered eye for a long moment, then angrily: "Why did you do it?"
"Do what, exactly?" Darkrai replied in his low, smooth voice.
He'd expected a defiant answer or a laugh or something similar. Certainly not the uncharacteristically calm and soft answer, or question rather, he just got. "Change Lonny…the swampert, into a human?"
Darkrai widened his eye a little. "I was defending myself. I made a shadow ball. It happened to hit…that…whatever it was. A dimensional portal someone mentioned?"
Someone got smacked, Loudred letting out an "Ow! Hey, I didn't say anything that wasn't already…"
Leo bit his lip in holding back what he badly wanted to say, about this being the second time he had done something like that. Glancing at his partners, he had to make sure they didn't say anything relating to the past either despite knowing them well enough to know they wouldn't.
Drawing up close, "You expect us to believe that?" Blaze shouted. "You had better undo what you just did!"
On the other side of him, Grovyle started scowling as both his leaf blades began glowing with energy.
"I don't know how it happened, much less how to undo it," Darkrai replied, eye firmly on the grass-type.
Rumblings came from the Guild's Pokémon, with Loudred taking a step forward as Wigglytuff stopped him with an outstretched arm. "Why did you even come here?" he blurted out instead.
So sudden was Darkrai's turn of his head toward the Pokémon, that everyone jumped. "For as long as I can remember, which isn't all that long, I've heard rumors that I am a bad Pokémon. Always my name is mentioned with bad things that happened in the past, and in connection with the three of you!"
Leo refused to back up as Darkrai pointed to him, Blaze and Grovyle, despite feeling unease with their old adversary's sudden agitation.
"I decided to get some answers, and so had a mission set up so I could finally observe you myself, in secret."
"YOU set up the mission to find that ring?" Blaze shouted.
"That ring never existed then," Grovyle said, his leaf blades still glowing. "And you were the shadow I thought I kept seeing, and the cause of the nightmares we all had."
So Darkrai was the cause of all that, Leo thought. His suspicion was right!
"I watched you, hoping for some clues to my past. The nightmares were unintentional. Since I didn't obtain any answers, I followed you here. I didn't intend to get caught…or to have to fight."
Leo very badly didn't want to believe him. He wanted to believe all this was fully intentional, fully evil, so he would have an excuse to pummel the dark-type Pokémon. But if Darkrai's actions were truly accidental with no intent of harm, could he in all good conscience 'take him out'? Certainly his past actions gave him more than enough excuse, except for the pesky fact this Pokémon had no memory of what he had done. Without knowing why he was being punished, most of the satisfaction would be taken out of such an act.
Corphish snorted, clicking his two red claws together. "Yeah, well let me help you remember then…"
"Corphish!" Wigglytuff shouted in a manner threatening his sonic voice. "Let the past stay in the past. This may be hard, but from this point forward, let us treat each other with respect and leave it at that." Then in sing-song: "Starting now, the slate is clean…"
In staring at the Guildmaster, Leo admired him in stunned silence for his willingness to forget that this one Pokémon very nearly locked their world in eternal darkness and destroyed Earth (in his timeline, he actually succeeded). Yet…maybe…it was time for such. If not killing him, what good would any punishment do, short of creating a new enemy?
As Wigglytuff looked at him, Blaze and Grovyle, he added: "…except for the current event, of course. The decision on what to do must come from the one affected: Lonny." Then with a half-smile: "…and Leo."
Leo grimaced. Of course, he would know about his relationship with her.
"Do you want to beat him up here or outside?" Blaze asked, his mane puffing greatly and tail whipping.
Grovyle's leaves started losing their glow however, as he folded his arms.
Looking around the room, there was a mixture of expressions, ranging from anger to sadness.
After a long look at Darkrai, who still had an irritating calmness about him, he finally faced Wigglytuff again. "Let him go. I'll accept it was an accident, one that we set in motion." Silence as he backed away, leaving Grovyle and a stunned looking Blaze still in front of the dark Pokémon. "Blaze, Grovyle, we need to let him go," he repeated in a calm voice.
Loudred's mouth was gaping long before anything came out. "What…how…"
"Wigglytuff is right. Someone has to be the first to forgive. Of course, if there's any way Lonny's transformation can be reversed, I expect you to do it," directing the last sentence to Darkrai.
The dark floating Pokémon looked nonplussed, but eventually nodded. "If I discover how to undo it, I will. For what it's worth, you have my word." Then taking advantage of the clearing path, he floated slowly past everyone and to the opening leading up and out.
"Well, I think you did the right thing Leo," Sunflora said, giving him a pat on the back.
About half the others agreed, the remainder…
"I would've still socked him…" Corphish said. "…and then forgiven him. It'd be the least I could do! It was because of him your existence was almost erased, Leo!"
Admittedly, it took every shred of reasoning to even half convince himself that the Darkrai who did that no longer existed…
"Well, I guess you did right," Blaze said with not quite complete-sounding certainty as the three of them left the guild under the glare of the late-morning sun. "But because of what he did, he took you from me for many months. I still have a hard time getting over that." The infernape sighed, sagging a little in his gate and his mane fully deflating to hang limp down his back. "Still, revenge isn't really the answer, I suppose."
"No, it only continues the cycle of violence," Grovyle added. "So it is on Earth among humans…and many Pokémon. Very brave of you Leo to not fall into that trap. Nothing less than I'd expect, of course, knowing you. Both versions of you, and you too Blaze."
Leo glanced over to find his green partner half smiling, before nearly tripping on some branch that fell over part of the path, presumably from last night's wind.
Blaze leapt over it in a monkey-like fashion before turning and throwing it out of the way. "Wonder if Lonny's awake."
"How long were you out after your transformation, Leo?" Grovyle asked.
Really, he hadn't a clue. How long had he been laying on that beach after becoming a mudkip?
Mudkip…
His eyes shot open, realizing he had forgotten all about Chip for a while when he shot off to deal with Darkrai. In fact, he hadn't even said 'Hi' yet! Oh…what the hell was he going to tell him?
Overhead, a wingull floating on the breeze had the audacity to shout out a "Lovely day!" down to them. It took all his control to not shout back a "Stick it!"
Leo Hanson followed Sally into their bedroom to pick up Chip and hand the limp but no longer crying mudkip to her. They figured the poor little guy could use some food and water by now, and probably a whole lot of comforting.
"What a way to meet for the first time," saying quietly as his wife turned to leave. Silently, he looked down at his counterpart's still sleeping mate, her breathing deep and slow. Half covered by a blanket, her new human female form was still easy to see, but there were definite reminders of her previous form.
Her skin color was the most obvious, being blue and white in the pattern of a swampert, although the blue was much lighter, like halfway between white-skinned human and swampert blue, and the white being the same, but more stark. On her head were two diminutive purple fins, rising from above her eyes at mid-forehead to perhaps three inches at their highest point on top. And from an earlier look, he'd seen a similar fin remnant stretching from her mid-back to near her tailbone, being more like a raised ridge along her spine rather than a fin. Probably would be painful to lay on if she ever laid on a hard surface. Further features included her checks, which had what he was sure were remnants of the spiky swampert gills, reduced to just some light hue of green colored patches and barely noticeable swellings were the points would be.
Although he worried about her internal organs and how they were working, it wasn't her physical form he most worried about, it was her mental. After his counterpart's transformation, he had lost his memory nearly completely. Would Lonny remember anything? Or would her personality be altered? Or something else, more subtle?
"Come on," Sally hissed, looking in through the partly open door, still holding the limp mudkip, who was staring blankly at his mother.
After adjusting the curtains to block out a little more light from the window, he left, shutting the house's sole interior door as quietly as he could, not quite defeating the squeak of the hinge. Then, he tried to help Sally and Christina get Chip to eat something. It was a challenge; he didn't want anything, but did seem to like Sally's touch enough to not want to be let go.
"He likes you," Christina said, like one who was drained of emotion. She was looking rather fatigued, which was entirely understandable, especially considering she, Lonny and Chip had left in the evening to arrive on the Poké world during the day.
Sally smiled weakly while stroking his blue skin down his back. "Don't worry, your mother will be fine. We'll take care of her and you."
Christina took some offered Poké food from Ticonamo to hold it in front of the mudkip's face, but the little Pokémon buried his head into Sally's arm.
Leo gave the little guy a gentle stroke along the side of his head, hoping to reinforce what his wife told him. Still, his real hope was that his counterpart was making progress, specifically in getting that Darkrai Pokémon to reverse what it did. But then, since Darkrai didn't (or couldn't) undo turning his counterpart into a Pokémon, he just didn't hold out much hope for that.
No, they had better prepare for helping Lonny as best they could in adjusting to life as a human. He hadn't been around Lonny that much; other then that night and morning at Harry's boathouse when they all first met, he could recall seeing the female swampert about three other times. But from those, it was evident she was a proud Pokémon, proud of what she was and very confident in what she could do. Assuming she retained any memory of who she was, what happened to her might be more then she could handle.
They also needed to consider how his counterpart was going to be affected. His mate, his love, just got taken from him, more or less. And Chip may now be without a mother. All he had now was a father he hadn't really met yet.
This wasn't going to be an easy time the next few days…
"Would you get some water in a bowl?" Sally asked, finally sitting on the floor instead of kneeling while still holding a barely moving Chip.
He had just filled a small bowl from the large water tank and set it in front of the mudkip when the front door opened. Watching expectantly with Sally as his counterpart, Blaze and Grovyle all trudged in, he fought to give them a few seconds as they barely stopped to wipe their feet on the floor mat before asking how it went.
"How's Lonny?" were the first words out of the swampert's mouth, though.
"Still sleeping," he replied. "So how'd it go?"
Blaze said something in Poké language, to which the swampert gave only a slight nod. With a sigh that pretty much said everything, "Like my own transformation, Darkrai didn't know how to reverse it. It was an accident…again." The swampert paused for a moment, looking in and down at the mudkip while Blaze and Grovyle moved around him to stand near the table, both looking like they were needing something to do.
Sally gave them and Ticonamo that, with a request to slice up some fruit and berries.
"Oh, maybe he'll eat that," Christina commented. Then with quick anger: "Damnit, that should be me in there!" pointing to the bedroom. "I was the one that attack nearly hit; I should've been the one to have been changed, not Lonny! God, I'm not the one who has a child!"
"It was just random, Christina," Ticonamo said. "It was a fluke that dark ball or whatever it was missed one of those Pokémon, a fluke it instead went into the portal, and another fluke it just grazed you…"
The black-haired Asian paused and Leo thought at first it was because of Christina's dirty look at him, but he continued with "I wonder, if by grazing you, it might of picked up some of your DNA, and transferred it to Lonny. I mean, one thing I noticed right away, was you are both the same height, and both have the same body shape, and your faces…."
Christina let out a very angry-sounding sigh before getting up and stomping over into the kitchen area. Grabbing a berry from in front of a surprised Blaze, she started slicing almost dangerously. The infernape stepped back.
"Sorry," Ticonamo said belatedly.
"Sit down," Leo suggested to his counterpart.
The swampert did so before saying, "Since Darkrai couldn't do anything and didn't intent for it to happen, I just told them at the Guild to let him go. There's nothing we can do; I think Lonny is as stuck with her new body as I was with mine…"
"Mudkip!" At once, the little Pokémon jumped out of Sally's reach to hurl himself toward him.
Leo knew he needed to talk to Chip. In fact, he was just about to address the little mudkip and start their first real conversation when said Pokémon suddenly screamed unintelligently and lunged at him. It only took a lowered arm to block the attack…with a bit of extra strength; although Chip wasn't all that big yet, his attack was more powerful than he expected.
"Mom wanted to see you!" the mudkip screamed. "If it wasn't for you, she wouldn't have been changed!" He started crying, which quickly evolved into wailing.
Ignoring the attack and the throbbing of the green pad on his forearm, he reached down to instinctively cradle him. Chip struggled at first, but soon was soon resting his head on his shoulder as the tears continued. "I'm sorry, Chip. This isn't the way I wanted to meet you." What else could he say? At least, until Chip recovered enough that he could tell him a few things. But when the mudkip did, instead of being calm, he struggled out of his embrace and ran all the way over to Christina, Blaze and Grovyle in the kitchen area.
"It's still your fault," the mudkip shouted hoarsely.
"He blames me," Leo told the humans with a sigh. "I haven't been much of a father, huh? I haven't even been around."
"It's not your fault she was changed," Sally insisted. "But why didn't you stay on Earth if you knew that Lonny was…"
"I didn't know!" he returned angrily. He couldn't help it; it was a sore point with him. But would he have stayed if he had known? If he stayed, of course Blaze would likely have stayed with him, as would probably his human self, Sally and Grovyle too. Looking around at the surprised faces around the room: "Lonny told Blaze as we were leaving, and told him not to tell me until after we left."
"Oh," his human self said after a long, hesitant moment.
Leo continued: "Maybe…she wanted us to go, because that's what the rest of us wanted; we wanted to come back home, and you two to start a new life." It was one of the reasons he had come up with over the last six months. It was the best reason from his point of view, and the one he hoped was true. Given how obviously she loved him, really, he shouldn't even be entertaining other reasons…though he did. Damn it, he wished he had known about their son sooner despite the difficulties that would've presented.
And maybe his son wouldn't be sitting behind his partners in the kitchen area, hating him.
"Then, she really does love you," Sally offered.
"Of course she does," Christina said from the other side of the room. "She made it fairly clear to me she wanted to come here and see you." The blonde haired young woman looked about to say something else, but looked suddenly like she was holding back tears before concentrating on some more slicing.
Eventually, the slicing was finished and everyone helped to bring the overflowing bowls to the one rough-hewn table in the room. With a certain motherly flair, Christina picked up Chip and "flew" him over to on top of the table. Sally promptly put a small plate in front of him along with a bunch of smaller slices portions of various berries.
"OK, now you have to eat, Chip," Christina told him. "You haven't eaten all day."
Leo watched as his son looked sadly down at the offering, around the table as everyone was taking their log stools (both Blaze and Grovyle able to sit on such), then finally at him.
He really wanted to tell him his mother was going to be alright. But he didn't know that. Instead (to avoid lying): "You just have to believe everything will be alright, Chip. Things often turn out better then we think they will."
"Believe him," Blaze supported with a grin.
"And eat your food or as your father, I'll take you out back and water pulse you." He was certain that was similar to some human expression from somewhere that had to do with raising kids, but said it with a smile while earning looks ranging from surprised to uncertain.
Chip growled slightly…but did start eating.
"What do you know, that worked," the human Leo said, clearly impressed.
So…he could act like a father, then. But the heart-to-heart still had to come.
Leo Hanson lit a candle in the bedroom. With the sun going down and everything getting dark, he wanted to make sure Lonny had some light if she woke during the night.
His counterpart was next to him, looking down at her form on the bed. His expression was…unreadable, as if he was still trying to comprehend, to make sense of it. Reaching a blue hand, he lightly brushed a large finger across her cheek, touching the slight bumps that used to be gills, then sighed.
Not that he wanted to bring it up, but it was something they would be forced to deal with when…if she woke up: "Do you think she'll…remember anything? You lost your memory when you were transformed."
The swampert shrugged slightly. In his slightly lower voice, "I hope not. But if she doesn't, I…" He fell slight for a moment. "It would be the second love I lost."
"Maybe Uxie might be able to help, at least a little. Like you think she did for you."
The swampert smiled a little at the mention. "Maybe. Thanks for reminding me of that."
He was glad to help in any way. He certainly felt as helpless as everyone else was otherwise.
Starting to already think of any arraignments they would have to make to accommodate Lonny's transformation (like for clothes), he turned and was just leaving the small bedroom as his counterpart mumbled something that sounded like "blue human".
With everyone else on the rug in front of the fireplace talking long after the sun set, Leo huddled with Blaze to one side, speaking in Poké language. "Remember what Kangaskhan said about the clefable? She was looking for a third human. A blue one."
Blaze's blank red face turned to surprise, yellow and blue eyes wide as his tail suddenly twitched and mane puffed up. "I completely forgot! You mean…Lonny is that human?"
"Certainly isn't Ticonamo or Christina." Like Blaze, he had forgot about what Kangaskhan said when Lonny had come through the portal transformed. Indeed, the only thing that'd been on his mind since was her and Chip.
"Was wondering when you would realize that," Grovyle said from where he was leaning against the wall nearby.
Blaze returned an angry look. "Why didn't you say something?"
"We had bigger issues to deal with," he replied simply.
Leo nodded agreement; it was certainly true. "So how would that clefable know this would happen?"
"Set it up to happen?" Blaze suggested.
"Then why would she be asking about it before it happened?" Grovyle replied, squashing the idea. "More like she predicted the future."
"Until this morning, no one but the people here in the room knew there was going to be a portal this morning," Leo pointed out in agreeing.
"Good point," Blaze admitted, using the purple fingers of one of his hands to reach a scratch on his white-haired back.
Continuing: "And unless Darkrai is good at lying, which of course he might be, it was an accident."
Grovyle started fingering one of his wrist blades between his two claws. "So our clefable predicting the future is the only reasonable explanation then. That carries a few implications. It also brings us back to the obvious question, what is this mission she supposedly has for us?"
"Like you were saying Leo, we need to talk to that clefable," Blaze said in sitting down and running his fingers through his long red and yellow mane. "Otherwise we're getting nowhere for answers."
"Three humans and us…a mission only we can do," Leo said thoughtfully. "Or, could Ticonamo and Christina be the ones…"
"What are you talking about?"
Chip's voice startled him for an instant; only a minute ago the mudkip was sleeping next to Christina in front of the fire. Unsure how to answer: "We…"
"You were talking about mom," Chip provided. "What's going to happen to her?"
Seeing Blaze and Grovyle were leaving the answering to him, Leo lowered himself onto his stomach to be more on his son's level. "Chip, I really don't know. We'll know more when she wakes up."
"That's not good enough!" the mudkip screamed.
Letting out a huge sigh, he decided that now was probably as good of time as any for the talk he knew he need to have. "Chip, let's go outside to the garden."
Chip stared back, momentarily looking bewildered. "The garden? What does that have to do with…"
"We're going to talk, Chip," and without waiting for an answer, he scooped up the little blue and white mudfish Pokémon and carried him out into the back yard, Blaze and Grovyle knowing enough to stay behind. Yep, this would be a private talk, although he was concerned it might be too soon. But with Lonny and Christina only having until tomorrow afternoon before their thirty-six hour stay was up and they had to return, what other time would he have?
After setting Chip down on the half-log that served as a bench, he settled uneasily next to it. They were silent for a moment, Chip staring intently (angrily) at him, but eventually looked up at the star-filled sky, the only illumination coming from the firelight inside. He had thought of a lot of things to say since yesterday, but words now escaped him like a jumpluff's spore scattering in the wind. "Damn it, I've never been a father before. I have no idea what to tell you, other then I wished I could of seen you hatch and been there with you. But I'm with you now and I'm going to do everything I can to protect you and your mother."
"She really can't be changed back?"
Leo heard his son's voice crack a little; he rested one hand lightly over the mudkip's back, giving his head fin a stroke. "I don't think so." He wanted to add just like himself, but wasn't certain if Chip knew he used to be human.
Chip stayed quiet for another moment, obviously struggling to keep himself from crying again. Finally in slower speech: "Mom told me what happened to you. You used to be human…and you couldn't be changed back either. She explained the time-thing to me too. There's really two of you."
He was told…
"My other self is that human Leo," Leo said, tilting his head back toward the house. "It made…quite a reunion when we met for the first time. It was awkward."
"Mom also said when she met you for the first time, she had to beat you up in a battle."
"Hey, what?" Incredulously, he stared down at him, at the same time believing that that would be something Lonny would tell him, even if it was true.
"You really are small," Chip continued. "I'll be bigger when I evolve. Then I can beat you up too."
Leo stared back, finding his son smiling and looking very cute with his small green gills sticking out the sides of his face. "Oh you think so, huh? You're assuming I let you live long enough to evolve." He smiled back, making sure to not make it threatening. After all, his son was joking…he hoped. In any case, there was no mistaking who he was getting those kind of thoughts from.
The mudkip laughed. "Mom won't let you. She'll just…" He stopped suddenly, losing all semblance of smiling. Staring down: "She can't do anything now. She's human."
"Hey, listen to me," moving his large finger under his son's chin to make him look back up at him. "Humans can do lots of things we can't," trying to provide a little optimism.
"Like what? They need Pokémon to do just about everything. That what mom says, though she said she really liked having Christina and Harry depend on her."
Really? Was that what Lonny thought about humans? He never knew… "Well, humans…me and my colleagues specifically, built that gate that got you here. No Pokémon could have done that."
"Well, you're smarter than most Pokémon…so mom also said."
"She did?"
"Because you used to be human."
Of course he had to feel a little pride in that she had said that. Obviously he wasn't going to win in the size or physical category against other swamperts…not that he was that much smaller! "So, that means humans are smart, and though they don't have physical abilities like us Pokémon, they can use their brains to build incredibly complex machines that do all sorts of things."
That earned him some silence for a moment and he hoped Chip wouldn't be thinking of humans as helpless anymore and hence, not despair so much over Lonny's change.
Then: "Will she lose her memory like you did?"
So she had told him the complete story then; one less thing he would have to explain. Stroking him down his back, he sighed, wondering if he should drive home the point or not. "I don't know, Chip. But…we should be prepared that she might not remember us at all."
He debated whether to offer the slight hope Uxie might be able to provide as the mudkip fixed his eyes on him, unblinking as tears finally started welling again. Except for kricketots singing, some hooting from hoothoots around both near and far, and the occasional croak of a croagunk or toxicroak, it was quiet for the moment…until a loud (human) female scream from the house broke it.
Leo Hanson shot up, rushing ahead of everyone else into the small bedroom. There, Lonny was sitting up in bed, staring at her arms and hands, looking horrified in the faint light from the candle.
She seemed to notice him and everyone else piling in, giving a sidelong glance. "What…happened…to…me? What are these?" waving her light-blue arms in front of everyone while starting to hyperventilate.
Should he tell her point blank, or try and cushion the blow a little? If so, how? Wait…she was speaking in human speech! A look to Sally showed her just as astonished.
His wife spoke first, as she approached to lay a hand on her bare shoulder: "Lonny, take a deep breath. Do it."
Lonny turned her now (almost) human face to her, then to Christina who kneeled next to Sally. Fixing her eyes on the blonde-haired woman, her breathing started to slow.
Christina then spoke: "Listen, Lonny. You know when Leo was changed into a Pokémon because he took an attack by some Pokémon called Darkrai?"
Lonny seemed frozen for a moment but eventually nodded.
Good, she remembers that, Leo thought.
"Well, the same thing happened to you while in that dimensional portal coming here. You got hit accidentally by an attack from him. Only…you became human. Almost."
In the orange candlelight of the room, the light blue-and-white-skinned human looked down at herself, including her bare chest and smallish breasts and nipples, before moving the rest of the blanket to have a look at her new legs and feet. For the longest moment, Leo couldn't tell if she was about to cry or rage, such was the conflict on her face. Finally to probe the extent of her memories: "Lonny, what do you remember? Do you remember any of us?"
Whipping her head to him: "Of course I remember all of you!" she said angrily in her slightly deep feminine voice. "And where is this Darkrai? I'm going to rip him in half!" She moved to get up and almost made it as everyone parted quickly, such was the suddenness of her movement, but she collapsed as soon as she tried standing up.
Leo caught her with Sally and Christina and together, they fought hard to get her to sit back down as she flailed her limbs mightily to get back up with incredible strength!
"Stop fighting!" Christina yelled, taking a hit to her arm.
"Let go of me, damnit! I'm going to tear apart that Darkrai!" she screamed. "Leo! Where is that damned Pokémon?"
Leo looked to the door briefly to see his swampert counterpart working his way in past Blaze and Grovyle. To his relief, his counterpart's presence seemed to have a calming effect on her, and the former swampert quickly sat unsteadily on the side of the bed, looking suddenly exhausted. Taking that as a cue, he backed up with Sally to allow his counterpart to get closer to her. Of course, now that things were calm, he couldn't help but fully notice the new human; without any clothes or hair, it was fully apparent that she had every human female feature about her… Yep, they would have to get her some clothes, soon, although her remaining swampert features were almost alien-looking in contrast.
"Where is he?" Lonny breathed. "Where is Darkrai? Make him…change me back…"
The swampert placed his hands on her shoulders, replacing Christina's grip. "It was an accident, Lonny. He didn't mean it, he was attacked by everyone else when he showed up, and his counterattack accidently hit the portal."
Her eyes widened. "That black ball…"
"A shadow ball."
"How can a shadow ball do this?" she growled back, gesturing down to herself with near disdain.
"Mom?"
Everyone turned to Chip, standing under Ticonamo in the doorway.
Lonny froze, before shedding a tear.