Chapter II

Blaziken tore into the small clearing like a demon on crack. "Where are they?" he demanded. "What did you do with them?" Blaziken didn't give them a chance to answer. Not that they could. They were too dumb- founded to respond with the discovery that they could understand him. Blaziken took a deep breath and unleashed another Flamethrower.

They both barely dodged this as the barrel of fire tore over their heads. "Blaziken, it's me! Socoro!"

"Liar!" Blaziken lunged forward with a Double Kick that toppled a tree when Lycanus leapt from the area, and then Blaziken followed upwith an Arial Ace that connected with Lycanus's chest, knocking the wind out of him.

The second Lycanus landed, he tore across the open ground to get some distance from Blaziken at blinding speed. 'It's no good. He won't listen to anything we say. We'll have to knock him out.' A bluish flame surrounded Lycanus's hands as he prepared to fight back. 'OK, that's new.' As soon as he stopped focusing on the battle, the fire extinguished itself. 'Bad, bad, bad, bad. How did Lucario do it?'

Socoro shook his head. "I can't. I won't attack Blaziken." Blaziken was on top of him in an instant. He put one hand on each of Socoro's shoulders and slammed his forehead into Socoro's. "Brick Break. That one hurt..." Socoro staggered back in a daze, trying to clear his swimming vision.

'Fine then,' Lycanus said determinedly. 'I'll do it.' Lycanus sprinted forward, urging his body to move faster than it ever had. In the blink of an eye, Lycanus was on top of Blaziken. Now standing a foot shorter than Blaziken, his clothesline connected with Blaziken's gut and caused him to double over, then he used a Force Palm that sent Blaziken's head back up and caused him to stagger back. Lycanus was almost out of steam. He didn't have the stamina to keep this up anywhere near as long as a real Lucario, but if he didn't, Blaziken was going to beat them to a bloody pulp, or worse. Lycanus forced the exhaustion from his mind and charged forward again, this time connecting with a double Force Palm to Blaziken's gut that sent him flying backwards and into a tree.

Blaziken tried moving, but his body betrayed him. He took one step forward, and his leg gave out and he fell to the ground barely conscious. "Blaziken," Socoro said finally. "It really is us. Remember? We were sent to search for Darkrai. While you were gone, whatever it did to our Pokemon somehow turned us into them. Besides, if I was attacked by a Weavile, don't you think I'd be smart enough to call you out?"

Blaziken managed to prop himself up on one arm and look deep in Sococo's eyes. "Socoro, you moron." With that, Blaziken passes out with somewhat of a smile on his face.

Lycanus droped to one knee, panting for breath. 'We're going to have to find some easier way to do this,' he said. 'I don't even want to know what it's going to be like with Gyarados.' Lycanus rose unsteadily to one foot, and scanned the ground for his hat. He dusted it off and put it on, carefully maneuvering it past his ears. Out of force of habit, he unsuccessfully snapped his fingers, then muttered something about how difficult it was going to be to hold things from now on. He took off his backpack and started digging around. 'Where is it? Ah-ha! Here it is.' Lycanus pulled out a Ninetails-based ninja mask from the backpack and put that on as well. 'That'll hide my new face. Luckily it has an elastic band instead of a couple of strings to tie. I don't think I can tie my shoes anymore.' He turned to face Socoro. 'How do I look?'

Socoro called Blaziken back into his Pokeball. "Like a Lucario trying to disguise himself as a human and wearing a Ninetails mask. Your hands... paws... whatever it is you have, kind of give it away, so do the dreadlock-looking things on the back of your head, and so does your tail."

'There's not much I can do about these at the moment,' said Lycanus as he held his hands up for Socoro to see. 'The only thing I can do is stick my hands in my pockets.' He looked at his tail, which stood straight out through the tails of his trenchcoat. 'I think I need my tail for balance, so that stays as is. As for the dreadlock-looking things, I think those are tied in with my Aura. I'll just have to get something to cover up the back of my head.' He looked around the forest, then down to the Pokeball at his waist. 'We need to get Lucario and Weavile to a Pokemon Center. We're closer to Viridian, so we should head there first.'

The pair of former humans began walking back the way Socoro had come, both pondering what would become of them. Lycanus had to get used to using his tail to balance while walking in boots that were now several sizes too large. Socoro had his own center of gravity issues to deal with. Where as Lycanus's body wanted to lean forward, Socoro's body wanted to lean whatever direction his head was tilted.

The two of them quickly adjusted to their new bodies, and walking this way had become second nature. 'You got any ideas of what happened to us?' Lycanus asked Socoro 'Or better yet, how to reverse it?'

"Not a clue. Do you have any idea on what we do next?"

'We take down Darkrai.' That went without saying, but somehow it made Lycanus feel better. 'Then we make it fix what he did to us and our Pokemon.' There was an edge to Lycanus's now-telepathic voice that nearly bordered on bloodlust. This quieted down the pair for a bit, now that they actually realized the monumental task set before them. Lycanus seemed more subdued now that he thought about it. 'For now, though, let's just worry about Lucario and Weavile.'

****

About an hour later, the duo emerged from beneath the canopy of leaves in Viridian City. The few townspeople out at this time of day didn't quite know what to make of the two as they headed to the Pokemon Center. Lycanus did his best to walk without his tail showing, but that caused some stumbling, and Socoro tried unsuccessfully to look like he wasn't a Weavile doing drugs. They walked in silence, not wanting to cause any more trouble than neccessary, since Lycanus would sound like a psychic and Socoro like a circus side-show. They walked into the red-roofed building to the counter and rang the bell. "Good afternoon," said the Nurse Joy behind the counter. "Are you here to heal your Pokemon?" Lycanus nodded and placed both his and Socoro's Pokeballs on the counter. Thankfully, his sleeves were now way too long and they came down far past his paws. "Just a moment. I'll see what I can do."

'So now we wait,' Lycanus said quietly to Socoro. They went over to a nearby bench and sat down to wait. About ten minutes later, Nurse Joy came back out.

"If I may ask, were your Lucario and Weavile attacked by a Darkrai?" Lycanus nodded in the affirmative. "Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done for them at the moment. To be perfectly honest, I've never seen anything like it. They still have traces of Darkrai's Dark Void surrounding them. It was as if their bodies absorbed the attack and held on to the energy rather than disperse it. I'm sorry to say, it could be months before they wake up at the rate their bodies are using the energy." Both Lycanus and Socoro looked suddenly crushed. "The good news is that other than that, they are in perfect health." She handed the two Pokeballs back to Lycanus and gave a slight bow. "You have my deepest appologies. I'm sorry we couldn't do anything for them. Thankfully though, the Dark Void is somehow sustaining them. They won't need much care for the next few months. Please come back and see us if their condition worsens."

Lycanus nodded and gave Nurse Joy a slight bow in return and turned to leave. As he did so, he caught Socoro staring at Nurse Joy's chest. Lycanus truly enjoyed speaking telepathically: Only the people he wanted to hear him could hear him. 'Socoro, stop staring at her boobs.' He put a hand on Socoro's shoulder and began herding him to the exit. 'If she wasn't here right now I'd smack the back of your head.'

"Fine, whatever," Socoro responded distantly after he is led out the front door. "Where to now? We can't exactly go back with our mission going to pot, Darkrai still on the loose, and us turned into Pokemon."

'I suggest we see how we compare to some of the local Gym Leaders before we go after Darkrai.'

They started to walk by a Pokemart when Socoro stopped the two of them. "I'll be right back." He ran in and disappeared for a few moments. Later, he came running up to Lycanus wearing a bright blue raincoat, bright red rain boots, and a bright yellow rain hat. "How do I look?"

Now it was Lycanus's turn to answer sarcastically. 'Like Paddington Bear.' Lycanus began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Socoro asked Lycanus as he ran after him. "What about the Gym right here?"

Lycanus kept walking. 'It's closed. The sign says it's closed in bright, bold, red letters. What are you blind?'

"No, I'm just not paying attention to it." They pair were drawing far less stares than they were before, mostly because most, if not all, of their Pokemon features were now covered by loose, oversized clothing.

'Anyways, I saw that the Pewter City Gym is open. Brock uses rock and ground types so we should have an easy time there perfecting our styles of combat. If we can't take down his Pokemon, then we'll know we're no match for Darkrai.' The two of them waited until they had gotten out of town and behind a tree, then pulled off their boots and backpacks. They dug out several pairs of socks and lined the inside of their boots with them. When they were done, they put the newly adjusted boots on and took a few experimental steps to make sure they had gotten it right. When they were satisfied, they put their backpacks back on and continued on down the path towards Pewter. 'We should get there by nightfall,' Lycanus said with certainty.