Jack's getting a little yellow...
Plot: The Pokemorphs have found an underground Bleerk pool. Canning it would put a major crick on the Bleerks' plans. But the pool is heavily guarded, and even the Pokemorphs' most powerful forms might not be enough. Also, Jack's in some trouble...
CHAPTER 1
Hey there, I'm Jack. What I'm about to tell you may shock you. There are aliens invading this planet. They're called Bleerks, and they're evil ittle slugs that can crawl into a person's head and control that person. They've already taken over the Scythers and the Ceteecer. Their next target: Earth.
In fact, they've already taken over some people. It could be as few as a hundred, or as many as several million. I don't know for sure.
No, I'm not crazy. It's all true. And, in a addition, I can also morph.
Ah, interested, aren't you? You see, the Endelytes are sworn enemies of the Bleerk. They tried to defend Earth, but their task force was destroyed. It'll be another 5 years until another task force can come. In the meantime, a dying Endelyte lord gave my friends and I the ability to morph into any pokemon that we touch. But we can't remain in a morph for more than two hours -- if we remained in morph for two hours and one minute, we would be premanently stuck in morph. Our number one Bleerk enemy, a Konivor/general named Konivor One, has an Endelyte host and is very powerful. He thinks that my friends and I are a bunch of marauding Endelytes, and that's perfectly fine with us. If we blew the curtain, we'd be hunted down to our homes and destroyed faster than you can say, "Oops."
And who're my friends? There's Adam, our unofficial leader. Mark, our group comedian and Adam's best friend. Jen, the pokemon expert and a peace-lover. And Steph, the beautiful and very aggressive warrior.
Together, we're the Pokemorphs. And together, we fight.
Believe me now? No? Fine. Just see for yourself.
It began one day, when I was over at Adam's house. He had invited me and Mark over for a guy's only pizza party. We were enjoying just being normal. However, that would not last.
The phone range, and Mark picked it up. "Hello, this the Batcave. Batman speaking."
Adam and I laughed.
Mark listened to something, then said, "Aw come on, gimme a break."
Then, after another pause, he said, "Alright Commisioner Gordon, I'll bring Robin and Nightwing too."
Adam and I cracked up again. After we stopped laughing, Adam asked, "Who was that?"
"Xena. She and Gabrielle want to see us," Mark replied. In other words, Steph and Jen.
Adam sighed. "Okay, let's go."
Before we left, Mark told Adam. "They forgot to fix the Bat signal."
We all laughed again.
CHAPTER 2
Steph and Jen stood before us in Jen's barn. They were giving an impressive briefing.
"Jen and I have been doing some investigating. We've discovered some interesting new intel," Steph began. She motioned to Jen.
Jen cleared her throat. "The Bleerks cannot just live in a host's brain for all of its life. It needs to eat and get nutrients. We've discovered that they need to eat every 7 days."
"No wonder they're so small and skinny," Mark whispered to me.
"When they eat, they climb out of a host's brain and go into a special pool full of nutrients. That's how and what they eat," Jen continued. "The Bleerk brought these giant pools to Earth with their Motherships."
"Cool, eating dinner and swimming in the pool at the same time. I've always wanted to do that," Mark commented.
Steph shot Mark a look more venomous than an Arbok's bite. Then she took over. "We've discovered one of these pools, which is in a huge facility underground. It's under the school."
"Ah ha! I knew the school wasn't built for education! Why else haven't I learned anything?" Mark yelled.
"Because you're dumber than a Psyduck," Steph told him.
"Ha, ha, ha, and ha," Mark retorted.
"Wait a minute," Adam cut in. "How do you know all this?"
"Um, we did some undercover investigation," Jen answered.
"What kind of undercover investigation?" Adam asked.
"We morphed into Digletts and snuck in," Steph said proudly.
"Digletts? Where the heck did you find Digletts?" I asked.
"There were a bunch of them planting some trees by the riverbank. There were a few Dugtrios, too. But they were too big for spying, so we acquired a Diglett morph," Steph replied.
I looked at Adam. "That was pretty smart. My books say that Digletts have an excellent sense of smell, great eyesight, and an excellent sense of vibration. What's more, it can translate any vibrations that it feels into sound."
Steph smiled.
Adam nodded. "Okay. Good work. But everyone, in the future, don't take a risk like that unless everyone knows where you're going. We have each other. Let's not forget that."
We all nodded. The boss had a point.
"If we're going to hit the place, we need more intel. I say we go on a reconnaisance mission. We'll all acquire ground-type morphs and dig into the place," Adam suggested.
"Sounds good!" Steph replied immediately. Well, duh.
The others, including me, were somewhat more reluctant. A mission into a Bleerk pool, solely for reconnaisance? Was it worth the risk? Oh well, Adam was our fearless leader...
We all walked down to the riverbank. We decided that variety might be good, so Steph and I acquired Sandshrews. Mark acquired a Diglett. And in case we needed some firepower, Adam got both a Diglett and a Dugtrio.
We all looked around for any other pokemon. Finally, we decided that we had what we came for, and left.
CHAPTER 3
The wait was nerve-wracking. We were all staring at the clock, trying to will it to go either faster or slower. Faster in Steph's case, and slower in everyone else's case. Steph was in most of my classes, and we exhanged nervous looks.
Finally, school was out. Morphing was no problem for us, since we wore skintight morphing outfits under our normal clothes. Plus, Adam would morph into Pidgeotto first and hide our clothes somewhere safe.
And so we morphed. I was prepared for the Sandshrew's brain, and I controlled it quickly. Its mind wasn't overpowering, but it was very wary. Wary and cautious of everything around it. It was sure of itself, but careful nonetheless.
[Everybody in control?] Adam asked. He was now fully Pidgeotto.
One by one, everyone said, [Yeah.]
[Let's do it!] Steph, of course.
Mark and Jen popped under the ground. I looked at Steph and said some gibberish. I think she knew that I was trying to give her encouragement.
We both jumped up, flipped mid-air, and dove into the ground headfirst. BAM!! We drove through the concrete. We were underground.
How could I ever describe the sensation? It was like a wild rush. I couldn't see anything in front of me, since the only thing in front of me was dirt and rock. But the Sandshrew brain knew exactly where it was going. So I mometarily receded my hold over the Sandshrew's mind and allowed it to emerge and help me. It was incredible. I could feel everything around me! I could feel Mark and Jen plowing through the ground, about 2 feet in front and a foot to the right of me. I could feel Steph digging alongside me, about 6 inches away. I could even feel a burrowing earthworm as it passed 3 feet to my left.
Then, we were there. I regained control again and popped up out of the ground quietly in a dark corner. The others popped out with me. Light! I could see again! Two giant lights, on the ceiling. Man, this place was giant! I mean, really giant! It was probably bigger than 10 football fields put together.
[You guys seeing this?] I asked.
[Ye-Yea-yeah] Mark said.
Wait a minute. Something was wrong. Mark sounded scared. I mean, the place was big, but it wasn't that scary.
Then my Sandshrew eyes saw them. By the pool, caged like animals. Human men, women, and children. Crying. Yelling. Staring blankly into space. There were hundreds of them, all lined up along the pool. Scythers were also locked up. Only the Collaborator Ceteecers roamed free.
And in the pool, there were thousands up gray slugs swimming around it. Gray, slimy, disgusting slugs, writhing around. I saw a Scyther guard push a little girl's head into the pool. A Bleerk climbed in through the ear into the brain. The whole scene really made you want to blow lunch.
I was furious. What right did they have to enslave an innocent little girl like that? They might as well be killing her. In fact, death is getting off easy when compared to being a host for a Bleerk. They would pay. Every single last one of those vile little slugs
They would pay.
Oh yes, they would pay heavily.
[Hey, you guys there?] It was Adam.
[Yeah man, we're here; the question is where are you?] Mark asked.
[Below you. I'm a Dugtrio. I'll come out to bail you four out in case something goes wrong,] Adam said.
[I have a question,] Jen spoke up. [Why are the two lights over the pool red?]
Good question. And also, the light seemed to turn the water into an unnatural purplish color. Hmm.
[Guys, is there anywhere to demorph?] I asked.
[Yeah. About 50 yards away, a dark spot behind a bunch of craters,] Steph observed.
[Okay, I'm going over there,] I said. Without waiting for questions and comments, I quickly bounded over to the craters. I snuck behind and began demorphing as quickly as possible.
Five minutes later, I had remorphed as a PIdgeotto. Without anyone noticing, I kicked up a bit of dust at a far end of the pond. The dust blocked the light, turning the small area directly below it from purplish to clear. The Bleerk slugs quickly swam away from that spot. My bird-of-prey eyes had noticed all of this with pinpoint accuracy.
[My guess is that the light provides the water with the nutrients that the Bleerks need. If we can shut down the light, we can probably shut down the whole pool,] I told everyone.
[Okay, great detective work, Jack,] Adam complimented.
[Hold on,] I said. What was in those crates in front of me? One way to find out. I quietly drilled holes using my sharp beak, then peeked inside.
[Looks like alien spare parts for the light. And also a rather big device. My guess is that the rahter big device is a spare battery. There must be one like it hooked up to the lights. If not in here, then somewhere nearby. It's the power source. If we get it, we can shut down this hellhole,] I observed.
[Good work. We got what we came for, everyone. Let's go,] Adam ordered.
We left.
CHAPTER 4
Days later, the screams of the enslaved humans in the underground facility were still stuck in my head. The horrors! Man, I was really looking forward to making those slugs pay.
My chance came very soon. I was patrolling the forest as a Spearow. We had decided after our first battle with the Bleerks that we had better keep a close eye on The Edens. There were still a lot of un-acquired pokemon in there.
The Bleerks never tried anything after that first battle, but we were still cautious and constantly patrolled the area.
So anyways, I was flying along, when suddenly I noticed a metallic glint out of the corner of my eye. Curious, I swooped down to see what it was. Ah ha. Two Scyther-Controllers, carrying some kind of tool kit. My Spearow hearing picked up this: "Hurry up! We have to get the maintenance parts into the power station or Konivor One will have our heads! We have to keep the Tansra Device in top condition!"
The other Scyther made a dismissive sound. "I don't see why it's so important to maintain this Tansra Device. We do have a backup one at the poolhouse. If the current one fails, we can just use the backup one."
The first Scyther shook his mantis head. "But if the current one fails, even for a few minutes, the two Tansra lights over the pool will go out and there won't be any nutrients for a few minutes. And that's too long. Most of us would die if we were cut off from Tansra Rays while soaking in the pool, even if we're cut off for only a few minutes. And besides, the crate with the backup device has a hole in it. The device may have been contaminated."
I smiled inwardly. My handiwork.
The other Scyther grumbled something and carried on.
I turned around and headed for Jen's barn.
Half an hour later, everyone was gathered there.
"So, Robin, what did you find?" Mark asked.
I looked at my friends and smiled. "I've been doing my own investigation. Aerial recon. Two unsuspecting Scythers revealed to me that the device that I found the other day is indeed a battery for the lights. It's called a Tansra Device. There's an active Tansra Device at the power plant, and that's how the light's getting power. If we can destroy that Tansra Device, the pool's lights will black out for a few minutes until they can get the replacement Device up. By then, most of the Bleerks would've died from lack of Tansra Rays and nutrients. If we hit the power plant, we'll get a lot of them at the same time."
"Wait, what power plant?" Steph asked.
"The only one in this county. The hydro-electric dam 5 miles from here," Jen told him.
I nodded. "That's right. And I think I can disable the dam's security systems by hacking. I'm an expert at computers, did I ever tell you that? By disabling the dam's security systems, I can prevent the automated alarm from calling the cops. Who knows, some of the cops might be Controllers. I can break in, then transmit a virus into the system. The virus erases itself automatically after 2 hours. That should be enough time to get there, find the Device and fight if necessary, then get out."
Adam nodded. "Let's do it. The sooner the better."
"Not tonight, pa," Mark said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"'Tis a school night," Mark replied.
Steph snorted. "Fine. Tomorrow's Friday. We can attack Friday night. Except I'd be missing TGIF. Oh man."
I laughed. "Alright. So we'll meet back here Friday after school. I'll bring my Laptop."
Everyone agreed. We were in business.
CHAPTER 5
On Friday, after school, our first mission was a trip to The Edens to get some aquatic morphs for the ones that didn't have them. Adam and I had our Wartortle and Vaporeon, respectively. Steph had acquired a Dewgong, Jen had gotten a Starmie, and Mark had been stuck with Seaking.
We walked back from the Edens. we really didn't feel like exhausting ourselves by morphing too much. At one point, I got a little seperated from everybody else. Suddenly, I came across a Pikachu.
"Pi-ka-chu," the friendly electric rodent said.
I reached out and touched its head. "Good boy."
I acquired the Pikachu, then rejoined my friends.
Next, I went to work on the laptop. I opened a satellite uplink with the dam, and entered its electronic security barrier.
I snorted. "This thing's only got a Sierra-4 class electronic security barrier That's strictly for amateurs and intermediates." I hacked into the dam's systems in less than a minute.
Finally, I uploaded my custom-made virus file into the dam. "Bingo. The wonders of modern technology. Alright jolly comrades, let's hit it."
We walked outside. After about 10 minutes, we reached the river. We shed everything but our morphing outfits, and jumped into the water. It was cold, but not that cold. We began to morph. My feet became webbed. My face sucked in and sprouted an umbrella-like fin around it. My skin color changed to blue. And a powerful tail emerged. I was a Vaporeon.
I dove forward with a loud "Vaporeon!" I loved the water! I had control of myself, but the Vaporeon's mind was so playful, so joyous when it was in water! All around me, my friends swam forward.
In less than half an hour, we were at the dam. We approached cautiously. My excellent Vaporeon hearing picked up 6 Scyther sentries on the top of the dam. Adam's Wartortle's sensitive ears had also picked up the Scythers.
[Scythers guarding a dam? The people who work here must be Controllers,] Adam told us in private thought-speak.
Then, I heard more footsteps. Human footsteps. 4 humans, most likely with guns, joining the Scythers on the top of the dam. I knew that there were more humans and Scythers at all of the dam's entrances, but I had no idea how many.
[We'll have to search floor by floor. Jack and I will stay in morph and provide cover. Everyone else, demorph and remorph into your battle forms. But make sure that whatever you choose has great senses, because we want to find that Tansra Device ASAP,] Adam ordered.
We all acknowledged his orders, and then went into action. Adam and I kept our eyes and mouths pointed skyward, ready to shoot Bubblebeams and Ice Beams at any of the Scythers patrolling the top of the dam. Steph went into Rhydon morph. She would give us bullet-proof armor protection as we moved through the dam control center's hallways. Jen was perfectly contented to stay as a Starmie. It would give her the opportunity to search under the dam, as well as keep guard. Mark because a Primeape. Speed was essential here, and Primeape was one fast monkey.
Now, with Jen's Water Gun and Star Freeze attacks ready to fire, Adam and I could now safely change into our battle morphs. After turning back into a human, Adam became a Jolteon. I stayed a Vaporeon, although I did demorph and remorph to reset the two-hour clock. We may very well have the need for a powerful Ice attack like Ice Beam in there. Jen also demorphed and remorphed to reset the clock.
[Do it! Full power attacks! Stun them!] Adam yelled. Jen shot Water Gun out of one of her numerous arms. I rapid-fired Ice Beams upwards, freezing many Scythers into poke-scicles. Adam blasted the other Controllers on the top of the dam with a nasty Thunder. And Steph...well, she charged like a crazed maniac.
The bullets of the human-Controllers' machine guns barely dented her hide as she rammed the main door in. The door had been made of our solid steel. Mark was right behind her, throwing the stunned Controllers around like rag dolls.
Meanwhile, Jen ducked underwater and swam under the dam to avoid bullets from more Controllers that had shown up at the top of the dam. There were a lot of negative ions in the atmosphere today, so Adam had more than enough more to do another Thunder and fry those Controllers.
Then, Jen did an amazing thing. She leaped out of the water, spinning rapidly. She kept going up, up, up, until she reached the top of the dam. She landed right in front of a human-Controller and blasted him with Water Gun. He was knocked over the edge and fell a very long way down.
[Jen, keep them engaged!] Adam yelled. He and I ran into the doorway that Steph had recently "opened". We ran inside. His Jolteon form was faster than me, but I was no slowpoke, either. We caught up to Steph and Mark quickly. By now, we were on the second floor. 3 more floors to go.
[Anything?] Adam asked.
[Uh uh. I tore apart every room in the first floor. My nose picked up nothing, and I have a very sensitive nose,] Mark replied.
Steph didn't say anything. She was too busy acting as our human, er, pokemon shield. We were a strange sight; a Primeape, a Jolteon, and a Vaporeon following a charging Rhydon through a hydro-electric dam control tower. Oh yeah, this was about as weird as weird could get.
[Behind you!] Mark yelled, his nose alerting him to danger.
I turned around and fired an Ice Beam right into a Scyther. He stood there, frozen. A human-Controller burst it, his machine gun raised. He never got a chance to fire. A Thunderbolt from Adam turned him into a pulp of molten flesh.
The main course came at the 4th floor, where the control room was. There were 8 Scythers there, ready and waiting more us. The fight was on.
Steph was awfully bored. Since she was slow and clumsy and the Scythers were agile and ninja-like, she could do nothing to help.
Adam fired Pin Missile into a Scyther, hitting him with dozens of sharp spikes. He went unconscious and slammed into the big window, broke the window, and fell all the way down. Another Scyther slashed its blade arms into Adam's spikes, but the spikes were too hard to penetrate. The attack overloaded Adam's spikes, and he let loose another Thunerbolt. ZZZZAP!! Two down.
I shot a Water Gun right into a Scyther's chest. He stumbled back. I hammered him with another Water Gun. Then I rammed him with Tackle. The Scyther slammed back against the wall and was knocked out. I whirred around and shot Ice Beam into another Scyther just as he was about to slash me. Another two down.
Mark was...less tactful. He went rampaging around, using Body Slam, Karate Chop, Low Kick, Fury Swipes, and Thrash to knock 2 Scythers rapidly out of the fight. Then, he got slashed twice by a Scyther. Blood gurgled fromt he wound, but it didn't faze him the least bit. He dove onto the Scyther and showed him how scary an angry Primeape is.
The last Scyther, obviously scared of of his wits, made a wise decision. He jumped out the window, opened his wings, and fled.
Mark sniffed in little. [It's here!]
He walked around a little, and pointed to a bookshelf. [There!]
While Mark demorphed and remorphed to heal his injuries, Steph easily hoisted the bookshelf out of the way. And there it was, attached to the wall. The Tansra Device.
[Good work, Mark,] Adam said, grinning a Jolteon grin at the half-morphed Mark-Primeape. [Steph, take care of it.]
Steph's big horn began spinnng around like a drill. She was using Horn Drill attack. BAM!! She slammed the horn into the Tansra Device. It was ripped apart by the immense power of Horn Drill.
[Well, Xena, I'd say that was a bit of an overkill,] Mark observed. He was now fully Primeape, with all of his injuries healed.
Suddenly, a Scyther burst in. What an idiot. Mark grabbed him in a grip that no Scyther could escape. Steph stepped very close to the Scyther, her intimidating 6'3" Rhydon form looming over the Scyther. [You sir, are an idiot.]
[It does not matter than you destroyed the Tansra Device. A seperate outlet for the Tansra device has been created in the pool facility. It will be plugged in less than two minutes. You lose,] the mantis pokemon sneered.
[You mean...we did all of this for nothing?] Steph asked, getting very angry.
CHAPTER 6
I shook my head. [No. Not for nothing.]
Everyone in the room looked at me. By now, "everyone" included Jen, who had come in through the window.
[We've gained a lot of battling experience. I'm going to try something,] I told them. But first things first. I knocked out the Scyther, then shoved him through the window. Now, I began demorphing. Then, dead tired but still very determined, I morphed into Pidgeotto. [Come on!]
Everyone else shrugged and demorphed, then morphed PIdgeotto. They were obviously confused, though. The school was 2 miles away, and at best, Pidgeotto would make it there far too late.
But at Mach 2, Pigeot would get there in time.
[Everybody, I know this sounds whacked-out, but concentrate on evolving. Try to evolve. Be Pigeot,] I instructed, straining with exertion.
One by one, everyone was engulfed in a white glow. We all grew bigger. Sleeker. Faster.
[We did it!] Steph cheered. We were Pigeots.
[Let's go!] Adam ordered. We took off and streaked off at Mach 2.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that we arrived at the school in less than 5 seconds. We morphed into Digletts and Sandshrews and popped out in the pool facility again. We found a dark corner where no one would see us demorph and remorph. If you count demorphing and remorphing as one morphing cycle, then we had all done 4 morphing cycles today in about an hour, and we were doing our 5th one. That was VERY exhausting, and we were trying our hardest to morph again.
We got our party faces on just in time. As we emerged from the darkness, much to everyone's surprise and displeasure, the replacement Tansra device was just about to be plugged in.
[No!] I yelled and extended my huge Onix body. My head slammed into the Tansra Device, knocking it away.
Adam let loose a thunderous roar -- he was an Arcanine. He used Flamethrower, torching a group of Scyther guards.
One Collaborator human stared in absolute shock at Adam. He muttered, "An Arcanine?"
I heard Adam say to him, [Yeah, an Arcanine.]
The guy proceeded to run around the place, screaming like a banshee.
Jen was using her Kadabra psychic powers to smash and bash the Ceteecer guards. She used Psychic, which sent a huge wave of distorted energy moving towards a group of guards. WHAMM! They were slammed into the wall hard.
After an evening of monkeying around, Mark was in the mood for his Ivysaur morph. He attacked with Razor Leaf, slicing open Ceteecers. Whew, those things really smelled!
And Steph was using her Pinsir morph for the first time. She blocked a Scyther's slash with her head's pincer. Then she caught the Scyther between the pincer and threw it hard. It flew halfway across the facility.
I looked at the Bleerk slugs in the pool. They were dying. Good. Now to make sure that they stayed that way.
I stretched my great body and rammed my horn-tipped head into one of the giant lights. It shattered. Then I did the same to the other light. Now, even if the Tansra device was plugged in, the Bleerks would still die because the lights were destroyed.
I began freeing the captives. I whipped my long rock tail into the cages. The locks easily broke. Relieved people rushed out, scrambling for the door. Of course, the door! We could get out by the door! It probably led to the school's Janitor's closet or soemthing.
Only one thing was preventing that.
Or, more accuractely, one Bleerk.
Konivor One.
CHAPTER 7
[So, you've managed to find and attack this place. Very impressive for a bunch of Endelyte bandits. Your little attack has ruined this facility and killed 3,587 Bleerks. But it ends here,] Konivor One said coldly.
Then he began morphing.
The creature was some kind of spear-throwing walking bat. Its head looked like a manta ray, its body was like Zubat, wings and all, with one major difference -- this creature's body had holes for launching spears. And oh yeah, he was huge.
Oh boy.
[Do you like it? I acquired this creature from the third moon of the fifth planet of the Ceteecer solar system. It's called a Vorlandak,] Konivor One said with a cold laugh.
He launched 2 spears at Mark. Mark reached out with Vine Whip to block, but the spears had too much momentum for the vines to stop. Mark jumped, narrowly escaping the spears. The Vorlandak shot 4 spears at Steph. PIIIIIIIING!! A spear sliced off part of the head's pincer. Fortunately, it didn't hurt Steph.
The Vorlandak fired off another string of spears, this time at Adam. Adam launched a Flamethrower and incinerated the spears. Then he did a Fire Blast. Fire Blast was the most powerful fire attack. A five-branked cross of fire flew out of his mouth.
Amazingly, the Vorlandak crossed its wings in front of it. The Fire Blast hit the wings. A huge fireball was being blocked by the Vorlandak's wings. The Fire Blast faded, and the Vorlandak's wings weren't the least bit burned! Oh man!
Adam was panting heavily. He had depleted his fire sac. But he felt a sense of responsibility for getting his team to safety. So he kept going.
He jumped up and clamped down on the Vorlandak's right thigh. The giant creature howled in pain. Adam got off, then did a Take Down. He slammed all of his weight into the Vorlandak. It knocked the Vorlandak back a few steps towards the pool. Another Take Down. Another few steps towards the pool.
I suddenly got an idea. I told all of the Pokemorphs, [Get Konivor One into the pool!]
Nobody asked why. They all complied. I felt a sense of pride that they trusted me, what it was quickly overshadowed by my sense of urgency. I began demorphing. Then, when I was small enough, I hid where Konivor One couldn't see me. No need to let him know that I was a human.
I finished demorphing, then tried morphing again. My depleted body protested. This was the of my 6th morph cycle in about an hour, and I didn't know if I had anything left. I was dead-tired from so much morphing and fighting. I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep. But my friends were counting on me. I was a Pokemorph. I couldn't let them down.
So, I tapped into my last reserve of strength and adrenaline. I begin to feel the changes. The cute ears. The stripes on my back. My skin turning yellow. The shrinking. And finally, the lightning-shaped tail that stuck out. I was a Pikachu.
I stepped out just in time to see Adam, Steph, and Mark attack the Vorlandak one last time. To help them, Jen fired a Psybeam into the creature. It stumbled, fell back, and landed in the pool.
I leapt up into the air. "PIIIKAAAAAAAACHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!"
My strategy had been simple. Water conducts electricity and the pool has water. And it worked. A massive thunderbolt came out of me and slammed into the pool, lighting up the entire place. Konivor One had definitely been zapped into paralysis.
I stumbled, the exertions of the past hour or so finally taking their effect. With a weak "Pi..ka..chu", I fell unconscious.
CHAPTER 8
I woke up with a start. [Where am I?] Then I realized that I was using thought-speak. I was still in Pikachu morph.
"In Jen's barn," Steph told me. Lie down, you need rest.
[Okay, I'll demorph first,] I said. I made a picture of myself in my mind and focused on that picture. I felt no changes? Huh? Wait a minute, I had been unconscious. Was it possible that...
[Am I over the two-hour time limit?] I asked Steph.
She looked away.
[Steph?]
She looked at me with eyes full of sadness. [Yes.]
I nodded my Pikachu head. [I see.] I sounded much calmer than I felt. I was stuck. Stuck in morph.
Forever.
Or maybe not...
[The morph cube. The red morph cube. Where is it?] I asked her.
She shook her head. "Adam already tried it. It must've been damaged during that night with Arrengar and Konivor One. It doesn't work. You can't get your morphing powers back."
I closed my eyes. [What about my aunt?]
"She's been informed. She's been told that you're missing. That's the official story," Steph answered.
I nodded. [Good. She doesn't really care about me, but at least she knows that I'm missing.]
"Look, Jack, there's still hope. I mean, who knows? We might be able to fix the morph cube one day. And being a Pikachu isn't that bad. I mean, you're cute, you're powerful, and...and..." she trailed off, choked by tears.
I slowly turned my head and looked at her. I liked this girl. A lot. But now I may never have the chance to ask her out. Sadly, I turned my head back to looking at the ceiling. [I know. Steph, thanks for taking care of me. Can I be alone for a while?]
She nodded and left. I heard her softly talking with the others.
But I didn't care. I was stuck. Sure, I was still a Pokemorph, but I was a Pokemorph who couldn't morph. What a nightmare. Even Pikachu's appeal couldn't make up for this. Nothing could make up for being permanently stuck as a pokemon.
I got up and sat down on the doorstep. I looked up and gazed at the stars. [Endelytes, wherever you are, hurry up.]