CHAPTER 4

I scanned the ground for a good spot to land. There was a lot of trees around, but this area wasn't counted as part of the forest. Why? Heck, I don't know.

Suddenly, Lisa started diving. I followed her lead, tucking in my wings and talons and enjoying the experience.

I was heading for the ground at an amazing speed. It was wicked! I felt like I was out of control, and I was just going to fall and fall, going faster and faster. Except I knew that if I wanted to, I could open my wings and slow my dive.

Closer and closer to the ground! I suddenly opened my wings, stuck my talons out in front of me, and greatly slowed my fall.

I landed gently on the ground.

˂Cool,˃ Michael said, running up. ˂You have no idea how neat that looked! Five birds just diving towards the same area.˃

I suddenly felt uncomfortable. We hadn't been very careful. Other people could have seen us flying and diving together.

But no one was around, right?

I started demorphing. I felt sad when I lost my wings. I mean, walking around is just plain boring compared to flight.

Blitz and Bounce started looking around as soon as they had demorphed. They were trying to remember where the Weederpies had been.

"Don't tell me, we're lost," I said.

˂Uh... well, we know where we are, more or less,˃ Bounce said. ˂So we are not lost.˃

"But you don't know where the Weederpies are?" Lisa asked.

˂Well, we're pretty sure they're around here somewhere...˃ Blitz said.

I sighed. "Great. Now all we need is -" I cut myself off. I had seen movement. Or was it? I couldn't be sure.

"What?" Rachel asked.

I just kept staring at the trees where I had seen the movement.

One by one, my friends all turned their heads to look that way.

"Come out!" I called. "We know you're there."

Nothing happened for a few seconds, but then a boy stepped out from behind the trees.

He was slightly tall, kinda thin, and had dark brown hair.

It was the same boy I had seen outside the Pokémart!

He was blushing majorly. "Uh... hi."

I frowned. "Who are you?"

"Um, my name's Thomas."

We were silent for a few seconds. I was expecting Lisa to ask him all the questions. But Lisa just looked away, blushing.

Hmph, I thought. What's wrong with her?

I decided to take over the interrogation. "What are you doing here?"

"Are... are you the kids who can morph?"

I stared at him suspiciously. "What if we are?"

"Well... um... I'd really like to know how you can do that. I mean, it looks so cool!" he said.

"Did you follow us?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah," Thomas admitted. "Um, are you Rachel?"

Rachel's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you know?"

"I... uh... I hacked into the computers at 6:00 news," Thomas said. "I saw that report on you, so I hacked and found out who you are."

Rachel seemed impressed at his hacking ability, but I was just jealous.

"How do you morph? Do you have to get the ability from somewhere?" Thomas asked.

"Well..." Rachel said, not sure what to say. She glanced over at me. Then froze.

"What? What's wrong?" I demanded.

Rachel's eyes were wide. She was looking past me.

I started to turn around.

"SCYTHER!"

A Scyther leaped at me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw another Scyther. And another.

The Scyther swung its claw! It hit me in the head with the blunt side.

The last thing I remember thinking before I passed out was, Well, I guess we are near the Weederpies after all.

Author's Annotation: Thomas must be quite fit to keep up with them like that. Though they probably fly slower than they otherwise would so Michael can keep up on the ground. Still, it's an impressive feat.

I do kinda like the implication that the 6:00 news is this dumb thing almost no one watches, because otherwise everyone in the Pokémorphs' school would know who they are. Instead, it's just a few outliers here and there, like Thomas, The Muks, and the Cerulean Labs.