Damn, last time we were this early… yeah, not gonna end that sentence. Anyways, there's not awful lot to say before this chapter starts, asides from addressing some of the reviews we got in the last chapter. Rayduran and I thank you for your continued support... and yes, some of you hit the nail right in the the head with what was going to happen. Without any further ado… The Swap.

Ray: Thought... I had to say one of you had an interesting idea. -mulls over it-

Eric: Yeah… you just got called out by Ray. You know who you are, and I must admit… I don't know how you managed to guess all of that from what little information was available.

Ray: You are just not one for no info cliffhangers, bro. Well, just saying we only own our characters and the region where this mess is happening, all about Pokémon is property of GF and TPC and we only do this for fun and for you guys so… Enjoy the chap and leave a review!

Chapter 6

The Swap

It was a normal afternoon. Everyone was doing their things. Going to afternoon shift jobs, walking around, jogging, going shopping alone or with friends… Going about their business as every single day. In a house at the outskirts of the town, surrounded by the forest, a human boy was carrying a pair of unconscious Pokémon inside of the house after picking them up from the backyard, getting in and reaching the living room, laying the two pokemon gently on the couch. "Did you find them, Ichi?" Clara asked, her son turning to her and shaking his head.

"No. I've looked around a bit but I couldn't find Lucy and Zed." He answered. "What about Hadrim and Elly?"

"I found them in Hadrim's room. They didn't get cut by the glass shards luckily, but they've fainted, just like the others. I laid them on his bed and now I'm gonna clean the room." Clara said calmly and Ichiro let out a sigh of relief.

Inside the room, the Eevee started to slowly stir awake, her sky blue eyes opening slowly. Her vision was a bit blurry at first but it slowly focused, allowing her to see that she was almost face to face with certain Espeon with a sapphire on his forehead. She sat up in a jump, surprised for this and looked around, as if trying to see if someone was there looking. What she saw was the empty room, some glass shards in the floor and a ball under the shattered window.

At the same time, in the living room, a seemingly sleeping Sneasel was slowly returning to the conscious world. The first thing they noticed was something heavy weighing down on their chest, opening their eyes and looking at that spot. There they saw a huge thick book that had fallen on them, their chest hurting, probably because it had fallen on them as they fell asleep. They reached down with their hands to move the book away… and that was the moment when they realized they had hands, or rather claws.

Elly looked at the extremities in front of her, puzzled. They were slightly longer than her paws, and the fur on her arms was dark blue, instead of her normal brownish tone… "Wait, WHAT?!" Her scream echoed in the room as she pushed the book off of her, getting a better look at her own body more clearly. There was no mistaking it: She wasn't staring at her own body, but rather someone else's. It took her just a few more seconds to piece it together and realize that she was in Jake's body. An Eevee inside a Sneasel's body… this didn't bode well.

Natalie was confused. When she jumped down from the bed she realized that her vision was a bit higher than normal, looking at herself she didn't see any differences… with the exception that she felt taller. 'What? Did I… grow up all of a sudden?' She walked out of the room. The Eevee headed towards the bathroom, looking for a mirror to have a better look at herself. She bumped into Clara on her way there.

"Oh. You're finally up. Had a nice nap?" The woman smiled as she asked.

"Just a bit weird at one… point." Natalie trailed off at the end, when her ears caught the voice that came from her mouth, not listening to Clara's answer. This was getting weirder by the second. With a bit more haste, she went to the bathroom and searched for a mirror, having to jump onto the sink to reach it. It was then that she saw herself, and her eyes went wide open when they met their reflections. The realization that those were not her eyes dawned on her after a bit, and she shivered at the thought. The voice, the size and the eyes. 'Shit! What am I doing in Elly's body!?' She asked herself, almost panicking, and instinctively backed away, losing her ground and falling off from the sink and landing on her side. She muttered a quick apology… and felt stupid for it, yet she stood up and walked out, looking for someone, anyone, that was awake and knew what was going on.

She saw Jake in the living room and went to the Sneasel. "Jake." She called. She was having a nervous breakdown, but tried to explain her situation to him. Elly meanwhile, was flabbergasted that her own body had just called her… and was talking as if she was Jake!

"Wait… who are you?! What are you doing inside my body?!" She asked, getting down from the armchair… and finding out that her body wasn't made to stand on four legs, smashing her face against the floor, as she was a bit taller than her Eevee body.

Natalie stopped talking when he started to talk. Looking funny at the Sneasel for a bit when he asked that. "Elly?" She asked, and went to her side when she landed. "Are you okay?" She asked, offering to help him… her, to stand up. "I'm Natalie, and I woke up in your body. Thought I was the only one. Do you know what's going on?" She informed her friend and asked, restraining herself before she started saying the first thing that came to mind as every time she got this nervous.

"You are in my body? That's… a relief, really." She managed to lift herself up, standing up on two legs and swinging back and forth, grabbing onto the armchair to keep herself from faceplanting again. "Out of all the pokémon in this house, you're one of the few I'd trust my body with… the other being Eric and Jake… and maybe Lucy, but she's a little… you know." She was obviously kidding, even Lucy could've taken her body and she would be fine with it… which triggered a terrible, TERRIBLE thought in her head.

"Wait.. if you're in my body, and… I'm in Jake's… then where did Jake go?! And who is in your body?!" The Eevee had just now realized this, and was starting to get really worried. If just her and Natalie had swapped bodies, then there wouldn't be any problem… but what happened to their companions? Did they also get swapped around randomly?

As if on cue, a scream was heard, and a Pokémon rushed up to them. It was another Eevee, although she was smaller than Elly… her body, of course, and with silver fur. She ran up to Elly, who was in Jake's body, and pounced her, tackling her onto the floor, recognizing the Eevee as Shade, who began shouting. "Who are you, you filthy body snatcher?! Return me to my body at once or else I shall find Ely to be rid of you vile creature!" The speech mannerisms of the Eevee made it clear who was inside Shade's body at the time.

"Jake?! Is that you?! It's me, Elly! I'm stuck in your body!" As Elly shouted this, the Sneasel looked at her in disbelief, then looked at the Eevee standing right besides them… It was Elly, but… his own body was telling him that she was Elly… He got off of himself.

"What? This… this is impossible. Why.. What… how?!" Even Jake, with his analytical mind, couldn't wrap his head about what had just happened.

"Crazy, right?" The other Eevee said. "Natalie over here. And as hard to believe as it is, Elly's telling the truth." She added.

Jake sat down, wiping his forehead of invisible sweat. "This is preposterous… It was such a calm, normal morning… but then you were changing the dome's functions…" His new ears perked up on their own. "That is it! The key! Elly, did something happen as you and Hadrim configured the shield's functions and powers?!" Elly thought about what the former Sneasel was saying.

"I remember focusing on the minds of all the household members… and next thing something really hard hit my head… and then everything went upside down, as if I was flying… and then I blacked out and woke up in your body." Her answer was confusing and badly constructed, but it was all she could muster up, because that entire section was a blur in her mind.

Natalie was about to talk… when her own voice reached her ears and made her look at the couch, seeing herself looking at her paws after letting out a scream that didn't wake up any of the others, probably because they were all out.

"W-what the hell!? It wasn't some weird dream!? Why!? Where's my fire!? My fur!? My other five tails!?" Definitely… Luna was having a little bit of a crisis, her breath was fast and she moved until she fell off the couch and onto the floor. It was then when she saw the other three awake Pokémon and those emerald orbs focused on Natalie. "You! What did you two do!? If this is some kind of prank it is NOT funny IN THE SLIGHTEST!" She yelled to her while she walked up to the bigger Eevee, Natalie backing away against the wall.

"Uh… C-calm down, Luna! T-this is just an accident." Nat said, trying to calm down the other anxious female, but Luna kept baring her fangs. With such a young body it looked almost cute, if not for the serious tone she was using.

"You want me to calm down!? I lost my fire! I lost almost all my tails and I am in one of the smallest bodies in this household! If you don't fix it then I'll make sure to recover my typing by yesterday!" She yelled, distressed, but the threat made Natalie look at her friend. Was she willing to take HER option for her!?

"What!? Hey I'm not the one that caused this shit to happen, ok!? If you even dare get near a firestone while in MY body I swear I'll make sure you truly lose five of your tails personally!" Nat shot back, angered and not for little, Once done there is no way back in the situation the previously Vulpix has threatened with.

"Silence, you bickering irrational females! For starters, the Elly that you are talking to ISN'T Elly, Luna! It is in reality Natalie, who was swapped bodies with Elly. I am Jake, who is stuck in Shade's body, and Elly is stuck in mine. Second of all, this is NOT something she fully intended, or at least she has claimed so… so contain your anger!" The Sneasel wasn't having any of that stupid bickering, specially at a time like this.

"Butt off you ice hearted male chauvinist!" Luna let out, sitting down and looking at herself again. While Natalie sat up straight and breathed deep to calm herself before she talked again. However, the damage was done, and Jake looked at her, furious.

"You little ignorant fox! How dare you say something like that?! I firmly stand by the idea that both females and males are fully capable of being either intelligent or idiotic individuals, and I can safely claim that you, right now, are being one of the later!" Jake's words sound extremely weird when they come out of Shade's mouth.

"Please, Luna. Calm down, okay? We will find a way to fix this but first we need to know what happened." Natalie said and then looked at Elly. "When I woke up I saw some glass shards on the floor and a ball under the shattered window. Does this help you, Elly?" She said to… her friend.

"A ball…" She looks at her friends, her eyes stopping on the Pokémon that claims to be Luna. The realization dawns on her. "A ball!" She exclaims, looking at Luna. "Weren't you playing with a ball just outside of the house?!" She's looking at Luna accusingly.

"Yes. Radius, Shade and me. We were playing in the backyard and Hadrim's window is on the side of the house." Then she remembered. "Until Radius threw it to the side and we ran after it, I passed it to Shade and… broke the window." She finishes, blushing ashamed and laying flat on the floor in shame. "Aw shit." She let out.

What happened afterwards only happened once in all of history. Both Elly and Jake, at the same time, unleashed a flurry of words at the Vulpix-turned-Eevee. They criticized, chastised her, and Jake dropped subtle insults that went over the former fire type's head, but that Elly got and couldn't help but look at the Sneasel angrily, as if telling him to stop saying that stuff.

"Okay! Okay! It was me the one that hit you I get it but I didn't know! I just realized it now, geez!" Luna let it out, looking away, her cheeks still flustered in shame and those words being her way of asking them to stop their rampaging… albeit not clearly.

Elly groaned loudly in annoyance. "Oh this is such a mess… worst of it all, I seriously doubt I'll be able to use my psychic powers to revert this… Because of Jake's typing, I'm not going to be able to revert this whole mess… so let's cross our fingers and hope that Hadrim got into a body that doesn't have problems with psychic moves…" She was getting worried now.

"Let's hope, yeah. He has a chance of three out of twelve to end up in a Dark type's body." Natalie said.

As Natalie said this, a scream was heard from outside. Everyone looked at eachother, the first one to run outside being Jake. Elly tries to run off after him, but almost trips and falls, having to inch her way towards the backyard door little by little. Luna lost no time in running behind him to know what was happening, while Natalie went to Elly's side and offered her help once again to her and then going out after the other two, Elly obviously accepting the additional support.

As they come out, they find… Dark, who is hanging upside down from a branch and screaming their lungs out. At the same time, right underneath them, is… Luna, who is jumping up and down, looking at the dark type. "Hold on, Emily! I'll go get something to cushion your fall!" The fire type dashes away, their identity remaining unknown. Jake, who is apparently already fully accustomed to his new body, runs up to the hanging pokémon after the Vulpix leaves.

Elly sighs in relief as she overhears the conversation those two were having. "Well, at least that leaves two free dark type… please, don't let him be in Zed's or Nox's body…" As she says this, she looks at the Zoroark hanging on for dear life. "Let me guess… Emily? Is that you?" She didn't receive any coherent answer, but she could guess from how she was reacting. "Alright, calm down… does anyone have any ideas on how we're going to get her down from there?"

Jake shakes his head. "My current body is way too small. It could be seriously injured if I were to cushion her fall… and the same applies to my original body, so don't attempt any risky business, ok?" Elly nods. Of course she wasn't going to attempt anything, she would be the one getting hurt if she did.

"Dark's body may not have grown up fully but he's still big for any of us to try and cushion… her fall." Natalie commented, thinking. "Luca would be a good help here… or whomever is in her body at the moment." She had assumed that everyone had been swapped, since all that had woken up had found themselves in different bodies to their own.

As if on cue, another shout was heard. This time, a female's, though at that point nobody could be sure of that. "Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" The shout was one of pure distress and fear, and instants after it was emitted, Luca ran out from the house and looked at the sky. She was covered in soup, probably the remains of today's lunch, and began jumping and flapping her arms wildly, as if trying to take off and fly. Eventually, she gave up, falling to her knees and covered her face, sobbing. "Why…Why?!" She looked up, raising her fist. "Why must you be so cruel to me! What have I done to deserve such a nefarious fate!? You skank, lady luck! Why have you forsaken me?!" She kept going on and on, the Lucario's identity pretty much obvious by this point.

"Dibs that we just found Serge." Luna commented, watching this saddening display.

"Seems like it." Natalie said, counting the percentage in her head but not voicing it, and biting her lower lip a bit since they just ended in two out of ten.

"That's not even a guess at this point…" Elly said, whilst Jake remained silent. He knew the bird was trying to be poetic… but it just came out ridiculous looking. At that moment, the Lucario locked eyes with the group, more specifically, Natalie, who was once again mistaken for Elly, as Serge ran up to her and grabbed the Eevee, then began shaking her vigorously.

"Elly! What have you done?! Why am I inside another pokémon's body?! Why don't I have wings?! Why can't I fly?! I need to fly! Flying is my life! I need to fly! Fix it, fix it, fix iiiiiiiit!" He began screaming his lungs out, albeit since it was a female's voice, it sounded more like screeching.

Poor Natalie ended with swirls in the eyes and dizzy with that shaking the Lucario was giving her, trying to tell him she wasn't Elly.

"Serge. You are not the only one that swapped and that's Natalie right now." Luna informed him. "Elly's right here." She pointed at the Sneasel, who was trying her hardest to keep herself on her new two feet, a task made difficult because of Natalie's absence. Noticing this, Luna went to her side to offer some help herself, but forgot about her now smaller body, still she might be of some help… maybe.

She was too short, but instead of complaining Elly just cursed Jake's natural height, and the fact that he was always standing straight. The Sneasel didn't reach pretty high either, so the only thing she could do was stand perfectly still, keep that balance she somehow had and pray to high heaven that Serge didn't take out his confusion and frustration on her. Thankfully, it wasn't like that, and the Lucario set down the Eevee he had been shaking, tapping her head before moving over to look at Elly. "Alright… can you tell me what exactly happened?" The previously psychic user explained the whole situation to him, but omitted the part where they had figured out that Luna and the rest had been the source of all that. That information didn't favour anyone at that specific time.

"Well… then let's try to find everyone else… and play the greatest game of "Guess who?" ever." Even at times like those, Serge could still crack some jokes.

"Always positive, huh?" Natalie asked him with a smile after she recovered from her dizziness and went back to help Elly.

Another shriek was heard as the group began talking. Everyone looked at the upside down hanging Zoroark, suddenly remembering what they were supposed to be doing. "Right… Serge, would you kindly help Emily down from that tree?" Jake asked in an extremely weird tone, which felt like an order more than a statement. However, Serge recognized the reference, smirking.

"Didn't know you liked THAT type of literature…" He approached the Eevee in Zoroark's fur, opening his arms wide. "Alright Emily, hear me out! You're gonna fall and I'm gonna catch you before you fall down, ok? Let's count down fr-" Before he could end that sentence, the Zoroark's face suddenly changed from that of distress to cheerfulness as she let go of the branch. She screamed in delight, and he screamed in horror before the full weight of the Zoroark came down on poor Serge, who was stuck in Luca's body. Sure, he may not have been fully grown, but he still packed a punch, tackling the Lucario into the ground, successfully cushioning the fall, making it so that she felt barely anything.

She happily got off of him, dusting herself off and looked at her improvised safety net. "Thanks Luca!" She shouted. Everyone looked at her, really confused, but Elly guessed that she was so absorbed into her own world that she hadn't realized what had actually happened. After they managed to stop her from strolling away, once again, they retold the entire story. "Wow… That sounds fun! And here I was wondering why Luna was calling herself Nox…" As she dropped that information bomb, everyone looked at the Zoroark, then at Luna.

"Know what? I think we better wait until we are all together to explain eve-what did you just say!?" Luna started talking and then what Emily said reached her brain and was processed, interrupting herself mid sentence and looking back at Emily, the Zoroark standing like a quadruped, luckily his body structure allowed it or Emily would be feeling a bit uncomfortable. "No! That… hot headed can't have my body!" She barked almost getting anxious again. "Of everyone to get in there it had to be him! He better not try anything funny." She let out, breathing again to try and calm herself before she exploded again like before.

"Speak of the devil…" Serge said as he got up and pushed his back in place. As if on cue, Nox appeared from behind the house, carrying several sticks and leaves in his mouth. As soon as he turned around the corner and got a look at the group, the sticks fell from his mouth.

"Oh come ON! The one time I try to be a hero and a "gentleman" and I get shut down like this!" He pouts and kicks the sticks away in a rage, walking up to them. "Hey Elly, can you please tell me what the hell's going on?" He then notices the deadly looks that Natalie is giving him. "What's up with you? Something on my face, asides from being inside a hot headed vixen's body?" He somehow managed to repeat the same insult that Luna had used before to describe him.

"Nox…" Luna calls him trying to control her temper for once instead of plain out slapping him and making him spin like a spinning top. "That there in Elly's body is Natalie, Elly is right by her side… We'll explain later when we are all together." She said to him, not revealing herself just yet, but that he somehow gave her back her insult to him made her want to slap him.

Nox didn't understand what she was saying, but he just shrugged. "Alright, I don't really understand it all, but I'll play along." He said, rolling his eyes and walking alongside them, shooting weird glares at Luca, who was acting really weirdly.

Natalie rolled her eyes for this. "Look, Nox. You are in Luna's body and Emily here is in Dark's, what makes you think the rest of us hadn't changed bodies too?" She asked him. "Anyways we better talk later and keep looking for the others, I think some are in the living room. Serge… you should look where you were before you woke up as Luca, because the one in your body will be there. And does anyone know where Zed and Lucy went?" She asked, trying to keep a cold mind and concentrate in the task at hand of getting them all in the same room first and talk about this situation later.

"Oh I'm gonna tell you where we went alright, you low life furry sorry excuse for a best friend!" Suddenly, Dust walks into the scene, looking absolutely livid, with another Riolu walking up from behind, standing behind the other Riolu and… blushing? Elly immediately recognizes the body as her mate's… and the pokémon inside of it as Zed, and of course, following Lucy as always, with her wonderfully colorful language.

"Oh not this again, please." Natalie muttered to herself and wishing someone stopped the incoming Riolu and explained the basics to Lucy. However, Elly, who was in Jake's body, was the one to step forward.

"Lucy. Stop. That's not Elly, I'm Elly. I'm stuck inside of this body because somehow our bodies got swapped whilst you two were away." She tried to excuse herself and skim over what had happened. "Sorry about all this, but… please, keep yourself calm until we find everyone, ok? We don't know where you two were before, and… we still haven't found Eric, Luca, Dust, Dark… and worst of all, Hadrim. Do you know where your bodies were before this… mess started?" Elly asked.

Lucy and Zed looked at eachother, sharing a guilty look. "Oh, it's gonna be a MESS alright… Yeah, we can probably find ourselves… that sounds weird, but… it's not gonna be nice to find whoever got stuck in our place. I mean, they're going to get one hell of a surprise when they wake up, that's for sure… But oh my god, this body is horrible! The nose is way too good, and I can't stop smelling myself, and I smell horrible Elly. Horrible!" She inched closer to the Sneasel, making a really strange situation, made even more awkward by the fact that neither of them could properly stand on two legs. She stumbled forward and Elly had to catch her, which also unbalanced her, the duo standing still in a weird embrace.

"Ok ok, stop carping, will you? I'll fix this up as soon as we find the rest, specially Hadrim, but please, go find your bodies now. Do you want someone to tag along?" Immediately Lucy let go of her friend, and didn't face plant because Zed, who was used to walking on two legs thanks to his usual transformations, grabbed her paw and pulled her back, both of them ending in a rather awkward pose with her leaning against the Zorua, who was in Eric's body. The image of Eric holding Dust as if they were a couple would forever be burned into their minds.

"No!" Both of the fighting types shouted in unison, looked at eachother, and Zed decided to take up the word. "We'll… go look for them on our own, ok? We won't be out for long!" Zed and Lucy walked towards the trees just the way they came: Lucy walking awkwardly from side to side and Zed helping her keep her balance.

Serge snorted as he saw this. "Wow, that awkward walk… If these wasn't any context to this, you could safely assume that…" Suddenly something clicked inside of his head. "Ooooh shit weren't the-" Before he could end that train of thought, Elly applied her elbow to his side. It was a critical hit, because the Pidgeot bent forward and cut himself off, the Eevee giving him a cold glare similar to those that the original owner of her new body usually gave. "Alright, point taken…" He simply said, admitting defeat.

"Elly… the odds are getting slim. Had has two out of seven to be in a dark type." Natalie counted and recounted to make sure she had them all in mind before informing the former Eevee and counting again as they still had to know who was stuck in Nox' and Zed's bodies.

"Don't even remind me… alright, let's split up." She looked at the still groaning Lucario. "Serge, you were sleeping on the roof, right? If that's the case, someone up there is either still snoozing away or about to fall off, so get up there ASAP. It could easily be Eric or Hadrim, and we need those two intact." The Lucario stood straight and saluted her mockingly, trying to fly away with his wings… just to realize that he didn't have them and looked like a total idiot. He resigned to his condition and walked inside the house, his head hanging low, Nox following him. Luna in one paw didn't like being near the other fire type, she tolerated him since, ok he's a good guy and she had seen that during the time that this exploration team had been in the household, even if his behaviour rubbed her in the wrong way. On the other paw she'd rather be vigilant, hell she would even volunteer to SLEEP WITH HIM to make sure he didn't try anything funny at any moment. She didn't know how much she would last around him but she followed the other two, offering her help to them if needed.

"Alright, that's that… Natalie, help me get over to Hadrim and Luca's room. We need to check on Hadrim's body, see who is stuck inside. And as for you guys…" She looks at Jake and the ever so innocent Emily, who is way too distracted looking at the clouds in the sky. "Why don't you two go check on the other pokémon on the couches? With some luck, one of them will be Hadrim." Jake responds with a nod, walking away on four paws like a natural born, whilst Emily followed him closely, alternating between walking on four legs and two, tempted to try out her new body.

"It's… kind of nostalgic seeing and hearing Dark so childish again." Natalie commented, some memories coming to her and making her smile a bit to then help Elly get to the room where Hadrim's body was still passed out. Both of them approached the room and walked inside, where they saw some glass shards on the carpet. Not too far away from the entrance was the bed, on the which Natalie had woken up, and on it was Hadrim's unconscious body. If Elly had fingers, she would be crossing them… She had the tendency to facepalm as she realized she now had fingers, but didn't really know how to cross them. Either way, they approached the Espeon, giving his body a gentle nudge.

"How much you think it takes for someone to wake up from this?" Natalie asked out of the blue while looking at Hadrim's body for a moment. However, the Espeon started to stir after those words and his amber eyes opened after a moment. The one stuck in Hadrim's body had to wait for a few seconds before its vision focussed and it could see clearly again before looking around and seeing them there, sitting up. The first sign that something was off for Nat and Elly was the frown that came upon the Espeon's face, who looked down at himself... and then all over. 'Not Hadrim.' Natalie thought and she was about to ask when…

"Okay… can any of you explain what is going on or are you going to let me guess?" Keeping calm and trying to stay cool even being so nervous that claws came out of the body's digits… Natalie knew her brother too well to know where to look at when she heard this tone trying to be as normal as possible and almost managing to do so.

"It seems like we just found Dark." She said, shaking her head a bit after looking at the Espeon's body language.

"Uh. Yeah. But again… why am I back to four le-erm… paws?" He confirmed and added the question, sounding a tad more insistent this time, sitting in front of them on the bed.

Elly couldn't help but smile. "We'll explain it later, but… just so you know, I am Elly, and this is Natalie. We've had our bodies swapped. We found Emily in your body, in case you wanted to know." The Sneasel informed the former Zoroark quickly, obviously leaving the longer, more drawn out question, for whenever they were all together.

Meanwhile at the roof of the house. Luca had woken up already and was holding onto the roof for dear life, her eyes closed and… wings and talons hugging the roof, she didn't know how she got there, and at the moment she didn't care. She just didn't want to fall down from such a high place. Serge walked into the room just underneath where she was, trying to figure out where he had been sleeping. "It should be around here… Hey, is anybody up there?! Hello?!" Serge shouted with the Lucario's own voice.

Luna went for her side and approached a window, at least she had remained on all fours so she had just to readjust a bit her movements, being able to look out onto the roof to see a Pidgeot hugging the roof with everything. This made her nervous. "Okay, I think the one in your body is afraid of heights." Serge walked over and leaned outside, noticing the bird that was clinging for dear life.

"Oi, you sexy beast! Who are you?" He asked with an obviously sarcastic tone, a foot already on the window frame.

"Not the best time for that, birdbrain! Help… your body out of this, no one here knows how to fly except you… and I think your wings are in another's commands. Are you going to risk a broken limb?" The former Vulpix was heating up again and when she realized she started to breath again to calm herself. "In other words. Quit joking for now and let's help." She said and walked towards the Pidgeot being careful of not slipping and falling herself down to the ground.

Serge bit his lip and huffed and looked down at the floor, as he was standing just outside, on the window frame. "Well jeez, I heard Nox call you hot headed… he wasn't lying! And what am I supposed to do, tell them to not move because they could potentially break every bone in their body? The least I can do is joke so they don't lose their… grip!" As he said this last part, he jumped up and clung onto the roof of the house, looking down. It wasn't that much of a huge fall, so it wouldn't hurt that bad… his body was used to drops like that. Then again, his new body wasn't, but he was still managing just fine with it, getting up onto the roof and walking over to the panicking bird. Just like he said: All in the mind.

"Well sorry for not wanting a friend falling of a house's roof and breaking another friend's bones. Next time I know not to worry." She let out just like that and stopped. "That was too harsh…" She said as an apology, head and ears lowered.

Serge decided to not pay attention to anything she said, and instead crouched down and extended his new acquired paws at the bird's wings, grabbing them, "I gotcha, I gotcha… Now start pulling yourself up before I rip my wings off! I'm not that much of a fatass!" He says, pulling up.

The one in his body freaked out for a moment when it was grabbed, just to then relax when it heard a familiar voice… way too familiar. Looking at who was helping it the bird's eyes went wide open but still followed the words and pulled itself up. It wasn't until the both of them were up there that it was known that the one in Serge's body was Luca, who had fainted while preparing lunch. "Cool story." The bird answered in a rather lively tone. "Now… quick question… How do we get down from here?!" He asked, realizing that they had no other way to get down.

Down in the living room Emily and Jake found Radius, who ended up in Nox's body, Shade in her brother's and eventually they found Emily's body… who was sitting against a corner and looking at the wall. Jake and Emily were tempted to talk to the Eevee… but then again, if they were in that position, it had to be for a reason. At that moment, four pokémon were walking out of the trees. The two Riolus that had disappeared into the brush before, and of course, a Zorua and a Shinx, both of their faces blank and completely scarred.

"Now… we all agree that this never, ever happened, and never tell anyone of what happened in there?" Lucy asks in Dust's body. Both Lucy and Zed, who were in fact Dust and Hadrim respectively, nodded. But the damage was already done, and they both doubted they would ever be capable at looking at eachother the same way for the time being. It was a simple deal. Neither of them said nothing about how father and son woke up and they won't be the laughing stock of the household, in exchange Lucy would keep the Everstone on her and they wouldn't tell the rest of the household what the couple was doing right when the accident happened. Dust didn't know if his body would change without his mind, but either way he didn't want to risk it. Hadrim looked at his son in Shinx' body when he insisted so fiercely on Lucy keeping the stone close, but held back the question in his mind and looked at the Riolu pair.

"What about Elly?" He asked. He wanted to know if the other psychic user of the household had been luckier than him regarding typing.

Zed didn't know if to answer or not… but he eventually did, though his answer was preceded by a sigh. "She ended up in Jake's body… so she can't use her psychic powers either."

It was Dust's turn now to look at his father in a Zorua's body. It is curious how body language travels with the mind as well. Hadrim stiffened for a moment and his eyes went tense. If he was in his body one of his eyelids would have twitched as a sign of him snapping. And honestly with all this mess and a bit more from before this day… This Espeon-turned-Zorua NEEDED to let it out. "Please… forgive me for putting such foul words in your mouth, Zed." After this he filled his lungs with air and… "Just Arceus damned perfuckingfect shit!" And with that, Hadrim started to rant with curses, swears, think the foul word you know, he said them all!

Meanwhile, Dust sat down and started to count each one of them, until he lost count after fifteen. The normally cooled and calm minded male went into a fit, spitting out all of what had him tense with at least five and at max ten swears in the middle of it. Was one to listen carefully they could understand why he was so pent up. Once he finished, Hadrim stayed panting for a moment to then breath deep, just like Luna usually does to calm herself, and sat down, clearly a lot more calm than before. "We better get to the others and start to think on how to get help to fix this." He said and looked at Dust. "How many this time?" He asked out of the blue.

"I lost count after the first fifteen then counted around thirty more. So I'd say new record?" The now female quadruped electric type said, rather awkwardly.

Hadrim just sighed. "I owe your mother forty five poké, then, at the very least." Hadrim stated. Zed and Lucy had been staring at Hadrim dumbfounded. Hearing all of those obscenities leaving the Zorua's mouth was uncommon enough… this was going to be a really weird experience for all of them. A few minutes later, they finally got back to the house and entered the main room, where everyone was in now. Serge and Luca had miraculously gotten down from the roof after having carefully trudged along the window frames… with a bird in his arms. But it had worked nonetheless, and now they were all standing around the table inside the living room, making a circle around it.

"We look like a secret cult that is about to have their super secret reunion…" Once again, the bird resorted to literary references to make jokes, which wasn't missed by avid readers in the room, who either looked at him and smirked or looked away, trying to hide a quick smile. Either way, the room was dead silent, and after everyone had settled in and were calm enough… "Alright, time to play… "Guess who?" super deluxe edition. Featuring the entirety of Team Star and the Kaiser household!" He just couldn't stop himself, could he?

"Well… anyways… let's try to pull ourselves together, ok?" Elly announced this and said who she was. Everyone in the room explained who they were… except for one pokémon in particular. Whoever was in Emily's body had remained silent.

"And you are?" Hadrim asked calmly to the silent Eevee. Having on account that they were only focussing on the minds in the household when this happened he had a guess but he decided to wait patiently for the Pokémon to say who was in that body.

They didn't say anything, Elly walking up to them. The Eevee visually cringed as the Sneasel approached, and Elly knew exactly who it was. Everyone from the Kaiser family had said who they were, and so had the members of Team Star… all there, except for one. She stood in front of them… "Eric?" She simply asked. There was an awkward moment of silence that lasted for a full minutes, before the Eevee fell over and face planted, letting out a muffled "Yes". Several of the pokémon in the room erupted with laughter, such as Nox and Serge, who couldn't help themselves.

Luna also burst out laughing for this, hell it was Eric, the one who had his team in a strict regime of training to keep in shape, who ended in the only body of this house that the only training she did was trying and failing to sneak up on the rest of the household, except for that one time but it was because Luna was more asleep than anything. Dust also sniggered but on his part, he tried to hold back out of respect even if it was escaping him miserably at least he wasn't plain out letting his lungs in the laugh. Aside from this two, the others stood silent, some not finding it funny in the slightest, others completely holding back as to avoid making it worst for the former Riolu.

After it all settles down, Eric raises up to his feet, looking at Elly, who returns an affectionate look and hugs him, sending the message that she was glad to know he was fine. Jake coughs and clears his throat after the first two minutes of said hug. "Elly, please, I would rather have my body intact for when I regain control over it." The former Eevee separates herself from her mate, albeit they stick close to eachother. Jake steps forward. "Thank you. And onto more pressing matters… We have all been body swapped under strange circumstances, and thus have lost control over our original bodies and abilities. I don't have to explain that this is an extremely bad situation… which would be an understatement, in my honest opinion. Elly, if you please…" He takes a step back after announcing what he had to say and Elly is the one that steps into the middle, looking at Hadrim, who is stuck in Zed's body, also expecting him to take a step forward. This was also his doing so the former Espeon also stepped forwards to explain this mess… and give some bad news to everyone.

"Well… first of all, we want to apologize for this mess… But we know that a simple apology won't suffice. We plan on finding a way to fix this as soon as we can, and we're going to start as soon as this talk ends… but we have to explain some things first, the first of the which are, unfortunately, a tad bit of bad news." Elly said, letting Hadrim take it from there.

The Zorua looked at everyone before starting to talk. "Due to the the type of the pokémon we are stuck in now… our psychic abilities have been canceled. And taking time to unlock them again would take months or years. And I doubt any of us want to wait that much." He stated, some of the pokémon there nodding.

"The sooner the better." Luna said trying to keep an even tone while her eyes went like daggers towards Nox.

"Now now… let's not despair." Elly said, trying to settle down whatever worries they were starting to have. "Hadrim and I have been talking about this issue… and from what he's told me, this isn't the first time this has ever happened. There are recorded events in history where pokémon found themselves in situations such as these and were able to return to their original bodies. Sometimes, extremely powerful psychics were used… and others, they seeked legendary pokémon for help. However, we are not exactly sure to whom they talked to, because… well, they're stories. But we've got to start somewhere, right?" Elly said. Her answer hadn't exactly been well received, but they really didn't have any brighter ideas, and the two pokémon that were talking right now where the experts when it came to this sort of stuff.

Hadrim was sure that neither of them wanted anyone to know about this mess, or at least as less outsiders as possible, so calling for the pack's help on this, which in and of itself was an idea, was kept in Hadrim's mind for the moment. "I remember reading about one Legendary that has the ability to mindswap." Natalie said. "Can't remember who at the moment."

"Well… seems like we got some research to do so… get a book, a cup of your favorite drink and a piece of fruit… and get to read." Hadrim allowed himself a tiny joke to lighten the mood and take some pressure off his back. After it was clear no more talking was going to be done, the Pokémon started to move, but Luna instead of going to find a book, she went directly towards Nox.

"Listen to me for a moment, Nox. I know you are a good guy under that boasting and hotheadedness of yours, but I'm not going to risk anything so... until this mess is fixed we will be sleeping in the same room!" She stated for him, making some of the remaining pokémon in the living room look at her with surprise but no one said a thing.

Nox, however, looked at her as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him. "No way!" He shouted, getting depressed. Lucy overheard them and laughed.

"Well, I thought you wanted to sleep with a girl Nox!" She exclaimed, making fun of the former Houndour's condition.

"I still do! But… not like this!" He responded, clearly annoyed.

"What are you thinking about? I said in the same room, not on the same bed. I rather keep an eye over you, just in case." Luna added, not so clearly stating what she wanted to prevent him from doing but it was probably clear… It was for Dust and Dark, since both of them got a smirk on their muzzles. Even Lucy got it, and she couldn't help but snicker, hissing at Dust so he looked at her, then napped the armband on her right arm, reminding him who was in control. Knowing the Houndour, however, not even that kind of threat would've mattered, no amount of observation was going to keep him from doing it.


The Lone Island, known to many as The Inaccessible, and not because of the sake of it, but rather that it truly was an inaccessible island, since the currents around the island were maddening, be it in the air or in the water. This meant that the sea was always roaring in it's surroundings, and that black as coal clouds covered the sky, powerful lightning bolts raining down onto the fertile and living surface of the island. The place had it's own… chaotic peace, so to say. Nobody knew why the weather around that area was so volatile and the conditions never really allowed for a more detailed investigation should they be carrying appropriate equipment, and the crags that surrounded the island were far too steep to be climbed. There was only one way that lead towards the upper area of the island, and towards the centre, but it was only visible as a small plain about thirty meters above the water.

However, conditions were somehow even worse that day, with thunder and electricity raining down non-stop, twisters appearing in the water and boulders falling from the crags. At that point the thunderbolts were focusing in one spot as they twisted around an invisible epicentre where all electricity congregated, and where a shape slowly began taking form as flesh and bone were seemingly created from the many bolts that struck it. The creature, whose body was still forming, looked at it's claws whilst two wings flapped on it's back with incredible strength, and eventually the electricity faded, absorbed by the creature's body. It's fur was golden, with completely red eyes, and it's body seemed like that of a human, yet it had many animalistic traits which were reminiscent of a wolf's and… some of a dragon's, such as it's feathery wings at the long tail, and of course, the six horns that protruded from it's head. Whilst it's fur was mostly golden, the front part was a bit more clear, and it's claws were a bright yellow, just like it's horns. The feathers had much more darker tones towards the ends, whilst the tail had a longer and purplish fur and green stripes covered its body, similar to those of a tigre. The creature smiled and let out a mighty roar towards the heavens, the dry thunderstorm above it intensifying even further, bolts dancing amongst the clouds, whilst two more struck the creature directly, who held them as if they were physical entities. Nature's electricity formed two blue blades, charged with natural and eternal electricity that the creature converted and absorbed.

Down in the depths, the water twisted and coiled, and it didn't take long for a true underwater twister to form around an aquatic sphere that seemed to be absorbing it, slowly taking a shape similar to that of the electrical creature. However, this creature's body was covered in blue scales, the scales on it's head being of a much lighter tone, and progressively became darker and darker as they travelled down to its tail. A true deluge started pouring from the clouds up high whilst the creature rose through the twister, which slowly closed and disappeared once the creature was standing above the water. It then put a hand inside of the water and pulled out a massive water hammer, the size of the which was comparable to that of the creature, the handle solidifying to turn black, whilst the head hardened and took a shape and colour reminiscent of underwater rocks. After the weapon formed, it placed it on its back and began moving towards the island, the rain stopping.

Back in solid ground, the trees twisted and bent, whilst the earth trembled and cracked. A rock stuck out from the earth, covered in roots and vegetation. It slowly cracked like an egg shell and opened as a creature similar to the other two burst out, except that this one's body was completely made out of rock, was missing an arm, a wing and three horns. However, the tree roots around it weren't long before they began crawling across its' body and formed the missing limbs, including the horns. From the ground it rose a massive greatsword with a basalt edge, to then approach a tree and grasp a branch, only to pull out a massive wooden hammer. Both weapons were sheathed on the creature's back, both of them massive enough to be intended to be wielded two-handed, but it moved them around with ease with just one. The creature sat down on the center of the island. Waiting.

Far from there, in an island away from The Inaccessible, Fierna was it called, a sleeping volcano suddenly burst to life with a strong explosion, sounding off in all directions so loudly that the inhabitants of the island feared that the world was ending. Massive quantities of lava rose to the sky, but instead of raining down on the island, it stayed floating above to the amazement of the witness of this rather strange… turn of events in this catastrophe. In the crater, a winged being walked out of the lava. It's body was completely made out of lava. The exterior of its body started to form a cracked volcanic rock husk, solid and resistant, but not for that less hot than what it contained. Its eyes were lava. Wings of fire and rock rose the being up towards the floating mass of liquid fire, where it submerged a claw. All that lava was then slowly absorbed. Tons of boiling melted rock concentrating in the same place until the only thing remained was a staff with a solid rock exterior but with a core as hot as the planet's heart. Just like the being's body, who redirected its flight towards the island where the others were. The inhabitants of Fierna were stunned by these… paranormal events. Some were afraid while others ended weirded out by this event. There were even some that recorded it with their pokenav or their phones.

It is said that in graveyards… the dead rise from their graves. If that were to be the case, one would expect they'd do so during the night, not in the middle of the day. In an ancient place of Kirol Island, a black mist was concentrating in a spot where one could appreciate many small ruins, amongst the which one would see wooden crosses. However, the mist stopped above a empty plain. Slowly, the ground split, a skeletal claw poking out and excavating up, another following suit, a large hole soon forming. From it rose a bare skeleton, hollow on the inside, and was enveloped by the black mist completely as the creature roared out, it's spectral voice echoing across the island and reaching a pack of pokémon and a lone house not too far away from a small village. Once the skeleton was completely enveloped by the mist, it trailed down it's arm and took the form of a large two handed scythe, but before it completely solidified, the being held it out and reformed, this time taking the shape of two large black guns that the being put inside of it's chest, under the mist. Its head was covered by the same mist, albeit it looked like a hood. The mist then fell down its arms and body, trailing behind like a tunic, extending even to it's wings as they flapped, carrying him upwards and then towards the Inaccessible.


The sun had set over the horizon, and everyone in town was going back to their homes to enjoy dinner with their families. However, outside of the city, in the countryside, a family was going through pure hell.

"Let us go, you don't have-!" The head of the family's voice was cut short as he, his wife, his two daughters and the mother's father were locked away inside of a truck, the hermetic lock of said truck making it impossible for their voices to be heard in the outside, where desert camo wearing men with guns were watching the truck. A man without a weapon, wearing the same camo with a slightly redder tinge and brown beret, pounded on the side of the truck.

"All clear! Transport these to the laboratory for testing!" The high-ranking soldier ordered the driver to do so, who turned on the engine and drove away, waiting in front of a barrier, which two guards lifted, doing a military salute as the vehicle drove away into the setting sun. The entire farm was surrounded by a barbed wire barrier, which the military looking men had taken transported with them there. To the right of the house, and between this building and the farmhouse was a large white tent, from the which came out a steel pipe, which connected the tent at a large container truck, the sound of a liquid being sucked out could be heard.

A man of small stature approached the tent as the truck with their test subjects departed. His blond hair shone against the outline of the sun, and the surface of his glasses reflected the light, making it unable for the soldiers to see his blue eyes, his white coat waving with the gentle breeze, underneath the which had a simple black short sleeved shirt and the same camo trousers the armed men had. He approached the entrance of the tent, where two soldiers with Kalashnikovs were standing guard. They both stomped the ground and saluted the man, who ignored them and walked right in, where more scientists were walking about. In the middle of the room was a glass dome, out the top of the which came out a steel pipe. Inside, a thick black liquid was being sucked out with a lot of force, travelling extremely quickly.

The blond haired scientist got close to a brown haired one, who stood straight and saluted. "Gerard, yes sir!" He shouted, the aforementioned scientist's face instantly cringing, waving his head in displease. He disliked it when they saluted like that… it was ridiculous and unnecessary.

"Report. What is the status of the reserve?" He inquired.

The lower ranking scientist turned around, flipping through papers on a table and reading the text on it. "The liquid's extremely corrosive properties made extraction extremely difficult. However, through process of deduction, we have managed to suck up the liquid quickly enough so that it's corrosive effect doesn't affect the piping, which is deposited inside of an anti-gravity field, produced by the activity of two giant magnets, and then is transported safely inside the carrier trucks. So far, four containers have been filled, and only fifteen percent of the reserve is left! Calculations estimate that extraction will be completed in 20 minutes!" The full report was read out loud to Gerard, who then grabbed the papers and inspected them personally. The scientist had intentionally omitted the material losses they had suffered because of their incompetence, as well as the loss of a rifle and an arm from a rookie soldier, who had the bright idea to dip the gun into the liquid.

"She won't be pleased with this…" Gerard grabs his lab coat's neck and pulls on it, as he's sweating profusely. Whenever he gets nervous he starts sweating profusely. "Start packing up, we're almost done here. I want this whole perimeter to be cleared up as soon as the last drop from that pond leaves through that pipe." Gerard's orders reached the scientist's ears and he ran away, telling his fellow companions of their superior's orders. Gerard left the tent, ignoring once again the saluting soldiers, looking at the entrance of the perimeter.

The barrier was being lifted in order for a limousine to get inside. It drove around the farmhouse and to the middle of the area, where Gerard was standing, really nervous. A black bodyguard left the front of limousine and opened a door in the back, in front of Gerard. From this door, and at a painfully slow pace, a tall slender woman came out. Her hair was blond, just like Gerard's, but she was really tall, standing at two meters and fifteen centimeters. She was wearing a lab coat, just like the scientists, but her camo pants were blue, instead of brown, whilst also wearing high heels.

"Gerard…" She called his name, the short man standing straight and gulping down. "What is the current situation?" As soon as she finished asking, Gerard began talking, making sure that there wasn't a delay between her question and his response. He went through all of the points that the previous scientist had gone through, as well as the many material losses. Her cold face doesn't shift, but her piercing blue eyes do, switching to look at the tent, then at Gerard.

"Useless." She states, taking a few steps forward. "This site should have been cleared hours ago… yet here you all are, wasting our precious time…" Her german accent is strong, incomprehensible for anyone who isn't accustomed to listening to her. "Make sure that those dummkopf are taken to my laboratory… I shall deal with them personally… Now finish this charade at once and bring back this circus with you back to your ridiculous mansion!" She turns around, really angry.

Gerard walks after her. "Wait, Nashandra, I…" She turns around at the mention of her name, flashing her six pokeballs, which she's hiding under her lab coat, directing her hateful eyes at the man of short stature, who feels his sweat freezing on his skin.

"You shall not pronounce that name… ever!" She turns her glare to another direction. "I cannot believe I am related to such… dirt." Her ever sharp tongue attacks the shorter man, who merely stands still and looks at the ground. His sister walks back into her limousine and waits for the door to close, then lowers the window as the driver turns on the engine. "Fifteen minutes. That is all you have to clean up this mess… otherwise you and your team shall take a one way trip to facilities." She states this with a monotone voice, rises the window again and the limousine drives away, back the way it came.

Gerard is left there, speechless, happy he had gotten away from her fury… but scared, and furious. He turns around and starts shouting orders, his screaming is heard from the limousine as it's leaving, and inside, Nashandra wears a delighted smile.


People tend to say that we have to smile and accept the changes that happen during our lives. Smile and accept. What is not easy to accept is that you are calmly walking through your local park to, all of a sudden, find yourself next to some mansion, be drugged until you fall asleep and then wake up after being dragged into a cell where you wake up isolated.

Tony Ramos, a young boy, was the one that had found himself in this situation. And the things he saw while there had left him at a loss for words. On the one hand, he had seen Pokémon caged, and on the other hand, some he had seen walking around and even one had escorted him to where he was at that moment. He spent weeks isolated with anything done to him. He was fed and those that had him prisoner were making sure he was still alive, as well as doing some tests on him. Aside from the Pokémon, he had seen other boys and girls, tied up to gurneys, unconscious. Some only seemed to be asleep while others had caught his attention due to some… particular characteristics that he found rather… weird.

After the walk through the hallways of that place, the Machoke escorting him pushed the boy into a room and closed the door, it's lock blocking it immediately, leaving Tony alone inside the room. 'From one cell to another. What the hell do they do in here? And what's with those guys and those-' His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden noise. The boy looked around but it didn't seem as if anything had changed, still there was a hissing sound that remained bugging his ears.

In the room next door, a group of scientists were looking through a one way glass screen, observing the kid in the other room.

"Everything ready?" A well dressed man asked, although his luxurious clothing was covered by a white scientist coat, underneath the which was a white shirt with red buttons, silk trousers and even a black tie. His hair was red and he had blue eyes, with thin glasses.

"Everything is ready, Administrator John, sir. We only have to wait for the subject to fall asl-" The scientist never got to end that sentence.

"Absolutely not. I want him to be wide awake for what's about to happen." The big boss simply said this without lifting his gaze off of the boy. "Stop the gas and begin the procedure on the double." Without waiting any further orders, the scientist at the computers did what he was told, opening the door that connected that observation room with the boy's, who looked at the door to see scientists entering the room, and immediately held him down.

"Hey! What the hell?! What's going on!?" The boy struggled, but he couldn't fight back against the men that tied him down on an operating table, whilst the rest prepared the procedure.

Amongst them one of them was preparing the solution the boy was about to be injected with, and one of them glared at the boy from the corner of his eye, although the boy couldn't notice this because of the gas masks. "Why aren't we waiting until he falls asleep like always? That way we wouldn't have to deal with the headache the screams are going to give us."

"I know, but it's come straight from the boss." The other grabbed the bag that had already been prepared and pressed the tube.

"Bastard… what the hell does he gain from all this?" The other asked whilst the two expelled the air from the the tube and instead filled with a liquid, to then put a needle at the end of it, pressing until a single drop came out of the tip.

"Some say that he likes it… a lot… He likes to hear the subjects scream, screech and plead for help, but those are only rumors. C'mon, we're done here." The first scientist returned to where the boy was being tied down whilst the other picked up everything they had left.

"So he's sadist... Sick bastard." The other muttered under his breath.

"Hey, what the hell is that?!" The only answer he received was the grip the men had on tightening, whilst they held out his arm.

"Hold him down. Don't let him move" Without wasting anymore time, the scientist looked for the main vein and stabbed the needle into his skin, then pressed down on the bag and began injecting the liquid directly into the boy's blood stream. It took ten minutes for the bag to empty, and once it did, the sting was covered and the needle was removed as the scientists left, but Tony was still tied down the table. The effect of the gas had completely vanished and the boy was wide awake once again. Some time passed without anything happening, until the scientist boss entered the room.

"Good evening, Subject 3582957183. Don't even bother telling me your name, I couldn't care less. However, I can tell you that you should feel happy, because you're about to become a part of something far greater than your boring meaningless life. Dreams about becoming a pokémon master, the best there ever was, a trainer, a coordinator, breeder, whatever… all of them are mere child's play. If you're lucky, you'll actually do something of use for the world: create something that will innovate in the black market." He paused. "Of course, if that isn't the case, you'll just end up being another bitch for the arena… And once again, I couldn't care less about where you end up, because the only thing I care about are results. If this succeeds or fails doesn't matter, your life is going to change either way, so… "He started undoing his binds so the boy could move his arms. "Enjoy it as much as you can. It'll hurt plenty, don't worry… Some described it as feeling how every single bone in your body was snapped in half slowly, one by one." He finished his speech and went back to the other room, the door closing behind him and sealing the boy again.

As soon as the door closed, the boy quickly undid all of the binds and got up from the operating table, already fearful and freaking out about what was about to transpire. The scientist wore a maniacal smile on his face as he stood at the other side of the crystal… and simply waited. The other scientist tried to silently type something into the computer…

"No gas. I'll know if you use it." He threatened, which cut the other's protest in half, deleting the command. The boy kept looking for an exist, but there wasn't anything at all, and he couldn't even find the door through the which all the scientist's had left. A single minute passed… and the pain began "Clear the room, I don't want any obstructions." The boss quickly ordered.

The guy at the computer clenched his fist. This was too much, but he didn't dare say anything else… he could be next in that room if he wasn't careful. The table sank back into the ground, leaving the white room bare to the administrator's eyes. Tony of course, didn't notice any of this, as the pain was just so intense that he had closed his eyes and was trying to hold the screams back… but he couldn't, and began crying at the top of his lungs. John's eyes were fixated on the boy, his smile growing wider and wider as sparks began dancing around the boy, which indicated that the procedure was going as expected. He leaned against the crystal, panting heavily as his face became flushed with the screams, the crying, the pleading for the pain to stop... he was enjoying every second of it.

Meanwhile, the changes to Tony's body began, as the pain began focusing in his legs as they took a more animalistic look with yellow fur, changing shapes and bones relocating, the boy's screaming having made his throat already feel sore as his feet grew in size, breaking his trainers and socks as the three fingers in the middle grew larger in size whilst the other two retracted back into his feet. His arms were enveloped in stinging, blinding pain as his finger went through the same process, paw pads forming on his palms and his nails fell out painfully slowly, his skin being covered by yellow fur. However, it was far from over, as it now was the turn for his hair to fall, and once again more fur spread all over his head, whilst his ears became elongated, making the process ever so more agonizing until his ears became like of a canine. The fur spread across the area where he used to have hair, although it now covered his new ears. After so much pain, Tony fell down to the ground unconscious as his spine violently snapped and extended, a small yellow tail with a white tip coming out. Meanwhile, in the observation room, John was panting heavily, and was extremely sweaty.

"Another failure... " He regained his composure. "Wake him up." His orders were directed to the room's administrator, who typed a command quickly and another gas filled the room, even though he could barely feel anything beneath the numbing pain that had spread across his body. As he woke up, he could sense a different smell, but the pain was too much for him to feel anything, albeit it was disappearing extremely slowly. The boy's legs and arms felt weird, and once he looked at his feet and tried to remove his ripped trainers and socks, his eyes opened wide as plates.

"What… what is this?!" He got up, now mortified. He then noticed the mirror at the end of the room, recognizing the pointy fur, but he was far too scared to think straight. That face of pain, fear but overall realization that his life was over was enough for John to groan, lean back on his chair and pull out a cigarette, lighting it on fire.

"Prepare this one for transport." He said, then immediately three scientists went into the room and grabbed him before he could run away. A scientist grabbed a pair of scissors and cut his clothes off, ignoring the boy's protests, and then grabbed some sort of handheld machine that he grabbed the boy's ear with, pressing the trigger. Tony let out a scream of pain whilst the boss scientist smiled and chuckled, not noticing the disgusted looks his colleagues were giving him. Tony looked at the tag hanging from his ears and screamed out loud in fear and denial as he read it:

"Subject 3582957183. Failure."

Only after he was carried away John let out a sigh, the kid's screams still echoing. "Lock him up and shut him up. I want the next test subject in the room yesterday." As he said this, a scientist grabbed a gas bottle and ran out of the room, and after a few seconds the boy's screams stopped. "Alter the formula, there has to be a damn quantity that gives us what we want without those damn secondary effects… And I want a visual recompilation of every single one of the next subjects, and every scream must be recorded, and I want it now." With that last order, which didn't leave the lead scientist of that room any space to reply, the administrator got up and left the room.


"I'm so booooooooooooooored." Lucy said. She was laying on the sofa, her head hanging upside down and looking at the TV which was showing a random action movie that Nox had insisted they saw. It was exciting, sure, but it was all explosions and fighting, just noise and she couldn't do anything at all. She prefered it when she could interact or play a game with others, but what she really, really wanted to do, was run. She missed running a lot, even if it had been just an entire day of being stuck in Dust's body. Besides her, Zed had his eyes stuck between the pages of a book, but he wasn't making that much progress, since he kept getting distracted between the television and his mate's interruptions.

And speaking of them, the Shinx was so bored she decided to bug him a little bit more, moving her foot and tapping his side, trying to get him to look at her. It worked, and the Shinx in a Riolu's body simply winked. He sighed and returned to his reading… but was once again, promptly interrupted as she kicked the underside of the book he was reading, scaring him and making him lose track of both where he was and the number of the page, the book shutting in his paws. He looked at her, angry. "You know, just because you're bored doesn't mean you get to bug me Lucy." He said, but she just stuck her tongue out and giggled, returning to her original position for just a few more seconds…

"I'm soooooo boooooooored!" Her whining was getting on everyone's nerves, especially Jake, who was trying to focus on what he was reading. It was a book about myths and legends of the Archipelago, but just as he expected he wasn't getting too much verified and reliable information out of it, just vague mentions. He decided to invest a little bit of time on confronting Lucy, raising an eyebrow as he did so.

"Why do you not try and find something useful to do, such as helping us uncover the solution to our predicament?" His suggestion fell on deaf ears however, the fighting type looking at him.

"I could easily fall asleep reading a book, so I wouldn't be of much use there either." She wasn't lying, as she honestly found reading books boring. There were more interesting and fun ways to invest your free time and learn stuff about the world, like going out there and explore, and run around…

She really missed running around.

Another explosion fired off inside the TV, followed by Nox's shouts of hype, who was sitting on a sleeping Lucario's lap. Even in a different body, Serge's laziness got the best of him and forced him to drift off to sleep as soon as he sat down in a couch. This time around though, his position seemed extremely unhealthy, as he was laying on the couch and leaning to the right, the armchair's arm being the only thing keeping him from falling to the floor, his mouth wide open and snoring softly.

"You know? If it's so boring for you in here you could go outside and try to find something to do." Dust told her. He himself looked bored as hell but still he was reading a book that he thought could contain some info on what they were looking for. "Dunno, do what you want to do, get used to the body or something. If you keep lying down you are going to get fat and thus, surely slower." He added to then go back to the book.

"I already know how to walk in this body, but whenever I try running I have to go at a snail's pace… your body sucks, Dust!" She faked some emotions in her tone, but she did mean it when she said that she wasn't enjoying her out-of-body experience.

"Well it's not like I like a nose that is as useful as a human's, but at least speed can be trained and improved, you just need time and right now you are doing nothing and losing it." He simply stated while his eyes tried to keep on the line he was reading.

Lucy laughed. "Wow, you're really hopeful… I don't think you'd ever match my speed with your body, even if you trained day and night for the rest of you life. And besides, it's not my problem. Not my body, and I'm not about to do your dirty work. Besides, took me long enough to get the smell of sweat out of this fur, in fact, instead of criticizing me, you should praise me for how well I'm taking care of your body." Lucy chimed.

"Yeah… Eating and being lazy all day. Might as well start to call you Serge instead." He said, not really thinking that was taking good care of a body that wasn't hers… not like he was trying much himself on the training side, but at least he was trying to give it back to her.

"Naaah, he's way worse than I am and you know it." She motions her head towards the Lucario. "Besides, some of us got lucky that their bodies can allow them to fight similarly to how they did before… if I scurry away like a scared cub it won't be my reputation that's being ruined. And just as a friendly reminder…" She tapped her armband once again, then hushed Dust. She knew he was right, but those few pokémon from the group that could fight could easily take care of whatever came in their way, at least in that world.

Dust was about to counter her that those that were lucky enough for that still had to get to know what they could do and their stamina, but shut up seeing the gesture once again. Too often was she using that to get at him and to keep him where she wanted. "You wait and we'll see what happens when this is fixed." He muttered to himself, deciding on getting some sort of pay back over all of this.

"Luca." Came Clara's voice from the living room's entrance to the kitchen. "You have been lazing around these past two days. Why don't you come over and help me get dinner ready?" The woman asked the Lucario, Luca herself looking at Serge intently.

At first, Serge didn't react, but Nox eventually hit his abdomen and woke her up, swallowing a small drop of drool that was coming from her maw. "Uh… Wha…" He looks at the Vulpix on his lap, who points at the human, and the Lucario immediately understands, standing up straight so quickly that Nox didn't have time to react and fell to the floor. Serge apologized quickly and walked over to the kitchen. "Alright, I totally got this!"

"Someone please tell me he knows how to cook." Luca asked the rest, fearing what might happen in the kitchen.

She didn't receive an immediate answer, but inside the kitchen the former Pidgeot found himself facing a table full of Kitchen utilities, then exchanged a nervous glance with Clara, who nodded in approval. Serge's mind was racing, he swallowed and looked at what he had in front of him: A cabbage, vegetables, meat… He stared at the last one, specifically, and felt his face being drained of color… It was a featherless avian torso with legs, which one would've identified as chicken, but instead thought it was a fellow Pidgey.

Serge fainted and fell backwards, slamming into the floor like a brick with a loud "thud". His wore a maniacal grin, his eyes slightly rolled backwards.

"Luca!" Clara yelled going to the Lucario and trying to wake her up again. The named left whatever she was doing to go to the kitchen just to see that scene in front of her… and automatically a wing went for her face as she blushed.

"Oh, Arceus…" She let out.

Zed got up from his spot, sighing and walking over to the kitchen. He faked shock and grabbed the Lucario, utilizing Eric's incredible strength and carrying the Pidgeot back to the armchair where he had been sleeping seconds ago. After that, he went over to Hadrim, who was in his own body. "Can you come with me? That way, Clara won't be that confused when Eric starts cooking like Zed."

"Uhm Sure." Hadrim nodded and stood, leaving his book where he was after closing it and followed the Riolu to the Kitchen.

Luca remained by the door, and decided to just tag along, try and get her mind of the little… incident that has just transpired. Clara saw her out of the corner of her eye, and immediately dashed forward in between the bird and the food on the kitchen countertop. "Wait! Don't come in!" She knew that if the Pidgeot saw the chicken they would most likely freak out… but what she didn't know, unfortunately, is that it had already happened.

Luca looked at the woman but decided to step back and go back to the living room, the previous Lucario was getting angry with all of this, and now she couldn't do what she liked most. "Just fucking great!" And this was how Hadrim got one poké out of his debt, but also how she went back to where she was and got back to reading her book.

Shade and Radius looked at her for a moment, doubting if they should go to her or something. Natalie also looked at her, deciding to let her be and keep with her book. Even Dark decided to just keep searching for a solution to this. The rest of the afternoon went by without any further incidents, albeit dinner was extremely silent in the pokémon side, mainly because they all had to sit in weird positions so that the humans didn't suspect, something that had happened the previous day. There was also the fact that Serge, who in Luca's body, was glaring daggers at everyone, specially at Luca, looking carefully at whoever went close to her. He was really concerned about his body now. More than ever. And because of this he had noticed something that not once had crossed his mind: he was absolutely gorgeous.

Dinner came and went, and with it some of the pokémon in the house went to sleep. For some it had been an exhausting day of looking through books, for others, training had been their main worry… and for others, they hadn't done anything at all during the day. Either way, at the moment in the living room one would find a Sneasel sitting on the couch, and a small Eevee rolled up and sitting on the armchair, both of them reading without showing any signs of stopping. Aside from that there was an Espeon in the pokémon bed near one of the corners of the living room, submerged in a book with another Eevee with familiar blue eyes by his side, but she was slowly falling asleep, her eyelids drooping ever so often. On other side there was a Houndour that was lying by a wall with yet another book of his own and really focused into reading, to the point that he had forgotten what he was looking for, there was also a male Eevee lying in an armchair, reading calmly himself without any signs that he was going to fall asleep anytime soon. And last but no less, a Zorua was focused intently, devouring yet another book after, around fifteen open books resting near her. Aside from Natalie everyone seemed to be wide awake. Jake, however, was having problems.

"Shade, you and your damn body are impeding my progress!" The Sneasel in an Eevee body exclaimed, getting really frustrated to be getting sleepy that early. He needed to progress and find a solution to their situation as soon as possible, lest something nefarious could happen to his body.

"Dah! Quit it and go get a cup of coffee or something and get off my nerves. You're starting to be worst than a fly around the ear." She snapped at him, trying not to be too rude with him… But yeah he was starting to rub her where it shouldn't be done… That and something new to her mind that made her snap much more easier.

"I would, only if your body didn't violently react with caffeine. And not that it would help much anyways, since the exhaustion would be carried over until the effects are gone… What I need is a body that doesn't get tired from the most minimal of encephalic excitement. My body, to be precise." He says this by giving Elly a condescending glare, but she's too absorbed in her reading to notice him.

"Well, I'm sorry for not having spent my life in a-" She started.

"Okay, stop it you two!" Radius was the one to butt in and interrupt his sister. "You want to recover your body? Then stop complaining and get to research. I thought you didn't like to lose time, which with this complaining is what you are doing." The Eevee in a Houndour's body told to the previously Sneasel.

"I have a mouth, and I shall express my opinion with it if I so desire! Now, if you will excuse me, I will attempt to stall this body's eventual biological shut down for as long as I can." With this he goes back to reading, but not before Elly raises her eyes from the book, sighing.

"Jake, try to be empathic. You're not the only one who is in this mess, and we all want to have our bodies just as badly as you do, so don't take it out on Radius or Shade." She scolded the former Sneasel lightly, but he didn't retort, instead focusing on his lecture. He did acknowledge Elly's words, but he didn't say much.

"Has anyone found something?" Dark asked after a bit of silence, getting his eyes out of letter filled pages and blinking a bit, also yawning deeply. "Ow. So it feels like this to be tired? So good." He commented after that.

"Nope." Elly said, tossing the book she was reading aside and picking up another one from her pile.

"Negative." Jake answered, not saying anything else. continuing his work.

Zed and Lucy had gone off to sleep already, Serge had been sleeping for quite some time now, and Nox wasn't there, probably somewhere with Luna keeping an eye on him, as she had sworn the day before and had been doing since then, she even stood awake 'til late in the morning the previous night not wanting to give the now Vulpix any time alone to do… things he shouldn't even think of. Natalie couldn't avoid falling asleep over her book some minutes back and was slightly snoring away, her head on top of the pages she's been reading. Elly had noticed this and couldn't help but giggle at the Eevee's position, finding it amusing because it was her body.

Just then, another Eevee came out from the kitchen, balancing a tray of berries on their head. It was Eric, who had stopped reading for the time being and had decided to give them something to snack on. A few berries couldn't hurt, but the problem was that he wasn't used to this new body yet, so he didn't stop balancing back and forth, some berries falling to the floor and rolling away. He managed to get them to the table and picked up all that had fallen, Elly looking at him from behind the book she was reading. Eric went over to her and tried to climb onto the couch, grabbing with her paws, but eventually slid off and landed on her rear. Elly noticed this and giggled, before stopping for a while and helping him up.

The former Riolu was about to complain, but didn't say anything as his mate helped him up then he sat besides her, snuggling up right next to the Sneasel, who in turn got as close to the Eevee as she could. It was a strange image, both Jake and Emily snuggled up right next to eachother. Eric looked at Natalie, who had fallen asleep, and smiled. "Well, that certainly reminds me of someone…" He said, Elly looking at him and smiling. He was right, since he had surprised her quite a couple times in that same position as she had been reading way too much.

"Well, this is quite the weird situation…" She leans closer and rubs the back of the Eevee's ears, making the former Riolu tremble and purr.

"Ok, now I know why you loved this so much…" He said, Elly now beginning to giggle uncontrollably. The sound of laughter leaving Jake's mouth was absolutely alien to everyone in that house, but she didn't care, she was having fun rubbing her mate behind the ears, Eric instinctively pushing against her hand. "Hmmm… alright, next time we do this after we get back to our bodies, I'm going to make you enjoy this thoroughly… Don't stop." He quickly muttered before she removed her hand, making the former Eevee chuckle.

"Well, c'mon we have to keep going." She said, removing her hand, Eric understanding it. He leaned forward and grabbed a pecha berry with his maw, giving it to Elly, then taking an Oran Berry himself.

Not to break their mood, Dark stood silent for a moment and tried to keep reading, even when his eyes closed and his head fell to the sides every now and them, until the previously insomniac Zoroark fell asleep laying on the bed in a corner of the living room, right by Natalie's side.

Elly couldn't help but look at the bed, then quickly looked away, focusing on her reading whilst Eric cuddled even closer, looking at the TV. Right now they were seeing a concert that was playing music, an ambiance that Jake loved thoroughly and helped him focus even harder, same with Elly, albeit she could focus in almost any environment if the book was interesting. What made her lose focus was when Elly heard snoring right besides her, noticing that after a few minutes after having come up to her and snuggled together, her mate had fallen asleep due to Emily's rather young body.

In fact, sleep and tiredness was slowly spreading across the entire room.

"It's late… we should all get some sleep and continue tomorrow." Hadrim said, blinking a bit and closing his book letting out a sigh and looking at Natalie and her book for a moment to then go to her and try to make her lift her head to take the book from beneath her and close it, putting it to a side, doing the same with Dark's. Luca was already at their room, already asleep after dinner, Radius was with his paws against a wall, snoring, Luna was trying to keep watching Nox wherever they went to and Shade closed her book too. She stretched a bit and went to her brother to lay by his side and go to sleep as well.

Elly shut her book and left it at her right, hugging the Eevee besides her and closing her eyes, opening them once as she heard something shuffle to her left. It was Jake, who was still reading, and this time, his eyes were wide open. He was completely silent, but he was flipping through pages like a maniac and murmuring something to himself. She shut her eyes, shrugging it off, but the former Sneasel kept up his endless muttering, when all of a sudden…

"Eureka!" He triumphantly exclaimed at the top of his lungs, almost tossing the book he had on the armchair with him, but still scaring out of sleep every single creature in the immediate vicinity, and of course, inside the house. Eric and Elly jumped out of their tiredness and looked at him, noticing the wide smirk on his face.

"You found it?!" Eric asked, scrambling to his feet and running over to where Jake was, Elly doing the same. Eric jumped onto the armchair, hitting his face into it, but he didn't pay much attention to that, looking at the book the tactician had between his paws. Soon, the other members of Team Star joined them, including Emily, who looked rather annoyed because of the fact she couldn't properly sleep because of the Zoroark's insomnia.

They weren't the only ones that woke up. Natalie jumped to her feet all of a sudden, startling Dark as well, Shade couldn't even fall asleep before this happened, poor Hadrim didn't even got to the bed before going back out to the living room, surprisingly, Luca kept snoring away in the room. And Dust had woken up too but he only looked at them from his laying down position on one of the couches. "What is it, now?" Dark and Hadrim asked at around the same time, wide awake now.

"Jake found the answer." Elly informed them, Jake nodding enthusiastically.

"Yes, precisely. Allow me to read…" He cleared his throat. "... amongst the strangest of pokémon of the world is Manaphy, a legendary pokémon said to have the ability to interchange the minds of pokémon and humans until it wishes, or restore the effects of other swaps with it's antennae. This legendary is said to live inside the Temple of the Seas. The temple is said to move with the currents of the sea, however sources claim that one legendary pokémon knows of it's exact location at all times! It is none other than Leopold Lugia, master of the sea currents!" Jake looks at them. "And if we go to look for Leopold…" He flips pages and points at a paragraph. "Right here it says that around this time of the year Leopold comes to the islands!" He resumes the information compiled in that paragraph.

"Does this text gives any clues as to where he could be?" Dark asked, after all the region is an archipelago so there's water all around.

"Jake, please, let me read that." Hadrim asked the Eevee and took the book himself, searching and flipping some pages until he found was he was looking for. "During Spring, the sightings of Leopold tend to augment around Zalkar Island" He read. "That's the neighbour Island." He commented, raising his head from the book. "It's just a few hours ship trip to the east."

"That's it?!" Eric asked, expecting a much more arduous journey.

"That's close! We can set out tomorrow and come back here in our bodies in less than two days!" Elly exclaimed. The members of Team Star cheered, knowing that soon they would have their bodies back.

Dark on his side was also smiling, happy with the idea of recovering his body, at the same time that having a bit of distaste for not going to be able to enjoy the feeling of tiredness for long, but whatever. However there were two more things in his mind. One was that guy that tried to kill him back home and the other… simple words that his writer's mind got for him. "This will be easy. Too easy to be like that." Even if he tried to erase that thoughts from his head both came back for some reason but he just ended up ignoring them.

"Well, now we have a plan. Everyone get some rest and tomorrow we will be on our way." Had said with a smile on the muzzle. Everyone cheering.

"Guys! It's late! Keep it down!" Came Daniel's voice from the upper floor, scolding them for the noise. They all started to get comfy wherever they could. At the moment allowing themselves to be a bit lazy to go to their rooms and getting ready to sleep.

However, before that the annoyed Emily walked over to Dark. "Dark… I can't fall asleep. How do you even manage to close your eyes in here?" She asked, extremely confused as to why she just wouldn't fall asleep or didn't feel that tired.

Dark looked at Emily for a moment, it never ceased to make him feel weird that he was watching at himself. "I told you this morning to take the sleeping medicine or you wouldn't be able to sleep tonight." He said to her calmly, standing again and taking her to the upper floor. However, Dust saw this and decided to take care of her himself. He went to them and told Dark to go back with Natalie, Dark agreed, trusting the now Shinx and letting her with him, going back to Natalie and to dreamland. Dust took Emily downstairs to his room and there he tried to help her fall asleep. It was a long night for them both but eventually she managed to grip sleep and he followed her suit, laying by her side.


The moon was at it's peak, and inside of the TV Set not a soul could be heard. It was located in the fourth floor of a six story building, and in the third floor there was a security room, in the which was a security guard, reading the newspaper. The scoop that had called his attention was one that talked about the seismic movements that had shook the isles since the last month or two, as well as some other natural disasters, and some expert's opinions on these events. However, unbeknownst to him, there was another… presence, inside the building.

The cloaked figure had teleported into the building after looking through a window. The infiltration had gone smoothly, since it hadn't encountered any guards up to that point. It slowly walked around, finding its way through the darkness, dim lights guiding its way towards the stairs that lead higher up. The trail had lead it there, but it had been side tracked because of that city's complex structures, however it was yet to be noticed by any living creature, be it a "human", as it heard those bipedal creatures call themselves, a pokémon, or one of those soulless animals.

It walked up to the second floor and traversed through it, the only sound in the hallways being the noise its feet made as they hit the floor. "Infiltration was successful, and we have avoided detection so far… let's make sure it stays that way." The creature told itself.

"Awww, and here I was hoping for a party… you're such a bore… Either way, this is a lot of trouble for getting these guys, isn't it?" Another voice responded from inside its head, not responding immediately, looking at the lights above it. The arrows pointed down the hallway, and it followed the instructions and reached the third floor.

"No amount of trouble will be "a lot", if it means getting revenge." The creature responded, keeping its cool as it walk past the locked security room, the guard inside unaware of its presence.

"I thought that this whole thing was business? We were hired to kill them, weren't we?" The voice asked. They had just asked two questions, but the creature's patience was already running thin.

"Idiot… we have more reasons to kill them… have you forgotten? Or maybe you never knew in the first place, you delusional killer." The cloaked figure got to the last set of stairs, rising up to the fourth floor. "If you stopped thinking about killing you would most likely understand what was going on in the world around us." The creature got to the fourth floor landing, and from this point began following the trail.

"What can I say? I get bored really quickly when you start talking… And besides, that place was grimy and dirty, and so was our "client", so why even bother listening to what you two were saying? Either way… yeah, the memories are coming back… and so is the anger." The voice says these last words with a slightly darker tone than usual.

There is a period of silence between the two, during the which the creature arrives to the entrance of the TV set. It extends an extremity, and knob begins turning itself, enveloped in a purplish aura… however, the door doesn't open. It was locked with a key… but there was no reason to worry. With the same psychic powers, he reached into the door's lock, then opened it as if he were using the key, activated the mechanism… and the door unlocked. and opened by itself.

It walked in, looking around. The set was in complete darkness, but the emergency lights scattered about gave out enough light to make navigation possible without bumping into the furniture. It looked like a normal television set, but he knew that almost four weeks ago, Team Star in it's entirety, plus an unwanted stowaway in the form of an annoying Eevee kit. Either way, they weren't there now, so it had to find clues. "He would probably be laughing at us right now… That laugh of his… you remember it, don't you?"

Oh yes, it could remember it clearly. In fact, it could hear it clear as day at that moment, whilst it closed its eyes, the furniture floating around him. It could remember its laughter clearly, the putrid smell of that excuse of a bar filling its nostrils once more, the pointy cushions on the which it had been sitting at that moment poking it once more, the sound of…


Six months ago - Somewhere in Team Star's world

Laughter, his laughter, which echoed in the entire bar, over the shouts of surprise that the Lopunny's and Machamp's timely demise had brought. The pokémon sitting in front of it found something it had just said hilarious… whilst it remained sitting still with the utmost seriousness. However, he kept on roaring with laughter until he began coughing, at which point he stopped, taking a breath before chuckling.

"Wow… you're, umm… Extremely good, so to say. You have a future as a comedian, that I can tell… albeit I doubt you'll get to live long enough to milk it for all it's worth if you keep saying those names around these parts. I mean… you need some serious guts... That, or be really confident in your abilities… or just plain stupid." He was taking this whole thing as a joke, but it was as serious as it could be.

"I don't know what you find so funny about this conversation… For starters, they're still out there, hunting down all the outlaws they're sent after... " It looks around. "Soon enough this sad excuse of a bar will be completely empty... and even you will be thrown into a cell… unless we do something." It proposes, the pokémon in front of it raising his eyes.

"Let me give you a piece of advice, buddy…" He coughs, clearing his throat. "Give up. It's useless to fight them unless you want to receive the greatest beating of your life. Half of the pokémon in here can attest for that…" He looks around, getting glares from many of the outlaws inside of that building. "Besides, they're way out of our leagues… including yours. They're something from out of this world, pal, insanely strong… Although you wouldn't know until you experience it first hand…" He starts talking, but it places its hand on the table.

"But we have." It states firmly, silencing him. "I have tasted their raw, untamed power… and it's driven me to the point of insanity. And when I reached that point… I gained a new power…" It looks at its hands. "And I have harvested it… trained it…" It clenches them into fists. "Mastered it. If they were to face me at this point… they would know my wrath." Its words reached his ears, but he was still unconvinced.

"Alright… let's say I buy it… Tell me… Why haven't you gone and killed them yet? Or at the very least, attacked them?" His' was a good question, but it had already planned ahead for this type of interrogation.

"They say that if you're good at something… you never do it for free. And besides… it is sort of personal, as I have stated before." He opens his mouth, but it cuts him off again. "And before you ask, it is not money what I want… but your collaboration. You see… I am creating a group, so to say… and I need leaders." It points at the pokémon in front of him. "And you, my friend, are perfect for this… after all, you have come face to face with the dark one, and even went to work for them…" This time, however, his face goes dark and leans forward.

"How the hell do you know that?! I have never told anyone!" He is livid, furious, and about to snap at it… but instead it simply laughs.

"Oh, do you not remember me, or my voice?" He looks at it, confused, then shakes his head. It smirks as it grabs the tip of its hood. "Then perhaps this shall jog your memory." It pulls the hood down and reveals its identity to him, whose eyes go wide open in surprise.

"You…" He smirks as well. "Aaaah… So that's what you meant… Now it makes sense." As he says this, it pulls its hood up again.

"Here is my proposition: I, shall go forth and rid the world of Team Star, or at the very least their daring leaders… and if I succeed, you shall join my efforts. I believe you already know what your place in all of this is?" Its question is answered by a quick nod, albeit he doesn't quite know all of it, he has a faint idea. "In that case… it is settled." It extends a hand, and he extends his, both of them shaking. His skin… it is cold… extremely cold, like a corpse's. Cold… cold like…


"The trail…" It speaks now as it has come to a sudden realization, all the furniture in the room settling down with a thud.

"What? What about it?" The voice asks, a little too cheery for what it has just discovered. In fact, just hearing that voice makes the creature tremble with anger.

"The trail… it's gone cold… cold… there is no sign of where they have gone afterwards… they're not here… and there is no trail!" It grabs the foldable chair besides it with its hands and tosses it with all its might, hitting the other side, crashing into a camera and toppling it to the ground, a loud noise resonating inside the building.

"Woah! You need to calm down there… besides, I told you this would happen already. Guess there's only one way to lure them out, isn't there?" The voice was aware of this from the very beginning… and this fact only makes the creature even more furious, although he didn't need to look at the owner of that voice to know that at that very moment they were wearing a wide, sick grin on their face. Unbeknownst to him, however, a camera is recording the scene, and through that camera a panicking night guard is watching as the creature rages about, wreaking havoc inside the set. It finally calms down, and the night guard wants to get a good look at it… and accidentally presses the zoom in button.

The camera up on the fourth floor makes a soft noise, but with the deadly silence hanging in the air it is easily heard by the creature, who sharply turns around to stare at the source. Its eyes lock with the camera's lenses, and consequently, with the night guard's, who trembles in his seat. The creature raises a hand and makes a "come here" gesture. A snap is heard and the feed is cut, leaving the man trembling in his spot. Whilst he scrambles to get a hold of the phone to call reinforcements and grab a gun, the creature is destroying the camera, but notices that there are cables tracing back the way it came, and by process of elimination, the location from the which he had been spotted. It quickly ran down the hallway, following the cables and descending to the third floor, until it stopped in front of the door.

Inside, the guard could hear the steps, and he kept a hold of the phone, praying for his life as he waited to get response. The phone kept beeping, trying to get on the line… but it seemed to be taking an eternity. The steps had stopped just outside the door, and then, all of a sudden, he heard how they walked away… until they weren't heard, followed by a strange noise just outside. Curious, but at the same time deadly afraid, he crouched down and looked through the keyhole… for a single instant, he thought that the emergency lights had gone out, but after he blinked it all went back to normal. He let out a sigh of relief after finding that there was no one there, and when he turned around to grab the phone and call the cops…

There it was. Inside the room. With him. It had heard him scrambling inside, and it had noticed the keyhole. It knew that if he looked through it and saw it outside he wouldn't open the door, so it walked away, to make him think that it had disappeared… but then it teleported right in front of the door and waited until it looked, then simply teleported in after learning the arrangement of the room's furniture. Now they were both inside the same, confined space.

The man opened his mouth to let out a blood curling scream, but it was silenced as the creature pressed its hands against his head, pushing him down into the swivel chair. His mind was weak, and it had no trouble going inside and scanning his memories. It rapidly learned of what happened inside that building daily, but had transpired there a month ago, and how it was all recorded on a tape, which was located inside a closed cabinet to their left. It also learned of the man's life… but that information was useless to it… and now, it would also useless to the man.

As it finished the scrambling of the man's memories, it left his mind, grabbed the key from the man's shirt and went over to open the cabinet, leaving the man sitting on that chair in a vegetative state. That night guard, called Mike, was an honest family man, with a wife and two children, a boy and a girl. The morning after this whole incident his colleagues would find him inside that room, screaming without any rhyme or reason. A visit to a psychiatrist wouldn't yield any results, but his reactions were similar to those of senile dementia, where he forgot and remembered fragments of his life, yet forgot how to do basic motor functions, or his family altogether, attacking them out of sheer fear.

This would break the family apart, and the man would be sent to a mental institution where he would die alone and mad, with figments of his memory coming back to haunt him, remembering the dreadful night when he had met that creature, screaming in his nightmares. The creature pulled out the tape, and forcefully tossed the man and the chair out of the way. That miserable pile of flesh was of no importance to it. It just cared for what was inside of that tape.

It put the tape inside the player, and began pressing buttons, just as it had learned from the memories, until it reached the time it wished. It waited for a few minutes as the program started, and shortly after… a flash of light blinded the camera, and the next instant all eight of its targets were there. A smile grew on its face, hoping that it would get a clue of where they were now, or how they had gotten out…

But those hopes vanished, just like Eric and his friends did on the video. Just like that. Gone. It rewinded the recording and looked again. The same thing happened. It rewinded again, foolishly hoping that one time the outcome would be different…

"Repeating the same acts over and over again, expecting a different outcome… that, is the definition of insanity…" The voice inside it's head chanted happily… Sickeningly happy. And it made it furious. It made it livid. It made it go mad with anger, with anguish… but most of all, with frustration. After rewinding the recording seventeen times, it snapped, shouted and screamed like a madman as it summoned two psychic blades and began slamming them against the monitors and recording devices, causing such a large amount of destruction that one would wonder if it had been the man that lay right now on the floor, his brain completely destroyed by the creature's brutal proving, or something much more powerful.

Either way, once it was done raging, it calmed down slightly, and looked at one of the monitors, where it showed the back door of the building. The next instant, the creature appeared in that spot. Having destroyed the recording equipment, no one would ever be able to know what had transpired there that night, and having conveniently covered its trail to near perfection… the creature simply walked away into the night, devising another plan to hunt down its marks.


Yikes… yeah, the tone of this chapter seemed to be light and somewhat funny… and then all of that happened. We're jerks, we know. Anyways, now that we have reached this point, the main plot of the story is slowly going to start to move forward, so from this point onward things are going to start getting interesting. There are still going to be funny moments, it's not going to be all serious, but we feel like there's been more than enough filler up to this point, and is about time we give you guys something to chew on, so to say.

Asides from that, thank you all for reading this collab and we will see you in the next one. Take care!