Midori and I had spent the morning practicing with each other while waiting for the Professor to head out of the lab. I was finally starting to think I was getting the hang of this fighting thing (as opposed to the flying thing, which, not to brag, I had gotten really good at.) I scratched, she tackled, I dodged... and then I felt it again, a trembling, a buildup of energy starting in my feet and wings. "Hold on, Midori. Let's take a break."
She actually obliged, flopping down next to me. "You okay? Still able to keep up with me?"
"Nah. I mean, yeah, I can keep up, it's not that. It's happening again."
"Me, too," she confessed, stretching out next to me. "It's getting a bit more frequent the last few days, isn't it?"
I closed my eyes, willing the sensation to go away. "I suppose it can't be helped. We've been training so much, it's only natural that our bodies want us to evolve."
"Yeah, but we probably won't be able to hold back forever." Midori shrugged. "I guess we'll have to let the Professor know sooner or later. About the training thing, anyway."
"Sure. We just have to learn how to speak human first," I said with a snort. "Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, if you evolve, there won't be any Pokemon journey for you."
"Yeah, but what we're doing is more important than that."
"That's true, but... Either way, this situation won't last forever, Midori. Either we'll figure out a way to save humanity before the virus can spread too far, or we won't and they'll be doomed. Both outcomes won't take a lifetime, though. What are you going to do after that? Stay in the lab forever because you're an evolved Pokemon?"
Midori turned to face me. "Why are you asking questions like that? It's like you don't want to save the humans or something."
Well... If I was being completely honest with myself, the pessimistic part of me had already given up. It was one thing to say we wanted to save the humans, but it wasn't like we were doctors or professors or, you know, people with hands. "It's not that. I'm just worried about you. You have a bad habit of not thinking ahead. Once you evolve, you can't go back."
"I know that. I'll just cross that bridge if it ever gets to that, Praseo." Midori hopped over to the window, crawling up the side of the wall. "Hey, there she goes! Great. Let's Forme Shift and get going."
"Aren't you in a hurry?" I hopped over to the window to watch the Professor leave, even as Midori eased it open.
"Well, yeah. Did you forget? Absol and Deoxys were going to teach us how to human morph today. I'm so excited. Do you think I'll be a cute human?"
"I don't really know what consists of 'cute' among humans."
"Well, what about Absol? I thought she looked pretty for a human. I want to look like that, too." Midori crawled out the window, clinging to the side of the lab wall as she made her way to the roof to Forme Shift. With my smaller Fletchling Forme and my inability to cling to walls, I decided to Shift inside. Midori had already changed by the time I got to the roof, and we flew together quickly to the new Secret Base we'd established.
"I don't see why we had to move," I heard Cici's voice as I landed. Unsurprisingly, she was sweeping the entrance. "Do you see how hard this place is to keep clean?"
"I think it's a good idea to have multiple locations established," Absol said, "and rotate through them from time to time. It's better to be overly cautious than be caught. Good morning, Midori, Praseo."
"Good morning!" Midori chirped as she finished Shifting. "When do we start?"
"We can start now, if you like."
I looked around, noticing someone was missing. "Where's Avocado?"
"Avocado's on patrol, helping me track the infecteds' meetings," Absol said. "He already practiced with myself and Deoxys earlier. Shall we get started, then, Deoxys?"
It hopped down from its perch on the rocks. The shape was different, I noted - its yellow more prominent, its form less sleek. It didn't resemble the many-tendriled form of the original red Deoxys, either. If only we knew the Professor was safe from the virus; she would've loved to examine Deoxys. But even if she was safe now, there was no guarantee she would be in the future. "Hooray!" it said, raising its arms in what I guessed was excitement. "This is the human concept of 'move tutoring', yes? This is a new experience!"
"Didn't you do this before with Absol and Avocado?" Cici said pointedly.
It looked at her in silence for a moment, then reiterated, "New experience!"
"And why is it you started talking verball-"
"So let us start," Deoxys said, looking at me and Midori. "You did the home work, right? That is the phrase for it?"
"We acquired a couple of different humans, yeah," Midori answered. "Mostly the Professor and a few of her contacts. Is that enough?"
"Two or three ought to be fine. It is easy from there," Deoxys said. "All you have to do is take the individual DNA strands and combine them into a new one. Just take the genotypes you want."
Midori looked over at Cici, and for once, they seemed to be on the same page. "Um, I think we understand the general concept," I lied for them, "but how do we actually go about doing that?"
It scrunched its face up. Confusion? Disappointment? I couldn't really be sure. "I thought I made it simple," it said, turning to Absol. "Why did no one else understood?"
"I've had a bit more experience learning new moves. Can you teach them like you taught Avocado? It will save some time."
It let out a sigh-now that was disappointment-and held out one of its arms. "Okay, hold onto me and I will show you how to do it."
Midori reached out, and then I did. Cici hesitated. "Every time I do this, it seems to get me in trouble," she complained, but did it anyway.
Deoxys closed its eyes, letting out a low thrum as its skin took on a slight glow. Suddenly, everything clicked into place: I understood how to do the basic idea of what Deoxys was teaching us, if not a complete mastery. "How did you do that?" Midori asked after it released us. "Are you a TM or something?"
It moved its shoulders in an approximation of a human shrug. Deoxys had a lot of humanlike body language, I noticed; most likely from being raised in a human environment. If you could call it that. "If I cannot explain how to combine DNA, I do not think I can explain how I showed you how to combine DNA."
"Well, that's not important," Cici said. "I want to try this out, so let's give ourselves some space. Humans are large."
That made me a little nervous-I still wasn't quite used to being big. But I closed my eyes, more to settle myself than anything, then focused on splicing the human DNA into my own. Then I Shifted.
The first thing I noticed were my limbs-long, impossibly long for me, awkward and in the way. Getting back to my feet proved to be momentarily terrifying, both for balance purposes and the fact that my head was now so far from the ground. Maybe I should've practiced just Shifting into a human to begin with before I tried this. The limbs were a ruddy color, like the color of the clay in the foothills, and seemed to be normal human limbs as far as I could tell. I wonder what my face looks like?
Next to me, Midori was now also in human Forme, short green hair framing a Fairy-like face. She was smaller than me, and some part of me felt pretty good about that. "Well? Am I cute?" she said, twirling about.
"Uh… I guess so? I told you I'm not a real good judge of cute. You have good balance?" I offered.
"Well, Cute would probably be your strong point in a Contest," Cici said, studying her reflection in a handheld mirror. Unlike us, she was taller and looked older, pale-skinned, soft gray hair falling in a delicate curve around her shoulders, and with more of a curvy shape than Midori or myself. Why did humans come in so many shapes, anyway? "So you're passable, I suppose, rookie."
Midori pouted. "At least I don't have weird dangly bits like Praseo does."
"Huh?" I looked down at myself.
Cici snorted. "That's because he's a male, rookie. Humans have gender differences." She looked me over, head to toe. "Though I say your best attribute is probably Cute, as well. I have an eye for these things, you know."
"Uh…" How was I supposed to respond to that? Cici handed me her mirror, and I got my first look at my human face. As foreign as it looked just by virtue of being a human face, I could see the traits that resembled my natural looks-the large eyes, the small nose and mouth, the fluffy orange hair. Feeling comforted at that, I handed it back, saying "I'll have to take your word for it."
"Lemme see," Midori said, holding out her hands for the mirror.
"Don't break it," Cici instructed as she handed it over, "that's on loan. Now let's get to work." Going over to a corner of the cave, she picked up a long yellow rope.
"What are you going to do with that?"
"Measurements, what else?" She pulled me over by the wrist. "Arms out, like this, and breathe in. Straighten your back."
"Measurements…? For what?"
"For clothing, of course," Cici said, winding the rope around my waist. "Absol and I tested the clothing thing, and it seems to work with skintight stuff. So I need your measurements so I can get some friends who owe me favors to borrow some stuff for me."
"That doesn't make sense," I grumbled as she pulled on one of my arms, dragging the rope down it. "Human clothing isn't a part of DNA."
"Look, I'm not questioning why it works. I'll accept that it does because that's more convenient for us." She checked my neck, chest, legs and feet, then wrote down some numbers in the dirt of the cave floor. "By Murkrow, I should've brought some paper. Well, nobody step over here until I'm done. Absol, Deoxys, you two may as well Forme Shift while I work on Midori."
I gratefully scampered away as she began handling Midori, who naturally enjoyed the attention. "You can do this, too, Deoxys?"
"Of course." As I watched, it Forme Shifted, taking on a human Forme smaller and younger than either me or Midori, more like a human child than the older early-trainer age we were. I had been a bit curious as to what its human Forme would resemble given that its natural body seemed to change shape, but its only non-average trait was 'small'. It seemed to have a yellowish tint to its skin that reminded me of its normal coloring, the hair the contrasting black. "Hey, Cici! What attribute do I have? Am I cute?"
She glanced over, then took a harder look. "Sorry, kids. Deoxys wins the Cute contest."
"Yay! I win! …What did I win?"
Cici worked on Absol's measurements next. "By the way, where did you get those clothes from before? They were nice."
"I borrowed them. I did return them later," she added. "I have a new set for the next time I need to play trainer."
By the way she said it, I had the feeling the borrowing had been without permission. "Okay, that's all my numbers," Cici said. "I think I've got them all in my head, but just in case, nobody disturb this area until I've got us some clothes. Now I just need Avocado to retur-" In a rustle of wings, Avocado entered the cave, shaking himself clean of sea spray. "Oh, you clumsy oaf, don't do that!" Cici hissed, attempting to shield her numbers with her human Forme.
"Don't do what? Oh, hi, Cici," he greeted. "Nice human Forme! You make a great lady."
"I, well… of course I do," she muttered, even as she looked pleased. "Oh! Go ahead and take your human Forme so I can get your measurements."
"So you can get my what?" He Shifted anyway, looking over to Absol. His human Forme looked about Cici's age, and was surprisingly dark, skin and hair both. I had been expecting something more like his yellow color. Suddenly, we looked like an ordinary gathering of humans-well, except for the fact that none of us had on human clothing or accessories. "Hey, Absol, we need to talk."
"About what?"
"I've been investigating Fortree like you asked," he said with a nod. Maybe it was just his association with a human partner, but Avocado seemed to easily adapt to human body language. Unlike Absol, whose body language showed nothing. "They've had a couple of those meetings like we saw-let's call them 'breeding sessions'-but then they'll have a big open house kind of hoopla where they invite people into the gym to watch battles and play. Which might not seem strange on its own, but this only started a few months ago. The timeline coincides."
"You're right; that does seem to break the pattern. What did they appear to be doing?"
"Well, according to the local Pokemon, nothing looked out of place, which doesn't surprise me, since the infected haven't been acting suspiciously for the most part. But I had kind of a bad thought about it. If they're using the private sessions for breeding, could they be using the open house for propagating? That is, infecting new humans?"
"Praseo," Midori's voice had gone quiet. "Isn't Kip's human on his way to Fortree? To meet the Gym Leader, no less."
"Ah, you're right," I said. "He said his human was going to train out on Route 119 for a while before heading in for their big challenge. Hey, do you suppose that's what he meant?"
"Praseo, we've gotta save him. Kip's human is in danger of being infected!"
I frowned. "You want to attack a big group of humans like that? We don't even know for sure that he's not already infected, Midori. That seems risky, even for you."
"Do you want to take the chance? If we let that Gym Leader go ahead, he will be infected! Then think of what'll happen to Kip!"
"Midori, nothing will happen to Kip. They're blending in with normal humans, remember?"
"And then when they don't need to blend in with humans anymore, then what?" she shot back. "Once the whole region's infected and they don't have to keep up with pretenses, what do you think will happen to him?"
"Hey, Midori, calm down," Avocado said. "It's only natural to be worried about your friend. Let's think about this for a moment. I mean, as long as he doesn't meet the Gym Leader during that time, it'll be fine, right?"
"I'm willing to launch an attack," Absol said.
He turned to her in surprise, almost falling. I sympathized; human balance was hard. "You are? Don't you think it's risky, like Praseo said?"
Well, at least someone was taking my side once in a while. "No, I agree that it's risky," she said. "But it's also an opportunity. Although it may not keep those humans safe in the long run, we can use it as a test. Both of our abilities, and to see their reaction. In human terms, we're making what is called a 'warning shot'. Avocado, let's take a trip up to Fortree later today and take note of the surrounding area. We'll come up with a plan that minimizes our risk."
"Well, if you're going to go do that, I'm going to head off," Cici said, Shifting back into her normal body. "I have some work to do of my own with these measurements. Give me a few days, and I'll have us totally stylish."
It was kind of genius, I had to admit. The Gym of Fortree was nestled in a tree, with only the one bridge for access. Once the infected were in place, Midori and I took our places in front of the bridge, me in shifted Forme, her clinging to the underside of the bridge easily. "You know, sometimes the simple solutions are the best," I commented, setting up my Light Screen. "If they can't get into the gym, then they can't get infected, right? And if they can't see me..."
"I do kind of wonder where Absol came up with this Kecleon plan," Midori said. "Or where she even found some Kecleon we could acquire for this plan."
"Well, she lives around here, doesn't she? The elder Professor said once that Absol can be found on Route 120."
A few humans came to the entrance of the bridge, and I could hear Midori snicker at their bewilderment. Humans were so reliant on their eyes alone that something they couldn't see really threw them for a loop. They really were silly sometimes. More of them gathered, a few trying to push their way past, but my Light Screen held fast. Maybe this was actually going to work, I thought, finally allowing myself to feel a little hope.
Over my head, I caught a glimpse of something moving around the Gym building itself. Absol and the others had already landed near the Gym prior to my setup, so any second now, they'd start acting on Absol's plan. "She sure is smart, isn't she?" I commented to Midori, keeping my voice low enough that the humans wouldn't notice me around the background of forest noise.
"Hm? You mean Absol?" Midori shifted on the bridge underneath my feet. "Where do you think she gets it?"
"I dunno. She's older than us, isn't she? But it seems like she knows a lot about humans, for a wild Pokemon."
The bridge shook with a sudden vibration. Behind me, the sounds of battle echoed from the gym. It had to be a pretty hard fight, if we could hear it all the way out here, I thought. In front of me, the humans' agitation grew, but they were still just as stumped by my Light Screen. "How you holding up?" Midori asked me.
"I'm still good for a while," I said.
"Move out of the way!" I heard a human's voice rise over the din, and I stiffened as I heard it.
Above me, metal wings as a Skarmory soared over my head, past the top of my Light Screen. Oh, blazes! I hadn't thought of that! And atop it, the one person we had hoped not to see-the trainer chosen by the Professor, Kip's human.
"That's Kip's human!" Midori echoed my thoughts. "How did he-"
"We didn't think about flying," I muttered. "Midori, can we put up a second Light Screen, higher? We need to cover the sky in case-"
"Forget that! His human's in trouble!" I could hear her moving away from me, going down the planks of the bridge.
"Midori! Come back!" I shouted, risking a glance over my shoulder. There-she crawled up the side of the building, unnoticed as she entered through an open window. "Midori, please!" I couldn't chase after her-I had my job here.
Ahead of me, another human's voice- "I brought the Silph Scope! Now we'll be able to see what's causing the problem."
Now I was in trouble. Without my Kecleon invisibility, they'd be able to deal with me easily. Trying battle in a form I'd gotten ten minutes prior was a situation that wouldn't end well. If that was going to be the case... Absol needed to be warned. I ran across the bridge, leaving my Light Screen in place as I jumped for the open window. The Kecleon's Forme's instincts, used to living in the treetops, kicked in, swinging me up and through as easily as Midori had gone. Keeping my colors blended in, I crept down the wall, hissing Midori's name quietly. Nothing.
Ducking behind some logs, I shifted back to my own Forme, trying to figure out what to do. Calm down. First things first-figure out what's going on in here. I hopped up the pile of logs, trying to remain unseen as well as I could.
Those inside the gym weren't even paying attention to me. In front of me, I could see the Gym Leader, an impressive, older woman in a pilot's jacket that I recognized from the Professor's files. And past her, Absol in her human Forme, commanding Avocado in his Salamence Forme, Cici in her Meowstic Forme, and Deoxys as itself. The Gym Leader was inbetween me and her, and I didn't see Midori at all. I needed to work my way past her-
"I'm here to help!" Kip's human. I winced as I saw him pull out a Pokeball, release it-
"Kip!" Midori in Leafeon Forme sprang down between Kip and Absol. "Stop this!"
"Who are you?" Kip demanded, bristling his topfin at her. "Why are you attacking this gym?"
For the love of Arceus, shut up, Midori! I thought desperately to myself as I began moving across the gym, subtlety forgotten. Our identities were our greatest secret. If she blew that and Kip figured out who she was, not only would she be in danger, but our Forme Shifting would be known as well.
The only upside to this situation was that Kip didn't seem interested in talking. "Kip, take them out!" his human ordered. "Ice Beam, now!"
What the-Where had that stupid trainer found that TM? Midori took the full force of the attack, skidding across the wooden floor. "Meowstic!" Absol called to Cici. "Back her up!" But the Gym Leader's Altaria was in Cici's face, leaving Midori injured and stranded as Kip prepared his next attack. Unaware that the Leafeon he was targeting was actually his old friend.
No one was watching me. I tore for them at full tilt, hoping I could make it in time. My short legs scrabbled across the logs. Too small, too slow. And Kip was an evolved pokemon, a Marshtomp. I didn't stand a chance. But still, I ran, desperate. I needed more speed, more power.
Once you evolve, you can't go back.
My legs lengthened in a blaze of fire, smashing into Kip and knocking his Ice Beam askew. He yelped in surprise, landing on his feet. I placed my new Combusken legs inbetween Kip and Midori, standing my ground. "Leafeon," I addressed Midori curtly, "get back to our trainer."
"But-"
"For the love of Arceus, go!" I shouted at her, not taking my eyes off of Kip. Finally, mercifully, I heard her move back.
"Praseo?" Kip was staring at me. "Why are you on their side? Where's the Professor?"
"Who is Praseo? I don't know you." I took a fighting stance, trying to think my way through this battle. I was at a severe type disadvantage here. Fighting moves-moves that I'd never done before-were going to be my only hope of landing any blows on Kip. Now I was wishing I had practice in a Hariyama Forme, like Avocado. Or any fighting Forme, really.
"What are you talking about? You're Praseo, aren't you?!" Kip looked back to his human for instruction.
"Kip, use Muddy Water!" the human said.
Uh-oh. This was going to be trouble. Well, at least I had the benefit of a warning. I leapt as Kip fired, landing on one of the log structures, out of reach for at least a few seconds. It didn't take long for Kip to redirect, and I leapt again to another wooden structure, this one with fan blades attached. All the practice in bigger Formes was paying off in spades right now; my new long legs sprang with ease, keeping me out of reach.
My evasion brought me close to Deoxys, who was holding off a pair of Pelippers. Praseo, it spoke directly to my mind. Go outside and destroy the bridge. Absol's orders. Hurry!
I glanced back toward Kip, and winced as I saw Midori, still a Leafeon, charging toward him. We'll take care of her, Deoxys said, picking up on my hesitation. GO!
My legs sprang forward without me thinking, toward the open windows along the upper wall. The Pelippers stopped harassing Deoxys, zipping toward me instead. A Thunderbolt from Avocado stopped that threat. Outside, humans had broken the Light Screen at last, already starting their way down the bridge. No time to hesitate, even though some of them would be hurt by what I was about to do. I jumped down hard, foot aimed at the end of the bridge. It shattered under my feet, the ends catching fire as both it and I plunged down through the canopy toward the ground below. I didn't fall far. A branch came up to meet me, and I landed on it shakily, taking stock of the situation. A couple of the humans were also falling, unable to hold onto their end of the bridge. I jumped again, catching one in each arm, then deposited them on a couple of branches on the far side. Another leap, soaring back like I had wings. This was actually kind of great, I thought as I leapt upward from branch to branch, landing back on the balcony outside the gym.
I was about to leap back through the window when the wall in front of me shattered, throwing out rock and metal. "We're going!" Avocado yelled to me, and I jumped on his back without hesitation.
"Praseo!" Midori jumped over to me, nearly falling off Avocado's back in the process. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. You?"
"I feel like crap, but I'll be all right, I think." I sheltered her against the wind with my body as she Shifted back to her own Forme. "You're really okay? I mean... you evolved."
I shrugged. "Nothing that can be done about it now."
"I'm sorry. Because of me-"
"It's fine." It was because of her, and that was what made it fine. Maybe all of humanity would be doomed-or saved. But she was the only one I was really fighting for. Did that make me selfish, or just dedicated? I didn't know. "Did you guys find out what you were looking for?"
"To a degree. They weren't sufficiently threatened-or enticed-to bring out any additional forces besides the Gym Leader." Absol fell silent after that. I guessed whatever speculation she had about their reaction, she didn't want to elaborate further. She didn't seem happy about it, though. On the other hand, who could really tell what Absol thought about anything?
"Well, shall we head back to the Secret Base?" Avocado asked. "I could use a rest, myself."
"We need to get home," I said. "I'll take Midori."
"I'll go with you partway," Cici said. She had already Shifted back into her normal Forme, and was Shifting into her Swellow Forme. "Boy, you kids better appreciate this. I'm beat."
"You're not my mom," Midori huffed.
"Everyone did well," Absol spoke up. "I know it probably doesn't seem like much, but I'm sure there are some humans that were saved because of your actions."
Praise from Absol, a sincere thing, made me feel a little better about the whole messed-up situation, and myself. Well, no one could say that I wasn't working hard. "And at least we saved Kip's human," Midori agreed.
Avocado swooped low to the ground, letting me hop off with Midori in my arms. Cici soared overhead, zipping above the trees. I gave Avocado a goodbye wave as he took off, leaving Midori and myself with only a distant Cici above. "Once we're back at the Professor's, you'd better get in the healing chamber," I told her. "You don't look so good."
"I'm just exhausted. You should see the other guy," she laughed. Without asking, I picked her up, letting her rest in my arms. "Heh. I could get used to travelling like this. But what are you going to do now?"
"I guess I'll just figure it out when the Professor sees me," I said, taking slow steps. She had probably noticed we were gone by now. Was that going to be a problem in itself? She had turned a blind eye to Midori's venturing out before, but...
"I'm sorry, Praseo. It's my fault."
"Hey, this is a good thing," I blurted out, trying to make her feel better. "I mean, I'm not really the type that's suited to adventures and such, so it won't bother me, hanging around the lab. I like learning. And besides, this is good for you, too. The Professor was talking about giving out another Pokedex, right? You'd be a shoe-in for a new trainer."
Midori didn't answer right away. "Next time my body tries to evolve... I'm going to let it."
I nearly dropped her in my surprise. "Midori! But... your training journey, you'd miss out. You'd be stuck at the lab with me. You don't want that, right? You want to go be the League Champion someday, right?"
"Maybe, but..." She leaned her head against my chest, a surprisingly cool touch. Or maybe I was just warmer than I used to be. "But you'd be lonely without me, wouldn't you?"
"Midori..." My heart pounded so hard at those words, I thought for sure she'd hear it.
"You could thank me, you know," she said with a little laugh. "C'mon, let's go rest."
"Yeah." With a single leap, I made it up to the window we'd left open, slipping in with a minimum of bumping into things. "Let's see, the machine is over here," I muttered to myself, trying to figure out how to put Midori back in a Pokeball and how it turned on.
The lights flickered on overhead, momentarily blinding me. The Professor stood in the doorway, watching me silently. "Professor! Oh, uh..." I resisted the urge to smack myself in the forehead. Not like she'd understand anything I tried to explain. I pointed to Midori, gesturing toward the healing machine with the other arm.
She stepped inside, and behind her, I could see someone else shuffling in the hallway. I went still as they entered the doorway, now fully visible to me. Kip's human. Immediately, my mind went a million directions all at once. We didn't save him after all. Or he was already a part of them. Did he follow us? No, we watched. So he came here because... they figured out who I am. Midori!
"Run for it," I told her quietly as I picked her up in my claws, then tossed her out the window with all the force I could muster. "Cici!" I yelled, even as I felt the pull of the Pokeball's red light, sucking me backwards. In front of me, I saw a Swellow swoop out of the sky, snatching her up. At the least, Midori was safe.
But I was caught.
