- Travels -

"There should be five or six boxes, so the cover should still fit if it rains." Her father told her the next morning as they were getting ready. They had a good sized cart made for either people or pokemon to pull by a pair of handles. The trip from their small town to the next over wasn't done often enough to justify a motor vehicle, but was far enough to require a notable amount of preparation.

"I'm thinking we'll get to the usual camping spot by nightfall, then we can reach the PokeMart midday tomorrow, and we will get back the day after," Alexa suggested as she loaded a bag of supplies into the boxy cart. The supply bag was small enough to carry and was patched in places where it had been used for her League journey. "Is anything going to be stored that we are getting?"

"Two of the packages are going to be full of storage balls. The rest is stuff that is a bit too touchy to convert." Storing items as energy was fairly common technology, but some things did not take the process well. "Nothing perishable this time, so there isn't going to be any rush to get back."

"It's not that far, dad," Alexa said with a laugh. "I've been going on these trips since I was a kid." She lifted the two handles and moved the cart forward to the start of the path with a bit of straining.

"I'm just saying you can take your time. You've helped out a lot you know," the professor replied with a laugh. "Charizard alone has provided quite a bit of information on the interactions caused by uncommon type combinations that are possible with these."

Alexa tapped the Fire type's pokeball releasing him. "You hear that Charizard? Dad is glad you've spent weeks just swimming around," she joked as the pokemon smiled playfully at the two of them. "You're up first by the way," she continued motioning to the cart. With an amused huff the large reptile walked forward and grabbed the two plastic coated handles and tested moving it back and forth.

"Have a good time," her father said as they started to move down the path out of town.

Soon after Charizard gave a short huff shaking his head back to the cart. "The geode?" Alexa asked with dull amusement, getting a wide smile and a nod. She retrieved the rock from the travel bag along with a bottle of water. Soon the trainer and her Fire/Water type were moving steadily along the forested dirt road.

After a good half hour there was a sound from the edge of the road, followed by the emergence of a large Raticate. The Normal type pokemon stood up on its hind limbs and seemed to start making a challenge of sorts, only to stop in confusion at the sight of Charizard. A chittering question was instead the first sound from the rat pokemon, leading to a short conversation between the two that gave the Fire type a moment to rest from pulling the cart. In the end no battle occurred, instead a very confused and worried looking Normal type returned to the forest slowly giving a wide space between itself and Alexa.

"Well, that was odd," Alexa commented as her pokemon chuckled at the retreat. "I think a bit more odd for them than for us though." The Water lizard nodded and started moving again.

There were no more wild pokemon during the rest of the first stage of the journey, and the short road never saw many trainers. Professor Larch had few chances to give out starter pokemon to League challengers, and the small town he lived in was at the end of the routes leading into the wilderness.

The second pokemon to take a turn at pulling the cart was Rhydon, who normally took the longest turn as his body had a notable endurance advantage over the rest of the team. The large Ground/Rock type gave a good natured rumble as he took the cart from the once again Flying type reptile. Charizard gratefully gave up the spot, returning to his pokeball with a yawn.

After traveling another couple of hours another pokemon appeared. This time it was a large Pidgeotto that flew directly into the path and proudly presented its wings to stop them. With a sigh Alexa pulled out one of the other pokeballs she had. "You need to keep carrying for a while, Rhydon. Let's see if Bellossom is up for this," she said to her pokemon as she brought out the pure Grass type. The trainer had decided to not let her pokemon change back to the electric type so quickly.

Rather than get excited at the prospect of a type advantage this made the Flying type wary. It gave a steady nod to its opponent and kept an eye on the group. Bellossom responded to being called out by taking a quick look at her opponent and then moving a bit to think. The swaying motion of her leaves creating a rhythmic rustling sound.

Alexa eyed both pokemon taking in their actions. The Pidgeotto was experienced against trainers, if not previously trained itself. Bellossom, however, was acting oddly compared to her normal battle stance. The leaves were roughly moving over each other in a way that had the trainer wary of what her Grass type had planned.

"Bellossom, Razor Leaf." The Grass type attack rocketed forward fast enough to get past the opponent's quick Gust of wind and strike the bird pokemon. Pidgeotto countered with a stronger burst of air that tore at Bellossom's leaves.

The plant pokemon then concentrated for a moment while targeting the airborne pokemon. With a harsh rippling of leaves moving against each other quickly she produced a burst of sparks that built in her flowers to a medium sized bolt of electricity that struck the bird. Pidgeotto crashed into the ground with a dumbfounded look on its beak.

Seeing that the wild pokemon wasn't moving to continue Alexa turned to her own team member. "You know that finding ways to make electricity is only going to make turning back harder, right?" she asked with a touch of disapproval. Bellossom simply stared back steadily, challenging her trainer. "You really want to stay like that for good? We don't have the equipment to drain an electric type safely, and if you can make enough for an attack now I'm not going to risk you changing again if you aren't." The Grass type simply nodded. "You'd be done with trying things. Dad made it clear that using another one while changed isn't something we can do safely right now." This time there was hesitation before the nod.

A chirp interrupted the conversation, bringing the team's attention to the electricity blackened Pidgeotto. The bird stood proudly and stuck out its beak. With a sigh Alexa turned to the wild pokemon. "Sorry, I'm not looking to catch anyone right now," she told the pokemon. It looked her over for a moment keeping its pose before relaxing into a defeated sigh of its own. "I'm afraid I don't know of anyone looking for new teammates right now either." It nodded at her statement and with a small bow flew off.

Turning back to Bellossom she looked at the pokemon. The plant was still standing tall and looking her in the eye. "Alright, when we get back you can use the Capacitance again, but I will be making sure you are committed, alright?" The Grass type nodded deeply and had a smile as the trainer returned her.

It was some time before the next change of pokemon to carry the cart. This time instead of a short stop to change over they fully stopped by the side of the road for a lunch break. Rhydon sat down and ate his food quickly before laying down to get some sleep. Bellossom like usual ate little solid food instead enjoying time in the sunshine. Charizard was drowsy as he munched on his own meal of dried processed pellets. Kingler's meal was eaten with her smaller claw, as the larger one was now both too big and too spiky to use for that purpose at all. Heracross found a nearby tree for a fresh meal of sap, although he had a couple of false starts causing the holes to close as a result of burning them as he cut through.

The food was mostly dried fare that kept a long time, saved from the prior journey and still useful. It was easily kept in storage balls, and the team did not need a large variety for their specific tastes and needs. Alexa too had a simple meal from the same company intended as an emergency food for lost trainers. The main reason to use up these was that despite the long shelf life the bags had all ended up opened before, and the chances of it going bad for other reasons increased as a result.

"I'm half tempted to try some of yours," Alexa said to the group as a whole, prompting a amused huff from Charizard. "Yeah, yeah. You tricked me into having some of your bag that one time." After a moments pause she continued, "Actually hand some over, it wasn't that bad." The Fire type now outright laughed as he passed a pair of the dry brown cubes.

There was just quiet eating for a while, the soft snoring of Rhydon echoing across the open area by the road. "Heracross, are you up to be next?" Alexa asked as they finished up. The Bug type started to nod only to halt midway through. With a curious and unhappy face he moved to test his ability to move the vehicle. There was no issue immediately with moving the cart a short distance, but Heracross still looked dissapointedly at the vehicle. "Can you pull it for a while?" Alexa asked concerned by the reaction.

Heracross did not reply immediately, instead taking a moment to go over the cart. After getting a good look, he took the bag of supplies out carefully and handed them to Alexa. Taking up the handles again he tried to move it some more, before sighing and nodding. "You can, but only because it's empty." A stronger nod confirmed the statement. "That's fine, do what you can," Alexa replied trying to sound upbeat about it. The Bug type clicked a bit sadly as they started to pack up, and pulled the cart behind them as they started down the road again.

Heracross lasted a couple more hours, but notably less time than he usually managed. Charizard was willing to take up the cart after him despite his earlier turn. In the end they had a somewhat slower pace than Alexa had expected, and as a result it was a fair ways past nightfall when they reached the small remains of an often used fire pit. The good sized clearing was dotted with a couple of large flat rocks that could be used as benches or tables. The ground was spotted in areas where previous travelers had set up tents, one of which Alexa used for the same purpose as Charizard started a fire somewhat tiredly.

When she let the rest of the team out they moved to discuss the day near the cart. Alexa worked on getting out food for a dinner, reading the packages to see the short list of preparation options available when you could stop to make a fire. Charizard was mostly resting on one of the rocks, occasionally responding to the discussion. Heracross was looking sadly between the cart and his fellow Fire type. Bellossom was chatting again about her battle, now including some small sparks created with static from her leaves. Kingler was talking with Rhydon animatedly, and shooting interested looks at the cart.

After a short prep, including a shortcut of Charizard transforming again to get some boiling water, they were eating a slightly better meal of sorta-soup. The group was fine with the resulting taste, but the decision to mix the various types was determined to be a poor one as the result wasn't quite as good tasting as the dry foods alone even if the texture was notably better. "I think I had a bit too much of Rhydon's mix," Alexa commented somewhat jokingly earning a laugh from the others. Heracross gave a chittering and pointed at the bag of Charizard's mix indicating he had liked it well enough.

As the rest of the group descended into comparing their own bags, complete with some sampling, the crab pokemon moved over to the cart. "Something up Kingler?" Alexa asked seeing the Water/Dragon's interest. The pokemon responded by making an attempt to hold onto the handles with her claws. Alexa, seeing her pokemon's intent, moved over and attempted to help the spiny pokemon get a good grip. Soon after the others joined in, eventually ending up with a harness of vines that let her pull the vehicle safely.

"You want to take a turn tomorrow then?" the trainer asked as they carefully disassembled the setup to be reused. Kingler pounded her claw in agreement. "Alright then, that would help a lot." With that out of the way they prepared to go to sleep. Charizard handled putting out the fire, albeit a bit slowly as he was still tired from the day of travel. Then with their trainer laying down inside her tent the pokemon returned to their pokeballs for the night.

Alexa arrived in town followed closely by a large purple spined crab harnessed to a cart. The unusual color and size of Kingler was getting some looks as they made their way to the local PokeMart. The morning's trip had been uneventful, the only thing of note being minor issues repairing and modifying the harness to fit better. The nearest town to her home did not have a Gym, but there was a trainer school she had gone to years ago and the large storefront that supplied the area.

"Hey there Alexa," one of the workers greeted as she approached the blue roofed building. "We have the Professor's stuff ready in the back."

"We'll be right around," the trainer replied moving further out to get the cart angled properly.

"I didn't know Kinglers could evolve again," she heard someone comment nearby. This was soon responded to with light gossip about the various experiments Alexa's father tried out. The currently transformed pokemon gave a clicking chuckle at the discussion.

At the back of the store the loading area was opened up and ready, with six long boxes stacked by the edge. "Quite a bit this time," another worker commented. "Your dad have a big project going on?" she asked before looking over to Alexa. "Whoa, what happened to your Kingler? She wasn't that tough looking before."

Alexa laughed at the statement and moved to help load the packages. "Part of the project actually. She's trying out being a Dragon." Alexa replied as they loaded the first two into the back of the cart.

"Really? Just trying out one of the strongest types," the worker laughed. "If he can let pokemon do that I'm surprised he isn't as famous as Oak." They moved on to the third and fourth boxes, but as they worked to get them in another floated up slightly as the box next to it was lifted. "Then again I guess it has to do with that thing too," the worker said with some annoyance. "Don't know what you have in it, but it is light as air. It's been floating around in the storeroom for a couple of days now while we were waiting for the rest to show up."

Alexa looked at the box consideringly. "I think, that might have some Stable Cloud inside of it," she said after a moment. When she found the worker was giving her an incredulous look she continued, "That is a special kind of cloud only found in really, really bad storms. The kind Legendary pokemon live in that normal pokemon can't really reach. It can be as solid as rock, so if you could get there safely you could walk around on it."

"Why does your dad need some of a Legendary pokemon's masonry?" the PokeMart employee asked nervously. She was now looking at all of the boxes with concern.

"It is supposed to cause pokemon that touch it for a while, about an hour, to change to be Flying type," Alexa explained, a bit too caught up in giving information to see the worker's reaction. When she looked up from putting her next box in the cart she misunderstood the reason that the other woman had stopped. "Oh, don't worry too much. It is only supposed to last around a day or so."

Moving the floating box into the cart the employee collected herself. "You are going to make pokemon into the Flying type by rubbing bits of a Legendary's house on them?" she said slowly. "Are all of the things that he uses that rare?"

"Um, I guess quite a bit of it is stuff collected from places that Legendary pokemon live," Alexa admitted getting the last box in. "but Legendaries tend to be some of the purest examples of the various types of pokemon, so that makes sense. Right?"

The worker simply shook her head and got the paperwork ready. "Is there anything else you need?" she asked as they moved the cover over the load. Alexa noted that she did need to resupply herself, and returned her pokemon to enter the shop.

Replacement bags of dry food were easily found, although she looked at the ingredients a bit more thoroughly to determine what mixes would work better together. She was a bit surprised to see that the lists on the versions made for humans were sometimes quite close to the cheaper pokemon fare. In the end she got more of the pokemon versions than before, and only a single bag of rations that were intended for herself. Along with these were a few fresh foods for the night's meal on the way back.

Batteries, potions, and other expendable gear were then added to the small pile. Next were some replacement materials for her rough sewing kit and some extra patches for various fabrics. After getting these items together Alexa remembered she wasn't halfway across the region all on her own and put back some of them as she could either get them from home or didn't need them at all for the moment.

At this point she saw a clearance section for travel supplies that had been stocked during the previous League. Most of it was stuff she already had in good condition, but standing out was a selection of a few hammocks that were slightly discounted. She had for a time possessed one herself, but one night a curious Nidorina had found it while she was getting the rest of the camp ready. The poisonous pokemon had been just tall enough to climb in, and after getting tangled inside had torn her way out. Alexa had been incredibly dissapointed by the loss, and had hoped to repair or replace it now that she was home.

With some trepidation she checked the price carefully and considered her own funds. She had made a good amount during the League, and her dad was giving her some pay for her help. If she was careful, and probably started eating only pokemon food for the start of her next journey, she could afford it.

Purchases made and packages set she enlisted the two employees to help her disassemble Kingler's makeshift harness. They were willing to help, and bid her a kind farewell as Rhydon walked beside her starting on their way back home.

The final day of their short trip began with Alexa once again waking up in her tent at the long used camp site. She had left her tent and some other supplies set up the previous day as she had known that she would be back for another night. She had reluctantly decided to not use her new hammock just yet, mostly out of worry that it would be damaged. The trainer was also planning on comparing the new one to the remains of the old in the hopes of repairing the original so that she had two to use.

"Alright, everyone ready to head home?" she asked the assembled team as they ate another meal made from the last of the fresh food she had purchased for the night before. There were a mix of happy sounds indicating that they were. "Right, plan is for Rhydon to go first, then Charizard, and last will be Kingler getting harnessed so we can show it to dad at home."

Kingler clacked her claws happily at the prospect, and Rhydon gave a good natured huff as he got ready to move the now heavier cart. Alexa got Bellossom and Charizard to help tear down the site while Heracross was given the task of putting out the small fire they had used to prepare the food.

Rhydon handed the entire morning's travel well, making it almost as far as the day before despite the heavier load. Alexa had seen some pokemon looking at them while they traveled, but none came forward to challenge her. They seemed to be sending curious looks though.

Charizard's turn began with him immediately wanting to transform, with the Fire type only laughing at his trainer when she wondered aloud what made him so egar. The answer came soon after when the first drops of rain began to fall.

Alexa grumbled at the pokemon as they stopped so that she could get out a rain coat. "You could have warned me if you knew about this," she complained to the temporary Water type as he splashed in the newly forming puddles. The reptile huffed with some amusement before throwing a still wet arm around the newly worn coat. Alexa's mood improved as the obviously distracted pokemon gave an incomprehensible rumbling explanation. "I'm guessing you've been waiting to see what rain felt like?" she asked with some more humor, getting a very excited nod in response.

The rain continued as they traveled, with Charizard using the Clearwater Geode to keep from changing back. Alexa even tried using rainwater caught in her coat with the stone on the Fire type with apparent success. The ecstatic pokemon made good time, and Alexa had to move a bit more quickly than normal to keep up with her pokemon.

When the time came for the group to stop for a lunch the rain had remained steady and did not show any signs of stopping. Without easy access to a place out of the weather Alexa instead retrieved and assembled a canopy tent that she had actually purchased to keep Charizard from being inconvenienced by the rain in this kind of situation. The reptile took great pleasure in helping to set it up in the rain.

Once it was setup she let out the team and began to get out the food. Heracross spent the meal looking out from the tent at the overeager Charizard. Kingler and Bellossom ate slowly outside of it in the rain while discussing a set of vines the latter had created for some purpose. Rhydon lazily sat next to the Bug/Fire type and gave some lamenting grumbles at the sight of the rain outside. The large Ground/Rock type picked at strands of grass while the beetle gave clicking explanations to his questions.

As the rain continued Alexa considered their options. "Bellossom, do you think the harness will work if it gets wet?" she asked seeing that the two pokemon were investigating that topic. The Grass type had tied a loose strand of plant matter around a couple of rain soaked spines on Kingler's back. Then the two pokemon had shifted the end around mimicking moving the cart. They showed Alexa how the vine remained fairly stable for a while, but slid much more than the day before.

"I don't like how much that's moving," the trainer commented, and Kingler gave a wave of agreement. Pulling the vine off Bellossom showed Alexa that the edges of the spines were cutting into the material because of the movement. "It looks like we would need to make repairs fairly often." The Grass type nodded and then carefully moved onto the Water/Dragon's back, she then took the vine and used some energy to repair the cuts.

Thinking on that suggestion Alexa turned to the Fire lizard still playing in the small puddles on the ground. "Charizard, are you still up for going a bit farther, or did you tire yourself out having fun?" Charizard looked at his trainer and gave an amused huff as he nodded. "In that case we'll see how long you can manage, and then Bellossom will work with Kingler to keep the harness together."

The rain continued for around two more hours with Charizard enjoying it so much that he pushed himself to continue longer than normal. As a result there was only a short time when the crab and plant needed to keep the damp harness together. Alexa had them take a short break after the rain halted to try and dry the patched vines. The three of them decided to continue with Bellossom riding the rest of the way just in case, to the apparent amusement of both pokemon.

Alexa's father was waiting for them outside when they got home. A familiar blue and white shape was perched on his shoulder. Porygon wasn't one of her father's main battle pokemon back when he won a League, but the artificial life form's ability to alter its type at will was extremely helpful in his research afterward. The digital pokemon was currently flying type as shown by the more avian shape of its polygons and the replacement of its normal red colored sides with a white color like that of clouds. It had a pair of large wings along its sides instead of the normal blocky legs, and thin spikes extending downward to rest just above her father's coat.

The bird-like construct made a smug series of beeps at the Professor as they caught sight of her arrival. "Yes, Porygon, you were right," he told the pokemon before turning to Alexa "It seems that you're a bit better at planning a trip than I am," her father said with a chuckle. "Your mother keeps complaining about the times I've needed an extra day to make that trip. Were there any problems? I see you found a way to get the rest of your team to have a turn." The data pokemon gave a curious beep looking over the display of her crab pokemon being lashed to the cart and ridden by her Grass type.

Kingler happily clacked her claws as Bellossom made one last check of the vines and carefully got off of her teammate. "Yeah, we found a way to take advantage of Kingler's new strength," Alexa started, and then sighed and continued, "but Heracross is a bit weaker, so he couldn't quite manage."

"Really? I suppose it makes sense for the Fighting type to give a similar physical benefit as the Dragon type," the Professor noted with interest. "I'll have to see about finding something for that type, it is proving surprisingly difficult."

"Really?" Alexa asked as they moved closer to the lab to unload the cart. "I would think that those Aura adepts you were taking with would know of something."

Her father nodded, and then as the approached the door moved to inspect Kingler's harness more closely. "Well it is actually the other way around for that problem. It is easy for even humans to gain a temporary Fighting type with the proper training, not all of those that train with the Fighting type variant of our kind have the potential to become one themselves. Just like how not all who try and train under Psychic type humans do so."

"So they do have plenty of ways of doing it for a short time. Is it something that changes the shape of whoever does it like the Geode or is it just altering the resistances like that Ghost over in Kalos?" Alexa asked helping to get the harness of the crab while also showing the various connections they had made.

"They are both around the same from what I've seen. The difference between a pokemon without the Ghost type and one with it added to their normal types is fairly minimal. Charizard likely only changed as much as you saw because of a loss of his Flying type," he commented thoughtfully. "Perhaps I was looking at them the wrong way around, the Fighting type is not always visibly notable even in pure examples." Taking the removed harness in a bundle he changed topic, "This is a useful piece of equipment. We should take some notes on its construction so we can try to make a better one later."

Alexa smiled at that and started to return her pokemon, only for Bellossom to shake her head and mime lifting things. "Sounds great dad, and it seems we have some help unloading this stuff."

At this offer Porygon gave a resolute beep, then moved to stand next to Kingler for a moment and pulsed with light. The various shapes making up its body began to shift and extend. The beak-like face growing larger and bulky. Then the wing structures reconfigured into large clawed arms, and the thin spikes shifted into a single larger spike. Finally there was an instant shift in color from cloud white to dragon purple. The newly converted pokemon then quickly moved to open the covering over the cart.

Between the five of them it was quite trivial to unload the boxes, especially with one being light as air and easily taken by an extra vine from Bellossom as she carried a lighter one inside. With the supplies taken care of for the moment the pokemon were returned to their balls while the two Larchs locked up the lab and returned home.