Heracross was listening to the others planning their attempts at new moves with much more enjoyment and feedback than he had managed over any of the other projects the team had attempted over the past month. "Alright everyone. It seems we are planning on making these transformations into part of our strategy now?" Alexa asked the gathered pokemon. Charizard nodded rapidly and began to point at several locations making comments. Bellossom gave a nod to agree, but not as strongly as the Fire type. Rhydon gave a low grumble and then joined in with trying to get across which types by pointing. Kingler and Heracross both seemed to be trying to say they were more interested in changes to themselves, with the currently Normal type pokemon wiggling his fingers and bending over to emphases this.
"Right, so two of you want to make other pokemon change, and the rest just want different forms," their trainer clarified. "Changing other pokemon is going to be fine from what I've checked of official battle rules, at least as long as we make sure they only last a short time. I've also already started looking into ways of either making these changes last longer, or of getting more of the materials." She looked over at her Fighting type. "Mundane Clay is actually really easy to get right now, and we can store a good amount of it. So if you really like that form it is going to be an easy option for us to have." Heracross gave a happy squeak at this, and she turned to look at Rhydon. "Crystal Syrup on the other hand is really expensive, and it is a powerful medicine so I don't like the idea of using a lot of it for this kind of thing. Dad said he was looking for other options if you want to be in that shape again." The Ground/Rock type nodded thoughtfully.
"I've also looked into the cleaning supplies, and I think we might be able to do something about reversing the Toxin Contagion on our own," she said getting out a small stack of papers. "One of the cleaning products is fairly close to the anti-toxin in makeup, and it is known to cure poisonings. So I'm thinking we could try and adapt that poison curing move Kingler and Bellossom made to reversing the change too." The mentioned pokemon looked interested in the idea and began to discuss it quietly amongst themselves.
"So, with those details out of the way we can start thinking about actually battling with this stuff," she continued mostly to Charizard. "Changing their type and shape is going to trip an opponent up some, but we can't count on just that." The Fire/Flying pokemon nodded accepting the logic. "Do you have any plans so far?" At the question Charizard quickly took off to fly above an area downwind of the team.
After a moment of considering the ground and looking to the team he began to hover over a spot with a look of intense concentration. Then he began to flap slower for a moment, until his wings gave off a familiar glow and a short rain of blueish grey powder fell to the ground beneath him. Smiling at the result the reptile flew back to the group and gave an exaggerated bow. Alexa put her hand over her face. "Yeah, I can see how making your opponents into Bug types would work," she grudgingly admitted. "We'd probably have issues with the first person we meet who is scared of them, but that would still be a solid tactic. How long have you been able to manage that?" Charizard shook his hand in a way that told his trainer he wasn't actually sure it would have worked.
"Anyone else have progress on that front they haven't told me about yet?" she asked the group, getting an unsure nod from Rhydon. "Ok, can you demonstrate?" The Ground/Rock type looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. Then he faced towards Charizard and began to prepare an attack in his throat. The Fire type chuckled and braced for the incoming move. A small glob of toxic goo flung forward onto the winged reptile.
Charizard's color immediately shifted to the same purple colors it had when using the toxin itself. Unlike before his weight did not noticeably increase, and the poison that built up on his claws and teeth was much thinner. His tailflame remained lit, but the color changed to a toxic purple that seemed to give off a small but dense cloud of poison clinging to the darker flames. The newly transformed pokemon looked over his body with a laugh. He gave a questioning rumble to Rhydon as he moved to be on the downwind side of the team.
"So, that's at least two we have available all the time now," Alexa said looking a bit shocked at the result. "How about you Kingler, any luck with Charizard's version of Soak?" The crab pokemon clicked her claw thoughtfully, then waggled it back and forth. "Alright, that one is still a work in progress." Rhydon raised his claw up at this. "Unless someone else has managed that one without being Water type?" The Ground/Rock type didn't confirm, instead pointing at Kingler and then himself. "You can't right now, but want to try and do it?" He nodded.
Alexa looked over the group for a moment. "Any other ideas on that front?" she asked the team. Bellossom nodded and gave off some sparks. She then motioned to the pond, then to Charizard and his temporary Poison type. "You want to try and make an Electric type move? Do you have what you need to work that out?" Bellossom gave a thoughtful nod, and proceeded to shift her skirt of leaves against itself producing a short aura of sparks. "Okay, when you have something let me know so we can work out how to test it safely." The plant pokemon nodded happily.
Charizard then gave a brief puff of purple smoke, and then looked at the small cloud of toxic gas that lingered with some annoyance. "I'm guessing what you meant was trying to make a Fire type move," Alexa joked with the reptile, who chuckled and nodded. "Sounds good, and if you keep going around with the Water type it even is an advantage." The Fire type looked at his trainer with a surprised expression that quickly turned thoughtful.
"So I guess what we've decided is that our theme is changing types. Maybe we should get some of dad's pokemon to help. Porygon should have some advice on changing at will," the trainer proposed. Heracross gave her an interested look at this and pointed at Charizard before miming spitting at him. "Yeah, we can ask if it's willing to be targets for testing these moves too," Alexa responded after a moment of deciphering the mammal's meaning. "It should be interesting to see how it handles it," she said with an amused smile earning a round of chuckles from her team.
The Lickitung looked over the group somewhat dubiously. Alexa wasn't sure what to make of the pokemon's mood, having received her for the day instead of Porygon to help out with developing new moves. Her father had collected a large number of willing pokemon volunteers for testing changes in type, and quite a few had already helped him personally while Alexa had focused on working with her own team. Lickitung was one that had not had a chance yet, and she had apparently been getting antsy about actually going through with a change. Despite this she seemed to be quite nervous with the actual reality of having a new type. Charizard was probably not helping with that unease by showing off his swimming prowess in his own changed form.
"Alright Lickitung, we are going to be trying out a few moves that will change your type," Alexa started to explain. "Your body will also be altered a bit by these." The pink pokemon nodded slowly in response, its large dangling tongue strangely still as it did so. "Alright, we are starting with a variant on Soak we have been using." Charizard suddenly surged out of the water, sending a glowing wave crashing over the Normal type just short of hitting his trainer.
Lickitung emerged from the water with her entire body changed to a blue color, her markings taking on a slightly lighter shade. Her tongue was now notably dripping a thin stream of water, and her arms were altered in flatter and wider flippers. The changed pokemon turned to Alexa's Fire type angrily and began to rant at him. "Right, his version usually lasts about half an hour. If you are still up for it, the next move will be Poison typed," the trainer says with a sigh as the previously normal typed pokemon finally notices the changes to her shape and begins to interrogate the finned lizard about them.
Alexa turned to where Kingler and Rhydon were working on getting the altered Soak move working for the crab pokemon. Like Charizard the Ground type was currently using the Clearwater Geode to be a Water type. The two pokemon were sending blasts of water towards the pond working at producing the transformative move. If the glow present in both pokemon's attempts was any indication then seemed that she had finally managed to get the trick to creating the effect.
Bellossom and Heracross were continuing to train in use of their longer term changes of type. The plant pokemon had advanced to trying to mix Electric and Grass type moves more directly by either jumping the arcs across slowly floating leaves and petals, or by creating charged leaves that flew more quickly and gave a shocking result. Heracross was countering with Fire Punches learned from his previous transformation. The currently Normal/Fighting type pokemon was rapidly getting used to the larger range of motion offered by becoming a mammal, and was even managing to reproduce some tactics that he had previously used his wings to accomplish.
The next half hour was mostly spent with those two training on their own while the four Water types present went over the altered form of Soak in more detail. Then another ten minutes were spent in much the same fashion after a successful attempt by Kingler to preform the move on Lickitung. After the second round of being transformed in this manner the large tongue'd pokemon seemed to have a better handle on the goal of the current testing. "Okay, next is seeing who can manage the move version of Toxin Contagion," the trainer said looking over her team, noticing that Charizard and Rhydon were still aquatic. "Well, maybe waiting for the two of you to change back first."
Rhydon shook his head in the negative at this and gave a wide smile on his muddy hide. Giving a short grumble to Lickitung, who nodded in response, he then proceeded to repeat the transformative toxic spit move on the other pokemon. The Normal type pokemon took being hit by the move with some humor this time, looking with interest as the blob sank into her thick hide. Once again the pokemon's coloration was the first to change, this time with her pink being replaced with a dark green and her lighter areas becoming a lighter shade. Her small claws lengthened slightly into hazardous poison coated points. Small hairs seemed to have sprouted along the whole of her tail that secreted a thin layer of toxin giving it a rough texture. The pokemon's large tongue changed to a purple color, or at minimum gained a thick coat of poison in that color.
Lickitung seemed somewhat nervous as she tried touching her altered tongue. The new Poison type looked surprised when she was able to do so without any issue. "You don't need to worry about that," Alexa said a bit less sure than she intended. "These changes don't seem to cause any new things that are dangerous to the pokemon themselves." The volunteer nodded still somewhat uneasy, then moved on to checking the alterations to her tail.
"Now, we have two options for what to do next," the trainer said after letting the pokemon spend a couple minutes exploring her changes. "The first is we can have the rest of the team try to figure out how to do this move." Charizard gave a nod at this, but most of the team was only partially interested. "The other option is our plan for reversing the more extreme version of this change." Lickitung looked at her confused at that option. "To change back from using this stuff after its sat for a while takes a good cleaning. We think we might have a move that would do that instead." Alexa looked somewhat nervously at the currently poisonous pokemon before continuing. "Dad said that he wanted you to have a longer transformation going on when we sent you back, and I figured even if we succeed it would give you some experience for what he's after." Lickitung nodded with an amused expression at the admission and twisted her arm to hold one of her lengthened claws upwards.
"Right, then let's start with the first part. Kingler, can you cure poison now, or will we need to turn you into a Poison type yourself first?" Alexa asked the crab pokemon. Kingler gathered a bit of water in her large claw and changed it so the liquid thickened a bit and began to glow. Charizard nodded at the result and deliberately ran his hand down Lickitung's poison covered tail, surprising the altered pokemon. The Fire type grunted as the toxic material took effect and then nodded to the pure Water type to make their attempt. Seeing the general idea Lickitung gladly joined in the testing by poisoning whichever member of the team was next to have the restorative move attempted on them.
As the duration of the Toxin Contagion move ran out Lickitung's body returned to normal with surprisingly little consequence despite both her tail and tongue being coated in poison during the change. This coat of toxic material simply slid off neatly as her colors returned to normal, much to Alexa's relief as she noticed the potential issue just before the changes ended. "Okay, next we will need to get some Contagion that has been resting a bit," the trainer said motioning for them to move to the lab.
The next stage of utility move development required a test subject, and with the borrowed Lickitung willing to help it looked like it was going to progress well. "Do you have any idea what dad wants you to do that needs you to be transformed?" Alexa asked the pokemon as the got out the Toxin Contagion and its small dropper. The Normal type shook her head before moving forward, she seemed rather eager to continue despite her initial misgivings. "Ok, I'll have to ask him later."
The small drop of Poison type material sank into the thick pink flesh easily, and immediately sent toxic green outward to replace its previous color. The changes to the pokemon's color and tail were close to the same, with the only difference being a small series of spikes trailing down the center of the now fuzzy appendage. Additionally the small circles on her knees were replaced by a pair of short rounded spikes, and two lines of small backwards angled spines grew along the now Poison typed pokemon's back that arced to meet up with the single row along her tail. The most dramatic change was to her tongue, with the massive feature melting to become simply a mass of controllable toxic goo. Lickitung stared at the change to her most notable body part, poking at its now partially liquefied form and slopping it over her body as she explored just how much she could now move the mass of goop.
"Okay, there seems to be a bit of a theme with this stuff," Alexa commented as Lickitung pulled the blob that had been her tongue into her mouth for the time being. "So, are you ready to see if we can turn you back?" The Poison type looked over her body's changes for a moment before nodding. The two of them emerged from the lab to where the rest of the team had remained to discuss how to go forward with the current project. They had also apparently snuck a number of bowls out of the lab and were in the process of going over a variety of light blue liquids held in them.
"Did you at least make some progress?" the trainer asked looking over the appropriated containers with a dark expression. Bellossom nodded happily while Charizard did so with a smug smile. Kingler and Rhydon at least had embarrassed expressions at being caught, and Heracross joined the two for a moment before getting distracted by the feeling of his mouth making a frown. "You will be helping to clean those properly later. We are working with dangerous materials here." The group agreed with a set of apologetic sounds, although Heracross now moved off to inspect his face in the reflection of the pond.
Lickitung engaged in a brief conversation with the team as they explained the substances they had made. This quickly changed into a discussion of her altered body focusing on her no longer solid tongue. Rhydon in particular continued this line of questioning even after the rest of the team moved on to explaining to their trainer what they were thinking of as a liquids were separated into three groups, the first was simply the anti-toxin in a few variations, the second was the move to cure poisonings, and the third was an attempt to make a stronger substance. The first and last group were actually a bit toxic themselves when a pokemon that did not need them was exposed, and the team had used the second group for some additional refinement of the cure in response to that discovery.
"Right, next time you are all waiting for me to be there before trying anything out," Alexa angrily told her pokemon as they finished. "We'll start with the cure group, and then move onto the anti-toxin, and if neither of those work we might try this last one." With a sigh as they gave apologies to her she continued, "So, are you up for letting them work on this with you, Lickitung?"
The transformed pokemon nodded and then moved aside where Kingler was standing a short distance apart from the group. After spending a moment to prepare she gave a bubbly rumble to show she was ready. Kingler carefully sent a splash of liquid at the larger pokemon. They hit the pokemon and sank into her body with no immediate effect. After a moment Lickitung gave a grumble and motioned for the crab pokemon to try again. This time Alexa was able to see the slight color change that matched what had occurred during her own work at cleaning off the pokemon that had tried the Contagion. "I think that is at least working as a cleaning product," she informed the group. "Although the question there is if you can make enough to handle a full cleaning."
Kingler spend a moment just looking between the mass of the currently green pokemon and the large empty bottles of cleaning agent next to the plastic pool. She then turned to her trainer with a somewhat worried expression and shook her body no. "Yeah, that takes a lot to do. Let's see what the next one does, okay?" Lickitung nodded rubbing the small cleaned patch and turning to present an untouched part of her belly. The anti-toxin had a slightly larger effect on the Poison typing, but was still working as little more than a cleaner. Next they moved to the small number of variants, which when tested revealed that the strongest of those had a better effect for the amount used. By the end of this testing the long tongued pokemon had changed to a polka dotted look from all the small patches that had been partially cleaned in the process.
Looking at these patches thoughtfully Lickitung brought out the mass of toxin her tongue had become to wipe over them, with the minor color changes vanishing as it passes. "Oh. I guess that's something you can do when you're like that," Alexa said staring at the small change. The rest of the team looked at the action in interest, unnerving the Poison type with how her simple action produced such a response. "Right, I think trying the more potent stuff should be safe enough. Are you ready?"
After getting a nod from her target Kingler produced a good sized portion of the stronger variant and then carefully flung the liquid. This time the effects were rapid, with the green color instantly chased away by Lickitung's original pink. The spikes and fur sank into her body while the accompanying poison melted off easily. Her tongue notably solidified in front of the group, the mass of goo reforming into flesh quickly and resulting in a healthy pink color free of any residue.
"Congratulations," Alexa said amazed at the quick result. "I think with that we can consider keeping some Toxin Contagion on hand when we get back to traveling." At this the borrowed pokemon looked up from inspecting her restored form to gave a confused look to the trainer. She soon shifted to staring incredulously at how excited the entire team seemed to be at this idea. "Thank you for your help," the trainer told her. "If you want we can get you changed back into that form for my dad now." Giving it a moments thought, during which she once more looked over the happy team, she nodded and began to walk back to the lab grumbling with some confusion.
Alexa looked over Arbok, who was in turn looking over the changed form of Heracross with interest. The Poison type was present because of a suggestion made by her father the day before while she had been dropping off Lickitung. The Professor had been quite excited about the success of the move to restore a pokemon from being changed into the Poison type, but he had also wondered what would happen to a pokemon that was naturally of that type. He had given an example of a move that temporarily removed the user's Flying type and asked if they could test to see if this new technique worked in that way. Alexa was personally a bit wary of the specific volunteer he had gotten to test this possibility, as the snake pokemon in front of her was a pure Poison type and did not have another to fall back on like most Flying pokemon.
"Ok, just so you know, I have no idea what will happen to you if this works. Dad said this kind of thing has happened to pokemon before, not having any type at all that is, and it generally isn't harmful," The trainer explained to the apparently quite eager serpent, who simply bobbed his head and gave a hissing question to the currently Normal type pokemon. Heracross responded with a brief series of squeaks, before turning to his trainer and grabbing a few strands of fur. "No, it isn't going to make him Normal typed like you, it would make him not have one. Like most humans," she explained getting an even more interested look from Arbok.
The Poison type streaked forward to lay in front of Kingler, who looked up nervously at her trainer. Charizard gave a chuckle from the pond as he and Rhydon worked with Bellossom to get used to being vulnerable to her types while transformed into another type. "It's okay to go ahead," Alexa told the Water type while keeping an eye on the enthusiastic pokemon. With a bit of trepidation the crab pokemon sent a small amount of the strong anti-toxin based liquid at the serpent.
The first change to Arbok was his purple coloration draining to a light brown, with the red portions of his hood shifting to a dark green and the yellow within becoming a lighter shade of green. The next change was a general thickening of his body, shifting to be slightly more muscular and making the hood slightly less apparent as it remained the same size. Finally the pokemon seemed be moving slightly differently, with the effect best demonstrated as he began to try out his changed form and proceeded to travel in a slower, more solid manner. After seeing that the changes had completed he gave a grin to both trainer and pokemon and moved towards his pokeball, that he had brought with him outside the lab.
"Wait, you're going to just rest now?" Alexa asked Arbok confused. "I was thinking we would wait to make sure you changed back after a bit." The snake pokemon looked at the trainer for a moment with a considering expression, before managing to shrug with his hood and continuing to the small sphere. Once he got close enough he happily tapped the button on the ball and prepared for it to collect him, only for the small item to send out an error tone shocking the pokemon. He quickly repeated the attempt to the same result, then grabbed the ball and rapidly brought it to the trainer with a sad expression on his face.
Alexa took the pokeball and spent a moment inspecting it, including checking the indicator light on the button for the specific error. "Huh, it's giving the 'attempted to use on human' error." Seeing the horrified look on the serpent's face she continued, "It still registers as yours from what I can tell. I think this might be because you don't have a type." Arbok still looked worried and Alexa heard Kingler give a click that meant to continue explaining. "Human's can't be caught because their energy is too tightly contained. Pokeballs need to be able to split you apart into energy to take you inside, so if your energy is too hard to split then they don't work on you. That's why you can't catch humans with them."
Arbok looked slightly better after the explanation. "Let's wait and make sure you turn back, then we can try again. Okay?" she asked the typeless pokemon. With a sad nod he agreed and joined the trainer in watching her temporary Water types to make sure they were doing okay against Bellossom. Charizard had easily adapted to the situation as the Grass type was countered by his Fire type to some extent, while the risk of Electric type attacks was a shared problem between his two main secondary types. Rhydon similarly still had a benefit against one of the types still and a shared weakness against the other one, but he was having a bit more issues with how to fight while in the water himself.
The two pokemon both refreshed their transformation while their trainer waited with the borrowed pokemon. In the end it was around twenty minutes before Arbok returned to normal. His body thinning back to its original scale while his colors returned to the darker purple showing his restored Poison type. Finally as soon as the changes were completely removed the serpent quickly pressed the button of his pokeball again and vanished into the small sphere. "Alright, I don't think we can use that one in a battle. Pokeballs are too important to risk not being able to use them," Alexa said getting a series of nervous agreements from her team.
"Still, we've made some great progress here. So, what next?" she asked them carrying the pokeball back towards the lab. "Do we try to make another move, or do you guys think we should go for something new?" Heracross gave a squeak and pointed at the lab, earning interested looks from the group. "Something new?" He nodded and gave a short chittering speech to the team while moving his hands through his fur and pointing back towards the pond. "New stuff gives us new ideas?" Alexa asked to make sure she was on the same page, earning a rapid nod from the former beetle. "Alright then. Let's see what we have."