Small glassy grey cubes were rattling around the bowl Alexa was setting down on the table. The team was back to their now normal types. The actual Normal type as a primary for Heracross, with his natural Fighting type for a secondary. Kingler and Bellossom had their added secondary types of Dragon and Electric respectively. Along with Charizard and Rhydon with their natural setups of Fire/Flying and Ground/Rock. The five of them crowded in close, eager to see what was next after the unique experience of all of them having the same type for a time.
"So we missed out on the Rock type. The Ashes could cause it, but I think we are more than done with that one," she stated getting nods from the group and a grumbling chitter from Heracross. "This is a better option for getting just that type. Regirock Candy, named for the Legendary golem present at the location where it was first identified." She held up one of the small pieces of stone. "Dad's been growing these in special mineral water for a while now, so they actually haven't been an option before."
Rhydon moved forward to look over the items and nodded at the small amount of powdery material that had broken off from the jostling. Charizard gave a huff and nodded at his trainer and teammate acknowledging the item. Bellossom looked at the items and asked Kingler a question, getting a shake of the spiky pokemon's body in response. Heracross gave the items a glance, but did not move forward instead starting a conversation with the natural Rock type. "The way they work is that for two days after eating them a Rock type will have more power to work with, while anyone who wasn't one will end up with the type for that long. It says that they cause rocky areas to form on whoever is transformed, but from what my dad's done so far it seems more like they become living rock while staying mostly the same shape."
Bellossom gave an interested chirp poking one of the cubes. Charizard looked at his plant teammate and gave a joking bow indicating that she could go first with this one. "So two days is more interesting than thirty?" Alexa asked rhetorically. The fact that Heracross started the laughter that followed that reassured Alexa that her joke wasn't in bad taste. "Right, whenever you're ready."
The Grass/Electric type grabbed one of the cubes, and then attempted to chew on it only to wince at how solid the material was. Pulling it into her mouth to suck on instead had her make a face at the taste. "I really hope dad didn't just trick us into trying to eat rocks" Alexa said after some time passed, although Bellossom shook her head at that. The group was starting to grow nervous at this point, only continuing the attempt because their teammate was sure it was working.
After a good ten minutes Bellossom excitedly nodded. The first change was the spreading of a grey color over her body. As this passed the texture of her skin, leaves, and flowers altered into a crack covered rock surface. The lines indicating her Electric type became thin groves that began to glow with a slight yellow color. The overall effect resulted in her body resembling a statue, with only her slowed movements to look over her own body indicating she was still a living thing. Charizard even gave a questioning growl that prompted her to hold still for a moment, which made the effect more pronounced.
"That's interesting," Alexa said nervously. "Are you okay?" she asked the transformed pokemon as she got the Pokedex out of the new pouch she had added to her belt. The new Rock type nodded, the motion taking a notably longer time. The trainer inspected the small computer's results with the voice readout disabled, as she had not yet gotten it to restrict itself to only the information they wanted immediately. "Huh, it replaced your Grass type. I wonder what actually determines the type that is replaced with additional transformations," she said with her interest in the question replacing her slight worry over the inanimate appearance.
The team inspected the statue like pokemon with interest of their own. Seeing how much slower she was moving had basically removed any desire to try this item from Heracross. Kingler was itching at her thick armor while looking over the stiff leaf shaped parts of Bellossom's body that were still slowly curling like leaves as the former plant moved. Rhydon looked over the at the desk full of older work thoughtfully as he discussed his experiences with the Rock type.
Charizard moved to pick up another of the small cubes from the bowl. "Already want to try it out?" Alexa asked him as she looked over the shallow cracks and groves now covering the new Rock type's body. The Fire/Flying type nodded and put the candy into his mouth. He then started to grind on it somewhat, unlike Bellossom's careful treatment of her teeth regarding the rocky food. His trainer glared at him a bit for this, but soon noticed that his mouth was working away at it while also seeming to be overly full of spit. "Have you been trying to use Water type attacks while you aren't one?" she asked getting a nod from the reptile.
Just after his response, and far more quickly than the previous attempt, his own transformation began. Unlike Bellossom his skin merely became covered in slightly larger rock like scales, although the coloration and texture did change to much the same rock grey. His arms bulked up noticeably and along with his legs grew slightly longer. His wings then altered greatly, starting with their membranes shrinking away. The next change was the ribs of the limbs shrinking and altering to have claws at their ends as they became fingers. The limbs themselves reformed then changing giving the now rocky scaled pokemon four clearly defined arms. His tail remained largely the same, with only a small rocky structure forming around the tip that made the flame into a focused vent rather than just an open flame. The final change was two similar, although much larger, craters forming along his back just behind the locations where both his old and new arms connected. These took on a dull red color, and appeared to be additional flame vents.
Bellossom gave a gravely sound at the sight of the changes that the same item had caused in her teammate. This was clarified as something of a huff as she wheeled her arms to indicate his changed limbs. Charizard was not paying any attention however, instead giving a cross eyed look at his new hands and was uneasily attempting to move them. Heracross and Rhydon both shared a surprised glance before moving forward to inspect the newly changed three clawed limbs. "Fire/Rock type it seems," Alexa said going over the new Pokedex data. "Looks like you've got new places to make fire too," she said moving it over the craters. Seeing that the pokemon was struggling with his altered limbs she moved to get the others out of the way.
Bellossom made her way over, frowning at how much slower she was. Looking at the larger temporary Rock type she gave a cracking sound that left everyone staring at her due to its strangeness, including the statue pokemon herself stopping in shock at it. This seemed to snap the usually playful reptile out of his confusion over his new arms as he began to chuckle at the stony noise, his own voice also more gravely. "Okay, looks like this will be an interesting one," Alexa said to them putting away the Pokedex. "How about we head out to do some practicing with this?"
Alexa sighed heavily at the sight of Charizard holding as still as possible. The result was an appearance of being an overly elaborate statue that only vaguely resembled a member of his species. Bellossom could pull off the effect better due to how much she still looked like her original form despite multiple transformations. "It's not working, even if you still had your wings the tailflame is a bit too much for someone to put in," she told the prank loving pokemon, who gave a disappointed huff of flames. The additional flame vents had thrown his ability to control his fire off, and it did not seem to be helped by his now greater resistance to the heat.
A rumbling drew the attention of the two over to where Rhydon was teaching Bellossom how to replace their target stones. The Ground/Rock type had some kind of idea that would require this, and despite once again having troubles moving around because of a transformation Bellossom was willing to aid in them. The two were obviously planning something, but Alexa trusted them enough to let herself be distracted by helping with Charizard's more extreme change. As the large rock broke the surface of the ground the Fire/Rock type seemed to recall his part in the plan and made a grumbling sound to call her attention back to him by making another attempt at using his new body parts.
The altered limbs and added fire vents were both giving him considerable issue, to Alexa's surprise as they both were simply altered versions of existing body parts. The claws that had previously been his wings even looked nearly the same as his normal set of arms, but it seemed that it was not as simple as using the same skills on a different limb. The key issue seemed to be that he was not used to the fingers being present, but not connected to each other. However, of the changes she was more concerned about how hard using the two flame vents was appearing to be. The accidental bursts of fire out of them reminded her of when Heracross became a Fire type, but she could not think of any prior change that added a difficulty to how the pokemon could use one of their natural types. "How about we try working with these like they were your fins?" Alexa suggested pointing to the vents. "See if that helps you use them for attacks." The four armed reptile looked up at her and then smiled at the suggestion.
With their trainer thoroughly distracted the remaining Rock types moved to talk with their other teammates about Rhydon's idea. Heracross had several questions on the topic that led to him looking over the two with an interested expression. Kingler gave more interest in the response to the Normal type's inquiry than the original subject. Bellossom was quickly moved back to trying out a variety of moves and abilities that Rhydon was used to using. The Ground/Rock type himself was looking over the grass and plants around the field with interest as he instructed his teammate.
Nearby two large blobs of lava shot out of Charizard's back and splattered a short distance behind the Fire/Rock type. The reptile looked back at these with surprise and moved to inspect the result. "Huh, actually that looks like it could be useful. Can you aim behind you?" his trainer asked arriving alongside him next to the cooling stone. He poked at the one of them, and then picked up the still slightly blob like mass to see it better. With a smokey huff he motioned for her to move back a bit and tried again. This time he crouched down low before trying to fire the lava again, this time attempting to send them forward over his head. One of the two blobs shot past a short way to hit the ground, but the other ended up hitting one of the transformed wings. Unhurt by the molten rock sticking to the surface he flung it off the limb with a sharp motion, sending it a longer distance compared to the more successful shot. "That worked somewhat better. Maybe we can try to work with that method instead? It might help with getting both parts at the same time," Alexa suggested.
The two groups continued their projects training the temporary Rock types for some time. Charizard became more proficient in using the extra arms from having them throw the increasingly easily formed balls of molten rock, and even managed to get started on a bit of a rhythm using all four grasping limbs. The major thing that limited this practice was the increase in effort that this move took over his more typical Fire type moves, which meant that he was quite tired after a comparatively short session. Bellossom was having an easier time with her own instruction, but that was mostly because of her group taking more breaks for discussion. When it came to actual moves she was also getting rather tired, but more from the greater difficulty she had with movement in general using her stone body.
"Alright, that's enough of that for the day," Alexa said happily to both groups. "Now how about we take a break and you two can show me what this idea of yours is?" she then pointedly asked Bellossom and Rhydon. The two looked at each other a bit nervously for a moment, but Rhydon shook it off and moved up to his trainer. He motioned to the grass, then pointed at Heracross who was still Normal type due to the change being extended by the days spent as a Flying type, and finally spat out a small blob of toxic material to land a short distance from the other pokemon. "You think we can extend the length of Crystal Syrup using another transformation, like the Toxin Contagion?" she asked somewhat skeptically. The Ground type nodded with a hint of a smile.
"Okay, that is something that would keep you transformed like that for longer, which does help. However, it is still going to take another dose to transform you again. So the issue is that even with doing it like that is if you ever want to change back we can't easily give you that form again." The reptile nodded again and pointed at the two temporary Rock types, and then at Kingler's claw. The Water/Dragon formed a small amount of the toxin cleaning liquid letting it pool for a demonstration. "Yeah, that covers someone handling Rock type effects and turning you back," Alexa acknowledged. "Still, we don't have that many secondary transformations that last a long time." The trainer then looked aside at Bellossom with some embarrassment before continuing, "and it seems strange to go through all this just to end up with a Poison/Grass type."
Rhydon and Bellossom shared a look at this, and then the statue pokemon let out a low creaking groan like a foundation taking too much weight in realization. Charizard gave a clinking laugh at the sight of the two of them looking so surprised over the minor detail. "I'll talk with dad about it, see what he has to say about the Syrup, and let you know," Alexa told them motioning towards the lab. "Now how about we take a break and think it over a bit more?" Given how tired the transformed members of the group were everyone easily agreed.