ooc: Sorry about the delay, real life strains kind of hampered my ability to get the next chapter up but all should be fine now and I should be able to get back to doing them more commonly now. And without further ado, the next chapter in the series!
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Alexandria simply stared at the others for a long moment while holding her eyes fixed at an unknown point on the ground to avoid allowing the others to catch her mild shyness at being caught sneaking out when all of them knew the risks. "T-Thank you everyone… But you don't have to come, I'll be fine on my own…" she said quietly, clutching her long white tail between her paw's nervously while she lifted her eyes up a bit to observe the others briefly. Widening her eyes a bit in surprise and disbelief when Mist was the first one to shake his head in disagreement before tossing himself into her while quite affectionately cuddling his head against her chest which caused her to begin blushing profusely as she pushed him away only to catch him smirking from ear to ear which made her feel all the more embarrassed over the situation.
"And besides! You think I'm going to wait around here for you to bring my body back here? There is zero way I'm staying a girl Poochyena a second longer than I have to be…" Nova added in sharply while she rolled her eye's a bit to the side to show her complete disapproval with the way things had been going as present regarding Spike and the abduction of her real body. "Erm, no offense to you Nova or anything…" she rapidly added in sheepishly while feeling her cheeks beginning to burn with embarrassment when she realized the way she had been talking about another pokemon's real body. Entirely uncertain how she was ever going to explain the whole situation with Spike to the real Nova while shuddering at the memories of earlier today, the sensations and other things which no male should ever have to had experienced.
The yellow-eyed Chikorita simply turning her head to the side and flinging her head leaf up in the air with a clearly irritated expression crossing her face while she listened to Nova speak. "Hmph! Well just keep in mind that you are in –my- body so please do me a favor and don't do anything I wouldn't or I'll make sure you regret it long before we find your real body Stormy-boy!" she teased intentionally trying to aggravate the younger canine with her words. Nearly on the verge of adding in another few witty comments when she felt Clover poke her quite hard with a paw causing her to yelp in alarm and nearly scream at the Teddyursa questioningly until she realized she was in the wrong and backed down while using her Magical Leaf on one of the gates posts causing the large metal doors to creek open a small crack, yet still large enough for the others to all fit through which caused the Chikorita to begin grinning proudly at her success.
Listening to the Chikorita and Nova, whom she knew was not entirely who she appeared, yell at each other back and fourth only caused Alexandria to grow even more depressed. Aware she had screwed up fairly big this time with the whole Heart Swap, she sighed quietly while tears began to wheel up in her eyes wishing she could disappear altogether and stop causing everyone else non-stop trouble. "Hey, you guys… I'm so sorry about what happened and well… If there is anything I can do to apologize just let me know okay…?" the young Mew offered shyly, figuring it was not much but on the other hand she knew the others, or at the very least Storm, was defiantly not enjoying her mix up one little bit and she was determined to assist them in making the most of the situation. After all, she knew all too well how difficult it was being in a body that was not the one you were familiar with, and even after nearly two weeks of being trapped like this it was all so new and alien to her since virtually everything presented a new and different learning experience.
Nova whimpering quietly while she listened to Alexandria and caught the distress in her voice, lowering her ear's sadly she buried her muzzle in her paws. "Oh… Well… It's not all that bad… I mean you did not do it intentionally Alexandria…" she said doing her best to hide any emotions of resentment in her voice so that she would come across as sincere and hopefully cheer the lovely Mew up at least a bit since boy or girl she hated seeing Alexandria looking so gloomy or depressed. Remembering how Alexandria had protected her from the poacher the first time, or at least tried, and all she had done in an effort to keep her happy, it made her feel awful deep down when she recalled her earlier trickery and taking advantage of such a sweet and innocent creature. "I-I'm the one who should be apologizing anyways…" she added in quietly while she silently glared at the Chikorita who was on her back laughing by now at how pathetic she sounded.
The grassy green eyed Vulpix shaking her head disapprovingly at all three of them while she bounded over to the crack in the gate and squeezed through before barking loudly to gain everyone's attention. "Yah, Yah, would you three quit it already?! We have a job to do so lets head on out!" she barked, wagging her tail in excitement behind her since she was certain hanging around with Alexandria was bound to be a whole lot more exciting than sticking around this boring academy in training. "Besides, I don't mind this body one little bitsy witsy!" she cheered with another bark, spraying a small Ember at the feet of the Chikorita and nearly falling to the ground laughing as yellow-eyed grass pokemon yelped in alarm and instinctual fear of the flames before rolling to her feet and running behind Alexandria for protection from the immature fire-canine on the other side of the fence. Clover simply rolling her eyes at all four while she slipped through the fence to join Flaire on the other side where she took in a deep breath of complete freedom.
Flaire nearly rolling about on the ground with laughter until she caught a small fallen branch out of the corner of her eye and bounded up where she began gnawing at a limb to separate a small stick from the remainder of the branch. In her opinion going from a lowly grass pokemon to a predatory fire-type was a win-win situation in her book, especially since she knew her body's real owner had gotten it even better than herself with Nova getting the short end of the preverbal stick. Her cheerful barks of delight rapidly interrupted by a loud yelp of pain from Nova when Mist stepped on her tail by accident in an attempt to bounce over and join the others on the side of the fence. His flipper's instantly raised quite defensively when he saw the larger Poochyena rise up and tower over him with her teeth showing angrily in growls.
"Hey! No need to get all bitchy all of a sudden! It was an accident you know… Shesh why do girls have to take everything so literally, bet you are just upset Alexandria likes me more then you Nova!" he said with a casual tone of voice while slipping through the fence a half second before Nova tried to pounce at him and accidentally leaping into the metal grates muzzle fist resulting in whimpered and quite angry growls while she shook her head and glared at the Marill through the metal fence. "We do not take everything… I mean girls do not -always- take everything… Grr I'm so going to kill you for that Mist!" she barked angrily while shaking her head one final time before squeezing herself through the crack in the fence and lunging at Mist only to find him escape her paws by a half inch and watch him begin running on down the paved driveway.
Mist paused at the top of a raised incline a few dozen feet away long enough to make several insulting and demoralizing faces in Nova's direction before turning his back on her and smacking his bottom with one of his flippers tauntingly. "Awe, come and get me then girly!" he teased before running on a head a bit more, disappearing from sight down the incline with Nova in hot pursuit while her face burned with a shy blush which made the other three girls simply begin balling with laughter as they ran to catch up with the two. A bit of them curious to see Nova and Mist make fools of themselves more, but also wanting to make certain that neither of them took it too far since they knew from past experiences neither likes to lose. Clover was quietly snickering to Flaire about Nova and Mist, the two making joking bets about who they thought was going to come out the victor and make the other one eat their words by the end of the night.
Alexandria stood blinking in disbelief on the inner side of the fence while she listened to Mist and Nova began bickering like young children. Groaning a bit when she noticed Clover and Flaire nearly as much into the whole thing as the two boys, or rather boy, who by this point were nearly halfway down the long paved driveway which led into the woods surrounding the academy. Reluctantly tossing both of her paw's into the air with defeat she squeezed through the fence herself and began to chase after the others, starting to realize a bit too late how difficult it was to keep up with a bunch of four-legged pokemon while trying to run with her oversized feet and diminulative body. "Arrg… Do I really have to baby sit these four while I'm looking for Storm…?" she complained nearly out of breath while she ran to catch up with the others who had paused at the end of the long driveway stretch boredly waiting for her to catch up while Nova appeared to have the upper hand and had Mist pinned down to the ground with her muzzle and teeth being held back by his flippers while beads of sweat rolled down his face in both a mixture of laughter and shear terror.
Clover doing her best to move in close enough to pull Nova off until she received a sharp kick right in the face from Mist by accident in the midst of his squirming sending her into tears. Flaire simply smacking one of her paws to her face a bit embarrassed to even be seen with these three while she glanced her eyes out into the woods wondering exactly what kind of adventures she and the others might have once outside of the academy's boarders and safety. She was not clueless to the way of life out in the wilds of the region; it was a constant struggle to survive, a persistent contest where the strong survived and the weak well did not which was one of the main reasons she had chosen to be a tamed pokemon when she met her trainer for the first time. Although, this whole situation was far larger than all her miniscule fears, and there was zero way she was going to miss what might be the adventure of a lifetime. Besides, she kind of liked the idea of that once she and the others saved Storm and all of the other captured pokemon she would likely be referred to as a hero by all of the other pokemon at the academy. A title which she eagerly awaited obtaining in time.
Alexandria arriving a few moment later, out of breath, and with a rather displeased look on her face by the time she opened her mouth, and let out one of the loudest screams imaginable coupled with a Sonic Boom to make everyone be quiet. "That is enough you two! Honestly, if you are not going to take this seriously then you should just go home now… That poacher is dangerous and if you think for a moment she would hand the others over easily then you've got another thing coming…" she said with an upset tone while she folded her arm's at shoulder level with her long tail swishing from side to side. Nova and Mist ceasing the wrestling match nearly on the spot while both paused to stared straight up at Alexandria with their head's hung low in shame, "Sorry Alexandria…" they both said in near unison while Nova back off Mist allowing the blue Marill up to his feet although not without first swatting him in the side of the head with one of her paw to make him regret his taunting while feeling pride in knowing she was at least strong than somebody.
Flaire rolling her eyes a bit at the two while smirking quietly and glanced over at Alexandria, "Boys will be boys I suppose… So where are we headed exactly anyways sugar? That old lady said you were supposed to meet her at some oddball place, I presume you know where that is right…?" she asked boredly wanting to simply head out on their adventure. Nearly falling over in disbelief and shock when she watched the young adorable little Mew slowly and shyly shake her head in response to the question the other three staring with awe at Alexandria who had lowered her eyes to the ground by this point nervously clinging to her tail that she had grabbed mid-way through the Chikorita's question. "Well I have not exactly thought that far ahead yet… I know she said the place we first met, but well I umm…" she said with a soft pause before finishing her explanation with a brief, "Kind of forgot where or even when that was…" she said shyly knowing all the story sounded insane given she was the one who had snuck out in the first place tonight.
All of her memories still blurred up to and including her capture by the poacher the first time and she had trouble recalling even vague images of events and surroundings leading up to her capture and regressions into a small pokemon. "Sorry…" she added in quietly under her breath a half second before all four of the others fell over on their sides laughing hysterically at the situation. Alexandria simply staring at everyone with a look of deep confusion on her face at how everybody could find it so hilarious that they had nearly only one week to find a place she had zero idea where to even begin searching to find. Nova the first one that realized the severity of the situation since that old hag she had been told about still had her body held captive and would be doing who knew what to it should they not find her in time. "Eek! We need to start searching now then guys!" she barked at the top of her lungs and rolled up onto her feet before dashing a bit into the woods before turning to look back over her shoulder to wait for the others to follow. When it came to finding her old body and getting back to normal, the idea of being late was definitely not high on her list of priorities and she was definitely going to hurt a certain Maril, named Mist, if they were late.
