- Plasma Burns -
The arrival of a large clearly upset Venusaur to the building the next day revealed to the team that the rest of the DSS staff had apparently decided that pokemon showing up without humans meant it was a Box Troubleshooter Problem. Given the ones that had arrived so far that was actually a solid assumption, and their biggest problem was that it might be a common enough issue that they'd end up with some signs posted about it.
"Hello Mrs Felsic," Shawn greeted the flower-toad as she arrived at the Troubleshooter Lab. "Sorry about this whole issue."
"I don't see how it is more your fault than mine," the older pokemon noted unhappily, only to then notice the unusual color and shape of the trainer's eyes. "Is that an illusion to make me feel better, or did he cause you problems too?" she asked lifting a pokeball with a vine.
"I take it that's the idiot?" Gazimon asked harshly, having tied himself up with making sure everything was going well for Janice's group in the other world. So far this had only been sending over old files and looking things up, but with all the issues on their own side he was mostly waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"Yes, this is unfortunately my idiot," the Grass/Poison type agreed readily. "I'm hoping to trade him for something better, like a newly hatched Magikarp."
The rabbit digimon blinked slowly at that harsh agreement. "Shawn, I'm still not up to date on all the things your world says, how bad is 'a newly hatched Magikarp'?" he asked his trainer tiredly.
"Magikarp don't learn any useful moves at all on their own. For a while there was some debate on if they were proper pokemon as a result of that," the red eyed trainer informed him while A-0 floated closer to carefully inspect the pokeball.
"Do you have any other electronics on you?" the Porygon-2 asked with annoyance. "Because I can now confirm that the stupid 'anti-catching' software is infesting this particular device, and I want to make sure we clean everything before we take you to my sister to see how fixed this situation can get."
"I still cannot believe him," she complained. "But at the same time plenty of people have warned me," she continued with a sigh. "Not like we weren't outright told that he'd try and get rid of the kids' Starters, although I don't think those movie studio people knew it would be literally that bad."
"Magmar was her starter?" Shawn and Serperior asked together.
"Why did you believe dad?" Jane asked Magmar while they waited for her parents to arrive.
"You sent me home," her Starter pokemon said sharply. Now that he'd had time to process the madness of their situation he apparently had decided to use the ability to speak with her to be blunt.
"I," she started before pausing to look around the room. It was just Delta 2, Mismagius, and the lizard-rabbit present so far along with her and her brother. "It wasn't working out with you in battles, and I can't manage that many pokemon while keeping tabs on Jim," she continued evasively. "I thought mom could keep you in good enough condition while I worked out how to use you. I didn't even imagine dad would do this kind of thing." She looked at the spitfire pokemon sadly. "You really think I'd do this?"
"Jane, we all know that you'd trade any of us for a Char," he admitted sorrowfully, with the Charmeleon flinching heavily as a result of the statement. "I lost a lot of hope when I heard your voice and then spotted that tail." Said tail was entirely still for a moment, before being brought in front of the trainer so she could stare at the flames. "Um, I just mean that you are still touchy about that," he tried to walk his statements back at her shaken expression.
"I'm worried that you're right about that," she said before he could get a more solid response out. "That I would replace any of us to get a Char, including myself." Her claws clenched for a moment, and the flame burned hotter for a brief burst. "That I want one so much I'd give up being human to have one."
Magmar responded to this admission with total disbelief. "They're going to get you back to normal, Jane," he attempted to reassure her. "I have no doubt that the mad snake trainer can somehow get you human again."
"It's going to be a question, Magmar. They are going to ask me if I want to turn back," she quietly said, clearly afraid of the idea. "They are going to ask if I want to be human again and I don't know."
"Okay, not going to keep pretending I can't hear you two," Delta 2 said loudly at the pair. "Yes, we are planning on asking first before trying anything to make you into a human if you are stuck, but that is if you are stuck. We do not know that you are yet, so try not to worry too much about that right now." She then looked over at Magmar specifically. "Also, you should both be aware that despite 'common knowledge', Starters do not in fact always stay on their trainer's teams. I have seen plenty of Starter pokemon end up here, both stored because their trainers did not have a current use for them, and genuine cases of donating a Starter pokemon. That she asked about your supposed injury says a lot to me about what she really thought about it."
"But I might have traded him for a Charmander," Jane attempted to defend her pokemon, although despite this she sounded unhappy with the idea.
"There is a world of difference between being willing to trade a pokemon, and wanting to stay one sis," Jim said hopping over. "I don't use Cloyster as much as I used to either. That doesn't mean he isn't important to me, just that what I need isn't lining up with what he can do." He then unhappily looked at Magmar. "Also, she isn't entirely lying about trying to work out how she could keep using you. She just thinks too much like the lizard she currently is to figure you out."
Both of the Fire types looked uneasy about these arguments. They were as a result very glad to see the sudden appearance of Shawn, Serperior, and the two trainers' Venusaur mother. "Hmm, this place isn't in the same world?" the toad pokemon asked tossing a pokeball at the Chansey shaped Administrator. "Here he is."
"I'm not sure you're taking this properly," Mismagius complained. "Being that mad at him, in that way? That is not helping things from my side of things." She floated over to the ball and looked at it with crossed eyes. "Uh, willingly caught does not help things either. I really hate to say this, but I need the jerk out of there to check him properly."
With some annoyance Delta 2 tapped the button on the pokeball and let out a small purple rodent-like monster covered in spikes and spines. "Freedom! I have finally escaped the tyrannical sphere, and now will be free from the harsh bindings humans place on pokemon," he immediately started off a long detailed rant.
"Oh no, not this already," his daughter sighed, as he continued with ever more complaints about humanity and goals for helping pokemon escape from their rule.
"Somehow saying 'I' and 'we' instead of 'pokemon' doesn't make it any less annoying," her brother agreed, and it appeared that all of the family was familiar with the content of the rant.
"Please, by Giratina's blackest rage, tell me that he is not serious about what he is saying right now," Mismagius said with some despair, as the tiny Poison type moved looked around the room while continuing to curse the evils of humanity and declare pokemon superior to everything else. "Please?"
"Ha! I see that we are all free from any human oppressors here!" the Nidoran declared happily, despite having looked right at Shawn for a moment.
The red eyed trainer blinked slowly at this statement, and then proceeded to form a series of vines to bind the small pokemon tightly to the ground, taking special care to muzzle him. "Right, apparently I'm pokemon enough for random madmons to know it on sight," he dryly said, while Serperior sighed at the harsh reaction. "So, can we get the checkup out of the way, and then shove him back in?"
"No, seriously, that rant is the worst possible thing he could have said," the Ghost type emphasized. "Literally any other reaction would have been better." She floated over to look the Poison type over with an upset expression. "Yeah, he's basically burned the humanity out of himself with everything that's happened. I'd go so far as to say he will actively resist any magical attempts to make him human again rather strongly."
Delta 2 sighed at that result. "That changes things for the legal side of things a bit. I've been in contact with the police on what they wanted in this case, and the answer is basically that they don't know what to do about a talking pokemon criminal," she told the group. "I was told that he'd likely end up in standard pokemon rehabilitation, like any criminal team's pokemon."
Mismagius floated between the four members of Felsic family for a bit while they thought over that news, most of them looking fairly happy with the result, while the father appeared to be trying to continue ranting. "Ok, the Venusaur and Greninja are fine. No issues that I can see with the curse. Miss Charmeleon on the other hand is still a bit iffy," she told the group with a frown. "I think I'm missing something here. If it was because of her father's actions, then it should have hit all of them."
Albert's second day of work at his new job was going a bit differently than expected. "We are doing what?" Alpha 45 asked of the scientist on the floating monitor.
The woman from Mechanical Insight Labs had the good grace to be embarrassed about the situation. "I'm really sorry about the misunderstanding," she said sadly. "But it is simply the case that we need a wider variety before most places will consider stocking Adaptation Machines. Our own catalog already has them, along with a couple of specialty stores that were already interested in Acid Armor specifically, but three different models would be a solid starting point before we could get into the wider market."
"I see," the Administrator noted sadly. "I can shift things around to have them be AMs instead easily enough. We will just need to solidify the guidelines on how much of a change they are allowed to produce in the user."
"Uh, change in the user?" the newly recruited trainer asked.
"Long term changes as a result of how you learn the move, we'll go over it in detail later," the Porygon-2 replied.
"We do have some basic information on what the League uses for guidelines with move tutoring that runs into that problem," the scientist noted with a nod. "I'll send that information over as a starting point, and let you get stared on the changes. Hope you have a good day."
"You too," Alpha 45 said as the connection cut. "Ugh, of course that's why they went with this move."
"Is it hard to make for one of these things?" Albert asked as they started moving over to the Metal Claw testing facility.
"No, exactly the opposite actually," she replied clearly annoyed. "I can probably make one fully ready to go by the end of the week for Metal Claw, because it had turned out that the main thing that had stopped earlier efforts to make one was that it turned the claws of anyone that used those older prototypes into metal as a side effect. I can revive those and get the information packet on care instructions together in no time."
"Oh, so this is something you were trying to fix and now don't have to," he responded sympathetically. "At least there is still the other one, right?"
"Forest's Curse also gets a lot easier to adapt if I can have some degree of modification tied into it," Alpha 45 complained. "Depending on those guidelines it might even be possible to outright alter the pokemon's type while using it." She then clearly took a moment to check quickly. "Ugh, a temporary change to pokemon's type as a result of using the move is allowed, but a permanent change is classified as an evolution by these guidelines. So we will still have some work to do, but it still removes a lot of the tricky bits."
They contemplated that quietly for the rest of the way to the structure. Once inside they were able to spot a variety of claw-possessing pokemon all looking over another variety of devices and testing areas. "Well, it looks like we are pretty much done if they decide to try for an Adaptation Machine instead," a Charizard close to the door joked, their voice strangely doubled by the Administrator's automatic translation for the trainer's benefit. "All we'd need at this point is to make the documentation." They flashed atypically metallic claws at them as well.
"Great, get to work on that. Turns out they want one of those instead," the Porygon-2 complained. "Actually, here's Albert. Go over what our options are with him, get an idea of what is better or worse for a trainer in the field. That's why he's here after all. I have to tell the other group that we're only working on AMs for a while."
Shinespark was panicking at this point. The former actress had only learned from her coworkers the day before that someone else had ended up stuck for an extra day due to using a TM after being changed by their most used spell. This was mostly expected, the person she had agreed to send the spellwork to was a TM crafter, so that was a logical result. However, she had overlooked the possibilites of just who might end up transformed.
As a result the retired movie star was landing outside of a storage facility to try and make sure an old regret didn't end with someone stuck as a human for their father's ideals. The building itself didn't look too strange, but there was an odd sense of Legendary power around it, particularly in a small patch of forest that also felt a bit polluted. Walking up to the door she considered how she was going to explain herself to the staff in order to get to the right place, and worried that she should have called ahead of time instead of leaving as soon as possible.
Entering she looked at the receptionist, who quickly scanned to see if she had a trainer. "Box Troubleshooter Lab is on the second floor, third door from the elevator to the left," he said to her dryly.
"Um, I'm here about the situation with Jane Felsic?" the pokemon asked, surprised with the reaction, and even more so when he simply nodded as if talking pokemon were just commonly found.
"Yep, Box Troubleshooter Lab, second floor, third door from the elevator to the left. I think her parents just got here, but I only saw the mother," he confirmed as if this was a normal situation. "Her leaves were drooping a bit, so I hope it is some good news."
That, did not make any sense to the Fire/Flying pokemon, but he didn't sound like he really knew what the situation was, so she simply walked over to the noted elevator and waited for it to arrive. Another worker walked up beside her, and simply stood there again as if random pokemon showing up on their own was normal. They both entered the elevator quietly, and before Shinespark could even attempt it the other worker nodded at her and pressed the second floor button along with the fifth for themselves.
Entirely confused the pokemon mage walked nervously to the stated location, turning in to see only pokemon. A Porygon and some unknown purple rabbit pokemon, both clearly working at computer systems. "I suddenly have a better idea how that guy from Kanto felt when he joined us while we were in the middle of that all pokemon film," she commented aloud at the realization that it must indeed be the case here as well that talking pokemon were in fact just a normal thing.
"Talking Charizard from the film studio?" the rabbit asked darkly. "A-0, warn your sister for me, I'll get transport setup."
"Transport?" she asked nervously looking around the room full of high tech equipment that looked right out of one of the science fiction pictures she helped make. A bit too much like such a set for her comfort.
"You are here about Jane's situation, correct?" the digital pokemon asked trying not to sound annoyed. She nervously nodded at that question. "Alright, I'll try and explain the way things have gotten worse and where they all are right now."
The sudden arrival of the Starshine Pictures mage was a surprise to everyone. "I wonder if Janice had her aunt contact them about this," Shawn mused while they all waited for another expert to arrive for the issue.
"A Charizard? Did they say who?" Jane asked concerned. The Charmeleon's family was looking just as worried by the prospect, with the exception of the father who had been unceremoniously shoved back into his pokeball despite his protests.
Before anyone could respond a large dragon-like pokemon appeared at a space that had been set aside for her arrival. She was wearing a large bag strapped over her shoulder, and of all things a pointed hat over her head held on by small bands around her horns. "Okay, this is beyond my worst case scenario by a wide margin," she said taking in the sight of the lack of humans present.
"Shinespark," the younger Char whined at the sight, the sound a mixture of embarrassment and wonder that failed to be at all human in nature.
"Miss Shinespark," her mother said more loudly, and then walked forward a bit and dipped her head at the Fire/Flying pokemon. "I must sincerely apologize for not believing you and your coworker when we last spoke. It has turned out that my husband was indeed just as bad as the both of you implied, and we should have been more prepared for what he would do."
"I'm fairly sure Carl was exaggerating when he said that the man would probably try and give away their starters," the mage replied uncertainly, she also clearly took a moment to realize who the Venusaur was.
"Nope, actually did that one," Serperior said cutting in. "Now, I hate to rush things, but we have a lot of issues already and I'm not sure we're going to like whatever news you have."
"You are the mage that commonly works with the spell that changed the girl?" Mismagius asked cautiously, causing the two magic using pokemon to carefully look each other over. "And also the Charizard that once offered her a Starter?"
"My son was very interested in being one," the Charizard admitted. "And it seemed like a good idea at the time. The initial meeting between them went well, but the followup with her father went downhill fast. I was retiring from acting at the time, having just finished training under our previous mage who retired just a short time after this all happened."
"Did he find another trainer, or is he trying to be a mage like you now?" Jane asked deliberately looking away, clearly nervous about even attempting to ask.
"We were able to find another for him for this year," Shinespark said with a sigh. "I think he is still sore about things, and the trainer was nowhere as excited about having a Charmander." She then paused when she thought more closely about what the Charmeleon had asked, and carefully looked over her the same way the Ghost type had been all morning. "Wait, he wouldn't have," she said uncertainly, then looked over at a monitor. "Can I make a phone call?"
"Yes, I take it you are after your son?" Delta 2 asked, while at the same time causing a number pad for a phone to form in her paw. "Do you think that he might have done something?"
The former actress took the pad carefully, now giving both the device and the Administrator a far more considering look than she had before. "It's possible. This all happened a couple of years ago, and he only got a trainer for this year's League," she admitted sadly. "I was also a lot less careful back then with how much I told him about magic, and how often I let him be around magical components. It is more than possible that this is related to something he did."
"Then I hope his trainer is somewhere we can contact them," the Administrator commented.
"They should be between Gyms right now, just after their last one actually. I was going to call in a day or so anyway, although not for this," the Fire typed mage responded, tapping out a long number on the pad. After a moment the monitor she had been looking at began displaying a connecting screen.
"Hello? Oh, Shinespark, nice to see you again," another trainer of Jim and Jane's age said, and then looked over the rather odd collection of pokemon in the room. "Uh, is there a problem?"
"I have a question for Pyre," she said sweetly. "About before you two were together."
"Alright, I'll get him out," the trainer replied, his eyes lingering over Magmar for a moment. "Is this something I need to know about, or just a pokemon thing?"
"It might be something I want you to be keeping an eye on him about," the Charizard replied more seriously. "He hasn't been trying to practice magic, right?"
"He's not allowed to do that?" the human asked sharply, then sighed and let another Charmeleon out of a pokeball. "Pyre, you did make sure your mom was okay with you doing magic first, right?"
"Ah, well," the pokemon said, immediately noticing the phone call. "I haven't really been doing anything noteworthy."
"Pyre," his mother harshly questioned. "Did you try and curse Jane Felsic?"
The other Fire type rocked backwards at the accusation, while Jane's tailflame flared for a second at the idea. "What about her?" he replied shortly.
"She's currently standing in this room," Shawn said pointing at the orange transformed trainer. "Hopefully you didn't make her current condition worse," he continued bluntly, at this point entirely fed up with the entire situation and all the complications that had arrived with it.
"What?" the reptile asked horrified. "It was just supposed to be some bad dreams. So she would know what it was like to be a Charmander who didn't get to have a trainer."
"You're the reason that she had those nightmares?" Jim asked with a hop closer to the screen, clearly enraged by the implications. "Those were because you wanted her to know what being a Charmander was like? I'm convinced that those are the main reason she couldn't relate to her own starter." The frog pokemon clenched his fists angrily. "You even have a trainer now!"
"Uh, okay, that is another talking pokemon," Pyre's trainer said uncertainly. "And I'm not sure I like any of what you just said."
"Can you afford to have him skip your next couple of Gym battles?" Shinespark asked him in response. "And make sure that he doesn't even try to do any more magic?"
"No!" Jane said firmly. "No, I do not want him held out of fights just because he made me know what that is like. Even if I'm not as great of a trainer for Magmar because of it."
"Of course it was a Magmar," the other Charmeleon complained.
"Yes!" Mismagius shouted angrily getting the attention of everyone. "Of course he is a Magmar because you cast a curse. Curses have feedback, a price that the caster pays because they caused something bad to happen to someone else. You forced her to know how it felt to not get a trainer, so of course you'd end up with a trainer that didn't entirely want you." She looked at his trainer. "And if there was any way of getting the two of you out of this, a way to break the curse's two parts, then it probably would make sure there is an easy solution available."
"So what kind of feedback were you expecting for your own curse?" Shawn asked dryly.
"Exactly my point, I was after a small thing. I wanted to give that idiot a minor problem that would have been done and over with by the end of the day. That way I would be able to say I cursed him for the part of this mess I knew about, but wouldn't actually get hit with much more than a talking to for doing so," she replied in frustration. "But no, we have a man who seems to have caused a pile of problems so large that I apparently have gotten stuck just untangling it as a price for the massive issue I've had to set on his entire family."
"So, you seem to be saying that Pyre made a curse on Jane, who is for some reason currently another Charmeleon, and that also meant that he instead went to me, while a Magmar I would have preferred went to Jane?" the trainer on the phone asked slowly, getting nods at each part of the question. "So I guess I have to ask just how magical this whole mess is? Are we destined to trade or something?
"Most likely you are not 'destined' or even 'meant' to trade, it is just a convenient option for the two of you," Serperior said seriously. "However, trading Starters of all things is a monumentally serious thing to consider."
"You just barely missed a key part of this whole issue," Magmar quietly said to the red eyed trainer and his own Starter. "I've just today said that she would have done just this kind of trade to get a Char earlier today, and she said that she might even be willing to give up her humanity for it." The Starter looked seriously at his trainer. "I'd honestly rather her be human again than force her to figure out how to make it work between us after all of this. So, if they're both willing, so am I."
"Can someone else translate for him?" Jane asked, her tail flame shrinking slightly at the idea. "I want to hear what the other trainer thinks."
"Oh, honey. You're still considering it aren't you?" her mother asked, taking a couple of steps closer to wrap a vine around the reptile. "I wouldn't mind if you did decide to stay like this." She then got a slightly annoyed look. "After all, your brother is planning on doing it to get into the film industry, and your father isn't going back even if he wanted to at this point." The Venusaur then blinked and sighed. "Although if you do stay like that I might not go back either, being the only human of the family sounds like it would be odd."
Pyre looked at the other Charmeleon with a great deal of uncertainty while this conversation occurred, his own tail flame sputtering slightly in his confusion. He then turned to his trainer, with a look somewhere between horror and hope. "Each of the few times I've actually had a translation for you I've heard about how you wanted a trainer so badly before you got me, and every time I can tell I'm not living up to your expectations," the human said with a sigh. "I'm four Badges into my run, is your Magmar going to be okay with that?"
Jane frowned at this statement. "It was after my fourth Badge that I sent Magmar home," she cautiously said looking over at Mismagius. "And that would make Pyre not be able to go for two Gym battles as well, like his mother was suggesting as a punishment."
"That is why my son should not have been messing around with magic," Shinespark said calmly to the temporary member of her kind. "Those kinds of perfect situations end up happening, and as I hope you can tell it isn't anywhere as nice to actually experience as the films make it look."
Colin Vein was rather happy with how things were going overall. His Stonescale had actually managed to do well on every test he had available, and after some careful checking he had figured out the reason it was separating parts off of some of the test examples that had come from his mine. It had turned out that there was a small, but usable, amount of another valuable mineral in the split off bits that was not fully identified by anyone before.
"So, you need me to send a bunch of Lucario with eye problems to the movie studio?" the rabbit monster asked someone while working at his console on the other end of the room.
The presence of the other material actually explained why the Grades family was having the issue with their medication, which was quite possibly more of a magical treatment. It needed some extra filtering for this other mineral in order to be pure enough to work properly. In addition the mineral itself was useful in the production of a number of things, and was high enough of a concentration to justify actively extracting it.
"Alright, but I'm using this as an excuse to check the kinds of power loads Dark Network travel takes. So expect it to be in arbitrary groups."
There was even the possibility that the Grades would now be getting their own orders from the remains of the process to extract this newly found mineral. The guard had as a result already gotten more out of the digital pokemon than he had expected, and was quite excited about the prospect of seeing if they could be properly trained to both aid and protect at the mine.
"Hey, you're on vacation, that means I don't tell you what problems we have as long as we can handle them. That way when its my turn for a vacation you hopefully don't have to tell me about any problems."
