Attached
A Pokémon Persona Crossover Fanfiction
by Three Black Noises
Chapter 10
"Michael! Get, Up, NOW! Please?"
Rotom's voice cut through the cloud of sleep, but I had a vary hard time sitting up.
"Where are we?" I asked; surprised that my voice actually sounded sleepy.
"Feara's mind." Bethany's voice answered from left and above me.
"Bethany?" I asked in her direction.
"Yep. Rotom and I were both small enough to count as one being!" she answered excitedly.
"I guess that makes some kind of sence, but you don't sound small." I observed as I climbed to my feet.
"That's because we aren't here. What'd you call it again?" Bethany asked.
"Cognition." Rotom answered matter-of-factly.
"Right." Bethany said as she put her hand on my shoulder.
She came up to about my chest.
"We're only this way here though." she sighed wistfully.
"It's better than nothing." I defended as I looked her over.
Aside from being bigger, she wasn't much different.
Rotom on the other hand...
Well, he had legs that actualy worked.
That is to say he could actually walk instead of needing to float everywhere.
I pointed this out, but Bethany took it the wrong way and got vary upset.
I must have gotten a vary confused look on my face, because Rotom took me aside and explained that Bellawsom did have legs; of a sort, but that they; as a rule; didn't like talking about how they achieved locomotion.
Bethany didn't stay mad for to long.
She even tried; and failed; to explain how she walked.
I told her it didn't really matter at the current time, and that we needed to focus on finding where Feara's problem resided so we could fix it.
"That's all well and good, but where do we even start?" Rotom asked.
"What's around us?" I asked.
"Nothing." they both answered.
"There's got to be something besides what we're standing on." I argued.
"Sky?" Bethany offered.
"Not really, but if I were a bird, this is probably what I'd want the sky to be like," Rotom explained.
"Um Rotom? The sky is blue where we come from, or haven't you noticed?" Bethany asked.
"I have, but this, all colors everyware isn't what I saw when we took Michael to the gym." rotom pointed out.
"So it's like we're ina rainbow?" I asked.
"No not really. Have you ever seen a rainbow?" Bethany asked me.
"Bethany!" Rotom scolded.
"No it's all right. I haven't ever seen one. Why?"
"Well Michael, rainbows cycle through colors as the arch rises, but this? Well, it's like, if we were inside the factory where rainbows are made, if such a thing existed." bethany explained.
"That's, as good an explaination as any." Rotom finally agreed.
"Okay? So, any indication as to what direction to head?" I asked.
From the way both of them sighed, I guessed not, but I had another idea.
"Hay Liz!" I called to the emtyness.
"What do you need." was her rushed reply.
"Have Feara say her name." I called.
We didn't hear Feara comply, but we did hear a loud clunking sound from somewhere.
"I couldn't tell where that came from." I said dully.
"Hay, Liz? Have feara say 'so', a lot." Rotom inquired.
"Why. Will it help?" Liz asked.
"If we can get Feara to string together a lot of words that have the o soundin them, we can track down the root of the problem." I explained.
There was a delay from the other end, followed by, "Just one second."
About thirty seconds later, a Cacophonous aray of sound asalted us.
"South!" we all yelled, and headed in that direction.
Needless to say, running on what passed for the ground in Feara's mind proved difficult for all of us, but when Bethany suggested that bouncing worked better, we all made considerably faster progress.
Said progress; in time; lead us to a spot where the sounds seemd the loudest.
They'd stopped by that point, but all of us knew we were vary close to the source of Feara's problem.
I called for Liz to request Feara to try extremely hard to say her name, and the resultant shockwave sent us all to the ground.
"I found it.: Bethany sang; having recovered herself faster than Rotom or I.
Rotom helped me up; again, and we made our way over to Bethany.
As we neard her position, I heard her doing something to the ground.
"Who knew legs could do so much?" she happily asked as she continued her work.
"Digging? Really Bethany, are you sure that's safe?" rotom asked.
"We aren't getting down there any other way, and I've at least made myself useful while you two were taking a nap." Bethany said.
At that, Rotom and I pitched in, and all of us made considerable progress; carving a path through the down until we reached a metal door.
"This, has to be, it." I said; removing the last patches of down from the dor and kneeling to rest.
"Yeah but how" Rotom began before Bethany threw herself into my lap with a shreek.
I started to ask why she'd done it, but my ears picked up the sound of wing beats, so no explanation was needed from her.
"Children, Why have you defiled this place?" asked a strong deep female voice
"We were asked if we could fix a speech problem madam." I said; my voice sounding much stronger than I felt.
"I cannot allow you to proceed."
"Even if the creature with the problem wants it gone?" I asked.
What she cannot understand is how any solution will effect her."
"I'm a healer. If you can explain the problem?" Bethany offered.
"A cancerous tumor exists down there. removing it will cause many problems and possibly, brain death." The female voice intoned.
"Oh wow. I can't do anything about that, but Hope can." Bethany said brightly.
"That means both you and Rotom will have to swop out for her." I told her.
"Oh well." she sighed.
"Before you do." the voice began.
Nothing else was said, but Rotom seemed to receive something.
"What's, this?" he finally asked; handing me an old floppy disc.
I explained older methods of data storage to him.
I knew he'd understand, but; surprisingly; Bethany did to.
We also let Liz know that we needed a swop out, and prepparations were made to send Hope in.
Rotom wanted to stay to help out; and so did I, but we eventually agreed that this should be a Hope only endeavor.
Liz let us know that Rotom and Bethany would wake first, and that I'd be staying just a bit longer do to how long it'd take me to come around.
As Rotom and Bethany found spots in the down to sleep in, Bethany thanked Staraptor for her assistance.
After sleep took them, I carefully asked Staraptor a few questions.
As part of her answers, she invited me to feel her if I wished to do so.
I learned that Feara had encountered her at some point on her travels and; somehow or another; Feara had trusted Staraptor on some level that had allowed this manifestation to exist in her mind.
As a manifestation, construct, or what ever she really was, Staraptor didn't have enough knolege to inform me as to weather she or Feara would be a better fit for my team, but she did suggest that I ask Feara when I got back.
I did feel of Staraptor a bit, but sleep eventually took me, and the transition back to reality occured.
Reallity, didn't come back gradually as I'd expected.
In fact, it came back in such a sudden rush that I was momentarily dazed.
It was Tina that was there to comfort me as things came back into focus.
She didn't say much; just made some small noises really, but Bella did.
"How are you doing, and feeling?" she breathed in my general direction.
"Fine on both counts. The others?" I asked.
"Fine, but a little dizzy." Tina responded.
"They're putting Hope to sleep now." Bella added.
"Then we're doing our part to." I said; getting to my feet.
"Hope is" and tina then guided me until my hands were resting on Hope's body.
I got behind her and put my hands on each furry shoulder before speaking again.
"We need to give her all the strength we can." I said before explaining how Trey had done something similar.
Only Crystal declined to help, and I didn't feel the need to pressure her.
Soon, we'd made a circle with hope and myself at its center.
I stood behind hope, while Bella stood behind me with her claws, hands, resting on my shoulders.
Liz held one of Hopes hands, while Gardevoir held the other..
We'd moved some furniture around so everyone could join in; even those who were, height impaired, and all seemed ready.
"You have the target location Liz?" Gardevoir asked.
Nothing else was said for some time, as Hope was busy navigating Feara's mind.
At length however, Hope began to move a bit, and Bella told us all to ready ourselves.
Almost without warning, Hope unleashed, some kind of beam at Feara's head, though it seemed to disappear in mid-air before it reached its target.
We all felt the strain, though it seemed that Bella took most of the birden off us.
I felt bad for her, even if I knew she could take it better than we could.
At about two minutes in, Crystal discreetly appeared with some kind of bag that Bella used a little power to form into the proper shape.
One wet plopping sound later, and Hope was nearly done.
Bethany jumped onto my shoulder, and Liz; most likely; gave her a picture of Feara's infection site.
With Bethany's help, we managed to zap the rest of the infection with Hopes, um, healing beam thing, after whitch, Hope collapsed into us.
Getting her settled in for a long nap took no time at all, though I was worried for her.
The moment of truth was soon upon us, and it found me face to face with feara.
"Feara? Try to say, okay." I suggested.
It took her several seconds, but she did eventually speak the word.
We didn't celibrate just yet, and I could tell that Feara wanted to say something else.
After gathering her courage, she inhaled a deep breath, probably stealed herself, then, let out a long; and vary satisfying "Fearo!"
At this, we all applauded her success.
After we'd all finished, Feara said something in her native tung, then asked us what she'd said.
Several of the Pokémon were able to translate her speech, so I deemed our efforts a success
"So, what now?" she finally asked.
"That's up to you. We've both completed what we set out to do as far as you're concerned, so you can stay with us, or you can go do whatever you feel you need to." I explained.
"Yeah, well I don't think we have, seeing as I failed my end of the bargon." she said.
"You did your best." I said; walking over and giving her a hug.
She sighed in my ear, then pulled away before exclaiming, "I got roled around over and over like a flightless chick! How is that my best!"
"You still stood up to that creature and used your best attack before going down." I encouraged.
feara blew a large breath in my derection before laying down, and I knew I'd messed up.
"Come over here, and look at me." she said quietly.
So, I did, and found her, spread eagle on the ground.
"This is how I looked today. No bird my age should look like this. Only chicks that fall out of the nest have the right"
She stopped then and blew out another disgusted breath.
"Maybe, I'm not the best bird, for you." she finally admited as she stood back up.
"And staraptor is?" I asked.
"NO! That's not. What?"
"You had one guarding the tumor in your brain." Rotom explained.
"What? But I only knew one for, ten seconds tops." Feara stammered.
"She must have made one heck of an impression then." Bethany said.
"She sure did on me." Hope said vary quietly.
"So you want me to find her then." Feara stated.
"No don't answer that. I need to go make peace with some, characters, I was, vary rood to when I had my, character flaw. I won't be gone more than a day. If I see her, I'll, suggest, that she come back with me and leave it at that." Feara said.
"I won't disown you, even if she does come with." I said.
Feara walked up to me, got in my face, and said, "You need to evaluate both of us, if she does come, and decide whitch bird you want on your team."
I opened my mouth to reply, but she started again.
"Promise me you'll do that, or I might just decide to burn your face before leaving.
"That won't be necessary." I said before she made good on her threat that would no doubt cause me days of pain.
"So you promise then?" she asked; backing away ever so slightly.
"I do.
Feara left soon after that; saying she wanted to get back as soon as possible so as not to disrupt the training schedule any more than she already had.
Soon after she'd left, Crystal retired to her office, and Maria; of all Pokémon; sat me down next to her.
"Look." she began.
"I know you've gotten rather attached to all of us, but Feara's right. In the end, you've only got six spots on your primary team, and you really need to start thinking about who said spots are going to."
"That's easy. Liz, Chris as electric type,, feara, Staraptor and or robin in rotation as flying type, Christina and you as Ice slash water type, Sarah to, while she's here, sora as my stalwart grass type, and that leaves one empty slot for, whatever comes along. In the current case, one vary kind Wigglytuff named Tina, As, umm, jack of all trades type?"
"Wigaltuffal!" Tina said.
"Sorry Tina. I don't mean that as any kind of insult, it's just that's what normal types are." I explained.
Tina gave a long sigh as a reply, so I walked over and gathered her in my arms.
"I'm not saying you're bad by any means, but, as examples, you're psychic techniques will never be as powerfull as Liz's, nor will your water techniques be as good as, say, sarah's or Christina's." I finished.
"I guess that makes sense." Tina finally allowed.
"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Sarah asked.
"No I haven't forgotten about Hope. She'll take Tina's spot while she's still here." I explained.
"Huh. That does cover everyone you currently have, except for Rotom." Maria finally said.
"Unfortunately, as my Pokédex, he's technically not able to battle, though I suppose in a life or death situation, all bets are off." I reasoned.
"They better be, 'cause I'm not letting you die if I can help it." Rotom declared.
"You'll need to let me save him first." Liz said in a joking manner as she sat down next to me as well.
"Liz. Do not use that power at random. It's a one-off trick. You get to save one being one time, and that's it." gardevoir admonished.
"The paradox of time." I said quietly.
"If a person is ment to die they can't be saved." Norma added at the same volume.
"I guess not even we Gardevoir can stop it." Liz finished in realization.
"So what happens if a Gardevoir trys to save someone a second time?" I asked.
"The attempt creates a black hole." was gardevoir's quick answer.
"Yeah we don't want that." I said; knowing what black holes did.
"I guess it eats the Gardevoir?" Maria asked.
"And everything around him or her." I finished.
"No it doesn't, provided said Gardevoir gets eaten. If so the hole closes, but if not..." Gardeboir added.
"Okay you don't need to tell us any more." Liz said quickly.
"So long as you understand." gardevoir said calmly.
Silence descended upon us, but not for that long.
Rotom fell into my lap with a sigh before speaking.
"So, back to team makeup..." he offered.
"I already gave my answer." I said; feeling he was getting at something I hadn't, well, gotten yet.
At this, Liz came over, put her arm around me, and started laughing quietly.
I flushed as I figured out what she and Rotom were trying to tell me.
"You're to strong." I quietly afirmed.
"Yes, so who's that last slot going to, a persona?" Liz asked.
"I, huh. Possibly." I murmered; suddenly deep in thought.
"Might as well give it a go." I finally agreed.
"Hay Sarah, come over here a minute." I said; coming to the conclusion that she'd be the best candidate for harboring a persona from a dreem based on Igore's cryptic remarks.
After she was near enough, I focused my will on drawing out a dream from a Pokémon and converting it into a persona.
One of my pockets began to burn, and I pulled an extremely hot card out of it.
It didn't burn my hand, though it was still vary hot as I held it out to Sarah.
"So, now what?" she asked.
"Try, taking ahold of it with your flipper." I suggested.
Once she did, nothing semed to happen.
"Are you sharing your dream of your own free will?" I asked.
"I think so." Sarah said just as the card turned vary cold and thickened into something resembling gold.
It had a raised picture on the front that I felt, then read the braille under it.
Penguilum
weight, 84 LBs
height, 3 feet 7 inches
Elements, Ice and Air
I turned the card over and found more braille on the back.
More practiced at flying, Penguilum can gain more air than Swinguin and keeps its balance much easier.
Penguilum will swing its tail at attackers like a scything blade.
If surrounded, this Manamon can spin on its stomach, becoming a sharp spinning top as its tail sweeps in continuous circles.
"what's a Manamon?" I asked.
Hope sighed in an agrovated way, but Maria was ready with an answer.
"The Pokémon animé got cansled after 38 episodes because of a mistake the animaters made. It probably would have started up again if not for ash's involvement.
He'd seen some of the episodes and felt they didn't accurately portray his life and the true nature of Pokémon and battles.
So after he finished with the producers, they went off and made Manamon, a show sort of like Pokémon, but with none of the pokémon, attacks, or settings of the real world he'd grown up in."
I had questions about those 38 episodes, but decided to leave them for another time.
"So you saw this show?" I asked; my hand on sarah.
She shook her head, but Hope was now over next to us.
Maria stood up, and Hope sat down, blowing out a breath as she did so.
"I, might have, exposed a sleeping Sarah to the show, for a few seconds." she finally admitted while pulling Maria into her lap.
"That's not your fault." I began.
"You couldn't have known Sarah would internalize this, Penguilum character." I finished.
"Yeah.: Hope agreed; her face barried in Maria's back.
"I don't think Sarah did." Liz said slowly.
"Yes, I did." Sarah said quietly.
In the silence she'd caused, she spoke again.
"I know I'm supposed to evolve into Prinplup, but they're selfish and I'm not.
"Penguilum is so brave and cares for others. I want to stay like that.
so, while you were asleep, I, watch that episode, over and over." Sarah confessed.
"How." I asked, along with Hope and Maria.
"I forced my flippers to work the remote." was sarah's simple answer.
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Hope asked; raising her head a bit.
"I didn't want you to think me week." Sarah admited.
"I wouldn't have." Hope said; gently pushing Maria over as she stood up and went to hold Sarah.
They continued to talk, but I was suddenly aware that I had a girl mostly in my lap; Rotom not withstanding.
She must have also been aware of the issue, because she moved into Hope's spot as Tina approached me.
"This Penguilum. Am I correct in assuming that it is a fictitious character?" she asked; standing directly in front of me.
"You'd be correct. Why?" I asked.
"Because you cannot summon it in public if that's the case." Tina finished.
"Yeah, I figured."
"Why not summon it here?" Norma invited.
"Yeah. I kind of want to see a TV show creature in the flesh." chris added.
"What?" he asked shortly later.
"You don't have to rub it in. This persona dreams stuff is all new to him, and I'm sure he has a hard time dealing with all of this without people constantly reminding him of that." Norma explained.
"Sorry." Chris said to me directly; standing beside me as he spoke.
"Your mom's right on both counts, but appology excepted." I told him.
"So, let's see her, If you want, of course." chris chided.
"Sarah?" I asked.
She must have needed to extricate herself from something or another, as it took her some time to reach me.
"This is your persona now. Is Prinplup still in their?" I asked.
"Sure she is. Penguilum is yours, I think."
"Well, okay.." I said before tossing the card into the air.
"Penguilum!" I called; just like the main character in the persona games did.
The card, fell to the floor with a loud plunk.
"Umm, maybe you need to prime it, some how?" was Christina's gentle suggestion.
"Possibly." I agreed.
after giving the card a closer look, the option of priming it didn't seem vary viable, so I started to put the card away in hopes of asking Igore about it later.
Tina tookit from me, and turned it this way and that for a while.
"Sarah. please Try summoning Prinplup?" she finally asked.
That wasn't a problem, as she appeared with a slightly loud, "What!" a short time later.
"Oh, this is what you wanted." she said after looking at the card.
"Yeah, she's cool. Just don't replace me with her, unless" here Prinplup seemed to choose her words vary carefully.
"Unless, I, go, really, bad. Then, you have my permission to replace my jirky self with her."
She didn't say anything for a while, then, "That all you needed?"
"Tina just wanted to make sure you didn't get replaced already." I explained.
"That's vary considerate of Trey's, younger sister?" Prinplup inquired.
"Yes you are correct."
Prinplup disappeared after that, and I was left a little stunned.
"before we go to the velvet room or take up more training," Maria began; still seated on my left,
"I want to say one more thing to you."
"Go ahead." I invited.
"If, for some reason, you decide to seak out another bird Pokémon other than Robin or feara, you should be aware that they'll think and act like a bird, rather than a human."
"So they won't hold still." Sarah reasoned.
"That, and they can't be reasoned with like Feara and robin either." I supplied.
"Speaking of," Liz began.
"A lot of Pokémon in general won't be as reasonable as us, so you might have to, bring them under your control, rather than making friends with them." she explained.
"I won't turn Pokémon into tools of war." I said quietly, and I ment it.
Bella let out a vary long sigh and started to walk over to me.
"Sora wanted to forget his trainer they were so bad. I'm Not doing that to any creature big or small." I declared.
"Not that you should." Bella began.
As she approached me, I put my hands on her and felt around randomly.
"You don't look like you have any kind of heart, but you do." I began.
"It took an extremely long time for that heart to grow." she admitted.
"Because you were given a lot of miss information." Liz said softly.
"So They told you everything." Bella stated.
"They showed me everything, and told me that you were miss guided." Liz said.
"Then They programmed you to attack her." I said in Liz's direction.
"The Espeon added a failsafe in case they couldn't get through to her." Liz explained.
"For all the good it did." I said; still with my hands on Bella.
"I'm, a tank, though I am genuinely sorry for what I put Liz through."
"My trust level for you has gone up, but I still have one eye on you." Liz said.
"I expected that, but It's a fond wish of mine that you'll eventually trust me with Michael's life." Bella admitted.
"Nothing more was said for a time.
"So, who can I ask to help me, befriend, big strong Pokémon?" I asked.
"Any of us, except me." Bella replied.
"Oh no," Rotom said from my lap.
"what happened?" I asked.
"Nothing much. I just received permission to battle by your side." he responded.
"I thought you couldn't do that." I said.
"So did I, but I kindly asked the league, and they said yes.
I guess to them, I'm just a normal Rotom, so, Liz's spot goes to me."
"That's fine, if you two get to training." Liz said.
"On that note, I have tomorrow's plans all worked out." Rotom happyly informed.
"And?" I asked.
"early morning, you and I are going to train with gardevoir, if she'll oblige."
(Gladly so.)
"Good! after that, Maria with Liz as her partner."
"That'll be fun." Maria said in answer.
"After that, Liz is going to switch roles and become an instructer for chris.
"Liz did say that was coming." Chris said.
"That should fill in the morning hours. After we eat lunch, Norma's going to help train Christina."
"Really? That's going to make it kind of hard for me." Christina said.
"Well you and I both need to figure out how you're going to deal with your weekness, and now's the best time." I explained.
"And that leaves the rest of the day, and it goes to the birds. First Maria's going to work with Sarah on Ice moves, and failing that, Christina and Crystal are going to help with water moves."
"Can you convince Crystal to help out?" I asked.
"No, you are, right now!" Rotom said excitedly.
It turned out that Crystal was eager to help out, as it gave her a chance to show off her skills without making anybody mad.
After getting her okay, I aproved Rotom's plans for tomorrows activities; making sure we had time at the end of the day to figure out Staraptor if one did appear, and using that time to learn about Tina if one didn't.
Gardevoir told us that she could stay for the duration of the day, but that she needed to be back at the Ferum league by 5 PM.
I; of course; agreed, and that then left the question of what we were going to do in order to fill up the rest of the current night.
I needn't have worried about that, as Liz seemed to have something in mind.
It took a little time to get everyone gathered in a sort of large circle.
No, I wasn't at the center of it. For some reason, Gardevoir was.
Liz and I stood along the outside with Crystal standing by a short distance away.
"All right, we're ready." Liz proclaimed, just before my world changed.
I was laying on the ground!
'Huh?' I tried to say, but what came out of my mouth was, "gaahh!"
'Hello?' "Garda?"
So I was Gardevoir, somehow.
(Michael?) It was Liz's voice.
(This is something I've been wanting to try, and seeing as both of us gardevoir are pretty much alike, I figured this would be a good test run.)
(So where's Gardevoir?) I asked.
(She's in their with you, but just watching for now. See if you can get her to stand up.)
That, took some doing, but eventually, I had her standing on both of her feet.
She complained at first, but after a few laps around the room, quieted down considerably.
Next, I made her feel of Liz with her hands.
This produced a myriad of responses, from confusion to pleasure.
Next, I made her hold Sarah and play with her a bit.
This, Gardevoir seemd to enjoy immensely.
a few minutes later found us outside.
I managed to convince gardevoir to allow me to turn her powers on and off several times, and even to let me fly Sarah, Chris and even Christina through the air.
"I can't deny the fact that it was fun, but I also felt that an extreme amount of control was needed to keep my; Gardevoir's; powers in check.
Liz wanted me to attempt to lift her, so I did.
"It was harder; seeing as she was heavier than Chris and Christina, but I still managed it.
Next, I tried making gardevoir speak.
That, was vary hard; especially the name, but eventually I managed to make her lyrics produce the words to ask Sarah if I could read her mind.
"Sarah wanted to know why, so I started to send the answer her way via telepathy, but Gardevoir stepped in; saying she wanted me to make her speak again.
It took a vary long time; about six minutes; for me to convince Gardevoirs vocal cords to cooperate with me, but eventually, I managed to tell her that she was young enough to not have much emotional bagage or secrets to hide, and that I also wanted to examine the persona phenomenon from the outside, as it were.
Sarah agreed without hesitating a bit, and I was soon privy to her inher mind.
Her persona; Prinplup; existed not as a separate being, but as an extra part of her desire to remain as selfless as possible.
I understood; then and there; that if sarah were to evolve, Prinplup would completely replace Sarah's mind.
To insure that Prinplup had as much experience with being selfless, Sarah would have to go with Hope upon her departure.
However, if sarah's fragile mind was broken by a particularly horific incident, their was a vary high chance that Prinplup would simply take over then and there in order to insure survival of the host body by removing said incident from Sarah's memory.
At Sarah's age, the chance of that happening was extremely high.
I told this to the group, and offered Sarah another chance to stay with us rather than going.
Sarah's mind didn't fluctuate to much upon my announcement, but she did seem just a bit flustered; and maybe just a tad bit frustrated; that I made her come to this decision in front of everyone.
After a time, I felt her come to a decision.
"All right! Ask me this question a few days before we leave." She finally exclaimed.
"You wan't to see what the next few days will bring?" Tina varified.
"Yeah. Just don't tell me when Liz is going to let you do the check okay?"
"Will you?" I asked in Liz's direction.
"This is something you can do, seeing as you are going to be the one training her." she responded.
I pulled out of Sarah's mind, then asked if I could test out teleportation next.
It was Tina who objected first; to my surprise.
Liz did to; saying that the range of the special connection they were using to let me share gardevoir's mind wouldn't allow for it.
Tina then tried to explain how teleportation worked; that the user needed to keep various facters such as planitary alinement and movement in mind when planning a jump.
"Why do you think your belongings were teleported first before you?" she asked.
"So he wasn't thrown off a bridge. Christina supplied.
"What?" I asked.
"Oh yeah I heard about that. An Abra does a random teleport and sends this little girl into a ravine." Chris stated.
"No way." Rotom said, then seemed to check something, and swore.
"So no teleporting for you." Liz finished.
"Also, you do know that the amound of Pokémon you cary on your person will effect teleport distance right?" Gardevoir asked me.
I didn't know that, and neither did Liz; judging from her gasp.
Norma and Gardevoir explained that Pokéballs were tied to some sort of pocket dimention, and that teleporting put strain on that tether.
I concluded that teleporting should be done as little as possible, and was told I was correct.
In somewhat short order, I was placed back in control of my own body.
That, didn't last for long, as Norma requested that I be put in control of her next, as she wanted me to experience some things before taking Chris for a test drive.
I had, absolutely no idea what she meant, but Liz and Gardevoir were already beginning preparations for the transfer, so I figured I'd get my answer, even if I didn't really want it.
My answer, was, actually not to surprising.
As I came to in Norma's body, I immediately understood what she'd wanted me to feel.
And feel I did.
All over my; her; body.
What ever it was, it also hummed through my body.
(Oh right, electricity.) I realized several seconds later.
"Ahuh." Norma confirmed.
Unlike the telepathic comunication I'd experienced while in Gardevoir's body, Norma's voice seemed to come from just off my left shoulder.
"I want you to see if you can do an attack with it." she suggested.
"But how?" I asked; still not used to a voice that was not my own escaping my lips.
"Just, play around and see what happens. You've got friends here who won't mind, and Sarah and Christina are safely behind you." Norma encouraged.
So I, 'played around.'
At first nothing happened, until I decided to use Norma's voice to put power behind the action.
I knew how Pikachu did it in the animé, but decided to try something different instead.
I started by making Norma hold a long"Chuu. sound while directing power from the electric sacks in each of her cheaks to where it needed to go.
Then I used "Pii" to shud down the power supply and begin focusing what she already had for an attack.
Finally one loud long "kaaaaa!" sound to fokus the power on one point and release it in a continuous streem
The clap of thunder would have been deafening, if I'd been in my own body at the time.
I did check with Liz and Gardevoir; after the fact; to make sure my body was; in fact; fine, and they told me it was.
"I never did it that well." Norma whispered.
"Well, now you know it's possible, and you can figure it out." I said helpfully.
Norma didn't respond, so I asked, "Can I try Iron Tale next?"
She wasn't willing to let me do that, so I asked If we could switch posissions so I could experience it at the vary least.
Liz and Gardevoir worked some magic, and suddenly, Norma was in control of her own body once more.
She walked around for a moment until I told her I was fine.
"Not quite like an angel on my shoulder, but close enough." She observed regarding how I sounded to her.
Then, she charged up her tale, and; after I felt tuns of power make it weigh a lot more; swung it at Bella.
At least I thought it was Bella based on how much resistance their was when Norma's tale collided with the figure.
"huh." was Bella's only reaction before she walked; clomped; away.
Bella seemed a lot more imposing when felt through Norma's body.
Liz felt different to, especially when I put Norma's hands on Liz's face.
The combination of her smooth skin on Norma's furry paws produced sensations much different than I was used to, though not unpleasing either.
"Huh." Liz said; puzzled.
"What?" I laughed.
"Your mind is receiving visual stimulation, it just doesn't know what to do with it." she explained.
"So I might be able to see!" I asked.
"She sighed in my ear. "Not, see, but, possibly, understand sight? It, might be possible, to let you experience small portions of sight, through someone else's memories." she explained.
It was weird, hearing her voice through Norma's stareo ears rather than throu my own, but I kind of liked it better at the same time.
"It's a work-in-progress, idea, at the vary least. I won't promise anything, but it's at the back of my mind." she finally admitted before I was back in my own body once again.
Liz and gardevoir admited that the mind switch thing they were doing was actually making them both extremely tired, so I called it a night; at least for that.
Rotom wanted to know why I didn't take him for a spin, and I simply told him that we'd have enough time for that in the morning; if he still wanted me to experience life from his point of view.
After that, I spent the rest of the night simply enjoying the company of my new friends, and also, trying to crack Bella's shell; with no luck.
She finally told me that the less I knew about her, the better.
I thought that was harsh, but she wouldn't budge, and I was forced to let most parts of Bella forever remain a mystery.
When it came time for bed, Liz wanted to be near me to insure their were no side effects from the experiences of the day.
We didn't sleep in the same bed, though I was saddened to learn that Liz would be sleeping on the floor.
"After what you went through today, you need the bed." I insisted.
Liz politely declined with a small laugh, gently fel to the floor, and was out in seconds.
Hope came over and let me know that she'd feel better sleeping with a "Human that was well,", and I let her cuddle up to me.
at my age, it felt slightly weird sleeping with; what amounted to; a round teddy bear, but I told myself that it was all for the good.
I heard Sarah ask if she could sleep near Maria, as she needed to stay cool rather than warm.
Maria agreed, and I could understand Sarah's point.
Being a pengwen, she needed to keep her body below a sirtain temperature, and Maria put off enough cold air without her reverse jacket thing to help with that.
Norma; unsurprisingly; staied near her son.
I started to wonder about Christina, Gardevoir and the others, but doing that just put me right to sleep.
"Wake up!" a voice whispered in my ear.
After a little bit of time, I was able to place the voice as belonging to Bethany.
I couldn't fathom why she'd be waking me, but attempting to rize from the bed quickly answered that question.
Rizing, wasn't the right word. It was more acurit to say I lumbered to a sitting position, then, sort of, fell out of the bed.
As I clomped around, I realized who I was.
As I came further awake, I could even sence her unique psychic presence as well.
(Yes Michael.) Bella replied.
(I thought you didn't want me knoing any more about you.)
(I was perhaps a bit harsh in that regard, so this is how I'm making it up to you.
Don't worry, your body's still asleep.) she explained.
(Wy? What time is it?)
(Just after two in the morning. I don't require sleep, and Bethany evolved from a nocturnal weed, so night time's actually a real good time for us.)
(Okay, so, what are we doing tonight?)
(Delivering some orders around Aspertia. the city's not that big, so Gardevoir and I have found a way to extend your range so you can participate in my life for a short time.)
"Hay Michael? Did it work? Bethany asked.
It turned out that getting Bella to speak was much harder than gardevoir, despite the fact that she already had a large vocabulary to work with.
Bella's problem; at least for me; was that she didn't have a normal set of vocal cords.
After several seconds, I managed to get Bella to utter a simple "Yes." to Bethany's question.
I soon came to realize that everything was hard for Bella.
Even with Bella in control of her actions, I could still feel how much effort it took for her to do something as simple as walk and lift boxes, as we were loading stuff into the trunk of Crystal's car to deliver around the city.
Also, having to breathe exclusively through my mouth; without a nose to smell with; was really odd.
After we got done with the loading, Bella got behind the wheel, and I had the most non-vicarious experience of driving a car, yet also extremely vicarious at the same time.
It took some time to deliver all of Bethany's orders for the night, but as we pulled back in to Crystal's driveway, she let me know that we weren't done yet.
We spent most of the rest of the night preparing potion mixtures for the next few days.
It wasn't as simple as poring stuff into a bole and stirring well.
Herbs had to be cut, baries needed to be crushed and/or sqweezed, and parts of plants needed to be extracted, boiled, stewed, or simmered.
While all this was going on, I had full control of Bella's body, and access to the part of her mind containing the knolege she'd acumulated from bethany in order to get all these things done.
Not only did I learn more about the different uses for the baries I'd most likely find on my journey, I also came away with a much greater appreciation for the hard work that Bella and bethany did every night, in order to make the world a slightly better place.
After all was said and done, Bella didn't seem tired in the least, though Bethany, looked; sounded; like she was ready to drop.
She invited me back in two nights time, just before she passed out.
Bella offered me the chance to stay as her until my body naturally awakened, and I agreed.
It turned out, she liked to spend the remaining hours standing outside, breathing the cool air and reflecting on her life and its future.
She secretly like the turn Crystal's life had just taken, as it gave her and Bethany the chance to do what they loved, while helping even more pokémon find happyness in the process.
Morning came soon enough, but before she released me, Bella asked if I'd ever experienced a son rize.
I told her I hadn't, so we spent several minutes 'experiencing' it.
She then let me know that I could alert Liz to the fact that I'd had an experience, and she'd see if it might be possible for her to replay the moment while allowing me to actually see it.
I was, overjoyed, at the prospect, yet I wondered how that'd all work.
And that, was when I woke up, in my own body again.
The day flew by, as it often does when you're busy.
Rotom used the morning to show me all of his moves; and tricks; he'd learned.
He wasn't bursting at the seams with offencive moves, but he'd mastered those he did know to perfection.
He even managed to teach liz Signal Beam and the beginnings of several electric moves.
A lot of his moves were passive, and he'd used them; mostly; to play tricks on Pokémon, and the wondering human or two, hundred, or so.
I didn't know if any of that trickery would be useful in our battles, but decided varification on that could wait a while.
Maria was easier to figure out.
She had the move she'd shown off in her battle with Scolipede, along with a few other moves; most involving either slapping or kissing.
She also had a frost breath move that she used on me early in the morning to cause all my facial hair to freez and fall out.
This removed my need to shave, thus saving some time.
She also practiced her ice punch attack on Liz, who was pretty good at braking out of the resulting ice.
She showed me how fast she could move and also how high she could jump.
after a time, Liz began her lesson with chris.
As an extention of the night before, I participated from within Chris' body for a short time, and got to feel how different it was for him to learn and use his electric attacks; deriving them from his psychic powers rather than a physical organ on his person.
Aside from making electricity, he could also pull it back out of the air; even recycling a portion of his own if he acted fast enough.
That, was an interesting fact I filed away for later.
Along with that fact? Getting hit with electricity hurts!
I learned that while in Christina's body.
She was training with Norma as planned, and got hit pretty hard when she failed to move out of the way fast enough.
After that, Norma and I worked with christina on a way to use her water attacks to find her target, then use the proper move to deal damage.
Sarah was next, and we all had fun helping her practice her ice moves.
About when 3 roled around, Crystal made her appearance, and helped Sarah with water moves.
I enjoyed watching Crystal battle, but things changed when Norma challenged her to a sparring match.
I thought Crystal would decline, though surprisingly, she excepted with relish.
The battle was to close to call, so after about six minutes of watching them go at it, Liz called the match as a draw.
Neither Pokémon showed signs of injory, and Crystal even excepted Norma's invitation of a rematch later in the week.
Around that time, Feara decided to crash the party.
While Feara was being filled in on what she'd missed, gardevoir was teaching Bella how to do the mind link, as it had proved invaluable as a teaching tool.
Gardevoir left before five; as promised; and feara took that time to inform us that she'd decided; during her trek to her various destinations; to really teach me how birds flew and whatnot.
the mental link could be used to facilitate said lessons, so, that's what we did.
The first lesson; if you could call it that, was simply me existing in Feara's space and getting a feel for it.
After we proved that Feara could handle the mental link, Rotom added flying lessons to tomorrow's plan.
Dinner came shortly after that, and it was then that Hope revealed to me that she wanted me to spend the night with her while I slept.
I filled the group in on what Bella had done during her time, and Liz seemed cautiously optimistic regarding the possibility of her being able to allow me to "see" a son rise; or anything else for that matter.
I let her know that it was fine if her and Bella's experiment turned out to be a complete failure, as the thought counted more than the results.
That just made Liz more dedicated to making it a success, and we all wished her the best of luck.
She did point out; however; that I'd vary likely never see on my own, and I let her know that seeing anything at all would be a good thing.
Being Hope, wasn't a good thing; at all.
Pain was a constant with her, though it wasn't localized in any set location.
She told me; telepathically; that the pain was just a kind of beacon that pointed her in the direction of the next suffering sole that needed tending.
She also let me know that she fully intended to let Sarah experience this same sequence of events before letting her come along with her.
At that point, Hope reversed course just enough to let the pain intencify a bit.
Once the pain invaded her entire body, she began walking again.
Eventually Hope let me know that she'd spotted a Pokémon called Litwick, and that she was folowing it.
The pain lessened as we did so, and Hope told me that Litwick liked to follow dying Pokémon so they could extract and burn the sole of the dead Pokémon.
Our efforts paied off, as Litwick lead us to a Bird Pokémon that had broken one leg and one wing.
As the Litwick went in to wait for the eventual death of this creature however, a blast of water sent it to the ground.
"Sarah?" Hope asked in confusion.
"I just had a feeling okay? Good thing I listened to it." Sarah said.
As the Litwick regained itself, sarah blasted it again, and this time, it staid down.
Sarah then surprised both of us by throwing a Poké ball at it.
"How did you" I; Hope; began.
"Never herts to be prepared." was Sarah's explanation as the ball clicked shut and was then spireted away by the network.
"And you now have a fire type." she finished.
"I'm not sure Michael would have chosen a Litwick." Hope said gently.
"Then he can release it." Sarah informed as Hope approached the bird.
"Oh you poor little thing." she said as she nelt down and gathered the bird in her arms.
Through those arms, I could feel the bird trembling as Hope began the healing process.
(It's so fat. What is it?) I asked.
Hope sighed audibly before sending her response.
(It's a Pidove.)
She cursed audibly before falling silent.
"What?" Sarah asked.
"If not for this, thing." Hope began.
"Now Hope. Don't start kicking yourself. It happened, and you can't change it." Sarah offered.
"Yeah but." At this, Hope blew out a long breath that felt like it had something attached to it.
She angled it so the paste went into the broken wing.
She then let the ribbon detach and finish falling into the wound.
She did the same for the other wound before asking Sarah to "Please build a nest in a tree somewhere close by?"
"Hope, I'm a Piplup. We don't build nests, but Feara can. I'll go get her."
And she was off.
Hope kept administering healing to the Pidove she held.
After blowing just a tiny bit more paste into each wound, she held her hands over each one in turn until she deemed them healed as much as she was able to.
(Pain's gone.) I observed.
(Of course. This little one's on the mend, so my work's done for the night, as soon as Feara gets here)
Feara got there a few minutes later, and she was none to happy until she saw the Pidove in Hope's arms.
"So, you want me, to build this thing a nest, right?" she asked.
"Yes, but it needs to keep Pidove safe, protected and, most importantly, still while it heals." Hope explained.
Feara built the nest in record time, and we soon had Pidove safely nessled within it.
That just left the problem of how it was going to eat while under the effects of Hope's healing spell.
After some time, we'd worked out a solution.
Bella not needing sleep; and being the one responsible for the mental link; helped immensely, as she was able to teleport a can of Pokémon food; and one of Bethany's potions; directly into Pidove's stomach so as not to atract predatory pokémon to the healing nest.
At that point, I had control switched over to Feara so we could walk back to the house as one being.
It was then that Feara told me that sarah used Ice moves to wake Feara from her heavy sleep.
I let her know that sarah was just in a hurry and probably couldn't think of any other way to rouse her.
Feara thought on this, then decided that a gental peck was all she would give to Sarah as payback.
Sarah took said peck with understanding, but pointed out that Feara's version of gental was far from it.
Feara excepted this in kind, and those of us that could, went to sleep.