- Pokemon Problems -
T.K. sighed as he carried the binder full of disks home. Getting the collection of TMs that worked on Sneasel had been delayed by the attack to take the Digi-Egg, and even then Tai had been reluctant to let the things out without supervision. Although given how three of his teammates went too far with the things, and how Champion Jane apparently was turned into a dragon by one, he fully understood the unease. He was still unsure about learning the two barrier 'moves' himself.
"Sneasel, I have the TMs we got that you should be able to use," he said while Patamon flapped over to the small bed they had set up for his digimon brother.
"Oh? And are those so that I can actually fight with you guys, or is this a bribe to get me to stop complaining about not going along?" the pokemon harshly asked. The Dark/Ice type had been getting antsy about not being able to help ever since Jane had arrived, and T.K. really didn't want to say that it was actually more of a bribe than a way to get him ready for that. "Hmph, if you don't want me around you can just get rid of me you know!"
"Sounds like a plan to me," Patamon grumbled. "I still don't get why you're here in the first place." T.K. shot a dark look at his partner for saying it out loud.
"Backup maybe? Someone that you know is there to help out when you're in trouble," Sneasel sneered. "Every trainer should know that you need more than just one pokemon for when things go badly. That's why you guys have teams isn't it?"
"We already have a team to do that for us," T.K. pointed out cautiously, not sure how to deal with the pokemon.
"Really? Just from what I've heard while being cooped up in your house I don't know anybody you actually trust with your back right now," the weasel monster said with a dull blunt tone. "Gatomon is apparently crippled somehow, Kari 'needs help watching herself' because she's Dark now, Davis apparently is a massive idiot, Yolei is somehow worse, and the rest you don't even think about because they're monsters."
The Digidestined of Hope wasn't sure what part of that rant was worse, the reality that it wasn't entirely inaccurate to how he felt, or the fact that Sneasel had apparently only seen his team enough to think it was the whole truth. Gatomon and Kari were actually two that T.K. trusted to keep the rest of them safe, but they would also go too far with that so he didn't want to put them in that position. Davis and Davey were basically interchangeable now, and the two of them together were much better than either alone had been. Yolei... Yolei was getting better when she wasn't still pushing things too far.
He had to admit that Cody was a bit of an uneasy situation for him. He had only seen the Sandslash in human form at school, and the Ground type pokemon also had taken to acting less human. That part scared him more than anything, the idea of just becoming a monster because you were part monster. He had not been a pokemon, but digimon had desires that were definitely not human, and having those all the time would change you. Despite all that, or possibly even because of it, he more than trusted the pokemon to watch his back.
"Can you get strong enough quickly?" T.K. asked as that thought rolled around in his head. Cody's mom and Grandfather had both apparently gotten stronger fairly fast, and the last battle had shown how a pokemon's elemental storm could impact things.
"Just enough to keep an eye out for you two? Probably if I actually got more time to train," Sneasel said cautiously, and that told the Digidestined that his pokemon probably had not really wanted to help, just to argue with them. "Honestly, if you're actually going to use me instead of just letting me try to get someone else, I'd say you need to wait for me to get strong enough to evolve first."
"Okay, now I say we keep him just so he has to do that," Patamon said smugly, and T.K. had to sigh at that response.
Shawn looked over the growing pile of issues his team had been putting aside to deal with the Digidestined issues. "Jane, please tell me you met a couple of Legendary pokemon that can help us out?" he sighed at the young Champion.
"Other than you and your Legendary friends?" the Charizard asked dryly from her own pile of brand new paperwork that had arrived along with a couple of League representatives to get started on analyzing the Digidestined's world.
"Very funny, but the joke is that the Porygon are godlike pokemon, not my trainer," Serperior criticized tiredly. "Shawn, is this really a report about Charlie 46 needing help with accidentally turning their Box into a massive lake?"
"They were experimenting with proper drainage, and forgot that instead of a water cycle they simply had a loop between the start of the river and the end," the red eyed trainer sighed.
"You two are a Legendary. I filed the paperwork and everything," Jane corrected the snake pokemon. "I mean, you can become a two headed forest god of protection. Hard to get more Legendary than that."
"What paperwork?" the two Grass types asked with simultaneous annoyance.
"The discovery paperwork that League officials file when someone discovers a new Legendary," she replied with a cruel smile. "I don't think your Administrators count quite enough for that yet, but Basirablemon does."
"Why are the snake twins being registered as a Legendary pokemon?" A-0 asked cautiously from where it was setting up connections for her League personal to use.
"Because they beat my entire team at once in combat, and I can't swing 'turns into a monster by fusing with his Starter' as a thing to make him a Champion or Chosen One," the Fire/Flying type huffed with a burst of purple flames. "Even if I didn't want that personally, that form is strong enough and has the presence for it."
"What's going on?" Giratina asked as he walked into the room from the hallway. "Are we talking about your Basirablemon shape?"
"Yes, apparently Jane has decided to have us declared a Legendary pokemon," the pair said testily.
"Yes? I've already told the Creator and a few of the others I have actually met about your Legendary form," the ruler of the Distortion World noted. "It is quite the impressive one, and surprisingly fitting for your status as the protector of these artificial worlds."
That silenced the Troubleshooter Lab for a long moment, before Jane started to laugh. "Wow, I thought I was just getting back for that loss," she said clearly unable to stop. "So they're seriously a Legendary then?"
"Yes, at least as far as I'm concerned. Well, okay maybe some others might show up to see for themselves first," the Ghost/Dragon said cheerfully.
"In that case I hope they can stick around to help out," Serperior complained while Shawn just groaned.
Mimi knew that she was just delaying going home. The second shorter Contest at Ancient Bluff had not gone as well, with a eighth place for her first attempt at the next skill level. It had shown her what actual competition looked like, and what it took to pull ahead of others. While she was excited for seeing how she could improve at the Lost Peak Contest later this week, she also knew that it wasn't what she should have been doing.
"I hope this one goes better than the last one," Amy sighed. "The Ancient judges didn't seem too fond of Poison types in general." The experienced Coordinator had gotten a seventh place finish in her far more difficult tier, and Ann was still a bit smug about her fifth in the same contest.
"I want to work on that double thing you mentioned with Grimer," Palmon noted. "I'm sure that is part of why it didn't work out as well as we hoped." The little blob monster burbled in agreement.
"Yeah, I have to agree that a couple of the judges seemed a bit biased," Ann admitted. "But I doubt a Ghost type Gym's town would have that bias, quite a few of those have that type too after all."
"Do either of you have Ghost types?" Mimi asked nervously. They were currently going through one of the nastiest looking forests she had seen, but between the wild monsters still basically asking to fight nicely and the fairly unconcerned looks of other travelers it lost a lot of its edge.
"I have a Trevenant I'm planning on using here," Ann said with a nod. "Caught him in this forest actually, although I really hope what they say about Phantump is just a rumor."
"I'm pretty sure that most kids would have gotten lost so long ago that it isn't as important anymore?" Amy suggested cautiously, and Mimi suddenly hoped the two of them were not going to explain what they were talking about.
"I don't know if I would even get up the nerve to ask him if I could understand pokemon," the calmer Coordinator sighed. "That seems really private."
That killed the discussion for a little while, and the quiet slowly made Mimi wonder if she should have asked to hear what was said about Phantump. There was a couple odd whispers from the forest, and then her new friends clearly shifted to be closer to one end of the path to stay away from a collection of trees that had been moving deliberately somehow. By the time Mimi could barely spot a large house in the middle of the woods she had just about worked up the nerve to ask.
"Ohohoh, travelers?" a wispy voice asked suddenly. "Perhaps they are interested in trying something out?" A massive face then formed in front of them from the air, with a pair of disembodied hands appearing on either side of their group. Mimi and Palmon both quickly moved in front of her friends, the ominous tone of the questions bringing back bad memories. "How about seeing what your first pokemon would grow up into?" the creature chuckled and a glowing ring surrounded them.
Mimi felt her body slump rapidly in an unnatural way, and heard her friends gasp as they were also hit by whatever this was. She lifted an arm in front of her face, only instead she spotted a large purple mass of goo where it should have been. With a roar of anger she charged forward at the monster that did something so horrible to her, slamming the mass of sludge into the center of its misty face.
"Gah! Wait a second, wait!" the creature said as Mimi found herself instantly back to normal with her fist still inside of the monster's face. "Ugh, it was just a joke. I didn't think being your Starter would be that bad of an illusion." The face then shifted backward and actually looked a bit sad. "Sorry," it grumbled.
"So, do we all need to hit you to turn back, or what?" Ann's voice said, and Mimi turned around to see her friends. There was a large pink bunny monster with an annoyed expression, and a massive purple cobra monster that was excitedly examining her own body. "Because I have to agree that I like being friends with Wigglytuff more than being like her," the rabbit said, and Mimi had to sigh at how she didn't really need to hear the voice to tell which of the two was who.
"So, this is just an illusion? Because it feels like I don't have arms or legs right now," Amy said thoughtfully, and then slithered closer to the face. "Ooh, can we speak to pokemon now?" she then added cheerfully while nearly smashing into the monster herself.
"Uh, the illusion is pretty powerful. Back in my last life I was even better at them, but I still have quite some skill," the face replied. "Although it doesn't cover translation, sorry. I just learned human to be able to help with the Masquerade Ball."
"The, wait we're near the Forest Lodge?" Ann asked. "You're a Haunter from that place?"
"That's where I'm staying for now at least," the now identified pokemon replied, and Mimi took a step back to look at him better now that the feeling of danger was gone. "I'm actually looking for a trainer in the long run-"
"Done!" Amy said, and then with a surprisingly limber motion for someone without limbs she took out a pokeball and balanced it on her nose. "I can think of so many awesome Contest performances we could pull off with an illusion like this," she hissed happily.
"Uh, okay, that was quick," the Ghost said uncertainly. "Especially after I scared your friend."
"Hmph, you didn't scare me, you made me into sludge!" Mimi complained, and then frowned as she heard an unhappy squishing sound. "Oh. Grimer I didn't mean it like that," she said turning to her pokemon and finally considering how her reaction might have looked to him. He was half hiding behind Palmon, and had a sad look in his eyes that she was unhappily used to seeing. Despite wanting to do well for the little pokemon, she still had trouble dealing with his grimy nature.
"He, doesn't look like your Starter," Haunter commented. "Wait, why did you become a Muk instead of whatever your Grass type evolves into?" He pointed at Palmon. "She's moving more like your Starter would."
"Well, Palmon isn't actually a pokemon. Would that matter?" Amy asked as she bounced the pokeball on her head. "Also, are you going to let me catch you? I'd really like to try this out some more to see if it would actually work for Contests."
"Not a pokemon? Okay, that sounds like Chosen One stuff, and I do not want to get caught up in that kind of thing," he said, and Mimi felt bad about how her currently snake shaped friend deflated at that. "But, I have been hoping more for a Coordinator than a trainer. I'm willing to risk it. Do you want me to end the illusion now?"
Amy was shaking her head 'no', but Ann was firmly nodding a 'yes'. Mimi took a moment to look over at her first pokemon again, and took in the blob's sad expression. "I. I think maybe I want to try it again," she nervously stated. "Now that I know what's happening, maybe it won't be as bad?"
"'Beat Up'? Wait a second that one might be awesome," Sneasel said as they looked through the disks. "I mean, I should be able to learn it on my own, but depending on how I can swing it that could actually be a big deal here, so getting some actual instruction early would help."
"What's it do?" Patamon asked while frowning at the other disks present.
"Let's me give a little boost to my teammates so they can hit with a quick Dark typed attack. It is one of the few moves out there that makes it okay to use more than one pokemon at a time," the Dark/Ice typed smugly replied. "I think it is also possible to just make temporary shadow copies for one attack when it isn't easy to get the team out, but still, with your strength that could be devastating."
"Who counts as a 'teammate' for that?" T.K. asked thoughtfully. "Is it just the three of us, or could that possibly work on all of us at once?"
"Hmm, I would need to test things out. I've only really heard about Trainer battles, and those are usually one on one most of the time," Sneasel answered thoughtfully. "It probably could work for everyone, but that might tire me out quicker. That's really the kind of thing that me actually getting a chance to work with the rest of you would help with."
"When do you evolve anyway?" Patamon asked with curiosity. "You said you'd be better off then, how far are you?"
"Uh. Well, technically my kind needs to find something instead of just getting strong enough, but from what the Weavile I have met said we still need to be pretty strong to do it even when we have a Razor Claw," the pokemon replied and motioned to the space between the two claws on his hand. "I don't know how easily you can get me one of those otherwise, but Grim tends to give them out as gifts to Trainers that can show they have worked well with a Sneasel. So I figured since you're training under him that means all I need to do to evolve is get strong enough with you two."
"Oh. I guess that's why he's been so upset with us," the digimon responded glumly. "I thought he was just being mad that we weren't doing better."
"He was grumbling that we were acting like Shawn," T.K. noted thoughtfully. "I thought he meant because we were all fighting instead of just the monsters."
"Ha, really? You don't know that story?" Sneasel laughed. "Shawn's infamous at the Gym for actually trying to do a League Run with only his starter. Which is crazy, because you're supposed to show that you can handle more than one pokemon, that's a freaking requirement." The weasel pokemon then looked a bit nervous. "Although, admittedly that Serperior of his is a really strong pokemon. I've seen a video of that match Grim finally gave him, and the snake took down Houndoom without even trying. Trainers going for their Eighth Badge have needed multiple pokemon to take her out before, and Serperior has a type disadvantage."
That made quite a bit of sense. Everyone at DSS treated Serperior like he was powerful, and even Jane respected the plant monster despite him being made of flammable material. Actually, they hadn't seen the pokemon look stressed out in battle yet. The two of them typically just smashed whatever came close to them without even paying attention to that threat. Admittedly they were not coming along as often anymore, but DSS had basically said that they had mostly intended to help out until a Champion had arrived, and then move to just supporting if the Champion needed it instead.
"Okay, alright, we're apparently officially a Legendary now," Serperior sighed as the two of them inspected the copies of the paperwork declaring that nature. "What does that mean we have to do for it?"
"Do for it? Uh. Well the thing that made you a Legendary usually," Giratina sighed. "Or, well it might be better to say you end up a Legendary because you have a thing that you do to be one. Either as part of a family duty for those with children, because you were made to do it like myself, or because you gained that power while doing something you care enough about. I'd say you are the last of those, and so you are the Legendary defender of the Box Porygon."
"Well at least it is a job we're used to," Shawn grumbled, and then everyone looked up at a pop of displaced air.
"Alright, what the hell did you find?" a pink cat with a very long tail and very short fur asked unhappily as it floated in mid air examining the room. "Last I heard you were just playing around with some humans that were doing something odd. Very odd from the looks of things. Now apparently there is a Legendary pokemon here instead." The Mew then frowned at the translation machine's efforts on his rant. "So, what do the humans think about that? Not used to an angry kitty god?" he sarcastically asked.
"Do we just introduce him to Charlie 40?" Serperior asked dully. "Because he sounds like Charlie 40."
"We aren't giving Charlie 40 a chance to see the pokemon he's made himself look like just because an actual Mew with his mood has shown up," A-0 bluntly replied.
"'Charlie 40'? 'Actual Mew'? Giratina what, the hell, did you find?" the Mew asked with exasperation. "You know what, never mind that right now. This is suddenly a bigger mess. Just, just show me this new Legendary pokemon you found."
Everyone in the room would have agreed that simply pointing wordlessly at Shawn and Serperior was the worst way to do that, but Giratina did it anyway. "You know what, I'll just set aside the world I reinforced for you two as yours," Gazimon sighed from his console. "It is a poison forest now anyway. Might as well use that for something."
"Use your words Renegade, what the hell?" the pink cat said harshly.
"Nope, faster to do it this way," Shawn and Serperior said with clearly false cheer. "Follow us to the artificial world that we've apparently corrupted with our apparently Legendary power."
Mimi had to admit that being a blob wasn't actually that bad, although she quite thoroughly had to not think about how dirty was nowhere close to the right word for her apparent state. "Are you sure this is an illusion?" she asked as Grimer moved to another position on, or perhaps inside, her back. She didn't even have words for that sensation, but it wasn't unpleasant and her pokemon seemed ecstatic about her looking like his kind for a while. "Because I'm fairly sure this isn't possible if it was just an illusion," she noted, then frowned. "Or it might be really messy and I will make you pay for that."
"It is a really good one," Haunter said with a very wide smile. "But it isn't a true transformation. It would break very easily, and then you are instantly back to normal. Admittedly it is strong enough that you could use attacks if you knew any, and... well let's just say in your case spitting on someone could be very bad for their health."
There was then the sound of Mimi's new communication device, the one she picked up at Ancient Bluff from a place called Deepstone Labs that apparently had a deal with DSS, and she answered it quickly without thinking of her current appearance. "Mimi, why are you a pokemon?" Joe asked a bit hypocritically.
"It is only an illusion," Haunter complained.
"Yeah, well, there's a bit of a problem with that kind of thing when it comes to us Digidestined. In fact I'm calling because we've found out that there is a risk of people from our world getting a bit transformed unless..." the Floatzel trailed off. "Actually wait a second, having a pokemon form fixes that problem. If you're fine with that one I might be able to swing it as a solution before we hit any long term issues."
"Mimi, that Floatzel is talking," Amy said just as hypocritically as Joe. "How long have you known a talking Floatzel?"
The otter pokemon blinked on the small screen. "You know what. I'm going to just send you three orange pendants and be done with this. Good luck with the whole blob thing, make sure Palmon tries out a pendant too," he said dryly then hung up.
"Did he just decide to let us turn into pokemon whenever?" Ann asked disbelievingly.
"When I last spoke with Tai he told me that Joe has been turning into a pokemon a lot," Mimi said sadly. "I guess he's not handling it well." She slumped a bit, which in this case resulted in her body spreading out over more area. "But if there is some problem maybe being like this some of the time would be best."
"I think I'll stick with Haunter's illusions," Amy added thoughtfully. "That way it isn't just the same pokemon all the time."
"And I'm not going to use whatever it is," Ann sighed.
"Well I guess that she probably will need to do that in that case," Tai said to Joe's pokemon form as T.K. arrived at their base to return the TMs. "Although I'm not sure I want to know what she's thinking right now."
"Do I even want to know what the new problem is?" the Digidestined of Hope asked.
"You wanna try being a Sneasel?" Joe grumbled, and then sighed. "Mimi was using an illusion to look like a pokemon when I called her to warn her about what we found out with Yolei's nails."
"Oh wow, so are we cutting her vacation short then?" T.K. replied with a wince. "From the sounds of things she was enjoying herself." He then frowned as he tried to connect Joe's odd question with that information.
"I'm sending her some pendants," the otter monster said tapping the orange necklace around his neck. "That way she can use my method of fixing that overall problem since she's around pokemon anyway right now."
That explained the question, and made T.K. shudder at the implication. "I have enough problems with working with Sneasel already," he sighed. "Tai, can you help make sure I bring him along to training more often?"
"Can you help me convince Gatomon to let Wizardmon out of the house more?" Tai asked cautiously. "Because I'm fairly sure he's going stir crazy, and that probably isn't too safe for a mage as powerful as him."
"You two do know what pokeballs are actually for, right?" Joe asked with a huff. "You're supposed to just have those on hand all the time, that's why they get so small." He then took out one of the red and white ones in a display of dexterity that seemed quite unlike Joe, but fit with the shape of an otter. "It is a lot easier for the two of us to travel using them." There was a pop sound from the ball, and then Gomamon was next to him.
The digimon sighed. "The worst times are when he decides it's his turn, and I have to be human to get us places," the seal monster said glumly.
"Well, I guess that would let us keep all of our partners on hand," Tai allowed. "I'll talk to the schools about it, and see if Izzy can do anything about us being able to make our own just in case." He then sighed. "At this rate we're going to need to start recruiting to get enough time to do everything. I think we might need to split things up so we can get more time to train."
"That would be nice," T.K. agreed a bit tiredly. "I apparently have more of that to do now."
Mew looked up at the two headed abomination in front of him, and sighed loudly. "Yeah, yeah. You are definitely a Legendary pokemon now," he grumbled and turned to look around. The entire other world these humans apparently had just laying around was clearly a newly made toxic forest. The plants were spiky, slightly oddly colored, growing from or forming pools of toxic goo, and generally unsafe for anything that wasn't Poison or Steel type. Given the taste of the air that probably was a problem that fixed itself as long as you didn't mind becoming a Poison type yourself. "Congratulations, you are now among the rare group of Poison typed Legendary pokemon that aren't out to kill everything," he said, still quite a bit uncertain about how a human was now like him.
"Great, fine, we're a forest god," the dual voice of the serpent grumbled while also looking over their world. "Gazi, did something happen to this place?" the blue eyed head asked. "It feels, odd. Like our body goes farther than just itself."
"Let me try something," the purple rabbit monster replied, and then somehow made the very fabric of the world shift in a way that was also the kind of thing only a Legendary should have been able to do.
"Uh, that felt kind of like something moving around us," the red eyed head started, and then stopped unhappy with what he was saying.
"We'll see if you can still feel it after you turn back, and again after you leave. I don't think your connection is that big, more like LAS to her drones than me to my Network," Gazimon informed the new Legendary, and Mew suddenly had the horrible feeling that this was just the tip of the iceberg for what kinds of Legendary shenanigans these people were up to.
"Right, so, is there anything else you needed, or was this just bothering us?" Basirablemon asked him directly.
"Giratina, please tell me you can teach them how to handle being able to reshape places in their image, because I want to have just been here to bother them," Mew asked the Renegade Pokemon.
"Well, honestly, they're kind of experts on that sort of thing," Giratina replied. "Their whole job actually is stopping that kind of thing."
"Do you have an expert in teaching that?" the two headed Legendary asked eagerly. "Because we kind of hope to be able to stop killing monsters that do that innately if we can, and we'd love to hear about better options."
"I have a short list of questions, and if it goes the way I'm now thinking it will, then congratulations, you're going to be on the list of experts that I'm sending people to," Mew bluntly replied while he glared at the unhelpful Ghost/Dragon.
"We added this thing after we had a kid on his League Run end up, well, he walked out on his own, but given his spirit was in the mask more than his body I'm not entirely sure he didn't die for at least a little bit," Haunter explained as Mimi retrieved the items from the electronic mail system. Which was still something she felt made more sense in the digimon world than a real one. "Part of me wonders if we should check up on him again."
"If it makes us into the pokemon we should be, do you think we might both end up Muks?" Palmon asked quietly as she took one of the three pendants.
There had been a message along with the items about the problem Joe had not stopped to explain that made Mimi doubt that. "I think I might need to worry that I'm going to become a Muk now instead of what I would have been before," she whispered to her sister/partner. "Do you want to try first?"
The plant digimon cautiously took one of the three, while Mimi's new friends both moved closer to watch. Palmon put on the necklace, and then after taking a deep breath she began to change shape somewhat. Her visible vine fingers retracted into her body, while her flower split into two and moved to either side of her head. A skirt of leaves circled her torso as her teeth became less prominent and her mouth shrunk notably. "Um, okay. So, I guess I'm a Bellossom now?"
"That makes a lot of sense actually," Amy noted, once more looking like a human. "You weren't that different from one beforehand, but a lot of flower pokemon look sort of like that so there were plenty of other options."
"Although, Bellossom do evolve from a Grass/Poison type, even though they lose the Poison part," Ann said thoughtfully. "Maybe you might end up a Vileplume instead, Mimi."
"You look a little like a younger Lillymon," Mimi told the transformed digimon, then looked at the two remaining pendants. "Are you two sure you don't want to try one?" she asked, but not very seriously.
"I'm fine with just illusions," Amy replied, while Ann simply looked at her darkly to clearly say 'no'.
Without anything else to put it off, Mimi put one of the two necklaces on and did her best to follow the instructions on how to use one. She soon felt as her body once more melted down into sludge, but this time the feeling was more solid at the start, and grew more gooey than the previous cases. She could feel the change in much more detail, and that actually helped explain exactly what Haunter had meant about his own method only being an illusion. Her body definitely had a heavier feel, and her mind had to have changed from how she was now considering the chemicals she smelled. "Hmm," she gurgled. "This feels, different."
"Momma!" Grimer said as he splatted into her back, making her solidify a bit.
"Something wrong?" Ann asked, and Mimi remembered they couldn't understand pokemon.
"Something unexpected," Mimi replied to the Coordinator, then shifted her eyes to look at her pokemon. "Why 'momma'?" she asked, and frowned at the less human sound her voice now had from her flowing nature.
"Bigger, took in, teaching," the smaller blob attempted to explain a bit uncertainly. "Now same stuff."
"Ah, the 'being called mom' thing," Amy said thoughtfully. "I've heard that talking pokemon sometimes think of their trainers like that, or, well, I guess it can happen with any pokemon, but being able to understand them is what makes it awkward."
"I'm not sure what to think about being an aunt. Are you going to be okay, Mimi?" Palmon asked.
It took a moment for her to realize why her sister/partner was asking. "Probably," she hedged. "It doesn't actually feel bad, and I don't think I will get things much dirtier than Grimer does. Especially if I can generate some cleaning supplies, but we probably shouldn't use those indoors."
"Okay, having seen humans being pokemon before, I can confirm that sudden knowledge of strange skills is actually normal," Haunter sighed. "Annoying, but normal."
Mimi was fairly happy for the next half hour as she explored the change while it was happening, but once she turned back the full extent of what she had just been hit her. This clearly was apparent to her friends and sister. "Mimi, are you alright?" Ann asked cautiously after the restored human did not say anything for a good minute.
"I was just so disgusting that I needed to change what the stuff on my outside was to touch people safely," she replied with forced calm. "But even though I just was fine with being so dirty I was the dirt, my biggest problem right now is that I now know exactly what several of my beauty products are made out of, including what goes into soap." She turned to look at Palmon's pokemon form seriously. "I want to clean myself off right now, but I know what soap actually is." She then melted back into a Muk to escape those thoughts at least long enough to figure out how to fix the overall problem.
