Chapter 2

Introduction

Eagun's funeral was short and simple, but what truly made it odd was how few people were there. Eagun had died at the ripe age of 108, his wife had died 3 years ago, and all of his family, with one exception, was dead. Eagun had outlived his son, all his own siblings, and all of his aunts and uncles.

Michael felt incredibly awkward as he stepped up and laid a green flower on Eagun's casket; At the same time, Eagun's instructions for his funeral called for it, he felt that he didn't belong in the same group as the other three elders of Agate Village and Eagun's only living family.

That last family member was also the last to add a flower, none other than Rui, wearing a black dress with her hair down completely. Beside her, Wes was actually wearing a tuxedo rather than his signature blue jacket and silver visor.

Eagun was laid to rest right next to his wife in a small cemetery behind the Relic Stone. After the ceremony concluded, Michael decided to talk to the two other people who were lingering behind.

"He talked a lot about you...how proud he was of you.." Michael mentioned.

Rui nodded and said, "I know, can….I have a second alone."

Wes nodded and followed Michael away as Rui privately mourned.

At the entrance to Relic forest, Wes smirked and said, "It's nice to finally meet you."

"I feel the same; I heard a lot about your fight against Cipher," Michael admitted.

Wes nodded and replied, "I could say the same exact thing; you're quite the trainer."

Michael was taken aback with "Um...I didn't do anything more than you."

"Are you kidding me? I fought 4 admins and Evice, sure, but the shadow pokemon you faced were way stronger, not to mention the legendaries you tangled were much stronger than the ones Ein, Dakim, and Venus had"

"Oh..when you put it like that….so why have you never come back to Orre until now?" Michael questioned, still far too modest to act like he was someone important.

Wes chuckled and answered, "Truth be told, Rui and I have been having so much fun traveling the world, we had no desire to come back, I've defeated the elite 4 in 3 other regions, and I was already planning to enter the PWT to really test my skills, so we were probably gonna come back soon anyway."

"So are you two…..ya know...together?" Michael asked awkwardly, trying to find something else to talk about.

Wes smirked and said, "originally, we were just friends...but that changed after enough time…"

Rui then emerged from the forest and said, "Let's go clean out grandpa's house."

Wes gave Rui a nod before saying, "see ya around, if you attend the tournament, I'll be looking forward to facing you," before the duo walked off towards Eagun's house.

Michale sighed and pulled the invitation from his pocket; despite his protests, Eagun had gotten him a spot, and he knew that he owed it to him to compete. His team would need some extra training, and honoring Eagun meant giving everything he had to win, including using Silver.

Ein was standing in front of a glass tube as the test subject went in, this was test number 50, and if it succeeded, he would be able to call phase 2 complete.

Phase 1 had consisted of bathing an entire room in a new type of radiation. T-Rays, as they were dubbed, were the basis of the entire project. While the SH-439 serum was usually all that was needed for the Shadow Collective, it was one use and offered no versatility.

Phase 2 consisted of using T-Rays to affect a single person in a tube, and while it had been mostly successful, there had been mishaps. Still, Ein and Faba knew this was becoming rather redundant, as it clearly did its job; now it was merely scanning for long-term side effects. As the Phase 3 prototype was directly attached to the user's body, it not only took effect faster but guaranteed the user's clothes shifted as well. Direct skin contact was key, but with the required power source still unavailable, so there was no way to proceed with the new device.

The subject nodded and replied, "I'm ready."

Ein gave a nod in response, and the two aides activated the T-Rays.

The human began to shrink, along with his clothes beginning to vanish into his skin as his body glowed with green light. Before he took his new shape, however, the rays stopped, and he returned to normal.

"What happened?" Ein questioned.

There was an alarm as an aide said, "power converter malfunction, we just need to…"

The tube's top where all the wires connected shattered as the entire room was bathed in the green light, Ein's Wachen were immune, as their cocktail of Beta and Pokemon DNA made them too fundamentally different for the T-rays to change, but everyone was affected.

When the green light cleared, Ein looked down to see his lab coat piled up around his body, which was now a light-blue, penguin-like Pokémon, w covered in thick down to insulate against cold. He had a dark blue head with a primarily white face and a short, yellow beak. The dark blue feathers on his head extend down his back and around his neck, which caused it to appear like he was wearing a cape. There were two white ovals on his chest and a small, light-blue marking resembling a crown above his beak. He had flipper-like arms and yellow feet with three toes each.

"I haven't done any maintenance on the power converter this month...that's on me, but at least the transformation isn't stuck halfway or anything," the new Piplup admitted; this wasn't the first time he had been transformed, after all, he sat in on every trial, even the failed one.

Ein took his oversized glasses off and turned to his guards, telepathically ordering, "take the others to their quarters and then bring my clothes to my office, once the transformation wears off in an hour, we'll fix this mess…"

Author's note- A first hint of what Ein's working on...hehe

1. thoughts on Michael and Wes's first interaction?

2. One more chapter of setup, and then the PWT begins; I think you'll like the lineup I chose; only one battle will take place "offscreen," so there's a LOT of action coming up!