Chapter 43: Where Mo assumes control.

Mo opened his eyes again. He was still dizzy and confused but at least not in pain anymore,. In fact, he couldn't feel anything at all. No cold, not warmth, no wind, nothing. He laid with his back on the ground and saw the cloudy sky slowly tearing up, the clouds floating away. He could still hear the fighting going on next to him, this time more clearly.

Mo stood up and looked around. All of Team Green, Orange, Blue and now even Heidi and Paul and Phil fought these strange jellyfish like creatures. One of them already fell over one of the Pawniard and seemingly picked him up. Instead of the creature itself, the two remaining kids of the Guild Master were now fighting their own brother. It had taken over him like some kind of parasite. He secondly noticed Charlotte. She still sat there, still rocking back and forth, tears rolling down her furry face in streams and onto ... She was still holding Mo's lifeless body?!

Now mo was incredibly irritated seeing this and wondered what was even going on now. Looking down at himself, he noticed he was naked. He hoped no one saw him, which seemingly was the case, he was in the middle of this mess, but no one did seem to notice his presents.

Slowly, very slowly he began to realize what was going on, and the thought was horrifying to him.

"Oh, no! Please, no! Please, no!"

He rushed over to Charlotte and was deeply hurt inside seeing the Komala like this, and also himself, or rather his cloth. It looked even more terrible than he imagined it would, but that was not the most important thing at the moment!

"Charlotte ...", Mo said to her. "Please don't cry. Don't cry."

He reached out to touch her right shoulder, but his claw just went right through her, as if she was just an image of herself and not really there at all. Or rather Mo was. Mo had a sudden panic attack and whirled his arms through her, hoping to touch something solid or at least get her attention somehow.

"Oh, no! That can't be happening!", Mo cried out. "Not good! Not good at all! What am I going to do?!"

Mo turned around again. One of the Graveler twins was taken over and was now currently beating town on his brother, Ziggy rushed over to Gangolf and talked to him in this mess, just in time both Paul and Phil saved the last remaining Pawniard by one of those things after both his brothers already fell victim. But Mo was missing Aaron and Hilarius.

Mo ran across the battlefield and behind the remains of the house where the Pokémon hid from the battle between Necrozma and Lunala. There they were both lying on the ground next to each other. Hilarius was already awake again and seemingly very aware of what was going on, but too weak to do something about it, lying and soaking in his self hate. And Aaron ... he was bleeding from his head and Mo could not see if Aaron was breathing or not.

Mo tried again to touch him, comforting his Sylveon friend, but as before could not interact with him.

"No! It's all my fault!", Mo told himself. He did not know what to do.

"Come on, get up! Don't do that to me! Don't do that to me!", Mo tried to tell him and desperately swung his arms around inside him. "You need to get out of here, Aaron! Get out off-!"

He was interrupted by a strange feeling. He could not feel solid, but some kind of force was holding onto both of his claws as they were sunk in Aaron's back and dragging him closer to the Sylveon.

"What?!", Mo asked himself and tried getting away, not knowing what was going on. He couldn't.

His claws were stuck and the rest of his arms were slowly dragged in as well like quicksand. Mo backed away as far as his arms could stretch, but they soon reached their limits. Before Mo knew it, his whole ghostly body was sucked into Aaron.

Mo ripped open his eyes again and gasped for air. He still did not know what just happened but immediately noticed he was able to feel again, starting with his head hurting, like really bad. His ears were ringing and he noticed everything within reach to him was blurry, hard to see to him. What happened minutes before now felt like a bad dream.

Mo began rubbing his eyes, hoping he could see better again afterwards. It did nothing, but he noticed his arm were now kind of furry now. Mo checked and despite his bad sight could see his large black claws turned into tiny white and pink paws. He tried standing up and further noticed he was now way lager than he used to be before, not doing too fell to his fear of heights, and he now sprouted four legs. He still worse his purple scarf, but additional to it now had a bowtie and ribbons as well. Making it weirder, the last two were seemingly part of his body and had sense of feel. Mo reached to the top of his head to check one last thing. Two long bunny ears ...

Mo, SOMEHOW, took over the body of his friend and turned from a Mimikyu into a Sylveon. The only visible detail that showed he was not Aaron were his eyes. When Mo took over, the colour of Aaron's eyes changed from a shining light blue to a glowing, bright yellow.

For the situation Mo was surprisingly calm, even to himself. This was the weirdest thing ever happening to him and he had no idea how and why, but still better than ghosting around for all eternity. Or maybe he was so stressed he reached his stress limit already.

Mo stood there, not knowing what to do now. Then he knew: Get Charlotte, his body and out of here. Maybe calling the police and an exorcist on his way. But first, learning how to walk on four legs.

Those four, long legs of his. With Aaron it always looked so natural and easy. First the right foreleg, then the left hind leg ... or the right hind leg then? How should he even run like that?! Must just made it around the corner, when ...

"Hey there, cutie pie!"

One of this jellyfish appeared in front of him, startling Mo!

"You don't have to hide from me!", it said with an aquatic voice and sounded like an overly protective mother.

The Ultrabeast floated closer to him, Mo tried stepping back but tripped over his own feet.

"Let me taker care of you!", it further said.

Mo was not going to have anything of this and decided to attack. He tried charging his energy ... but nothing happened. This was not his body! Aaron could not use thunder bolt or something similar, could he? The next similar move Mo knew he had was fairy wind, but how do you do that? It was a move he could not us either.

"Oh, ship!", he thought. He often saw Aaron using sand attack and knew how to do it as well, but did not know if this would even work, because the Ultrabeast had no eyes.

The next moment a large boulder fly at the Ultrabeast and shattered into pieces as it hit it. The Ultrabeast was stunned, even thou for moment. Gangolf rushed around the corner and was both surprised and relieved seeing him.

"Aaron!", he called out, little did he knew what was actually going on. He picked the Sylveon up. "No time to explain! You need to find Amy and Axel before it's too late!"

He quickly rushed over to the middle of the Pokémon Square, adventurers fighting this thing left and right. He gave Mo no time to speak up.

"Wait, wait!", Mo protested, but too late.

Gangolf was already swinging him around and flung him directly into the portal similar as he did to Axel before, where he disappeared into as well.

Mo flew around uncontrolled. He had no idea where he was and the constant rotation made him sick really soon. What he could make was there was no real gravity around him, he was going faster than he thought Gangolf could throw him and he was currently in some kind of tube, just flowing down the stream of zero-gravity. Around him was something he only could describe as: Space. Starts, strange, diamond like rocks floating around and cloud shimmering in different colours. If the situation was different, Mo would have called this view: Beautiful, fascinating.

But as sudden as it all started it suddenly was over again as he found himself in a new, more darker and eerier area and gravity set in again. Before actually realising what was happening now he fell down a few feet and uncomfortably hit the hard ground with his side. Mo grunted in pain and was dizzy form the trip.

"Aaron?! Is that you?!", a familiar voice call out to him.

Above himself, Mo saw the blurry face of a Pikachu with bandages around half it's face. Ziggy!

"Ziggy? Where am I and why are you here?", Mo asked while still perplexed. He also noticed his voice was also not his own. It was still Aaron's.

"Gangolf tossed me into this portal to help Axel, and you?", he answered and helped Mo up.

"Same, ... I guess?", Mo answered. He started looking around a was amazed and shocked of what he saw. "Ziggy, I have the feeling we're not in Baram Town anymore."

"You don't say?!", Ziggy mockingly answered.

Mo found himself and Ziggy in a strange world. The surroundings reminded him of what the ocean floor looked. A strange, sandy and rocky ground, sea weed and anemones growing out of the ground. They were colourful and were even glowing on one side, but one they other side threateningly dark and seemingly made out of gem stones. The sky was both glowing and dark at the same time, like the northern lights but not as friendly, and some smaller and some larger island floated around. They too appeared to be diamonds and were partly see through.

"This is not our world anymore, not even our own dimension.", Ziggy explained.

"Ultra Space?", Mo asked and was focused on one of these rock like weeds. He did not know if he should touch one of these or not.

"Some Pokémon discover new dungeons or islands. WE just discovered a parallel universe!", Ziggy further said.

Mo decided not to touch it and he just figured if these jellyfish things came out of the portal, and they went inside it, meaning this is, of course, also their home, there would be even more of them, maybe even worse Ultrabeats. He rushed over to Ziggy, tripped, and got up again.

"You look different to me, are you alright?", Ziggy pointed out, seeing his eyes.

"We need to hurry!", he started to tell him, when ...

"CATCHME!", a robotic voice called out from behind them.

Mo turned around and saw Steve suddenly flying towards him out of the portal with a terrified expression. Kind of out of instinct Mo managed to catch the Voltorb, using his ribbon like feelers he also just discovered could be used like hands.

In his ribbons, Steve was shacking and shuddering and looking around confused. Both Mo and Ziggy feared he could explode any second.

"Come down, Steve!", Ziggy told him as he jumped on Mo's back and onto his head.

"NO, IT'S NOT! THEY'RE ALL POSSESED! WE'RE THE LAST ONES!", Steve answered.

"What do you mean?", Ziggy asked.

"ONCE THEY GOT ONE OF US, THEY JUST BECOME STRONGER! THEY JUST TURN FRIENDS INTO FOES! THE KIDS, HEIDI, EVEN HILARIUS. GANGOLF TOSSED ME IN BEFORE I COULD BE SNATCHED, TOO."

Mo put Steve down and Ziggy climbed off.

"Steve, we got everything under control!", Ziggy tried to calm him.

"THEY STILL SEEM TO BE THEMSELFES, BUT THEY'RE ALL GONE MAD!", Steve further explained. "A CORRUPTED VERSION OF THEMSELVES!"

"Even Charlotte?", Mo asked.

"NO, NOT HER. SHE DID NOT MAKE ANY EFFORTS OF FIGHTING BACK OR FLEEING, AND FOR SOME REASON THESE CREATURES JUST LEAVES HER BE."

Both Mo and Ziggy were puzzled hearing this.

"She should at least get help! After what happened I bet Bootleg is hurt really badly!", Ziggy exclaimed.

Mo was not amused hearing this nickname again. Hearing this name, too. Steve suddenly froze. He looked over to Mo, then to Ziggy, then back to Mo, then Ziggy again.

"Are you alright?", Ziggy asked wondered.

"I'M SORRY TO SAY IT ... BUT ...", Steve paused for a moment and looked at Mo again. "AARON, MO DID NOT MAKE IT."

Silence.

Hearing these words, actually knowing that he himself is no more gave Mo a strange feeling. It was sad but still feel unreal.

"What?", Ziggy asked in disbelieve. His ears dropped and his expression was blank.

"THE REASON CHARLOTTE IS UNABLE TO FIGHT IS OUT OF GREAVE. LUNALA'S ATTACK WAS TOO STRONG. WE LOST HIM. ... HE WAS A BRAVE MIMIKYU."

Mo saw how Ziggy tried not to look sad.

"Regret is a powerful feeling, isn't it?", he asked. Ziggy looked back at him. "I hope you're not sad because you lost your bullying target?"

Suddenly Ziggy was angered.

"He did not deserve this! And why aren't you sad?! You were his best friend!"

Mo remained silent and looked over to the Voltrorb.

"Damn it, Bootleg. We were so close, I even gave you a new skill.", Ziggy exclaimed.

"I thought you hated him.", Mo pointed out and looked back at him.

"I disliked him, not hating. Especially not after what happened yesterday. He wanted to be a hero. I never saw him in this position, and see where it brought him now."

"He did not wanted to be a her, he wanted to find his happiness, his place in life."

"Then maybe he should never had come to the guild.", Ziggy mumbled, but Mo could still loud and clearly.

"MAYBE YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE COME!", Mo shouted in a fit.

Hearing this, seeing him so angry surprised Ziggy alot.

Silence. Mo took a deep breath and tried to relax.

"We need to find the stone, or the kids at least.", he began to explain. "With it we can undo all the damage done by the Forces and this Necrozma-guy. ... I hope."

Ziggy's ears lifted up again.

"Sounds good to me!"

"But, like I said, we need to hurry!", Mo began to tell again. "These jellyfish things came from here, so it's logical that there probably will be more around here. Also, Amy and the stone could be anywhere now."

"Richard?!", Ziggy called out with his eyes wide open.

"No, Amy. Maybe Axel, too. And hopefully before Necrozma does.", Mo corrected, but slowly realised something was wrong, so he turned around and looked up to the portal they just came from.

Above them floated one of the jellyfish Ultrabeats, in it's tentacles it held Richard, looking down to them with blank, red eyes. At the same moment, another one of them appeared out off the Portal, one holding Heidi in the same way.

"Keel over and die!", Richard called out, his eyebrow tuff began to glow and a blue light shot out of it. Ziggy was picked up by an invisible force and thrown against one of the plants.

"At the beginning of the week there were 48 kids in my class.", Richard began to tell and grinned meanly. "At the end of the week there were only 5 of them left."

Then Steve shot a thunderbolt attack at Richard. He was directly hit and went down in a cloud of smoke. Steve rushed over and looked after Ziggy, he was not hurt, but now Heidi was pursuing them.

"THAT'S NOT THE RICHARD AND HEIDI YOU KNEW! RUN!", Steve told Ziggy, he got up and together made a run for it down the stone path.

Mo tried to follow them, but had trouble moving his legs like he should. Heidi was coming closer to him but another thunderbolt by Ziggy slowed her down.

"Aaron, come on!, he was told.

"I have trouble walking!", Mo answered.

"DID YOU HURT YOUR LEGS?", Steve asked.

"No ... I ...", Mo was not sure how to tell without sounding crazy to them. "I kind of ... forgot how!"

Ziggy and Steve stopped for a moment and looked in disbelieve and confusion while behind Mo Heidi was getting closer again.

"WE'LL AVENGE YOU, MY FRIEND!", Steve called out and he and Ziggy made a run deeper into the wilderness where they eventually disappeared without Mo.

He could do nothing but to watch, knowing what was going on right behind him.

These two left him to DIE!

AGAIN!