Author's Note: Yo.

It's four brains can breeze through difficult calculations faster than a supercomputer. This Pokémon can float in the air by tucking in its four legs.

17

The poke'ball's price made sense the moment the stupid spots cleared from my vision.

Where there had been chrome and metal before, there now was something soft as cushions and velvet, though lacking any seams, and the silver shine of metal had turned a soft gold. The center, where there had been a natural dip in the ball that fit my body perfectly, as more or less a nest of the cushions. The only thing that remained were the rainbow-like mirrors, but even they seemed to have softened.

"Ritzy." The softness beneath my paws defied reason, or perhaps that was only because I hadn't worn proper shoes or slept on a proper bed since this whole ordeal began.

I found, on flopping onto the nest-like center, that there would be no need to lay back on my tails. Such luxurious softness.

Before I knew it, I was out like a light.

The flash woke me up some indefinable amount of time later, replacing the cushions with sand, the soft lightning with a pink, pre-dawn sky, and the air warmed by my natural heat with the chill of a damp breeze.

I shivered, my nose filling with the tang of salt and sea foam which, I found, despite the claims of every other shampoo and body mist brand, did not smelt good. It smelled like seaweed and rotting fish.

I was just beginning to wonder why Mr. Anti-peeps had decided to wake me up now of all times when the strangest poke'mon I'd ever seen stepped around me like an alien rock spider. Like Aggron, it was mostly silver with a golden X across its face, framing its red eyes. Its metallic arms, four of them, flashed golden, downward facing claws as they rose and fell into the sand. From how deep they went, it was as heavy as it looked.

My fancy black poke'ball floated above it, following after like a balloon on an invisible string.

"You are not what I expected."

I flinched, having heard the words in my mind in a flat, inflectionless voice. Though it made sense, floating poke'ball and its lack of mouth. Still, the hairs on my back prickled as I did my best not to look away from the unnerving red eyes. They were nothing like Houndoom's, or any humans, for that matter. Once more I could only think the word "alien."

"Your mind is strange," it said, legs sticking and unsticking about me. As it came closer around my other side, I picked up the faintest of humming, like an A/C unit with a muffler.

"Uh…hi? I'm Mayleen, and, uh—"

"He gave you a name?" The faint humming seemed to titter. "Very unusual."

"He didn't give me that name. That's my name."

"Another human gave it to you?"

Before I could think better of it, I said, "Jeeze, don't you poke'mon ever just give your kids names?"

That made the space-spider pause, one leg still raised into the air.

"You think yourself human," it said, the slightest bit of awe tingeing that flat voice.

Welp, since the cat was out of the bag. "That's because I am. I got cursed by a Ninetales."

It put its leg down. The faint humming wavered in and out of hearing.

"Curious. Very curious. That explains the feel of your mind," I felt something prod at it, as though someone tapped on the inside of my skull.

I shook my head. "Would you stop that?"

"Still, if you had been completely human, I wouldn't be able to speak to you like this. Human minds have fluctuating wavelengths that jump too quickly and erratically. Words, memories, emotions, predictions, calculations, all going at once with little to tell where one begins and the other ends. Even after all the years I've had with my trainer, I've only recently been able to predict and understand the many nuances enough to convey general meanings and messages."

I blinked at him. "Uh huh."

"And I am a Metagross, not an alien spider."

I flinched again. "You can read my mind?"

I couldn't even begin to read those red eyes, framed in unmoving metal as they were, but I thought I could sense something like a laugh in the sudden jittering pitches of the humming.

Somehow, thinking I heard a laugh, eased me enough to flatten my fur. Though emotionaless, the voice in my head hadn't sounded unkind.

I sat down on my haunches, trying my best to convey friendliness. "Well, you're remarkably pretty for an alien spider, sir Metagross, if you are a sir, that is. Shiny, like pure silver."

The humming smoothed, seeming to run through my ears and through my body like a warm hand across my spine. "Thank you. And I am neither a sir or a miss."

"Huh…so, uh, what brings you to bring me out here?"

Waves lapped not too far from us on tan and gray sand. On the other side of the ocean, where the sand ran out and grass began, a cottage sat made of timber, cobblestone, and gray brick. The windows reflected the pink and blue of the lightening sky. It sat on a low hill, with a few unkempt walls of shrubbery blocking the view past it.

"It has been a long while since Steven has caught a new poke'mon, let alone brought it home," said Metagross.

"Ah, well—"

"Even if he didn't so much as capture you as rescue you."

I smiled, or, at least, my best Ninetales equivalent. "At least you see it that way. The guy seems ready to drop me the moment anyone says otherwise."

"He hasn't always been so, but his wavelengths have been unbalanced and erratic, even for a human, since the depreciation of his bonds."

I wrapped a tail or two around my paws for warmth, wincing at the feel of sand digging through my fur. "Depreciation?"

The humming didn't grow louder, but higher, nearly leaving my range of hearing completely.

"I…understand little of how human relations work…" Its bulky body shifted from side to side, as though rolling a marble along its top back and forth. "But, from what I gather, they need bonds between each other like Beldum during hyperlength, but having not the power or ability to become one, despite their best efforts. Interferences occur, naturally, and, from what I gathered, rather strong interferences occurred with his bonds and inevitably broke them, or rather, some. He still has bonds, humans have so many it is unlikely any could have none. Either or, the breaking of one or multiple particular bonds has left his wavelengths more confusing and intertwined than usual. It's brought a change in his behavior."

I shook my head, which buzzed after so many words in that flat voice, the latter words even coming across with a king of tang one would expect after biting aluminum foil.

"So…he lost someone close to him?"

The Metagross tilted its body back and forth. Sand ran down as its weight made the holes around its feet deeper.

"Lost, perhaps. A bond was lost. Interferences of human bonds are vast. I am still learning of the particulars, though it is difficult. Only will comes in between the bond of Beldums."

I nodded, fascinated, for probably the first time, by the secret intricacies of poke'mon that my curse had revealed. "Well, I figured as much."

The humming returned, and Metagross stopped his tilting to quiver almost imperceptibly.

"But you understand," and for a brief moment, the flat voice seemed to quicken with what could only be excitement. "You, with your hybrid human mind. Could you explain?"

I blinked. Hard. "Uh, well…I'd probably need to get more information on it and figure out how you think to explain it in a way you could understand, but I can say that humans tend to avoid things which hurt them, just like I imagine poke'mon do."

Metagross hummed, in hopefully agreement, but said nothing more.

Wondering if it was expecting more, I said, a bit uncertainly, "The loss of such a strong bond can hurt terribly. The interference of the bond can hurt as well, which is what breaks the bond—pain."

The Metagross fell deathly still.

"He is…injured?"

"In the mind," I paused. "Probably. I mean, in the short time I've been with him it's been more than obvious that he's avoiding other people—humans, I mean—like the plague."

"That's not right."

"Yes, I know."

"Humans need bonds with other humans. Beldum and Beldum."

"Yeah."

"And his injury causes him to draw away from what he needs?" the flat voice went just a tone higher, quickening even more. "Like Aggy from minerals? Like Magikarp from water?"

I hesitated to make sure I had gotten all that right before nodding.

Without warning, Metagross lifted into the air, golden spikes raining sand atop me as he zipped towards the house like some alien space saucer, my black ball falling with an anti-climatic slap on the sand besides me.

"Wait! He's not dying!" But Metagross had already vanished inside the cottage. I sighed. "At least not yet. I guess people can die from loneliness. No way I could explain that to a Metagross, though."

Moments later I heard a crash and a yell that could have only been Steven himself, followed by a short stream of curses.

"Guess it's back to working as a crutch."

I picked up my poke'ball in my mouth, missing my thumbs, and hiked up the gentle incline and past a mostly dead shrubbery to the cottage's back door. Like I was going to stay out here in the cold.

Lucky for me, Metagross left the door open enough for me to bump open and, to my surprise, I found chaos on the other side.

The living room, while not disgusting, was a complete mess. Stones, papers, books, and various pieces of empty trash covered every surface, including the floor with the exception of a path that started at the doorway and branched off towards the kitchen and down a hall. Ontop of it all was varying layers of thick dust that instantly went to my nose. Wuffling in an attempt to not sneeze, and thereby lose my super lush poke'ball, I carefully picked my way down the little strip of hardwood floor past the couch and coffee table to the source of the groaning and anxious metal humming.

"Damn it…ugh, ow…"

The faint scent of blood made my nose wrinkle. I frowned and turned down the hallway, passing what could only be a bathroom from the scent of soap and water an ajar door at the end. I pushed it open and came to a bedroom only somewhat less cluttered than the living room.

Leaning heavily onto the side of his bed, sitting on the floor on his good hip, was Steven Stone, still in his hospital gown and pale face puckered with pain. Hovering above him frantically like a mother was the gold and silver Metagross. The fan stirred slightly from the drafts it picked up.

I set my ball on a clear patch near the door and approached, the smell of blood thickening. "Aw crud, did you pull him out of bed? I think some stitches must have torn."

"He fell out," said Metagross's buzzing voice in my head. "I only tried to garner a clearer analysis of his mental state."

"Stop effing japing at my brain," growled Steven. "And while I was asleep? What's you're problem?"

I felt more than heard a rough, heavy something from Metagross directed at Steven, but Steven only shook his head.

"I'll be fine. I just slipped in a cave." He groaned, then gestured to me. "Hey, mind lending me a shoulder? I've got to pee."

"You know I'm a lady, right?" But I dropped down at his side and let him dig his hands around my shoulders. As he struggled to stand, he ended up biting his lip so hard it bled, and I swore he pulled out my very skin from how hard he clenched my fur.

"Good girl," he gasped.

"You should have stayed in the hospital," I said.

His clumsy cast limp ("Thud—sliiiide. Thud-sliiiide") had definitely worsened since the escape from the hospital. Pain killers must have worn off.

I managed to get him all the way to the toilet. His bathroom was perhaps the cleanest room of his house, though that was probably because he had no counter space to speak of, just a sink and a soap dish. Then, to my horror, he didn't give me the time to flee before whipping out his plumbing with one hand, needing his other hand on me to keep his balance. I closed my eyes tight, wishing I could run, or at least stop the rank of ammonia from coming into my nostrils. If he knew it was a human girl he was clinging on to while he did his business…

…Man, guys pee a lot. Hadn't it been a whole minute already? Just how much could a dude's bladder hold? I know I couldn't pee for this long, or that much.

Metagross's voice in my head was a welcome distraction.

"Tell me what to do. I don't know how to care for humans."

'He should have stayed in the hospital,' I thought back hard, afraid of getting pee-splash in my mouth if I opened it.

Anxious buzzing increase.

"Seriously, I'm fine," said Steven. "I was able to get home on my own, wasn't I? Ugh, I should have picked up some pain killers before leaving."

"Can the hospital fix his mind injury?" asked Metagross. "Wounds of the body, I can sense infection well enough, he is okay, but his mind…if it will fix his mind, I will take him there myself. It's a large building with a red cross, yes? White? Which direction?"

"Why are you asking me?" I asked, forgetting in my chagrin to ask mentally.

"Because you are the only human I can speak to this clearly. Please, I need your help." There was a pause. "If you help me tend to him, I'll help you return to human form."

Steven finally finished and flushed.

"You can do that?" I asked as I side scooted Steven to the sink to wash his hands.

"Not directly," said the floating sliver and gold Metagross in the hallway. "But I can help you find other Ninetales, or even the one you speak of. You can send me a mental image or where you last saw them, I can take you over the sea if needs be. But I cannot leave my master like this. He must be well again."

I shivered as a few drops of water from Steven's hands dropped on my head before he reached a towel. "Seriously? Then yes—please, yes. Not that I was going to just ditch him like this, even though it was pretty stupid of him…is he usually this stupid?"

"I know not what your using as a point of relation to measure his intelligence."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Steven—again, as though we could say something other than hum and 'Ninetales.' Really. Not that I wanted to talk to a dude who just had his wee wee not one foot from my face just a second ago.

Even so, Metagross sent another strange wave, much like a draft, towards Steven, who just frowned.

"I get that you're worried…" he paused, frowning, probably trying to understand whatever Metagross had been able to convey. Suddenly, his eyebrows lifted to his messy silver hair and he looked back down at me, his fuzzy black crutch. "You want me to keep her? Metagross, she's not mine. Eventually someone's going to come looking for her. Her fur makes her really valuable, just like your coloring does. She's a shiny, like you."

Metagross's A/C-like buzzing increased. Steven sighed.

"Fine. Fine. Move, will you? You're blocking the hall."

Metagross did so and I helped him thud—sliiiide back to bed, where he flopped face down. From the whuff of musk that flew in my face, he hadn't cleaned his bed in a while either.

"You're disgusting," I mumbled.

When he did nothing other than moan muffled sobs into his mattress with his legs still off the bed, I sighed and wiggled my way under his thighs. He gave a shout of protest when his feet left the floor, but I managed to lever the rest of him onto the bed, though not without any discomfort on his part.

"This is your fault, Slim Silver," I told him. "Getting all angsty just because your dad visited you and flying the coop like that."

Even so, I did wilt a bit as his teary eyes found mine. He gave me a watery grimace.

"Are you scolding me?" he flopped one of his hands in-between my ears and gave a light rub.

"More like trying to sign off your pain so I don't have to feel sympathetic. Heartless of me, really."

But, since all he got was "Nine nine Ninetales taaaaaales Nine." His grimace turned sweet and a pair of big, fat tears rolled down his face and into his dirty pillow.

"Thank you," he almost whispered.

He gave my ears a more committed rub. I sighed again.

"Fine." I stepped back, letting his hand fall off. "Fine, already. Pity is real. I feel it. Metagross, how fine tuned is that telekinesis of yours?"

"My master praises me for my ability to open the pickle jar. Is that significant enough skills for what you have in mind?"

"Freak, you talk like a butler. That'll do well enough. First we should get him some pain killers, though anything he has here won't be as strong as what they could have given him at the hospital."

I glanced back at Steven as I spoke, but he had already closed his eyes and had pulled a blanket over himself as best he could, though he hadn't been able to get it all the way out from underneath him or around his monster cast. I set my teeth into the cloth and with a few deft tugs had the blanket about his legs as well.

"Good girl," sighed Steven, not even opening his eyes.

"What do these 'pain killers' look like?" asked Metagross. "I know where he keeps his medicines, will you be able to decipher them from those?"

"Perfect." I looked about his room, littered with dirty laundry and more books, head full with the scent of dirty man that wasn't unlike what my brother had smelled like when he had come home last, and readied myself for the grueling work ahead of me. "I'm going to be putting so much crap in my mouth."