"Wait," Becca interjected, "where's Ryder?"

"Been here the whole time," A voice called out from a dark corner of the room, causing Becca and me to jump a bit. A young man stepped out into the light, an Absol close behind him.

"Jeez, Ryder," Becca steamed, "can you stop doing that?"

"Doing what, my job?" Ryder gave a smirk.

"Alright, that's enough," Jason interrupted. "Collin, this is Ryder, my reconnaissance leader, and his partner, Miyuki. They are from the Almia region."

"Almia? So are you a-"

"Yes, I was a Ranger. But that was years ago. Back before I got sucked into this world."

"So," I started, looking at Jason, "how did you get here?"

Jason gave a sigh, nodding toward Sin as he took off his helmet, revealing the cybernetics on his face. His left eye had circuits all around it, and his right eye was replaced with an insert. Both of his ears had inserts, and his left ear had a wire that extended to his mouth, almost like a microphone.

Sin had changed as well. She became twice the normal height of an Eevee. Her cybernetics were similar to Jason's, except that the eyes were switched and she had no ear inserts.

"In my home dimension, I'm an intergalactic bounty hunter, the best of my time. About 5 years ago, I was on a mission on a planet near a black hole. On the way back home from the mission, the black hole sent out an energy pulse, disabling my ship and sending us toward it. The turbulence caused me to hit my head on a panel, knocking me out.

"When I woke up, we were here and my ship was gone. The Imperium found me, but we fought them off, catching the attention of the Republic. They were impressed with my skills, and made me the leader.

"I only joined to protect Sin. She's... like a daughter to me."

"I understand that," I responded, patting Tenkai. "I feel the same about Tenkai."

Jason gave a nod, putting his helmet back on. "Do you mind if Sin scans your Pokemon to gauge their abilities?"

"Go ahead." Sin's eye circuits started to glow as she gave Richard a good once-over, then Lucas, then Tenkai… But she seemed to linger on Tenkai for a bit longer than the others, making Collin a little suspicious.

Sin changed back to a normal Eevee and hopped on Jason's shoulder, whispering to him.

"I think she likes me," Tenkai whispered into his trainer's ear.

"Maybe you just had an ability it took her some time to identify," Collin joked.

"So," Jason began, "I assume you already know about Spirit Fusion?"

"Is that the thing everyone did when rescuing me?"

"Yes."

Becca joined in the conversation. "The people here have a strong bond with their partners that allows their minds and bodies to join together, giving them amazing power. The first time Shiva and I did it, it was almost overwhelming."

"Interesting," Collin muttered.

"However," Jason added, "for some reason, it only works with fully evolved Pokemon."

"So right now, Only Lucas and I have a chance of having it work?"

"Exactly. And for that reason, Sin would like to train Tenkai and Richard so they can evolve."

Tenkai bumped Collin, as if to say, "See? I told you!"

"I don't see why not."

"Good. I'll supervise them. In the meantime, Becca and Ryder can teach you how to fuse."

So now that I've revealed the "secret" of Spirit Fusion, Time for some lore that I couldn't really fit anywhere else.

The actual design of the outfit of someone who is Spirit Fused depends mainly on the type of their partner. Special types will generally just have robes (think like spell-caster classes in RPG's) with coloring and minor decoration based on their partner, and physical types will have more diverse differences (For example, Fighting types will tend to have a Gi, Dragon types will have scaly or plate-like armor, etc.).

Also, as a note, future chapters will be less regular then they have been, because this is as far as I have written as of uploading this, and I have little time to write because I'm a college student ~

~Tenkai