Chapter 8

"This isn't real," I decided, staring down at the Pokemon. "I'm dreaming. I have to be."

«You're not dreaming.»

I froze, glaring down at the Meowth. "Was that you?"

The Pokemon's eyes widened. It sat back on its hind legs and blinked at me. «Wait, you can hear me?»

"...Yeah," I said after a long, thoughtful pause.

«That's... Huh, okay. I didn't know I could send my thoughts like this.» Green flicked his tail. «Just like how Elfangor did.»

"It must be something you can only do while you're..." I hesitated, not wanting to say the word. "While you're in morph."

«That makes sense. I guess.» Green sounded both confused and excited. He began to scratch behind his ear with his hind leg, contorting his feline body in a way that would have put a human in intense pain. He sat up quickly, like he'd had an idea. «Oh, hey, check this out!»

He crouched down, wiggled his haunches a few times, and then fired his muscles, leaping up onto my dresser. He'd jumped five feet straight up into the air, the equivalent of a human leaping onto the roof of a second story building, like it was nothing. He licked a paw and I could swear he grinned even more than the natural smirk of a Meowth. «Pretty cool, huh?» He sat down again and began licking his paw, using it to clean his face.

"Green, what are you doing?" I asked.

He kept washing himself. «Well, I have to look good, don't I?»

I shook my head, bewildered. "Why? What's the point?"

The Meowth that was Green paused, tongue hanging out and paw behind his ear. «Uh... I don't know,» he admitted, resuming normal sitting position. «It's like... I'm me. I'm in control of my brain just like normal. But I'm also Dude. I can feel his mind in my head too. I want to do the things a Meowth would want to do. I have to keep myself clean. I have to look my best.» I could swear his eyes started to look worried. «What if there's another Meowth around? What if it thinks I'm the beta because I have a hair out of place?» He self-consciously smoothed his fur again.

"Green, I think I've figured something out," I said.

«What?»

I chewed my tongue, trying to think of the best way to explain what I'd realized. "When you're morphed, you're not just a person with the body of a Meowth–you're a person in the body of a Meowth."

Green tilted his head. «Yeah, that makes sense, I think. It's like I have the body of a Meowth, and that body has all the instincts of a Meowth, and my human mind is just piloting it. I have to focus to control the Pokemon into doing what I want it to.»

This was all getting too weird. "You should change back." I stopped myself before I added 'please.'

He nodded, something I'd never seen a Meowth do before. It was unsettling. «Okay.»

He leaped back to the ground and changed back to human, and it was no less disconcerting as it had been when he changed to a Meowth. First the fur vanished, leaving a pink hairless creature I think I'd had a nightmare about once. Then, his ears creaked back into place, shifting shape into normal ears halfway down. His eyes returned to normal, his legs grew longer, and his tail was vacuumed back up into his spine like spaghetti.

When he was finished changing, he was crouching on the floor without anything covering him. I averted my eyes as he hastily pulled his clothes back on.

"We should try to figure out how to do this with clothes," he suggested, embarrassed.

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'we?'"

He shrugged. "Red, we were both there last night. We both have the power. If I can morph, you can too."

I hesitated, then shook my head. "Nope. I don't think so."

I'd hit that nerve again, the one that made Green angry. Immediately, his expression resumed the scowl that almost scared me, made me wonder what he was capable of. "You just don't get it, do you? This is real. All of it. Real."

I shook my head. I didn't want to hear it. "Go home, Green."

He grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "Listen to me. This is real. All of this is REAL. Elfangor died to give us these powers. He wanted us to fight."

I pushed him away. "Fine then. You fight."

"I'm going to," he said, his tone slightly gentler. "But we need you too. You're the most important part of this."

I laughed without humor. "Oh yeah? Why's that?"

He hesitated. "I... Don't you get it? I'm not a leader. I can't make plans. I can't give orders. I can't do any of that. But you can, Red. You're a leader."

I snorted. "Me. A leader. Yeah right."

He stared at me with eyes roiling with trouble. I knew what he was about to say. It didn't make me any more willing to hear it.

"Yeah, that is right. You're our leader, Red. You're the only one who can bring us all together. You were the one to go into the Andalite's ship first. You made the decision to split up last night, saving all our lives. You distracted all those Hork-Bajir when they would have caught us if you hadn't. We have all this power... the power to be any Pokemon as long as we can touch it... but we need someone to direct that power. Without a leader... without you... we don't stand a chance."

Against my will, I felt myself nodding. I knew what I had to do. No matter how much I hated it, Green was right. Whether I liked it or not, my friends needed a leader, and I was the one who had stepped up. I'd done the difficult stuff last night–the stuff nobody in their right mind would want to do. Now I was going to have to do it some more.

At that moment, I knew how Atlas the titan felt, with the world on his shoulders. I could practically feel my knees buckling with the weight of responsibility I'd just accepted.

I couldn't possibly have known how heavy that planet was going to get.

"Well," I said, realizing what I had to do next. "Let's catch us a Zigzagoon."