Chapter 1
Just east of Ecruteak City, the Pokémon trainer Mark Diamond trained with his Leafeon. The Leafeon was his favorite of all Pokémon and he had adoringly nicknamed it Maple.
Born in the Sinnoh region, Mark had been obsessed with Pokémon since he was very small. At his first opportunity, at the age of thirteen, Mark obtained his Pokémon License. He traveled around the region training and collecting badges and even competing in a few tournaments. He was a talented trainer, but would need much more training before he would be strong enough to be able to make a name for himself.
While traveling, Mark became especially interested in the Pokémon known as Eevee. Able to evolve into a wide variety of Pokémon, Eevee represented endless possibilities. In fact, at the age of fourteen, just one year after beginning his travels, Mark had become a trainer specialized in the evolutions of Eevee.
It was through his time as an Eevee trainer that he raised Maple. His first and only Leafeon, Mark had raised Maple from a newly hatched Eevee into his strongest Pokémon in just two short years. Those two years of traveling the world and training Maple had been the best two years of his life. Now, at sixteen years of age, he was ready for more.
"Watch it, Maple!" Mark warned spotting another Raticate edging towards the clearing, "Here comes another one!" The first Raticate that Maple had defeated, rather easily, was scurrying back into the underbrush. It was bruised and beaten, but mostly okay.
The Leafeon at Mark's side snapped to attention, its ears perked up and its tail went rigid as it straightened, preparing for the next battle.
Suddenly, the new foe took notice of the Leafeon that had defeated its brother. It too snapped to attention, standing up straight, ready to defend itself.
"Go get it, Maple," Mark ordered. The Leafeon gave a chirp of agreement and dashed towards its target. The Raticate was a full hundred meters away, not close enough for Maple to strike quickly. It had no time to react when the Raticate suddenly darted out, moving like a rocket.
The Quick Attack struck a direct hit on Maple, stopping its charge and knocking it back.
"Maple!" Mark cried out, "You okay, girl?" Shaking its head from the shock of the blow, the Leafeon stood up and chirped an affirmative before turning back to the battle.
"It's okay," Mark told himself calmly, "it's just a wild Raticate, nothing special. Use Leaf Blade!" At the command, Maple's tail went completely rigid and the edges of the leaf-like tail began to gleam in the mid-morning sunlight. Her tail sharpened to a sword-like edge.
Maple rushed at the Raticate, spinning around as she swiped at it with her tail. It managed to dodge the first attack, but it had no time before the second struck it on its side, sending it rolling along the ground, badly injured, but still able to fight.
"Pretty tough for a wild one…" Mark admired the Rat Pokémon, a little bit. Maple was so well-trained that few wild Pokémon ever lasted beyond one Leaf Blade, Maple's strongest attack.
Angered, the Raticate charged back, snapping at Maple with the huge incisors that were each half the size of Mark's forearm. Panicked, Maple dodged left and right, but couldn't find an opening to strike back.
"Hang in there, Maple!" Mark tried his best to sound encouraging, "It's starting to get tired! Just a little bit more!" He helplessly watched Maple dodge the Hyper Fang attack, hoping that those teeth wouldn't hit Maple. She could take it, but he still hated seeing her get hurt, something that had made him hesitate every time he used her in a battle. But she had to train, that was just how the world of Pokémon worked.
At last, the Raticate tired and had to pull back into a defensive position. But it was out of breath and barely able to keep going. Mark even felt a little sorry for it when he gave the command to Maple, to hit it with one last Leaf Blade. Bruised and battered even worse than the first Raticate, it nevertheless got up and scurried away into the underbrush.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Mark rushed over and hugged Maple. He stroked her and held her close, letting her lick his cheek in celebration. He scratched behind her ear, rewarding her for two very well-fought battles.
"Come on," Mark smiled at his Pokémon, "let's see what else we can find for you to fight…" Mark suddenly stopped and stared at Maple. Something strange was happening.
The familiar white glow, which usually meant a Pokémon evolution, was starting around Maple's silhouette. The glow kept growing, creeping over Maple's entire body, wrapping it in pure white light. Maple's body began changing, her legs and arms lengthened, hair stretched out from the back of her head, and her entire body seemed to grow in size.
Mark was stunned, unable to comprehend what was happening. He had never heard of or seen anything like this. He had watched Pokémon evolve many times, but Leafeon didn't evolve, he was certain of that. And yet, right in front of him, Maple, his favorite Pokémon, was evolving. Suddenly, he had a strange thought that this was going to be the start of something awful.
When the white light faded, what sat where a Leafeon had once been was what appeared to be a young girl, roughly sixteen years old. She had large, brown eyes, slightly pale skin, which looked very smooth, and pale blond hair. She wore only a simple, tan colored dress that didn't cling to her body too tightly, but still showed off her curves. The dress reached down to just a few centimeters above her knees.
There were only three things that seemed odd about her. The first was that, instead of having human ears, the ears of a Leafeon poked out from the top of her head. A few dozen strands of green hair remained in her bangs, sticking up the way it did on a Leafeon. She also retained the tail of a Leafeon, which her dress flowed around, extending from her tailbone.
She smiled pleasantly at the dumbfounded Mark, for a few seconds, before opening her mouth. Instead of human words coming out, the chittering sound of a Leafeon replaced them.
Still too stunned to even blink, Mark continued to stare wide-eyed at what appeared to be his Leafeon, as a girl, that was his age. He watched in total disbelief as the girl suddenly lost interest in him and started to sniff at the ground around where he stood.
Maple walked on all fours, her head bent low to the ground in an effort to get the best scent of whatever it was she was looking for. She wore no shoes, but this didn't seem to bother her. She circled around Mark several times before giving up and stopping to sit right in front of him. She attempted to scratch at her ear with her right leg, but found that she couldn't quite reach it in the same way she could when she was a Leafeon.
The first thought that Mark remembered having after Maple had "evolved" was a strange mix of emotions. While she had been circling him, Mark accidentally caught a view of her plain, white cotton underwear beneath her dress. That seemed to give two reactions, one of keen interest and curiosity, another of embarrassment and shame. He wasn't sure which one felt stronger…
Either way, it was the first thought that slowly got his mind working again. Looking down at the girl happily sitting at his feet, he thought carefully about what to do next.
"Maple?" he tried tentatively, as if afraid of what the response might be. The girl responded by perking her ears up, smiling happily and making another pleasant chirping sound.
Mark sighed. The girl in front of him was definitely Maple. But what had happened? He had been around Pokémon his entire life and not once had he heard of a Pokémon turning into a human. What could that mean?
"Umm…come on," Mark turned away and motioned for Maple to follow him, "let's get back to the Pokémon Center." Maple tweeted happily again, before obediently following her trainer, still walking on all fours.
What the hell is going on? Mark thought.
When the Pokémon Center was in sight, about an hour's walk, Mark stopped. He realized that he was afraid of what might happen if someone saw Maple. There would be questions, a lot of questions that Mark wasn't prepared to deal with. He needed answers, and time to think about what to do. But, he couldn't just leave Maple outside. He couldn't leave Maple alone, at all.
Thinking hard, he peered down at the girl patiently sitting on the ground, calmly waving her tail back and forth. If she were standing on two legs then she just might be mistaken for someone wearing a costume. A very realistic costume that could wag its tail and make sounds like the real thing, but a costume nevertheless.
Deciding that it was worth a shot, Mark tried to tell Maple to stand. Her response was to tilt her head slightly and make a dismayed tweeting sound. Giving up, Mark reached down, took Maple's hands, and lifted her onto her feet.
Maple's eyes widened in disbelief and she looked around slowly, taking in the new vantage point. She was just six centimeters shorter than Mark, but her ears extended another three above his head. She was amazed to discover that she could be so high up.
"Do you think you can walk like this?" Mark tried, releasing her hands. At first, she didn't respond and Mark wondered if she understood what he was saying, but after a few seconds, Maple nodded.
"Okay," Mark sighed, "One step at a time." Mark moved along with her, ready to catch her in case she should lose her balance and fall.
Wobbling a bit, Maple took her first steps on two legs. However, she adjusted quickly to the new method of movement. Grinning widely, she took longer and longer strides. Gaining confidence, she picked up speed.
She burst forth, sprinting ahead towards the Pokémon Center. Mark heard her cheer with that same Leafeon chittering noise as she ran. She was happy. For all of the confusion that Mark felt about what was happening, he was definitely glad that she was happy.
Maple skidded to a halt. She looked back across the distance that she had covered. She had run at least a hundred yards in just a few seconds, and she wasn't at all tired. But that wasn't the problem. She looked down at her hand, then back at Mark, as he walked towards her. She ran back, immediately.
To Mark's relief, the lobby of the Pokémon center was deserted, except for one other trainer. His back was turned as he sat, reading, at a table in the far corner of the lobby. He wore a short-sleeved jacket that was burnt-orange in color, with two brown horizontal blotches, in the center. Underneath that was a long-sleeved white shirt. He also wore black jean-shorts with yellow and brown sneakers. However, Mark paid no attention to him and instead went directly to the attendant at the desk.
"Are there any rooms available?" Mark did his best not to seem nervous as Maple stared around the Pokémon Center in wide-eyed amazement at all of the new sights her new body let her experience.
Every Pokémon Center was required to have at least a few small guest rooms and a kitchen attached to the main treatment center, for travelers. However, it was fairly common to find all of the rooms to be occupied.
"Yes, there are," the receptionist replied cheerfully, "will you be staying the night?"
"Yeah," Mark nodded. He paid as quickly as possible, offering cash instead of a card.
"Alright," the receptionist typed briefly on her computer before opening a drawer of her desk and handing Mark a plastic card, "here's your key. Room four. And would you like any of your Pokémon healed?"
"Uh…" Mark hesitated, realizing that Maple was probably still a little tired and hurt after their training session, but he had no idea how they would even treat Maple if she was human, "no, that's okay." Trying to be as quick as possible, Mark took the key and paid the receptionist, who was starting to eye Maple suspiciously.
"There you are, you son of a bitch!" Mark and Maple both jumped in surprise when a female voice broke the silence around them. Mark turned to see a girl, who was probably in her early twenties, standing just a few feet behind him and looking over at the other trainer that had been sitting in the corner.
"What?" the trainer sitting at the table pushed back and snapped his book shut. He stretched and cracked his neck before standing up. He looked like he was in his late teens, younger than the girl, but older than Mark and Maple.
"Why weren't you in the room?" the girl demanded, "I thought something had happened to you?" She stomped over to him, presumably to yell directly in his face.
"What could happen?" the boy scoffed, "I can take care of myself just fine." Once he was standing up, Mark saw what he had missed before. The boy had a long, thin, black tail that ended in a bright yellow lightning bolt. His brown and yellow ears were a strange elongated crescent moon shape and they curled up at the ends. The boy had the ears and tail of a Raichu.
"I-" the boy stopped when he noticed Maple, "hey, Kimmy, we are not alone." He grinned and nodded towards Maple. The girl turned, and also grinned.
"Oh, hi," Kimmy said, a little embarrassed.
"Hi," Mark said, even more embarrassed, "uh…what's going on? Who are you?"
"Oh, sorry," Kimmy flushed before motioning to herself and then to the Raichu-boy, "My name's Kim, or Kimmy, whichever, and this is Volt. He's a bit of a jerk, but decent enough all the same." She ignored Volt's protest and continued, "What're your names?"
"Uh…I'm Mark and this is…" still suspicious, Mark didn't answer right away, but Maple chirped, making the secretary look around for the source of the noise, "this is Maple." Kim's grin faded a little bit as she thought over something.
"Oh, okay," understanding dawned on Kim, "so, she's just in Stage One?"
"Stage One of what?" Mark asked, eager for answers, "do you know what's happening to her?" He looked over to see Maple trying, in vain, to lick the back of her hand in order to wash herself, much like a cat.
"Yep, definitely Stage One," Kim nodded, "Well, since you seem totally clueless, I'm guessing you never knew about this."
"What gave it away?" Mark snapped as he tried to convince Maple to stop trying.
"No need to get snippy," Kim countered, "Pretty much everybody that has one goes through the same thing, the first time. One day, you're training with your favorite Pokémon and suddenly it evolves, and turns into this. She's not quite human and she's not quite a Pokémon. Go ahead and train with her if you want. She still has all of her abilities, and she's stronger than your whole team combined, I guarantee it."
"Yeah, that's great and all," Mark gave up and let Maple figure it out for herself, "but what do I do to help her? Will she be able to talk like your Raichu over there?"
"Well, hopefully she'll be more polite than Volt," she, once again, ignored Volt's protests, "but, yeah, it doesn't take that long to adjust."
"I'm sorry," Mark sighed, suddenly feeling overwhelmed, "this is all new to me. Pokémon evolving into humans seems, I don't know…weird."
"Yeah, it is," Kim sighed, "But it's cool, too. You'll see what I mean. The first day is the worst. She'll be able to talk and everything within just three days. And then, it'll be like making a new best friend. Somebody that was your best friend even before you thought that they could be." Kim's smile broadened more and more as she spoke, remembering her own experience.
"Anyway," Kim shook her head, "we're on our way to a tournament being held on Himitsu Island. A tournament just for human Pokémon. If you wanna learn more about what's happening to Maple, that's the place. There's a ship leaving from Olivine City in two weeks. You got all that?"
"Yeah," Mark nodded, "a tournament on Himitsu Island. I'll be there."
"Good," Kim nodded, "we'll see you there!" She waved as she and Volt headed for the door.
"Wait," Mark called, "you're not gonna help me with Maple?" He still had doubts about how he was going to take care of Maple by himself, for two more days.
"Sorry," Kim's grin was far too broad for Mark's liking, "consider it a bonding experience. Just keep her out of her Pokéball and she'll be fine in just two days. You'll look back on this and laugh!" Kim kept waving as she followed Volt out of the Pokémon Center, heading west towards Olivine City.
Mark looked back to find Maple back onto all fours, contentedly sitting on the floor, making chirping noises. The receptionist stared blankly at him.
"I'm guessing that you didn't know about this, either," Mark shrugged.
The receptionist nodded, slowly.
"Learn something new every day, huh?" He tried to laugh, but it sounded hollow, "come on, Maple. Taking care of you like this for a few days shouldn't be too hard." Maple sprang to her feet, still looking around in wonder.
AN: this is the true start to the story. so, we've got pokemon evolving into humans and a secret tournament on a just as secret island. everybody loves a good tournament, right?