Ash was the first to wake up the next morning. In his tired state, he felt around for his hat in the dark tent but he couldn't find it and chose to find it later. Rubbing his eyes, he went outside of the tent and stretched.

"Ahhh, a new day. I wonder how everyone's feeling?" he asked himself. Dawn had begun to wake up as well, so she followed Ash out of the tent. When she got out, however, she got the biggest shock of her life.

"Ash? I-is that you?" she asked him nervously.

"Huh? What are you talking about, Dawn?" Ash responded. He turned around and got the same feeling Dawn had. "I…I didn't expect to see any Lucarios around here. Dawn, is that really you?"

"I…think so. But all I see is a Lucario with Ash's voice. What happened to us?"

" "Dawn", I think we should just find some water to look at. I don't know what happened to me, but I want to see it for myself." "Ash" sped off in the direction of the pond that "Dawn" visited. Deciding to get an explanation for all this weirdness, she followed "Ash" almost effortlessly.

The two "trainers" had finally gotten to the pond. Not bothering to notice anything else, they looked into the water for their reflections, reluctant to see what had become of them. Ash and Dawn finally decided to look at the same time. Oddly enough, the water's reflection revealed a pair of Lucarios, leaving Ash and Dawn in a state of shock.

"So you're a…"Ash trailed off.

"And you're a…" Dawn trailed off. Both former trainers were too shocked to say anything further. For a few moments, not a sound was made in the forest.

"Did this happen last night?" Ash wondered, breaking the silence. "How did this happen?"

"…Ash…I think this pond did something to us," Dawn suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…last night, when I was walking through the forest, I fell into this pond because I wasn't looking around. When I got out, I was shivering and decided to get back to camp. This was when I saw some strange light at camp. It was actually brighter than the fire, so I wanted to rush back to camp. But the light vanished before I could get there, and I felt really tired, so I just crawled into the tent," Dawn explained. "Do you think this pond did this to us?"

"I think so. But I don't know," he responded. Dawn suddenly spotted a brown sign next to the pond.

"What does this sign say? I haven't seen this before. It reads: 'IF THIS WATER IS TOUCHED, THE VIOLATOR SHALL BE TRANSFORMED INTO A Pokémon.' If I touched it, how did you turn into a Pokemon, Ash?"

"Hey wait, there's more: 'ONE OF THE VIOLATOR'S FRIENDS SHALL BECOME THE SAME Pokémon AS FURTHER PUNISHMENT. TH---'" Ash had seen what else was there, but he refused to believe it. Dawn saw it and staggered backwards against a tree.

The rest of the sign read, in bold red letters:

THE TRANSFORMATION CANNOT BE REVERSED.

"I-is this…this is just a dream, right? Any minute now, I'll wake up, and I'll be back to normal," Ash struggled to say. He was going through intense denial, as was Dawn. This had happened before, but he was able to get out of it. Now…how could he possibly get through this?

Dawn looked as though she was about to totally lose it, but she kept her mouth shut because she didn't want to cause so much worry. She could not bear to look at her new paws, spikes, and fur that replaced all of her human features. She wished they weren't there, but not even wishing could help her (or Ash) now. She directed her glance to Ash, the other new Lucario. She mustered up whatever was left of her confidence and spoke to Ash.

"…Um…Ash…please try to pull yourself together," she managed to say. Without knowing what was going on, she suddenly walked towards him, wrapped her arms around him, and licked his face.

"Wh-what did you just do?" Ash asked, obviously caught off guard.

"I don't know," she replied as she ceased her actions. "I think…my new instincts made me do that. And for some reason, I kinda liked it."

"…I think you are becoming more of a Lucario, Dawn."

"I guess…if I'm going to be stuck like this for the rest of my life, I may as well should just enjoy it. I may not be able to compete in Contests anymore, but there's still no need to worry, right?"

"Well, when you put it that way…but still…I didn't think I would have to give up the Sinnoh League…I worked pretty hard for that…" Ash replied sadly.

"It'll all work out eventually…for both of us. We still have each other. Also, we don't have anything to worry about, right? Maybe it's my new instincts, but I'm starting to think that I was supposed to be with you, Ash," Dawn replied.

"Wow, you're really looking on the bright side of things, aren't you? Maybe you're right, Dawn--there is nothing to worry about anymore."

It was now late in the morning as the two new Lucarios left the area.

"Hey Ash, do you think we should have just left the sign alone?" Dawn wondered.

"Nah. I don't think anyone will mind that we changed it up a little," Ash replied. "You know, we can go anywhere we want to now. I can't shake the feeling that I'm forgetting something though."

"I think I know. Maybe I can try and fix it?" Dawn suggested, letting her Lucario instincts guide her. She closed her eyes and focused her mind. Ash felt compelled to do the same, so he did exactly as Dawn was doing.

Having been up all night watching the Pokémon, it was no wonder that Brock had fallen asleep. He had collapsed on the floor in exhaustion, unwilling to be bothered, but that wasn't going to happen.

"Brock, can you hear me? It's me, Dawn. I hope I'm not interrupting anything." A voice rang through Brock's mind, making him completely alert.

"Who are you?" he responded with his thoughts.

"Brock, it's me, Dawn. Something happened to me and Ash last night."

"Well, what happened? Is it bad?"

"I wouldn't really say bad, exactly…" At that point, Ash had found his way into the conversation.

Brock, me and Dawn…something happened to us that you would probably not believe," Ash said.

"Would any of you please tell me? I would like to know sometime this year," Brock stated impatiently.

"…We were both turned into Lucarios," Ash and Dawn replied together.

"…You've got to fill me in on what happened. I need to know what happened to you two," Bfrock responded It sounded ridiculous to him.

"Right," Dawn replied. Brock continued to lie there while he was filled in on what happened, occasionally asking a question to confirm his suspicions.

When that mental talk was over, Brock still couldn't believe that this all happened.

"I've got one more question: what are you going to do now? Now that you two are becoming more and more like Lucarios, what are you going to do?" he asked.

"I don't know…Pikachu and all of the other Pokémon already know what happened to me and Dawn, and they sound like they're ok with it," Ash replied.

"I could take care of you two if you want," Brock suggested. "Of course, if you feel that you can live on your own, I won't stop you. Just be careful."

"Don't worry Brock, as long as I'm with Ash, nothing bad is gonna happen . No need to worry!" Dawn reassured. With that, the mental conversation ended, leaving Brock in a mental daze. He got up, shook his head, and left the room to spread the word.

"Oh look, it's high noon now. We really spent a long time talking to Brock, didn't we?" Dawn questioned.

"Yeah," Ash replied. "You know, you look a lot sharper to me now. It's probably because of my senses." The pair had returned to the mysterious pond by this time. It had become apparent that it had mysterious powers due to the fact that it was now glowing.

"I could say the same for you, Ash," Dawn replied. "Have you noticed that our clothes are gone?"

"Well, we have fur now. I don't think we need clothes anymore." Ash then pulled her close to him and licked her face, this time on purpose.

"Ash, I don't think I can remember what it was like to be human anymore. How about we just go off on our own together?" Dawn said. Ash had chosen to let go for now.

"Yeah. Let's find a new home," Ash replied, already dashing in some random direction. Dawn chased after him excitedly.

'How am I going to tell Professor Oak…?' Brock wondered. It was going to be a long day…

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