Newly redone.

"Well, it makes sense," Kasu's new companion noted. "That pelt of yours would make any human want you."

"But I don't understand," Kasu confessed.

The two Pokemon were hidden inside a hollow oak, both resting and listening with more than a little amusement to the commentary from the humans outside. The purple Pokemon smirked, an expression that did nothing to help his already frightening appearance.

"Humans only want to catch us and make us fight for them. Your fur's different from most Eevee -"

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Let me finish. It's a point of pride with some of these humans to have a Pokemon that's different from the norm, that's all."

Kasu absorbed this in silence. Suddenly all the things she'd heard since birth made sense. Why had no one told her this before?

"What did you say you were?" she asked eventually.

"I didn't say. You didn't ask."

"All right, so I'm asking now."

"So you are. I'm a Sableye - a ghost. Call me Tenebrae."

Ah." Kasu eyed him. "Can I call you Ten?"

"No."

"Nebbie?"

"No."

"Something shorter than Tenebrae?"

"No."

"Do you enjoy making life hard for everyone else?"

"Yep." Tenebrae grinned widely, showing long, pointed teeth.

"Are all Sableye as creepy as you?"

"I don't know. I haven't met all of them."

Kasu didn't really have a response to that. Instead, she changed the subject. "Thanks for your help."

"Meh, under normal circumstances, I'd've just left you to the humans." Tenebrae folded his hands behind his head and leaned back.

"Why did you help me?"

"Because I'm tired and I'm not thinking straight."

"You're tired? But - it's morning!"

"I'm nocturnal, dunce." Kasu felt he would roll his eyes if he could.

"Oh."

"In any case, you'll have to get out of here soon. Those idiots -" Tenebrae jerked his head toward the muffled voices - "will be searching this area for ages looking for you. Where're you headed?"

"West, I guess."

"West?" Tenebrae was staring at her.

"Yeah. I'm not sure why... it's a long story."

"Well, you can tell it when Archimedes gets back," Tenebrae said, leaning back again.

"Archimedes?" This was all becoming a bit much for Kasu.

"He's the Noctowl I bum around with. We used to have an Eon with us back then, too - he's gone now, he got captured a year or so back." Tenebrae's jewel-like eyes showed no emotion by design, but the set of his jaw and the tone of his voice suggested he was almost regretful. "Come to think of it, maybe that's the reason I saved your rear."

"I thought you didn't do sappy stuff." Tenebrae, Kasu was learning, was a very honest, blunt Pokemon. An admission like that was characteristic of him.

"Normally, I don't, but Jakian was a great friend and a good 'mon." Tenebrae glanced up the tree trunk. There was an open circle up where the tree trunk branched out into the sky. Sunlight shone in patches through the leaves and into that hole, lighting Kasu's fur and making the Sableye's eyes glitter.

"What kind of Eon was he?" Kasu asked, more to break the silence than out of any real curiosity.

"Well, he was -" Tenebrae stopped. "Well, I'm not sure. You'd have to ask Archimedes. I don't know the names of the Eons."

"Oh - but you should have been able to tell!" Kasu stared in disbelief at her companion.

"Hey, listen. Archimedes and I are night 'mons. We only saw him by moonlight."

"It should still have been obvious! They all look so different! Flareons are red with a yellow ruff, Vaporeons are blue with fins and stuff, and Jolteons are all yellow and spiky!"

Tenebrae looked thoughtful (as much as he could with his oddly designed face). "No, it wasn't any of those."

To Tenebrae, it was a perfectly innocent comment. To Kasu, it was a shock akin to being dropped in a bucket of ice water with starving piranhas in it.

"Wha! But there aren't any others! Are there?"

"How would I know? He said he was an Eon, though, and he wasn't like any of the ones you described," Tenebrae said with a note of finality.

"What if he lied?" Kasu was grasping at straws.

"Jakian wouldn't lie. It wasn't in his nature." Tenebrae's tone was both reproachful and a little confused. Like Kasu, Tenebrae was learning what his new companion was like - and this open denial was wildly out of character. He sincerely hoped this wasn't a case of know-it-all-runs-into-gap-in-knowledge syndrome.

It wasn't. It was something like culture shock.

All her life the young Eevee had been led to believe there were only three options for her life's journey - far more than any other 'mon ever had. Suddenly this new 'mon had come along and disproved that, effectively wiping Kasu's whole "theology" out from under her paws. Suddenly there was a new option standing before her - one she knew nothing about. Suddenly she was worried, thinking of all the Eons who had taught her since birth - were they all wrong? Did they know? Had they lied to her, telling her there were only three paths when in fact there were more?

And if there really were more... how did one go down those paths?

Tenebrae stared at her rapidly changing expressions with surprise.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," she said, rather distantly.

Something moved.

The two trainers had gone to search another nearby area. It was all the opening necessary.

The hole that led down into the tree's innards was almost invisible, even from above, but the something seemed to know exactly where the opening was. It flared its wings and stalled in midair, sharp ears catching a voice even as it folded its wings and dove into the hole.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Ah - EEEEEEEEEEK!"

"Whoa, man!"

The intruder flared its wings in shock this time, then dropped to the floor of their temporary hideout. It landed very ungracefully, wings flopping out comically to keep its balance. Kasu jumped back, ears flat against her head and fur standing on end.

Tenebrae stared, then began laughing uproariously.

"Nice entrance, Archimedes."

The creature drew itself up to full height - a full-grown male Noctowl, feathers slightly ruffled.

"You're keeping odd company this morning," he said, obviously trying to cover up his embarrassment by examining Kasu. She shrank back from that unblinking gaze.

"Archimedes, where you been? This is Kasu."

"Odd color, aren't you?" Archimedes said, his tone rhetorical.

"I know!" Kasu exploded, forgetting her fear. "I know I'm a freak, okay!"

"Woah, easy," the Noctowl soothed. "Didn't mean nothin' by it."

Kasu deflated.

"Sorry."

"Don't be." The Noctowl turned to his comrade, his head twisting without any help from his shoulders (a fact that fascinated Kasu). "An explanation would be nice."

Once Tenebrae calmed down enough to explain, he did, with interjections from Kasu at certain points. When he finished, Archimedes looked at Kasu again.

"You belong to that Eevee pack near here, then?"

"Yes, and I don't intend to go back," she said fiercely.

"Don't blame ya," the Noctowl said calmly.

"I... I don't want to go back until I evolve. Maybe even later than that."

"Now, hold on a minute," the owl said. "I thought that pack regulated what its members turn into anyway. Aren't you supposed to evolve there?"

"I don't want to be any one of the Eons they want me to be," Kasu explained. "And if I go back, they'll just make me choose." She didn't mention the spirit.

Archimedes considered it, then nodded understandingly. "So you're looking for other options. Jakian wasn't one of those Eons in your pack..."

"That's what Tenebrae said. I'm going to find out how he did it, what he was, and how I can become one."

"What if you don't like that one either?" Archimedes asked shrewdly.

Kasu paused. She hadn't thought of that.

"Cross that bridge when we get there," Tenebrae replied in her stead. "If she doesn't like it, she doesn't have to evolve."

Kasu shot him a grateful look as Archimedes turned his head to the ghost.

"Never known you to champion sap cases like this," he said eventually.

"I kinda like this fuzzball," Tenebrae said flippantly. "And I can respect her motives. I'm coming along just to see what happens."

"But -" Kasu started, but Archimedes stopped her.

"No buts. You're headed west - we have a member in the western mountains we need to pick up. Our Patrol's kinda scattered in recent years."

"Patrol?"

"It's a club name," Tenebrae explained. "Misfits, outcasts, loners, the like. The Doom Patrol."

"Oh." Kasu cocked her head. "How many are there?"

"Counting the one we need to pick up? Three."

Kasu blinked.

"Four, actually," Archimedes said.

"Four?"

"Counting you," he smiled. "We'll travel at night, if you've no objections. Tenebrae and I see better at night, and humans generally aren't active past midnight."

"That sounds fine," Kasu said, happy to have the company.

"Cool. Now, get some sleep, new partner." Archimedes fluffed out his feathers as he prepared for sleep.

"Good advice." Tenebrae slapped Kasu's shoulder. "Welcome to the Doom Patrol, little missy. Good night - actually, good morning." He laughed at his own joke as he settled in to sleep.

Kasu lay down as well, her mind buzzing. It would be a long time before she fell asleep to the accompaniment of Archimedes's snores. But sleep she did.