Try not to get bored of it yet... It will get better...

Same warnings/disclaimers apply. I own Mildred, Lomar, and Martin, as well as the Kraith region and associated locations.

Lateral Ganon

# # # Chapter Specific Notes # # #

Italics are the Latios's thoughts. He can't use telepathy yet, so no-one else can hear them.

The Latios and Latias Nurseries are separate places (The dimension it resides in is splinched, but don't worry too much about it now), separated by an inpenetrable barrier (like a wall of blue marble, the scar of the splinch) which completely blocks access to the other side.

A ruled line means that I'm swapping between which Lati is the focus.

Day 2: Finding Your Feet

The Latios woke up in the cave feeling almost fully refreshed, and he rolled over, all worries forgotton. He squealed and leapt up immediately when he rolled onto his injured wing and crushed it. He arched his head around to face his injury, and ran his left claw along it. He winced as he touched the sore spot. He looked back at his claw, and tried to summon some energy to allow him to repair his wings. It was a skill he was rather gifted at during his life in the Nursery. He needed to be, as he was generally rather clumsy whilst he was still at the nursery, even though it would be hard to concentrate enough when pain was coursing through his left side. He tried once, doing nothing except turning his hand orange, he returned it to normal before trying again. The second time he tried, he managed to set his hand on fire, causing him to have to hobble out quickly to dip it into the brook. He winced as he looked at the seared digits. The blacked claw looked grotesque. That was his best hand, and he cursed himself for not thinking to use his weaker hand. At least then he wouldn't have minded as much about burning it. He turned to his other claw, and smiled as he immediately succeeded in making it glow blue.

He ran it other his best hand to repair the burnt tissue, before trying to put it onto his injured wing to try to heal that. He reached out, and moaned as the wing pulled away from his hand. He turned around after it, trying to reach it, but the wing kept getting pulled backwards. He couldn't reach, as he was spinning around in a small circle.

"Damn it!" He cried out so loudly that a pair of Swellows were woken from their sleep. The larger one yawned slightly, before they both flew over to look at him.

"Well. Look at what we have here Mildred, Isn't this a funny looking creature." said one of the avians. He had a distinctly deep voice which didn't suit his light frame.

"Right you are Lomar. Wonder where he came from." Said the slightly smaller one. From its voice, the Latios could tell it was female. He looked at the pair and noticed how bizarre they looked. He had only ever seen other Latios before. He leant over to look at them more closely, and was surprised that they did not appear to have skin of any kind. Their entire body was predominantly feathers!

"What are you?" He asked them. The creatures were about half his size, but he could tell by the beaks that it wouldn't be too hard for them to cause him serious injury.

"Well that's a bit rude, asking what we are. I guess we could ask the same question of you bluey." Mildred said indignantly, ruffling her feathers to show her distaste.

"Now now darling, I'll take care of this. We are a pair of Swellows. We are a bird species native to Kraith."

"Kraith?"

"The region you're in now, stupid. The capital is Oapert City, about 250 miles north of here. This is the Segon Valley you're sat in at the moment, usually known as the greatest natural feature of the place. Who are you stranger?"

"Oh? I'm Ganon. I'm a Latios from the Lateral Realm."

"Never heard of it." Mildred said immediately. Ganon rolled his eyes.

"Of course you've never heard of it, it's a closely guarded secret of the L… Oh." Ganon said, stopping when he realised what he'd just blurted out. He mentally scolded himself.

"A closely guarded secret. Suuuure." Mildred said laughing slightly. Ganon scowled at her.

"Hush. Well I presume then, Ganon, that you are new to this region, and you'll need some help getting to learn about the place."

"What?" Ganon asked.

"You know, places to avoid, good places to find food, where the medicinal herbs are located…"

"Ugh! Don't talk to me about herbs!" Ganon said wincing at the word. He absolutely hated them. Every time he lost at a mock battle he was always force-fed an energy root to revive him. The sheer bitterness was often more damaging than the entire battle.

"Yeah, they really aren't all that tasty. Nothing like a good worm." Mildred said, nodded slightly.

"Worms?" Ganon asked. Lomar cut back in.

"You probably wouldn't be too suited to worms laddy. For someone your size, fish is about the only natural option. You could always try and steal a few crops off of one of the farms at the top of the ravine, but that's risky. The farmers have guns, and there aren't any herbs that can cure that." Lomar added, shaking his head solemnly. Mildred nodded alongside him. Ganon felt dizzy from watching their heads shaking in different directions, and keeled over slightly, landing on his injured wing. He hissed as it bent the broken limb the other way.

"So you mean you'd act like parents for me?" Ganon said, restraining the whimper in his voice. This could be good. Only a few hours into the new world and he already had some friends. Even better, they wanted to teach him everything he needed to know about the place. Now he wouldn't be so doomed. The smaller swellow hopped up to his injured wing.

"You can't fly on that wing can you? It looks sore." Mildred said, looking concerned. Being a flying creature, she had a lot of empathy for Ganon's injury. She could tell from his face that he was in pain, regardless how much he hid it. Ganon just scowled at her again.

Sore?! It's bent straight back on itself!

"Hold on a minute, I'll get you a herb." And she flew off.

"No! Not a herb! I hate herbs!" He tried to yell after her. She wasn't listening though, as she went to her nest and pulled out a large blue leaf.

"Now hold still." She said. Ganon leaned his head back, trying to get his head as far away from the leaf as possible. She rolled her eyes at his assumption.

"You can't eat Torlue. Well, you can, but it'll kill you because it's toxic." She said, as she draped the leaf over his limb. He instantly felt the pain go away. He flexed his wing experimentally, and found that it no longer hurt. It still had an extra joint where the bone was broken, but at least it didn't hurt. The sight of a new joint actually freaked him out a bit.

"Stop moving your wing! Torlue is just an anaesthetic. We need to make you a splint." She was about to fly back into the canopy.

"Stop." Ganon said. It was the pain that had prevented him from being able to heal it himself earlier, and now that it was gone, he could do the rest himself.. He looked back at his left claw, and it glowed a blue colour. Both birds jumped back in shock, and immediately flew behind a section of rock jutting out of the cave floor.

"What the hell are you doing, trying to attack us?! We're just trying to help!" Lomar cried out. Ganon looked at him confused. It was as though this Pokemon had never seen this ability before.

"What on earth are you on about? This isn't an attack. I'm trying to repair my wing. Watch." Ganon said. He pushed his hand onto the broken section of wing, and rubbed it gently. The wingtip raised itself so the edge was straight once more, and a slight hissing sound was heard as the bone fused back together. The bruises surrounding the fracture disappeared. The Swellows looked awestruck. They sat there and gaped for a while, before Mildred finally said something.

"What was that?"

"Latios's have the power to fix broken things. Usually other objects that I broke. That was the first time I ever tried it on myself."

"And I presume that's another closely guarded Latios secret."

Ganon winced as he realised he'd done it again. He lifted himself off the ground, testing his newly healed wing. It worked exactly as it had done before the impact, he smiled and did a loop. He succeeded in banging his head on the floor as he came back down, and flinched. He shook his head to dislodge the fuzzy feeling, and looked back at the Swellows. They rolled their eyes at him.

"Well Ganon. It looks like you can fly fine now. So let's get going shall we? You have a lot to learn." Lomar said. Ganon nodded, and immediately turned to follow the pair that had adopted him. They flew up above the ravine, and flew over the various areas of farmland, woodland, and lakes that surrounded it. It was a beautiful change from the Latios Nursery where he had spent his whole life up to that moment.

"Kenai's maths worked a charm as usual..." Lomar whispered over to Mildred, just out of earshot of the Eon following behind. Mildred nodded, careful not to catch the youngsters attention.

"Yeah... but the orders to play dumb drive me nuts." She muttered resentfully, "He should just collect them himself. I'm sure he could overpower one easily enough."

"Huh?" Ganon called, having noticed Mildred's vague muttering. Lomar frowned at her, and she coughed quickly.

"Nothing. I was just telling Lomar that I just spotted where we should start teaching you."

They swooped down into a dense forest to begin Ganon's distraction... sorry, instruction.

The Latias was just waking up. She tried to rub her eyes, but then realised that she was a rock and couldn't move. She scolded herself for her stupidity and transformed back into her natural form. After she rubbed the sleep from her eye, she looked around. She was still hidden in the hedgerows. She wondered why she was there before remembering she had been evicted from the Latias Nursery. She whimpered softly to herself.

Her stomach rumbled ominously, and she realised she was hungry. She hadn't eaten since before she was forced out. She flew out of hiding, and looked around at where she had chosen to spend the night. If she wasn't so preoccupied about being an outcast, she would have appreciated the view; miles of open grassland could be seen in every direction, gradually growing into thick forests towards the hills around the edge. Far away in the north-east, she could just make out the sea, with a cluster of building just discernable from the horizon. She looked up and saw a thick tree growing bright red fruits above her. She recognised them as apples and reached up to take one. She bit into it happily, and rolled the flavour in her mouth, savouring the texture and sweetness. There was nothing like this back in the Nursery. Everything there was bland and boring, usually to offset the colourfulness of all the girls personalities.

She was so absorbed in memories of the other girls that she didn't notice a small Mudkip wandered up from a hollow in the base of the tree, and began yelling at her.

"What are you doing here? You're trespassing on my private property."

She looked down at the little Pokemon and smiled sweetly. The little thing looked so cute. She reached down and stroked it on the head.

"Ooh. Bad move girlie." He said, before savagely biting her claw. She recoiled in pain, with him still clinging on. It tightened it's grip on her claw.

"Get off, get off, get off, get off, get off, get off, get off!" She screamed at it, waving it around her head like a sling. It mumbled something through its grasp. She realised that in order to hear it, she'd have to stop spinning it around wildly. She lowered the Pokemon back to the floor, where it fell off, and staggered around confused.

"What were you trying to say?"

"So…many stars! Ooh! Proddy proddy!" he said, clearly oblivious to the Latias in front of him, whilst prodding at invisible orbs with it's paws. She picked him up, and put him back in the hollow of the trunk, before looking back at the bite mark on her hand. It was heavily bruised, but the teeth hadn't actually penetrated. She heard a sudden cluttering of metal from inside the tree, as the Mudkip came around and ran back out.

"What do you think you're doing spinning me around like that girlie?!"

"You bit me. I was trying to get you off because it was hurting."

"Ooh! La di da, Miss Theif."

"I'm not a thief."

"Yeah, then why are you stealing my apples? Huh?!" The Mudkip was shaking with uncontrollable rage, and a strange light was shining from it.

"Er, why are you glowing?"

"What do you mean why am I glowing? I'm not glowing!"

"Yes you… Argh!"

She flung a claw over her eyes as a sudden blinding flash of light burst from the Mudkip. As it faded, she could hear a lot of swearwords coming from in front of her. There wasn't a Mudkip there anymore, it was a Marshtomp.

"SEE WHAT YOU WENT AND MADE ME DO?! I'VE BLINKING EVOLVED, YOU SPANNER!!! I can't even fit in my house anymore!"

"What's so important about your house?"

"Well, duh! It's got all my stuff in it!"

"I could get it out for you and I could help you find a new home." She offered politely. The Marshtomp scoffed at her.

"You're too big, numbskull. You'd never… What the?!" The Latias suddenly shapeshifted into a Mudkip.

"How the hell did you do that?!" He said pointing at the creature before him. It wasn't a perfect copy, it was bright red instead of turquoise.

"I'm a Latias. It's one of my powers. Now what do you need bringing out?"

"Well, considering I'm now stuck on the road with you, I'll need my backpack, and the food from the larder."

Latias entered the Mudkips home. It was an absolute pigsty! Everything was everywhere. How he could find anything in this mess was a miracle. It was small and circular room set into the heart of the place. The room was sectioned off into three sections, one that looked like a bedroom, one that looked like a hoard of apples, and the main room. The main room had a small table and a fully outfitted kitchen along one wall.

"Where's the backpack?" She asked him.

"Under the table, there's also some human money next to the sink."

"Why have you got a sink in here?! There's no running water."

"I'm a water Pokemon, stupid."

After about ten minutes, she had eventually found all of the Marshtomp's belongings that he would need with him. She brought it out, and he rummaged through the contents. He shrugged it onto his shoulders. She turned back into a Latias, and shook herself. Being in such a small form was certainly uncomfortable.

"Well, I guess you're stuck with me now, eh Latias. Might as well learn each others names, it's not polite to call someone by their species. Mine's Martin. What's yours?"

"My name is Laura. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Martin." She said as she resumed her Latias form, "Why do you have human money? Is it important?" Laura asked him.

"Well, I used to travel about a bit with a Ditto. He was always trying to turn into a human so he could be more important. I used to fight for him when he was pretending to be a trainer. The money was the winnings that we split. Unfortunately, he fell through a sewer grate once when he was in his normal form."

"Ouch!" Laura cried out. Martin nodded.

"Ouch indeed. He melted into the filth below before he could transform into something stable. Must be awful, dissolving into sh-"

"I get the gist thank you very much! Can you please keep the language a bit cleaner? I am only a child you know."

"It's my nature. Get used to it." He said, as he began to set up a large tent.

"WHOA! Ganon! Stop!" Lomar cried out as Ganon settled down to look at a pretty flower. He raked a claw on his head, pulling it back up just as the plant gave a loud snap which a set of lethal jaws clasped together right where his head had been. He recoiled from it and flew back into the air as he saw the plants maw slowly open again.

"If you keep sticking your nose into things, you better remember that some of those things bite back."

Ganon paled as he saw another similar plant nearby spit out a set of Pidgey bones.

"That plant isn't well. Usually it can eat the bones too."

Ganon paled again. That was hardly a consolation, before taking wing above the level which the plants could reach him. Lomar studied his flight patten carefully, making a mental note of every inconsistency before following after.

A few hours later, Martin had finished the tent, with a little help from Laura.

"Why is that tent so big?" Laura asked. The tent could easily fit both Latias and Marshtomp in with room to walk.

"This tent was Ditto's when he used to become human. He didn't like sleeping in his gelatinous form because he could dribble off somewhere whilst he slept."

Martin then pulled out a portable stove and had settled down to cook an apple tart. It would have been rather heavy, but the bag he was using had been a very special leaving present from when he retired from Razor. It tapped into the same system used by Pokeballs, by using non-dimensional space. In essence, it was a bag that could hold any number of things that could fit through the top, whilst remaining at the same weight as a normal bag.

After an hour or so, he decided that cooking was too boring, and suddenly came up with a very good idea.

"Hey Laura, if you can transform into me, can you transform into a human?"

"Why?"

"I know about species of Pokemon. I'd consider myself an expert. And I know that a Latias is what is known as a legendary Pokemon. That makes you extremely valuable to humans, as legendaries are typically considerably more powerful than regular folks like myself. Unless you absolutely trust them, it would not be a good idea to let anyone know you are a legendary. As a human, you'd be comparatively inconspicuous."

Martin watched as Laura tried to shapeshift into a human several times. She had never tried to become a human before; she had only seen what they looked like in those brief few seconds escaping from the city, and the memory was fuzzy already.

"Nope, just one head… Nope, they have arms as well… ARGH!!! They wear clothes for a reason Laura!"

Laura blushed slightly as she looked down. She could see Martin shielding his eyes from the naked human before him. She tried to talk to him, but found that no sound came out. She struggled and eventually managed to make a quiet noise like a rasping growl, and ended up choking on her own saliva. She turned back into a Latias, and spoke to Martin.

"What sort of clothes do they wear?" She asked him. He was still shielding his eyes, so he didn't know she had changed back. He groped about aimlessly in his backpack until he came across a magazine. He hurled it in front of Latias, who picked it up and flicked through the pages. They were mostly of girls in dresses. She found one design that she particularly liked, and focused the image in her mind, but there was still something distracting her.

"Martin, why do you have a magazine about human girls?" She said, teasing him slightly.

"Ditto always transformed into a male. That's enough detail. Just look through it. It'll let you get the shape right too. Just for goodness sake, put some clothes on!"

"I'm already back in normal form. But I'm going to try again. Okay?"

He removed his arm and watched as she turned into a beautiful red-headed girl wearing an elegant dress. It was red with a white chest piece, and a satin bow around her waist. She twirled in it experimentally, and grinned at her handiwork. She ran her human hand through the material, and was amazed by its softness. She saw from her hands that she had fair skin. Even Martin was amazed by her transformation, and he looked down at the picture she'd refferred to. The original girl in question was a very popular pop singer, which could cause complications.

"Too dressy."

She scowled at him. She was really proud of her handiwork, but decided to just change the clothes. She was happy with this body shape; it gave her a nice hourglass figure which was very desireable judging by the pictures. She focused on some of the clothes she had seen the people wearing last night, and she began to glow blue again. She was now wearing jeans and a red t-shirt, and looked simply like a considerably younger version of the girl from the magazine.

"Perfect. Now you look just like a young girl." Martin said, barely noticing the light drizzle that was beginning to fall, "Even better, you could pass for a Pokemon Trainer."

She smiled and patted him on the head gently. He bared his fangs, and she withdrew he hand quickly, feeling rather partial to her new fingers. Almost as sudden as the drizzle had arrived, the rain picked up in ferocity and within seconds rain was pelting down soaking her new attire to the skin.

"Hmmm... You're a dragon right? You don't want to catch pnemonia. And its getting late. Best idea, time to go to sleep."

Laura transformed back into her regular form, and immediately moved into the tent, shaking the water off in the doorway. She turned around as she entered the sleeping area, resting herself on the ground, to face the doorway. Outside, she noticed that Martin was moving away from the tent.

"You don't sleep?" She asked him, watching as Martin began prodding the ground where puddles were beginning to form. He shook his head at her presumption.

"I have a better sense of comfort." He said, apparantly satisfied with a patch of ground and lying on it. Scooping up paw-fulls of sodden earth, he smeared them over his limbs, encasing himself in the mud, "I don't often get this luxuary."

"Well Ganon, you certainly seem to have got the hang of this." Lomar said, preening himself. He had laid out a selection of herbs, and Ganon had identified them all correctly. It had taken most of the day, but he had shown he was capable of learning things, something Lomar took care to remember.

As Ganon looked into the sky again, he sighed. He missed the Nursery still. He tilted his head slightly as he noticed a dark cloud brewing from one side of the sky. He looked over to the heart of it, and noticed lightning crackling under it. For some reason, he felt a tang of sadness as he looked over at it. Some part of him was in as much turmoil as the storm brewing on the horizon.

"He's spacing out at the storm. Is that a good thing?" Mildred asked quietly. Lomar shook his head.

"Probably not... we should send him over tomorrow. Just in case his condition deteriorates." He whispered back, before flapping up next to the Latios, "Its time to go back now. You'll need to use that cave again, since you're too big to fit in our nest."

Ganon reluctantly followed the pair back to the canyon, periodically looking back over his wing at the clouds.