Once the school day is over both children sit in silence within the music room. During the Lunch period they had been forced to remain in the room, and properly get to know one another. All that she'd really taken away from that was that Daniel's transformation had apparently started the week before in the middle of a class presentation. In front of the whole class he'd sprouted floppy grey ears.

She cant remember the event, even though she knows that she was at school that day. It itches and she absently rubs her hands together before fingering the shark tooth around her neck. It doesn't help, even as the door opens back up and Mr. B looks over them both. He looks so sad, tears at the edge of his eyes that he quickly brushes away. The man takes a deep breath and straightens. Nodding at them both. He motions for them to follow him into the small office attached to the room.

He looks at them one last time before raising an arm up to the filing cabinet at the back of the office. There's a click and she feels her ears stand up as it grinds and complains slowly sliding to the right. Daniel takes several steps back while Obi growls and eventually it grinds to a halt. The back wall glows and a flash of light streaks across it before the wall slides down. At the end it leaves a gaping black cavern.

There's no way to really tell where the passage leads. Where it'll end. She sucks in a breath and her hands automatically curl around the straps of her new pack. She's not sure exactly how she's going to handle it once fully transformed, but she'll figure it out once she reaches that point. Daniel's doing well with his own pack all things considered.

"Tamara, Daniel..." both of the teens turn to their instructor one last time. The man takes a deep breath and then wraps them both up into an awkward hug. "Be careful out there okay. Once you step into the tunnel you'll be on your own until you meet my informant. Also, it'll be pitch black in there, so be sure to stick together okay." He sounds choked up and she sniffs. This is no time to be getting emotional though. No time for an emotional goodbye.

"We will Mr. B!" Daniel says with an awkward smile. "We'll send a message..." He adds before tugging her into the dark cavern. Obi trots in alongside them. As soon as they're inside the wall slides up behind them, and they can hear the grinding as the cabinet slides back into place.

"So this is it..." she says and she can feel Daniel's nod from beside her. "A new life... okay." The walk down the tunnel is slow. Silence reigns aside from their footsteps and she can't help but wonder what it's going to be like when they emerge at the other end. Just stepping into the tunnel was the point of no return. Or maybe that point was when she accepted the pack. She doesn't know.

It doesn't really matter though. She takes a deep breath and keeps walking. Daniel is on her left, Obi on her right. She's, glad for their presence really. Makes the darkness a little less ominous. A little less consuming and choking. Yet it's still just as lonely, because she can't actually see them, and breaking the silence that they've fallen into seems rude. So she simply walks, blind and only hoping that there's an other side to emerge from.

Daniel abruptly stops and she freezes. There's a light scraping sound, a buzz, a small flash of light. Grinding stone against stone and her ears flatten against her head. She growls before wincing at the abrupt flash of the setting sun's light right into her eyes. It takes her several long moments and a bit of rubbing before they clear themselves again. Daniel stands in the grass at the opening with an open mouthed grin.

"Look!" he turns his head to her and points one paw. To their right is the supermarket. KFC, Woolys, and some other shops she can't name. On the wind she can get a whiff of pizza and her stomach grumbles in response. She hasn't really eaten that much. Neither has Daniel and she can actually see his flush through his dark fur when his stomach has an answering grumble.

Obi one the other hand tries to guide her attention to the left. It takes a couple of repeated pawings to her leg to finally get her to look in that direction. It's the way home, back to Yinnar. Open fields that stretch out and call her to come home. It would be a fairly straight shot to. A couple of hours if she sets a good pace. They could reach Yinnar by five thirty at the latest, and her house by five forty.

But...

The meeting that Daniel's looking forwards to will be in a couple of weeks. April the third, and it's in the other direction. It makes her hesitate, because she's not quite sure what to pick now. Daniel has a plan, he knows what he's doing. She doesn't. But still she looks in the direction her house lays in. In the direction of home and sighs. Daniel turns his head over to her and blinks.

"Tamara?"

"I don't know... which way I want to go..." she admits lowering her head. In the tunnel it was so easy to just think that this was it. This was what was happening and what's going to happen. But now that she's out. It's hard again, since she's now faced with the fact that it's not that simple. When her heart is set on home and family and she wants to see the house she grew up in again, if only for one last time before saying goodbye forever.

Daniel watches her as she sighs and sits down in the grass.

"[Home...]" Obi says with a forlorn sounding cry. "[Dangerous. Change needed, go away!]" She says turning to her. All she can do is sigh as the canine noses her hand and wags her tail. Daniel steps closer and tilts his head, ears flop and he seems to be considering some things. "[Change needed, home not home anymore. Stick with pack!]" Obi says and she closes her eyes. A deep breath and she blows it out.

Standing up she looks one last time in the direction of her home before straightening up and looking out the other way. In the direction that they'll need to go to reach the building where the Roamers Association will be meeting.

"Let's go..." she says and Daniel grins at her, he springs to his feet before suddenly bristling and growling angrily. There's a rush of cold, a sensation of danger and look out, before the ground is ripped from under her feet and she's hanging upside down facing white and green, a dress that's long and flowing.

Angry red eyes that stare straight into her soul.

It's not as if she can escape. Distantly she's aware of Daniel screaming in absolute fury at her predicament but she can't focus beyond a rushing and a pounding. Crushing and everything spins and she can't breath. Choking on her own breaths as every thought flees and drips away leaving her head vacant and empty. Nothing, life is meaningless except that it's swirling and rushing back too fast, too much, everything is suddenly there. Wind in her hair and stabbing her skin, sparks in her nerves and she can hear someone shrieking.

She's the one who's shrieking. Everything is too loud, a heartbeat in her ears, growling that's right next to her, someone who's laughter sounds too maniac, too wrong and so unnatural. There's a robotic voice and she can feel something. . .


When she comes back to herself she's not quite sure how much time has past. Her head feels full of cotton and she lets out a weird grumble and struggles to open her eyes. Surprisingly her head is on something soft. It feels like a pillow, nice and plush with a decent amount of firmness. But it's missing a towel over it for the perfect texture.

She frowns and bleerily opens her eyes. Peering over her with wide worried eyes are both Daniel and Obi.

"ehughbleh..." she mumbles, her mouth not quite forming the proper sounds to vocalize whatever thought she has about the situation.

"Take it easy, you gave everyone quite the scare there!" That's a new voice. Slowly, with a fair bit of pain she turns her head to see who's speaking. It's a purple furred small rodent, cream markings and grey eyes. The stranger is grinning, an easy expression to make.

Yet something about his appearance is niggling at the back of her head. She narrows her eyes ever so slightly at him, trying to catch that stray thought. Eventually she just gives up on it and rests her head back against the pillow again. Her body feels weird, and slowly she realizes why. She's much smaller than she was before. The pillow is almost the length of her body and that's not right. At least that means it's comfortable.

How long's she been out though? That's a question that she's not able to just answer. Along with her missing height she also has a couple of other extras, metallic rings around her wrists and ankles. They're a shiny yellowy colour and she pokes at one of them curious, and confused. But they did confirm that she's likely becoming a Houndour. But what's with the colour? Why yellow instead of silver?

It's bewildering. Eventually she just decides to give up with wondering about it and instead sighs and flops back onto the pillow. It's easier to just not think. Her head still swims and everything kind of aches. She blinks before closing her eyes and yawning. Maybe she should just go back to sleep. Wake up later and worry about things then.

"[Tamara okay?]" Obi asks and it echoes weirdly in her head. Her name, her name's Tamara, but it's not.

"N't me 'ny m're!" she groans rolling over and giving the canine a half hearted glare.

"Huh?" Daniel asks trotting over and peering at her with a question on his face.

"I n't Tamara 'ny m're. She is!" she struggles to explain and scrunches up her face in frustration when she realizes that Daniel and Obi both still don't understand. The rattata is watching, grey eyes filled with a weird sort of understanding. "So nee' new name!. Call me Hybrid!" she declares pushing herself into a sitting position. A sharp spike of pain jolts and rattles through her skull at the action and she moans hands moving up in an attempt to support it.

And whispy, in the back of her head, she hears a voice.

'{Am... Am I real?}' it's so quiet, soft and she could almost mistake it for something on the breeze. Except that they're not really outside. They're inside somewhere, it seems like a warehouse honestly, though she can't imagine where it might be. Concrete flooring, wooden beams and shelves that rise above them, and the pillow pile that they're sharing. So the only place that the voice really could have come from is within her own head. She's heard voices before, and footsteps that echo and follow her. But something about this one is different, maybe it's the wonder.

No, there's something even more different in this one. Some of the other voices have had that same tone of wonder, of curiosity. Otherwise she might have been able to also see a shadow, a small flicker of something just at the edge of her vision. In the shadows of the room. Yet there's nothing there. Nothing other than Daniel, the stranger and Obi. They're the only people in the room with her.

So where else could the voice be from? She's never heard voices on their own. They're always accompanied by the slightest flickering shadow figure.

'{Can you hear me?} the voice echoes in her head, noticing her agitation. It seems bewildered. As though it didn't expect her to be able to hear it. She stiffens.

"Tamara?" Daniel asks trotting over on all fours worried. She narrows her eyes and growls at him. He blinks and shuffles on his paws before backing away. "Right... Hybrid... are you okay?" he asks after correcting his little blunder.

'{No... We're not alright, we're fractured!}' the voice snipes, misplaced aggression that she's glad Daniel isn't on the receiving end of. Or is it that misplaced? Her head aches and her vision swims at the question. Since she's not sure, she can't be sure. The response from the voice doesn't seem wrong.

We're fractured...

But... who's we?

She shakes her head rapidly and Daniel frowns at her. He's about to open his mouth to ask when the door on the other side of the room is thrown open.

"Shit!" the rodent pokémon says eyes narrowing at the men(and women) dressed up in weird black and purple bodysuits and masks. "Pokextinction!" the rat says barring the rest of his teeth. She blinks and whips around to look at him as Obi begins growling from beside her. "I thought that we'd have more time." He paws his face before looking towards Daniel. "Hey, do you know your move set yet?"

Daniel blinks and quickly shakes his head. Obi growls slightly louder and the rodent pokémon swears as one of the people swings around aiming the gun in their general direction.

"Then you'd better learn!" The rattata says crouching down along with Obi. Daniel gulps and she tugs the pillow up as an almost shield.

'{You can sort of use Ember idiot!}' The voice grumbles from the back of her mind. She blinks and her ears twitch along with her nose. There's a sigh in the back of her head and she can almost invision whoever's speaking shaking their head. '{It might not be the safest thing, or the most efficient. But you can already use Ember so...}'

"Right..." she can feel the building heat at the back of her throat. Small sparks and a faint trace of smoke in the air. Daniel looks back at her while the purple rodent beside his begins to spark with electricity.

Here I go!

Ready, aim, FIRE!

A wash of heat and pain, and lightning flashes. Screaming and she topples backwards only getting caught by Obi. Daniel on the other hand sits down and howls. The sound echoes through the room and some of the people stumble, though that might be due to the flames that still lick at the ground and obstruct their path.

"I..." she coughs. "Probably won't be doing that again..." she rubs her throat a bit. It feels like she's swallowed hot chocolate that was far too hot.

'{That was a bad plan...}' the voice agrees distantly. '{Guess nobody uses moves while still in transformation for a reason... Left!}' She quickly darts to the side as Obi spins around and snaps her jaws around the wrist of one of the suited strangers.

Daniel howls again while the rattata begins sparking with electricity again. Firing off another thunderbolt before planting himself in the middle of the room.

She could feel crackling energy and static in the air. Something big's coming. Obi growls releasing the man's hand and nudging her away. Daniel darts towards her a spark of panic in his eyes and both of their packs clipped around him.

"We need to get out of here! NOW!"

It's the last thing that's heard before everything goes white and electricity screams.


Notes: First of all the reason that the Gardevoir's psychic attack still lands despite the fact that Hybrid is becoming a Dark/Fire type pokémon is simple. She's not there yet, at this point her typing hasn't quite settled. Her fire's not even quite there and it's the first one to manifest.

Second, she's also suffering at this point from a bit of fluctuation with her genes. Since as her character image shows she's not a pure houndour. So her Dark typing is warring with a potential electric typing. Which will sort itself out over the course of the next few chapters.

Third, character development needs to happen, so I had to keep that scene.