Author's Notes: OMG, I'M SO SORRY THIS IS LATE! I've been kicking myself for taking so long. Thanks for not complaining. Just a note, I've replied to most of my reviewers in the last chapter. OH, if anyone can think up a cool 255 character preview for this, you know for the front page, than PLEASE, suggest it. I'm desperate. Also, I replied to my recent reviewers in that chapter, so feel free to read.

Chapter 35

I looked at my surroundings. We were still in the same old mountains, only it was a lot chillier outside than it was inside. But not so much, now that I had fur.

I folded the gliders back into place and pondered what to do next. Well, standing around the mountains didn't seem like a logical thing to do as a lucario, so I figured that I should contact the organization. I just realized that I still couldn't talk, but before I knew it, I had already whipped out the data-brace and contacted the Organization.

"Hello?" Karen's voice answered. I opened my mouth but no sound came out, thanks to a lack of vocal cords.

"Hello... Nick, 'you there?" I didn't know what to do, except listen to Karen.

"I know you're there, Nick. Here let me open the portal." The portal opened up next to me. Sanj jumped back in surprise. 'WHOA, what is that?'

'It's a portal, you walk through it.' I thought about this before going in. I could just imagine the look of surprise on Karen's face when she would see that I'm a lucario. But how could I tell her about what happened, and how this came to be.

Either way, I had to walk in. But first...

'Hey, Sanj, are you ok from here?' I made my way to the portal.

'Um, no. I have no idea where I am.'

I sighed. 'Alright, you can come with me. I'm sure we can get you home from the organization.' I smiled and then signaled him to follow. I walked up to the portal, and poked my head in.

I saw Karen at her desk as usual. "Hi Ni- WHOA!" She jumped back in surprise. She then realized what she was looking at. She went around her desk and approached me calmly. "Aaaaw, aren't you cute."

I was a little degraded that she treated me like an animal, but she had no idea who I was. Besides, it got a little better when she started scratching me between the ears. Actually it got a lot better.

Just then, Sanj poked his head through the portal too.

Being petted was extremely comforting. 'So this is what it feels like to be petted.'

Karen's expression suddenly changed to surprise. "Nick?" She frantically looked around the room "Nick, where are you?"

'Wait, you can here me?' She slowly turned her head towards me, with a look of surprise on her face.

"Nick!?... Nick, is that you!?" I raised my hand, exposing the data-brace around my wrist. "It is you! You're a-"

'A lucario? Yup, I know, cool huh?'

Karen paused for a second, than changed back to her first expression "Aaaw, you're so cute. But, who's this here?"

'Oh, this is Sanj, I found him at the Alpha plant, which I destroyed, by the way.' I smiled proudly. Sanj waved his hand, and smiled 'Hi. My name's Sanj. Wow this place is cool, but um where am I?' As Sanj talked, Karen's jaw dropped.

"Nick. I can here everything he just said."

'Really. Hmm, maybe it's because, I'm thinking what he's thinking, and you can here me think his thoughts.' I hope she understood that.

"I think I get it. Anyway, what should we do with him," Karen asked as she patted Sanj on the head. Sanj was enjoying his petting, a lot.

'Well, I suggest that we find his home. Actually, Sanj, where do you live?'

Sanj shrugged, 'I don't know.' I groaned at his lazy remark.

'So what do you suppose we do now?'

Karen answered "Well, maybe we can locate where his natural habitat is. It wouldn't take to long. But it will take a little bit of time. For now you should go back to the apartment." She gave Sanj one final scratch on the head, and than patted us towards our room. "I think that's it's best that you stay hidden, given your current condition." I grunted at the fact that I'd be spending my only day as a lucario, cooped up inside the apartment. "Also, it would be best for Sanj to stay in the apartment too. Lucario's aren't deadly, but they have a reputation of being rather bothersome and mischievous humans."

'Alright. Did you hear that Sanj?'

'Huh, oh, ya, sure, ok.'

'Good then. Bye Karen.' We waved to each other as I yanked Sanj out of the room.

I made my way to the apartment, and tried to unlock the door as the key fumbled in my hand, or paw, I should say. I had no idea how Terra or Dallin would react, but I was about to find out.

'Terra? Dallin? Who are they?'

'Hold on, just let me get the door opened.' After about a minute, I was finally able to get the door unlocked. I opened the door and stepped inside. Terra slept in the corner of the room, and Dallin was lying down beside her, but he began to awake.

'What... who's there?' He opened his eyes, and opened them wide in shock, to the site of me and Sanj. He jumped up and emitting a few sparks. 'Who are you, and what are you doing here?'

'Dallin,' I interrupted 'It's me, Nick. Calm down.' He stopped sparking for a second, then focused again.

'Prove it.' I lifted my arm again and showed him the data-brace. He stopped sparking, and dived toward me. He walked right up to me, leaped up to my shoulder, and hugged my head. 'It is you. You're a lucario! That is so awesome. But who's this?'

'Oh, this is Sanj, we're trying to find his home right now. They told me that I need to stay in my apartment for the entire day, until I turn back into a human.'

'That's ok. Here, lemme wake up Terra. I'm sure she's gonna want to see this."

'Uh, I don't think that's such a good id-"

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." Dallin went up, and poked Terra's side. She lazily opened her eyes, and tried to get her vision back. She started sniffing the air.

'Ugh, what's that smell?' She was picking up the unfamiliar odor of me and Sanj. She looked around the room and finally focused her eyes on me. She suddenly came to her feet and slowly approached me, growling ferociously. Before I could react, she pounced on to me and pinned me to the floor, still growling. I was slightly surprised that in her condition, she could still protect herself when she needed too, but I couldn't help to notice that she groaned in pain slightly as she growled.

'WHOA, TERRA STOP, it's me, Nick!' She immediately stopped growling. The anger lifted from her eyes and she jumped off. She stood perfectly still, in complete surprise.

'Nick... You're a... a... a-I don't know what you are.' Well, that wasn't a surprise. Lucarios and typhlosions lived in two completely different districts.

'I'm a lucario and I'm going to stay one for the rest of the day. According to Karen, I have to stay here for the entire day, and wait for the effect to wear off.' I sat on the couch, and wait for something to happen. Terra jumped on to the couch and rested her head on my leg.

'Don't worry Nick. We can make this a lot better than it seems,' she said as she rubbed her head against my stomach. I loved it when she was like this, but this never happened often since she got pregnant. I got to the that I couldn't wait until the cyndaquil was born.

'Aaaw, she's so cute! I like her.' Sanj said, smiling.

'Um, Nick who is this?' Terra asked

'Oh, this is Sanj. I'll explain later.' Terra jumped off and sniffed Sanj all over.

'Uh, what is she doing?' Sanj asked.

'She's getting used to you.'

As Sanj started petting Terra, the phone rang. I turned the phone on, and tried to answer, but only a few strange garbled noises came out once again, due to the lack of vocal cords.

"Save your breath, Nick." Karen chuckled. "Professor MacKenzie wants to see you in his lab." I opened my mouth to answer. "Nick, you can't talk. Remember?" I slapped my forehead, in embarrassment.

I ended the call, and stood in front of the door. 'Sorry, guys, I gotta go to the professor. I'll leave you three to get aquanted.'

'OK,' they answered in unison. I left the apartment, and made my way to floor 13, room 13. I knocked on the door, and yelled in my head. 'Professor, are you here?'

"Ya, hold on, hold on." I heard his footsteps grow gradually louder, until he was right up to the door. He spoke as he opened the door.

"Nick, I've been wanting to- WHOA!" He jumped back in surprise.

'What, did Karen not tell you I was a Lucario?' I said smiling like everything was normal.

"Nope, I had no idea." He said, without any surprise that I just talked to him.

'Well, I have good news.'

"What's that?"

'I still have the data-brace,' I said holding up the brace. 'Let's get it scanned, I'm eager to see how this works.'

Me and the professor rushed into the room. I tried to unstrap the data-brace, but once again, it was impossible due to my fumbling fingers. It came to the point that the professor had to take it off for me. We finally plugged it into the machine, and started to scan the results.

'So, while we wait, Karen told me that there was something you wanted to tell me. Is it something good or something bad?'

"We're not sure, but we suspect bad.. When you set off the self destruct, all of the power went into that command, and disabled the scramblers holding back our satellite signals. We were able to detect a strange occurrence during that time. We detected three different pokemon energy signals, all three chipped."

"Brilliant," I said sarcastically, "But what's strange about this?"

"With the energy signals, we also noticed three portal signals too. Now usually, the signal of the portal determines where the portal leads. But these signals we've never seen before. Of all the time I've been here, not even I have seen these signals."

'Wow, that is strange.' Just then the machine reading the brace started beeping, showing that it was finished reading the data-brace. The professor eagerly pulled out the results and examined them closely. He examined the all the way through, and suddenly his face grew dark.

"Oh great, it happened again." He hung his head, as he showed me the results. Once again, the signals flew across the paper until it finally stopped and formed a straight line.

'Are we going to upgrade again?'

"We can't, that's as far as the upgrades go... for now, anyway."

'It looks like it'll be a while before we can receive those signals. Oh well, it'll come soon enough.' The room was silent. 'Well, I should get going. Thanks for the information. But what do you plan to do about the strange portal signal?'

"The only thing we can do. Compare these signals with the ones that we've received over the years."

'Well, I hope that some good comes out of that. Anyway, bye Professor.'

"Bye." I walked out of the lab, trying to think of the possibilities of what pokemon escaped the Alpha-plant and where they had escaped too. The possibilities were endless, so it seemed I would have to wait.

I arrived at the apartment, and walked inside. Terra went back to her spot in the corner, and Dallin was back beside her, but Sanj was nowhere to be seen. I searched the apartment up and down, looking for Sanj, but he wasn't in the apartment.

'Guys? Where's Sanj!?'

Dallin answered. 'He told us that he was bored, so he left the apartment to explore town.'