Hey guys, I know that it has been a while since I have updated, and for that, I apologize. I just had a lot going on. I was on vacation for two weeks in Oklahoma. I have been out and about driving, trying to finish up some driving hours, and I got an Xbox one with fallout 4 and black ops 3. Not to mention that school is back in session, not that that affects me much since I will be doing some college classes. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter. On to the reviews.

Monpoke: I believe we talked about most of your review through the PM, I don't think I answered the last part. At this point, they have been in the Pokémon world for about three weeks.

AveragePichu: I knew that you would agree with me on that. I personally do think that Raichu is underrated only because of Pikachu. Then you have Pichu. The one Pokémon that gets ignored more than anything. I think Magikarp has been in more episodes of Pokémon than Pichu!

Judge me if you want to. And as a matter of fact, it won't even count, 'cause the only person who can judge is God.

Kelly Rowland

Chapter 10

Devin's POV

It took several of hours to convince Aurelia that Elweard and Teresa were alright, even with Jeffric's help. Eventually, we convinced her and she decided to lead us to her colony. She was still on edge and shot Elweard and Teresa a wary look every chance she got. Aurelia led us through several large bushes. Inside was an opening that seemed to go straight into the ground. It was a burrow: a burrow that Teresa and Elweard would have no hope in climbing through.

"Stay here. I will return shortly." Aurelia ordered before disappearing down the hole.

Several minutes later, she returned followed by two Pikachu and another Raichu. The two Pikachu stood on either side of the Raichu like body guards. The Raichu was young. He looked younger than Aurelia, but he seemed experienced to say the least.

"Master Mew, it is my honor to welcome you to our colony. I am afraid to say that the Kangaskhan and the Lucario will not be easy to bring in, this is the only entrance and there is no possible way that they could fit inside the tunnels." the Raichu greeted.

"Thank you Leader uh… what was your name?" Jeffric asked.

"I apologize. I am not used to receiving visitors so I tend to forget to introduce myself. I am Chief Baraq. These fine Pikachu are my brothers, Adad and Anil."

"I am Jeffric, this is Austin, Emily, and Devin. The Lucario is Elweard and the Kangaskhan is Teresa. We are honored to be here. Thank you for allowing us to stay for a short amount of time." Jeffric replied.

"It is our pleasure. Now, if you have a way to transport your friends, I will show you the colony."

"Elweard, Teresa, you both will have to remain in your Pokéballs." Jeffric said as he snapped the Pokéballs into reality.

"They are trained Pokémon?" Baraq asked, obviously astonished.

"They were formerly. They now serve as my body guard and adviser. I found that it is sometimes useful for them to have their Pokéballs even though they are free from humans." Jeffric explained.

"I understand. Once we are out of the tunnels, they will be able to move freely." Baraq replied. "Please, come this way."

We followed Baraq and his brothers down into the tunnels. It turned out that is was more of a labyrinth, with tunnels branching off in various directions. Our leaders led us down certain tunnels and avoided others as if they were the plague. Baraq said that they dug the tunnels in such a way that anyone not from the colony would easily become lost and confused. I was beginning to have questions about this colony. It worried me that they would have to have this much complexity to stay safe. Then I remembered that mice aren't exactly high on the food chain. Questions were bubbling up and I soon lost the battle that was keeping me silent.

"So, what is the colony like?" I asked Aurelia. The tunnel was just wide enough for me to squeeze next to her.

"It is a wonderful place. We have plenty of food and always have warm burrows to sleep in." Aurelia replied. She sounded like a used car salesman, making me not want to believe her.

"So, is everything underground?"

"No, only the tunnels. In fact, we should be making our ascent pretty soon" Aurelia answered.

"What are the Pokémon like? Are they friendly?"

"Are you worried about fitting in? You shouldn't be. You are one of the cutest Pichus I have ever seen. You don't have a thing to worry about." Aurelia reassured.

"Great, I'm cute even to Pokémon." I muttered under my breathe.

"Did you say something?"

"No, I was just thinking out loud." I replied.

Aurelia was right when she said we would be heading up soon. The tunnels went from unnaturally flat to nearly unclimbable. I had difficulty being able to walk and now I had a freaking mountain to climb! I grumbled as we climbed and was soon receiving help from a rather unexpected person.

"You ok?" Austin asked as he kept me from slipping.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I huffed. Austin chuckled while he continued to make sure that I did not slip.

Truth be told, I was grateful for his help. It was a nice change considering our record. I didn't complain much after this. Soon we made it out into the fresh air.

I was surprised by what I saw. It was a large bowl shaped paradise. The walls were trees that were so close together that not even a mouse could squeeze through. That was probably the reason the leader picked this area. It was beautiful. Soft grass grew all over. There were small hills that dotted the area. All of them were covered in grass and they all seemed to have entrances to burrows in them. There was an area where the several Pikachu were having mock battles. There was another area where a group of Pichu were playing.

Baraq interrupted my amazement with a chuckle. He stood on his hind legs and motioned to the colony. "Welcome to our home."

Austin's POV

Baraq led us to a burrow that was vacant. He asked for us to keep Elweard and Teresa in their Pokéballs until he could call a meeting and explain everything to the colony. Jeffric agreed, not wanting to cause a panic. Baraq told us to settle in, then left to call the meeting.

The burrow was spacious and fit us perfectly. There were already beds of grass inside which made things easier for us. There were four "rooms" with three beds per room. Since there were so many beds. Devin automatically called a room by himself. Since there were only four of us to begin with, I was fine with it.

Shortly after we made sleeping arrangements, one of Baraq's brothers came to escort us to the meeting. He quickly took off toward the middle of the colony, where a large tree stood. Baraq was standing high above the large crowd that appeared there. Baraq's brother took us to where Baraq stood and then scurried off. Baraq smiled at us then began his speech.

"Brothers and Sisters! Today we are blessed by the presence of Mew! He has come to our colony, seeking refuge. He has brought several others with him. Please welcome them. Mew has also brought two predators. Mew has said that they will not attack us, and are his personal bodyguard and adviser! Please, treat them with the utmost respect. They have no intention to devour any of us. This, he has promised! Please, welcome our guest!" Baraq shouted. There were murmurs in the crowd as Pokémon discussed between themselves what was happening. Baraq looked out over the crowd and smiled.

"Welcome to the colony!" someone shouted in the crowd. Then the crowd erupted into cheering.

"You may release your friends now. The colony has been notified."

"Thank you. I think I will do so back at our burrow." Jeffric replied.

"I believe that it would be best if you did it here and now. That way, everyone will know what the predators are."

"I guess that does make sense." Jeffric replied thoughtfully. He snapped his fingers and the Pokéballs appeared next to him. He opened them and the cheering crowd fell silent. Elweard and Teresa appeared. It was so quiet that the Kricketots could be heard in the distance.

"Now everyone, please remain calm. These are Master Mew's trusted friends. If he trusts them then I do as well. I want everyone to treat them as you would treat me. That is all for tonight." Baraq yelled. There were a few murmurs as the crowd dispersed. Otherwise it was silent.

Baraq walked us back to our burrow. He seemed wary, because of Elweard and Teresa's presence but he was doing well with them around.

"Baraq, I was wondering if there was someone who could train me and Emily." I asked.

"I am sure that can be arranged. I will send someone over at first light." Baraq answered.

"Um, Baraq? What am I supposed to do when they are training? Do I just stay at the burrow?" Devin asked nervously.

"Children, should not address their elders by their first name." Baraq scalded, making Devin jump back a little. Baraq chuckled for a moment. "It is alright, you will be taken to the daycare."

"I am too old to go to a daycare!" Devin exclaimed.

"Well, it is not really a daycare. It is more like a school. The teachers will teach you for a few hours then they will take you outside to play and enjoy the sun." Baraq explained with another chuckle. Devin took little comfort in Baraq's explanation.

"What are you and Elweard and Teresa going to do, Jeffric?" I asked as we neared the burrow.

"I think that I will be discussing things with Baraq. I don't know what Teresa and Elweard are going to do." Jeffric replied.

"I will probably spend the day meditating." said Elweard.

"I will just have to take care of Hope. There isn't much here for us to do since we are not the same species as the colony. Hope won't have anything to do either." Teresa replied quietly.

"How old is your child." Baraq asked.

"She is about as old as Devin here." she replied.

"Well, we could allow her to go with Devin. I will say this, I am not sure if she will be accepted though." Baraq said.

"Oh…" Teresa muttered. She was obviously pained by Baraq's honesty.

"I will stay with her, if that helps. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that I am babysitting her. I am just going to make sure that nobody messes with her." Devin volunteered, shocking just about everyone.

"Thank you so much, Devin. It will be great for Hope to have a friend to help her." Teresa thanked.

"I didn't say that I was her friend. I just said that I would look out for her." Devin reiterated.

Devin's POV

Shortly after we made our plans for tomorrow, we went into the burrow and got ready for bed. I was happy to have an entire room to myself. Emily, Jeffric and Austin also went to their respective rooms.

I tried to sleep but I couldn't. The darkness felt oppressive, and the fact that I was in a strange place didn't help. I was having this problem for the past few days.

I twisted and turned for over an hour. Sleep evaded me at every turn. Soon I sat up, unable to take the darkness anymore. I got up and walked slowly toward one of the other rooms. I looked inside and saw Austin sleeping soundly. I sighed, not wanting to wake him up. I walked to Emily's room, and found the same thing. Finally, I went to Jeffric's room. He too, was asleep. I was about to walk back to my room, when a voice filled my head.

"Devin? What are you doing up at this hour? Everyone else is asleep" Jeffric asked.

I froze, thinking that I could possibly sneak away, but those thoughts were dashed by my own clumsy feet. I fell straight on my tail causing me let out a loud whimper.

"Kid, you have got to stop doing that. If you don't, you won't have a tail let." Jeffric scolded.

"It wasn't like I did it on purpose." I muttered.

"You haven't answered my question. Why aren't you asleep?"

"I couldn't sleep. I thought someone may have been awake, so I got up. You weren't actually asleep, were you?"

"I was still awake. You weren't… nah never mind."

"I wasn't what?" I asked curiously.

"You weren't afraid of the dark were you." Jeffric asked.

"No! I was not afraid of the dark." I denied vehemently.

"Devin, you can't lie to me. I can tell that you were." Jeffric tutted.

"Then why did you even ask?" I growled.

"To get confirmation. Celebi, said that there could be a few side-effects with… what happened to you three. It is just your mind adjusting to your body. It is perfectly natural."

"I don't know about you, but none of this is natural!" I whispered through gritted teeth.

"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that it is something that should happen. In fact I would be worried if it didn't happen." Jeffric replied coolly.

"Why?"

"Because, that would mean that you would have a mental breakdown. Those are never good."

"Oh, I guess that wouldn't be good." I muttered.

"Despite what you think, things will get better. There is something that will happen. It will seem like the darkest time you have ever faced, but something that you have never had will come from it."

"And what is that?" I asked skeptically.

"That, you will have to find out later." Jeffric smiled mysteriously.

"Gee, your helpful." I said sarcastically.

Jeffric chuckled then sat up. "You better head back to bed. You will have a busy day tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah, I know all about it." I said, rolling my eyes.

Gamble's POV

"Joe! I know you're in there! Get out here and give me back my laptop!" I yelled. Several seconds of silence filled the room. "Joe! Where is that idiot?"

"Gamble? What are you doing here? You are supposed to be upstairs getting the powder results for the Rodney murder case." a slightly deep voice asked with authority.

I spun around out of surprise. Spotting the slightly taller man, I let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, Wilder! You scared the crap out of me!"

"Uh huh. You are still supposed to be getting the gun powder results. What are you doing down here in Snyder's lab?"

"Oh, the punk took off with my laptop. I have the results on it, but Snyder came crashing through my office, yelling something about needing the extra computing strength, then took off. I have been searching for him ever since." I replied rather angrily.

"I see. Did you try calling him?" Wilder asked, his green eyes appraising my every twitch.

"Um, no, I didn't." I admitted much to my own chagrin.

"For a guy who is supposed to be smart, you are one of the most ignorant people I have met." Wilder ran his lightly tanned hand through his auburn hair. "What is the one thing that we have to remind Joe about all of the time?"

"To turn off his phone in the meetings." I replied.

"Right, so, all you need to do is punch in his phone number and you will probably find him." Wilder explained slowly as if speaking to a child.

"Hardy har har, very funny." I replied, begrudgingly dialing Joe's number. Seconds later, a faint song could be heard from the computer lab on the far end of the room. "Oh no." I muttered, running across the room.

"Jim! What are you doing in here?" Joe's voice cried as I burst through the door. I scanned the room and found Joe sitting at a table scattered with computer parts.

"No, no, no! Snyder, that had better not be my laptop that is scattered on that table of yours. If it is, so help me..." I let the threat hang for a moment to see what he would say.

"This isn't you computer! This is my desktop! I just had to add a few things so I could get the 3D projector to process the images I needed it to! Your computer is over there!" Snyder panicked. I looked over at where Snyder was pointing and nearly fainted. My computer was in even smaller pieces than his desktop!

"Snyder! There had better be a good explanation for this." I growled.

"Well, my computer is several years old and can't handle some of the new features that have come out, like the 3D projectors. I needed to temporarily borrow the graphics card and ram cards out of that new laptop of yours in order to get it to cooperate with my PC." Joe confessed.

"Joe, you better get my computer put back together in ten minutes or so help me, I will make your life miserable!"

"Gamble, please. I am almost done. I just need to plug it in and show you all what I have found. I promise that I will fix your computer afterwards. Just let me use it for now." Joe begged.

"Fine, but it better work better than new when you are done with it."

Joe quickly finished his adjustments then sent for Taylor and Wilder. The two men showed up a few minutes later. Joe, being the informal type he is, greeted the two with a quick nod.

"What do you have for us, Snyder?" Taylor asked.

"I found something that will be kind of hard to swallow, Sir. You may find it hard to believe, but at any rate, this is what the tests are showing."

Snyder pressed a button on a remote and the entire room went dark. He pressed another button and two large circles, one in the floor and one in the ceiling, about three feet in diameter, glowed to life. The light formed into a double helix.

"This is an average strand of DNA of a human." Snyder explained before he pressed another button on his remote. "This is the sample strand we got from the CWSA. As you can see, there are some major differences in the polypeptide groups here and here, while there are some major similarities here and here."

I looked at the four main spots he pointed out and asked. "We already know that we are dealing with a hybrid of some sort. So whats the point in showing us this?"

"Because, I took the same sample and looked at it to see if I missed anything. This is what I found." Snyder replied.

A third double helix appeared. There were obvious similarities between it and the second double helix, but almost no similarities between the first and the third.

"What exactly does this all mean, Joseph?" Taylor asked.

"Ralph, this is the same strand that I tested yesterday. I have never seen anything like it before in my life. I know that this might sound crazy, but these samples are saying that the DNA wasn't spliced. It is saying that they were in flux. This DNA sample literally changed. I think we are dealing with some kind of metamorphosis."

"Preposterous. Why the very idea would break every law of physics that we have." I scoffed.

Joe, very seriously, replied, "Not if the matter is transforming into energy then back into matter."

"Snyder, do you have any proof?" Taylor asked.

"The cells in the sample are constantly breaking down. When something breaks down, it releases energy. For example, look at a simple nuclear bomb. You shoot the uranium bullet through a tube so it will strike the reaction mass. The force of the hit cause other uranium atoms to split and decay. When they decay, the release causes energy to explode outward. This seems to be the same thing except on a bio-molecular level instead of an atomic level."

"Nonsense, something like this just can't happen. It is impossible!"

"One thing I have learned, is that there is no such thing as impossible. After all, they did find a way to turn lead into gold, just like the alchemist of old dreamt of."

I could only gape at the young man's arguments. He was correct. Scientist have found a way to take the three protons away from lead to transform it into gold. However, the process required bombarding a piece of lead with high levels of beta radiation for very long periods of time until the lead itself becomes radioactive. Then it has to decay until it becomes thallium which then has to decay into mercury and finally into gold. The process was too expensive, too complicated, and you couldn't use the gold for five thousand years because it would take that long for the radiation to become nonlethal. Even then, the gold would have formed into some other type of element depending on how long it was radioactive.

"I still find it insane, Taylor. That is my professional opinion." I said after a few minutes.

"How many samples do we have?" Wilder asked.

"We have about forty separate strands of hair, Sir" Snyder replied.

"Well, since our two resident geniuses can't agree, I want the two of you to whip up something that the K-9 units can track and leave it at that."

"Yes sir!" Snyder said with a mock salute.

"Wilder, the scent is probably gone by now. It has been a day and a half since we found the samples." I said.

"Then you both better make something quick." Wilder replied.

Devin's POV

"Devin, rise and shine." a voice called softly. I felt something trying to shake me awake. I batted away whoever it was and tried going back to sleep. Of course, whoever it was trying to wake me was very persistent and didn't take the hint. They tried again, this time harder.

"Let me try." a new voice said. I didn't think much of it until a jolt of electricity was sent through my being. I shot up into the air like a rocket. I was completely wide awake and I felt like I had just been given ten energy drinks.

"What in the world was that!" I yelled.

"An electric shock. You could say that I jump started you." Baraq replied. I gaped at the large mouse. For one, he was in my room without my permission. Two, he just did something that could have been fatal to me. And three, everyone just let him do it!

"Why is he in here, why did you try killing me, and why did you guys just watch him do it?" I demanded.

Baraq let out a loud snort. "For someone your size, you sure do have a large mouth. To answer your questions, your older brother let me in, although, it really wouldn't matter since I am the chief of this clan."

"The only shocks that are dangerous to you are the ones that you release because most of the time, it is like a short circuit which can potentially kill you. What he did was just charge your batteries, so to speak." Austin answered.

"Do we really need to answer the third one?" Emily asked.

"I guess not. Well, that shock did wake me up though. I feel like I could run a decathlon!" I replied in total amazement.

"I didn't even know that you knew what a decathlon was." Austin teased.

"Shut up." I replied halfheartedly.

"Alright, now that we have your brother up and about, we can leave. Devin, Aurelia will be by shortly to take you and your… friend to see your class." Baraq said before turning and walking toward the exit.

"Why do I have to go to some stupid class? It's not fair." I muttered.

"Because that "stupid" class may save your life one of these days." Baraq yelled from outside the burrow. Soon, it was just me and Jeffric.

"Alright, how did he hear me?" I asked incredulously.

"His ears aren't big for no reason, and neither are yours. If you would stop causing such a ruckus everywhere you go, you would notice that you can hear a lot better now than you could as a human." Jeffric replied snidely.

I was about give Jeffric a piece of my mind, but didn't get a chance since Aurelia picked that exact moment to pop in.

"Devin, I am so glad to have you in my class while you stay with us! I hope you will be able to learn something! Oh, I can't wait to introduce you to all of the other children!" she said in a singsong tone.

"I am sure that Hope and I will learn a lot from you today." I replied, emphasizing Hope's name.

"Oh… I am sure that the other children will… be very… understanding to Hope." Aurelia replied with much less enthusiasm. "Come. You do not want to be late, do you?"

I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter. I am enjoy writing the scientific stuff because it almost sounds like the fantastic is possible if you word it right. The whole lead to gold thing is actually true. By taking away some of the protons, you can change lead into gold. It was a big topic that we discussed last year in chemistry. Like I said in the story though, it would be practically useless for about five thousand years so there would be no point in doing it. The whole process is called Nuclear Transmutation. Enough of the science lessons, this is shieldliger001, signing off.