Chapter 3

The next few days are a whirlwind of challengers and various other Gym obligations that only Clemont can take care of. However, today is finally his day off and so once again he's up in his workshop, tinkering away at his latest device. Or at least he would have been, if he hadn't just tripped over some spare parts left carelessly on the floor and fallen flat on his face.

"Ouch…" Clemont pushes himself up from the floor into a sitting position. I should probably clean up in here a bit, he thinks sheepishly, looking around at the cluttered room. Except the room is horribly blurred beyond recognition and Clemont realises with horror that his glasses are missing. "Ah!"

He misses the swish of the doors opening as he scrabbles frantically around on the ground – Where are they?! I can't see a thing! – but there's no mistaking Ash's voice as the robot comes in, already talking. "Hey Clemont, just wait until I tell you about the battle I just –" There's a pause as Ash takes in the scene before him. "Hey, are you alright?"

Clemont throws a hand out in the direction of Ash's voice. "Please watch where you step!" he pleads. "I lost my glasses when I fell; they're around here somewhere but I can't see anything…"

"Oh, is that what those things do?" Ash comments, thankfully doing as Clemont had asked and staying put. "Hang on, I see them. Stay there and I'll get them for you."

"Thank you," Clemont sighs, sitting up again. He squints in vain at the grey blur that is probably Ash – it's the only smear of colour in his line of sight that is moving – as the robot comes over and crouches in front of him.

"Here you go."

Clemont reaches for his glasses, looking up automatically to thank the robot. Between one blink and the next, Ash's blurry features are no longer that of the robot Clemont knows so well, but a boy with messy black hair and warm brown eyes. Clemont stares, glasses forgotten. Who is that?!

The world snaps into focus abruptly and the boy's image disappears, leaving a concerned looking Ash in its place. Clemont blinks, confused, and reaches up to feel the familiar weight of his glasses sitting on his nose. Apparently, Ash had given up waiting for him to put them on himself.

"Is that better?" Ash asks, sitting back.

"Huh?" Clemont replies absently, still staring at the robot. What in the world did I just see? "What? Oh, yes, much! Thank you very much!" He accepts the hand Ash offers him and lets the robot help pull him to his feet, still thinking furiously. Was… was that Ash?

Scientifically speaking, it couldn't have been – Ash is not and has never been human – but the strange thing was that the image fit. It matched Ash's voice and personality perfectly, and now that Clemont had seen it (or imagined it) he had the nagging feeling that the black-haired boy was exactly what Ash was meant to look like.

Ash's voice cuts into his thoughts. "There's a lot of stuff to fall over in here," the robot observes, pushing the parts that Clemont had tripped over earlier out of the way with a foot.

Clemont surveys the room once again, this time with perfectly clear vision, and winces at how cluttered everything has become. Leaving it like this is dangerous, especially if Bonnie happened to come in here. "Yes," he agrees aloud, crouching down to pick up the wrench he'd dropped earlier. "I'd better clean up…"

"I'll help!" Ash says enthusiastically, picking up a box. "Um… where does this go?"

Clemont laughs and directs Ash to one of the shelves along the sides before moving to clean up the workbench itself. They continue like this for a while, Ash humming while he moved stuff around and breaking off every so often to ask Clemont a question about where something went or what something did.

He already acts so much like a person , Clemont thinks, watching Ash moving boxes. Maybe it would be good if he looked more like a person too? His current appearance is fine for the Gym, but if he wants to go outside… Looking human would make him stand out less too… Potential plans and designs were already devising themselves in his mind's eye; his fingers itched for a pencil to start drawing out schematics. This would be a good challenge of his skills as an inventor as well.

"Ah, it's sunset already!" Ash exclaims, pressing up against the giant windows that lined the workshop. Clemont sets down the box he's holding and stands beside him to peer out the window as well. Below them, the setting sun stains everything it touches a beautiful golden orange. Ash glances over at the inventor, his eyes glowing. "The city looks really beautiful like this, doesn't it?"

Clemont returns the grin, nodding agreement. As they continue to look out at the city below, Clemont makes up his mind. Maybe Ash can't go on a Pokémon Journey, but he can at least help him go outside. The future is now, thanks to science! I'll do my best to give Ash the appearance he deserves!

/\/\/\

It takes him a few days to draw up all of the schematics for Ash's new appearance; Clemont wants to make sure every detail is perfect. Although he finishes them in the morning, between challengers at the Gym and grocery shopping, it's not until they've said goodnight to Bonnie that both he and Ash are free.

Clemont is equal parts nervous and excited as he heads back towards the workshop with a curious Ash trailing behind. He hasn't actually told Ash about his idea yet and he doesn't know how the robot will react.

"Hey Clemont, aren't you going to bed? You haven't slept much the last few nights," Ash pipes up from behind him, following him into the workshop. "You won't be able to battle well if you're tired!"

Clemont chuckles nervously. "Well, there's something I wanted to show you first. Now, where did I put them…?" Clemont rummages through the cupboard where he'd hidden the schematics to avoid Ash seeing them before they were done. He pulls a few rolls of paper out and hands one to Ash with a bright smile. "Please take a look at this!"

"Hrm? What's this?" Ash asks as he unrolls the paper and squints at it. It's a plan for something, like the ones Clemont has shown him before of his other inventions. "Are you making something new?"

"Sort of… This is you," Clemont explains, his grip on the other rolls tightening. Honestly, he hasn't felt this nervous since he was making Ash the first time around!

"Me?" the robot repeats, sounding confused. He looks back down at the paper in his hands.

"Yes, it's a new design for you so that you can have a more human-like appearance," Clemont explains. "I thought it might suit you better…"

Ash continues to stare down at the paper without saying anything, and Clemont feels his excitement start to crumble. The robot's silence doesn't seem to bode well. "It's just an idea I had," he adds hastily, trying not to feel disappointed. "You don't have to –"

"Clemont," Ash interrupts. Clemont stops talking. The robot points at the diagrams. "You can make me look like this?"

The inventor ducks his head in embarrassment. "If you want?"

"Of course! That would be awesome!" The exclamation has Clemont's head snapping up in wide-eyed surprise. Ash is beaming at him, his eyes aglow. "Clemont, this is amazing! Science is incredible!"

Clemont squeaks in surprise when the robot envelops him in a hug, squeezing tightly. He flails for a few moments before giving in and hugging Ash back tentatively, his face pink with embarrassment and pleasure at the excited reaction. The hue only grows darker when Ash finally releases him and gives him a heartfelt thank you.

"So? When do we start?" Ash asks eagerly, drawing a laugh from Clemont.

"I want to go through it with you first," Clemont tells him, indicating the other rolls of paper still in his arms. "It's going to be your new body, after all, so please let me know if there's something you want to change."

"Alright! Let's go!"

Clemont doesn't make it to bed that night, too busy going through all the schematics he's drawn up and explaining them to the robot. The lack of sleep is worth it though, to see the grin lighting up Ash's eyes as the robot looks the designs over.

/\/\/\

"Time to wake up! Activate!"

He responds to Clemont's cheerful voice before he really thinks about it. "Mm, five more minutes, okay?"

"Aw, Ash, you don't even need to sleep! Hurry and get up already!" Bonnie complains. Ash laughs and sits up, blinking owlishly as his eyes adjust to the light in the room. He finds himself sitting in the middle of the raised platform in Clemont's workshop – exactly where he'd gone to sleep some time ago – with Clemont and Bonnie sitting either side of him.

"How is it? Do you feel okay?" Clemont asks anxiously.

"Yeah! I feel great!" Ash replies enthusiastically. He grins at Clemont and the blond's eyes go wide. Ash doesn't have time to think about Clemont's reaction though; something about his face feels really weird. He raises his hands to check his face. "Ah! My mouth actually moves!" Come to think of it, his sense of touch feels odd as well. Ash holds out his hands and grins in excitement. "And skin! Wow! Hey Bonnie, my hands look like yours now!" He matches his hand to hers, although her hands are dwarfed by his.

Bonnie giggles. "Ah! Your hands are warm." She looks over at her brother, eyes shining. "Wow, Clemont, you did an amazing job! He's just like a real person!"

Clemont beams back at her. "That's the idea!" He turns to Ash, who is still examining his fingers in fascination. "It's a form of rubber that acts like skin," he explains. "It should be good protection from water or electrical attacks as well. But it can still get damaged, so please take care!"

"I will!" Ash promises. The robot can't stop smiling, even if the gesture still feels odd to make. He's in the process of admiring his bare feet and wriggling his toes – These are toes, right? – when Bonnie tugs on his sleeve.

"Come and look in the mirror!" she urges, pulling on his sleeve until he scoots to the edge of the platform. The cold floor bites at his bare feet and he yanks his feet back hurriedly from the sensation he's never experienced before.

"It's… cold?" he complains hesitantly when the two look at him questioningly. "I don't think I like it."

Clemont tries his hardest to suppress a laugh at the bewildered look on Ash's face. His robot had always worn his figurative heart on his sleeve, but Ash's feelings were a hundred times easier to read with his new face. "Your feet will acclimatise after a bit," Clemont encourages, holding out a hand. "I'll help you."

Ash sighs, putting his feet down with a small wince and grasping Clemont's hand. Clemont is pleased to note that Bonnie was right; it seems the heating system is working well. He helps Ash to his feet, catching the robot hurriedly when he almost falls over straight away.

"Sorry, my bad," Ash says sheepishly. "My weight and balance are different from before."

"I'll help you too!" Bonnie declares, latching onto his other hand. "This way, this way!"

Bonnie tugs him over to the mirror propped up against the wall that she had pointed out earlier, her brother hovering behind them both and putting a supporting hand to Ash's back every time it looked like the robot was about to lose his balance again. Eventually, though, they make their way over to the mirror and Ash finally gets to see what his new form looks like.

"Whoa!" Bonnie was right! "I really do look like a real person!" Science is amazing!

Clemont has done an incredible job in translating blueprints into reality. Ash is the very picture of a boy with short, messy black hair that's soft to the touch and he spends a mesmerised minute running his hands through it. Bonnie giggles when he runs a hand through her hair and a surprised Clemont's for comparison and finds his own hair is thicker than theirs.

The robot leans in towards the mirror with fascination, hands splayed against the glass. The glass is cool against his skin as well, although not as unpleasant as the floor had been (at least Clemont was right about his feet adjusting to it) but nothing like the warmth that Bonnie and Clemont seemed to radiate naturally. Brown eyes blink back at him, so different to the blue hue that Clemont and Bonnie share. Ash had been inclined to blue as well – it was a family trait, right? – until Clemont had convinced him to stick with brown, citing the fact that their own father had brown eyes.

"I had to take some of your functionality out, so there are some things you can't do anymore," Clemont says regretfully as Ash leans back again, twisting around to see what the back half of him looks like. Ash stops mid-twist, looking at Clemont curiously. The inventor elaborates. "You can't transform your hands anymore, so you can't launch Pokéballs or generate electricity now."

"Wait, I could generate electricity before?!" Ash says in surprise. "That would have been so cool! Why didn't you tell me I could do that?"

"Why would he even need that?!" Bonnie asks in exasperation at almost the exact same moment.

"I thought it would come in handy some time…?" Clemont replies sheepishly.

Ash laughs as Bonnie shoots her brother an unimpressed look, turning back to the mirror. "Ah well. As for the other stuff, that's fine. Throwing Pokéballs is more fun anyway!" He stops for a moment and tilts his head to the side, frowning like he's just noticed something amiss. "My code feels kinda different too?"

"Ah!" Clemont starts; he'd almost forgotten. "Yes, I had to write some new functionalities and there were some parts of the original code that were messy, so I rewrote those parts to make them more efficient…" He trails off, unsure of how Ash will react. "I'm very sorry, I know how much you hate getting software upgrades," he adds apologetically. Even though he knows it was necessary, Clemont still feels bad that he'd had to do it when he knows how much Ash doesn't like it.

Clemont can't see Ash's face, but the robot's shoulders are trembling and his fists clenched. Oh no! Clemont thinks, feeling sick with worry. I've hurt him, I shouldn't have –

He reaches out to Ash timidly. "Ash – ?"

"Ahh this is so cool!" Ash burst out, throwing his arms up in excitement. He rounds on Clemont, face lit up in pure joy and throws his arms around him, trapping the startled blond in a tight hug. "Thank you so much for doing all of this for me!"

Clemont is frozen for a few moments, completely taken aback – he was expecting Ash to yell at him, not this – before Ash's words filter through his shock. He relaxes, arms coming up to return the hug just as tightly. This isn't the first time Ash has hugged him, but it's the first time he's done it in human form.

Ash draws back to look him in the eye, his hands on Clemont's shoulders. The robot is still grinning widely, the same bright grin that had given Clemont pause the first time he'd seen it. "Thank you," the robot tells him sincerely. "I don't understand much of how you did it, but I know it was a lot of work, so thank you."

"Ah, it's alright, I wanted to do it," Clemont replies, blushing slightly at the sincerity being directed at him. It still amazes him just how perfectly Ash's face now matches the one he thought he saw when he lost his glasses, almost as though this is how the robot was meant to look all along.

"Me too, me too!" Bonnie exclaims beside them. "I want a hug too!"

Ash laughs. "Alright then." He releases Clemont and kneels down. The second Ash is within reach, Bonnie launches herself at him, grabbing onto the robot in a fierce hug which the robot returns. Clemont grins at the two of them, worry dissolving completely into happiness.

It seems that upgrading the code isn't going to be an issue, something that brings Clemont great relief. He'd been a little worried that upgrading the code would somehow mess with Ash's personality, but the robot seemed as enthusiastic as ever. Clemont had tried taking another look at the mysterious locked file while he'd been doing the upgrades, but given that the inventor could still not figure out the voice code he'd been unable to access it. Still, Clemont was almost positive that whatever secrets lay behind Ash's…well, Ash-ness, it was locked away safely in that file and in a way, that was good. If Clemont couldn't access it, nothing else could.

Heliolisk, Bunnelby, Magneton and Magnetmite need to meet Ash again before the next Gym match as well, since he looks so different now, he muses absently, watching Ash and Bonnie talk. Ash would be excited to finally be able to pat Clemont's two magnet Pokémon without causing or incurring injury for once. The thought makes Clemont smile.

"Alright! I feel great!" Ash announces, standing back up and stretching. "Are there any challengers waiting to battle?"

"Wait a minute!" Clemont holds out a hand. "I want to do a check-up to make sure everything is working properly now that you're awake again."

Ash slumps. "Awww, but Clemont! I feel so full of energy, I want to battle!"

"We can have a Pokémon battle later, if you want," Clemont offers. "But it's more important now to make sure that you're in good health and that everything is working the way it should. Besides, I closed the Gym for today, so there won't be any challengers today at least."

"Closed?!" Ash repeats incredulously. Since the first time he woke up, the Lumiose Gym has never been closed.

"Like I said, this – you – are important," Clemont says firmly. "I want to make sure everything's alright." His serious expression softens at the surprise on Ash's face. "Besides, we could both use a day off. The Gym will be open again tomorrow, so there will be plenty of challengers then."

"I guess you're right," Ash concedes. He looks around. "What do you want me to do?"

"Umm." Clemont puts a fist to his chin, thinking. "Okay. Firstly, let's test if you've got your balance back yet. Can you walk over to the door there and back please?"

There's a few wobbles along the way, but Ash manages it; he does an even better job the second time around, much to Clemont's relief. Ash does everything that Clemont asks him to do, as the inventor checks reactions and tests co-ordination.

"How long was I asleep?" Ash asks curiously, as Clemont checks that the joints in his hands are moving correctly. The workshop has no calendars and he hasn't been able to find a clock to match his internal clock to. Clemont is intent on his task with his tongue poking out in concentration, so it's Bonnie who answers the question from her seat beside Ash.

"It's been a couple of days," she tells him. "It took a bit longer than Clemont thought it would, because with you asleep he had to deal with the Gym challenges as well."

"I can close the Gym for a day, but unfortunately not three in a row," Clemont adds. "So I could really only work at night and in the early mornings. Can you move your arm like this please?"

Ash does as instructed, peering at Clemont suspiciously. "Have you been sleeping at all?" When Clemont doesn't answer and busies himself with finding something in a toolbox, pointedly not meeting Ash's eyes, the robot hmphs. "You need to sleep!" Ash admonishes. "You're important too, you know. If I sleep for a few extra days or whatever, that's fine with me if it means you're looking after yourself too."

Clemont huffs, a rueful smile on his face when he finally looks up at Ash. "Alright, I understand."

"Good," Ash nods. "If everything's okay with me, I'll take the Gym tomorrow and you can rest, alright?"

"I will," Clemont promises. To be honest, Clemont's not even sure he could have slept more than the few hours he had stolen here and there, too wound up with adrenaline and excitement in making sure everything worked. Still, he knows that Ash will make sure he sticks to that promise.

"It's been really quiet and unlively without you here, Ash," Bonnie comments. "We both really missed you!"

Clemont nods agreement, although he keeps the extent of those feelings to himself. Even in just a few short months, the robot has managed to become an important part of their lives here in the Gym; without him, the tower seems too quiet and empty. Both of them had felt that void where Ash should have been and neither of them had liked it.

At least he's awake now, Clemont thinks in relief, and starts when Ash unknowingly echoes his thoughts aloud as the robot rests a hand on Bonnie's head. "Don't worry Bonnie, I'm awake now! And I won't be going away again any time soon."

"You'd better not!" Bonnie looks mollified by Ash's answer, though.

Satisfied that everything is in order, Clemont steps back. "Well, there's a few minor things that I should probably fix, but I can do that later. Other than that, everything is fine."

"Awesome!" Ash replies cheerfully. He tugs on the cuff of his sleeve – wearing clothes for the first time feels weird but apparently going around without them would be even weirder now, according to Clemont – and notices the design on the front of the grey hoodie he's wearing. "Oh hey, the Voltage Badge!" he says enthusiastically, pulling out the bottom of the hoodie for a better look. "Cool!"

"You're the same size as me, so I lent you some of my clothes," Clemont explains bashfully. "You should probably get some ones you'd prefer though."

"Does that mean we can take Ash shopping for new clothes?!" Bonnie says excitedly. "Since the Gym is closed for the day?"

Clemont looks amused. "Only if Ash wants to go, Bonnie."

Bonnie looks up at Ash, pleading. "Ash? Please?"

"I like these clothes, though…" Ash says, uncertain. He's proud to wear the symbol of Lumiose Gym; he's one of its Gym Leaders, after all. Also, these clothes feel special, since they're Clemont's own clothes that he has given to Ash to wear. On the other hand, it might be fun to choose his own outfit…

"But Ash, there aren't any shops in this Tower, so we'd get to go outside to look for something for you!" Bonnie cajoles.

"Outside…?" Ash repeats. Clemont watches the robot think this over, knowing that Bonnie has pulled the ultimate trump card. After all, one of the main reasons for Ash's redesign was so that he could go outside the tower without drawing attention. He and Bonnie share a conspiratorial smile.

Sure enough, no-one is surprised when Ash's face lights up in pure excitement. "Yeah! Let's go shopping then!"

"Yay!" Bonnie cheers, grabbing both their hands. "Come on, you two!"

Thanks for reading! C: